It was my first visit to St. George since moving to Utah, and I wanted to see the grounds of the LDS temple there.

We parked the car and walked toward the visitors' center. As my wife and I approached the door, a sister missionary came out to greet us and called out our names.

Squinting into the sun, I was startled to see that it was Sister Sarah Stafford. She had been in the young single adult ward where we had served in Richmond, Va. I knew she had wanted to serve a mission, but didn't know when she had left or where she was serving.

It turned out that she was in the Provo Utah South Mission and had been assigned to the St. George Temple Visitors' Center for the past six months. The tour Stafford led that day took on more meaning because of the surprise of seeing her in that setting.

The encounter was one example of a phenomenon: It's a small Mormon world.

Read the full story on MormonTimes.com.