Select group of missionaries serving online

PROVO — Not all the efforts in the LDS Church's Provo Missionary Training Center are focused on instruction, training, preparation and role-playing.

There's also real missionary work going on — honest-to-goodness contacting and teaching.

Just not in person — but rather online.

While nearly all of the missionaries arriving at the Provo MTC stay there for three to 12 weeks for training purposes before being sent across the globe, a handful of missionaries are assigned there full time for the entirety of their missions to help staff the chat services on mormon.org for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

"We teach people from all over the world," said Elder Joshua Albright of Lakewood, Wash., one of the Provo MTC's small group of "chat missionaries" or "online missionaries" that over the past two-plus years have helped convert people in 42 states and 20 different countries — as well as some right here along the Wasatch Front.

A typical day starts like that of any other missionary — getting up, getting ready, having breakfast, followed by a couple of hours combined for personal study and combined study. Then, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., they're logged in and ready to respond to mormon.org visitors clicking on those hot-pink "chat with us" boxes found on every page of the web site.

Joining them to help man the services 24/7 are Provo MTC instructors, sister missionaries at Salt Lake City's Temple Square and others in Mexico City and the Philippines.

Studies show the typical person going to the mormon.org chat site is 15 to 20 years old, a high school or college student with some questions or uncertainties. Missionaries obtain parental permission before continuing with those under the age of 18.

The chat starts with a question and often leads to a conversation or exchange, with the online missionaries helping to facilitate needs or answer inquiries — whether the person is looking for a Book of Mormon or other church materials, trying to find a nearby meetinghouse or wanting to make contact with the local missionaries.

"We try to transition them from curiosity to wanting to learn in a medium that's comfortable for them," said Elder Bryan Sabin of Poway, Calif.

So not to scare off those starting the chat, missionaries are identified initially by first name only — such as Joshua, soon followed by Elder Joshua Albright and then simply Elder Albright.