LDS missionaries released in Guyana

While the buzz surrounding the 40-plus LDS missionaries detained in Guyana centered on correcting inaccurate first-day media reports, LDS Church and government officials continued discussions Thursday over the missionaries' legal status in the South American country.

Wednesday in the capital city of Georgetown, the country's Criminal Investigation Department detained the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Deseret News received e-mails from several missionaries serving in Guyana, both directly and indirectly through family members, unhappy with Wednesday's Associated Press report stating that the detained missionaries "could be heard singing 'We Shall Overcome' from their cells Wednesday night."

"Who in the world knows that song? Not us!" wrote one missionary, adding that the late-afternoon singing served as exercise to beat the heat and the boredom. "I want them to know we were singing church hymns for two hours and that we had done nothing illegal."

Wrote another: "We did not sing 'We Shall Overcome,' but we did sing Primary songs and hymns for about two hours to entertain ourselves. We sounded beautiful."

Never placed in cells, the group was kept together in a large room with a handful of CID employees working at desks at the other end of the room.

At issue is the interpretation of the missionaries' legal status to be in Guyana. The Guyanese government says the LDS missionaries are in the country without approved visa extensions. Church officials maintain they were merely waiting for pending applications for work permits and extensions of stay. Leslie Sobers — an attorney who serves as an LDS branch president and church public affairs director in Georgetown — told Guyana's Stabroek News that there is a "perceived number of missionaries from any given church that can be in the country at a time" but the number is currently unknown and is being determined.

Earlier this summer, the ministry asked the church to supply a list of foreign nationals, their locations and copies of their passports. After the church promptly complied with a list of 66, along with the requisite applications for permits and extensions for all, the ministry determined 50 were in violation by overstaying, 13 were unclear and only three had valid work permits. The list was used in initiating Wednesday's detentions.