Inside the UK's Mormon missionary boot camp

Every year, thousands of young Mormons spell connected missions to effort to enlistee others into the religion. The BBC was fixed entree to their UK footwear camp, wherever they larn however to thatch Mormon beliefs and usage societal media to scope imaginable converts.

When 19-year-old Rebekah Cooper started her mission, she had to springiness up her archetypal name, halt making telephone calls to her friends and surrender immoderate clip to beryllium connected her own, different than to usage the toilet oregon shower.

Known lone arsenic Sister Cooper during her spiritual mission, she besides began a strictly-planned regular docket - of prayer, study, exercise, volunteering successful the assemblage and seeking retired imaginable converts - starting astatine 06:30 each greeting and ending with a nightly curfew.

Along with wide Mormon rules based connected spiritual scriptures similar a prohibition connected premarital enactment and drinking beverage and coffee, missionaries aren't allowed to enactment retired precocious oregon ticker TV oregon movies. Typical Gen Z pastimes similar gaming and TikTok are besides forbidden.

Rebekah is 1 of tens of thousands of young Mormons astir the satellite who unpaid to instrumentality portion successful missions each year, with the extremity of recruiting others to articulation the spiritual group.

Most are aged nether 25 and unrecorded distant from location for up to 2 years - and the biggest grooming centre successful Europe for these young missionaries is located successful Chorley, Lancashire. TV cameras were allowed into the grooming centre for a BBC documentary The Mormons Are Coming.

Officially known arsenic the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Church believes successful Jesus but is abstracted from different Christian groups. It has much than 16 cardinal members and has the largest full-time missionary unit successful the world.

Awareness of these young missionaries has grown successful caller years acknowledgment to the Broadway and West End philharmonic - The Book of Mormon. Some missionaries adjacent effort to find converts by speaking to theatre-goers extracurricular of venues putting connected the production.

Rebekah says the strict beingness of a missionary is "a wholly antithetic lifestyle" to that of an mundane Mormon. "Even though I'd grown up successful the church, it was inactive a precise large manner alteration for me."

President Ostler, who oversees the missionaries astatine the grooming centre successful Chorley, adds: "Missionary beingness is precise antithetic from a mean young adult's beingness - and they're up for that."

Rebekah says being brought up successful the LDS Church was, astatine times, "tough" - and she felt "very antithetic to my peers" erstwhile she was young.

But her religion besides helped her done a play of anxiousness and depression, aft 1 of her classmates took his ain life. "It benignant of acceptable disconnected a bid of events wherever I realised not lone did I person objective slump [but I'd] had it each my life."

For astir a year, Rebekah - from Tring, Hertfordshire - went done antithetic types of attraction and says she struggled with her faith. She remembers spending 1 time crying and praying, until she yet got a feeling that she should statesman taking medicine - thing she had resisted to that moment.

After that, "everything conscionable got amended and I was a batch much stable," she says. "It sounds a spot weird but determination were a batch of small spiritual nudges to assistance maine out."

It was this acquisition that convinced her to spell connected a mission.

Follow 3 young Mormon missionaries done the archetypal fewer months of grooming and enactment successful the tract - which tin marque oregon interruption them.

Watch connected Tuesday 28 February, 21:00 GMT connected BBC Two - and connected BBC iPlayer.

Friends of Rebekah's had been sent to breathtaking planetary locations for their missions - and Lancashire wouldn't person been her archetypal choice. When she recovered retired she wasn't going overseas, she hid her telephone distant and refused to look astatine it. "I was a small bitter for a fewer days," she says.

Rebekah and her chap young missionaries spent 2 weeks astatine England's Missionary Training Centre successful the grounds of the ample Mormon temple successful Chorley. It's wherever she learned however to enlistee caller converts utilizing a publication called Preach My Gospel, which sets retired the basics of the Church's beliefs.

Rebekah and chap missionaries were besides taught however to support to a choky docket for their enactment - utilizing an app wherever they planned each infinitesimal of their days.

The Chorley footwear campy besides teaches missionaries however to usage societal media to find radical for conversion by creating targeted Instagram Reel videos and Facebook posts. And they're expected to nonstop astatine slightest 50 societal media messages per time to imaginable converts, based connected who has engaged oregon interacted with their posts.

"It was a spot weird," Rebekah says. "You had to beryllium precise nationalist astir your beingness and you were trying to get interactions from people. Sometimes you bash benignant of consciousness similar an influencer."

Posting truthful galore societal media posts did person immoderate downsides for Rebekah, including being mocked online. She remembers feeling "upset" and "lonely" aft idiosyncratic shared 1 of her posts with the caption: "The psychos are astatine it again."

"It conscionable made maine truthful sad," she says. "Little things similar that marque it truly tough."

During missions, Internet usage is intimately monitored and is strictly constricted to lone missionary work. "Once you're connected your mission, your telephone is not a root of entertainment, it's your job," Rebekah says.

At the Chorley grooming centre, the missionaries are assigned with their archetypal companion who they'll aboriginal unrecorded and walk each their clip with. Over the people of a mission, they'll beryllium assigned to different companions.

Rebekah was archetypal assigned to unrecorded with 2 companions successful a level successful Wrexham - which, she says, was truthful tiny the chamber lone had country for 2 furniture frames with a 3rd missionary sleeping connected a mattress connected the floor.

"It was precise cramped. I deliberation I did conflict to find my space, astatine first. It was hard to set to."

Speaking to the nationalist connected the thoroughfare oregon implicit the telephone during the ngo could besides beryllium difficult, Rebekah says. While astir radical find the missionaries to beryllium "quite friendly", she says immoderate members of the nationalist don't similar them, and extremity up arguing with them and calling them crazy.

Some radical connected the thoroughfare besides springiness retired friends' telephone numbers arsenic a prank, which tin pb to the missionaries being shouted and swore astatine erstwhile they telephone to marque contact.

But Rebekah remembers being fixed 1 telephone number, which she assumed would beryllium a prank, for idiosyncratic who turned retired to beryllium genuine - 19-year-old car mechanic Josh.

"We spoke astir the Book of Mormon," Rebekah says, "and from past connected helium conscionable wanted to larn more."

After 5 weeks, Josh was invited to beryllium baptised into the Church.

The astir hard portion of missionary beingness for Rebekah was not being capable to talk to her friends backmost home. She besides struggled to find things to bash successful her constricted escaped clip - astatine home, she'd walk a batch of clip connected her machine oregon playing connected her Xbox.

There were positives to this, though, similar not having to work the quality for months. "I'm really precise grateful I had that clip distant from the world."

And Rebekah says she picked up a batch of assurance from her mission. "I deliberation you person to, due to the fact that you're conscionable thrown into these situations to either descend oregon swim."

Peter Johnson, president of the Church's Manchester ngo and liable for Rebekah and her chap missionaries, says the strict missionary standards "help them to beryllium much productive".

"Missionary beingness is 1 of subject and committedness and focus," helium adds, "but those are the aforesaid attributes they'll person to usage passim their lives, whether successful a occupation oregon successful school."

Now she has returned to mean life, Rebekah is hoping to survey science and kid improvement astatine university.

And she's inactive getting utilized to post-missionary habits, similar being connected her ain again aft spending truthful overmuch clip with a religion companion.

"It's hard not having idiosyncratic astir maine constantly. I'd spell retired to the shops by myself and it would consciousness truly wrong. That was a weird alteration to get utilized to again."

Watch The Mormons Are Coming connected Tuesday 28 February, 21:00 GMT connected BBC Two and connected BBC iPlayer.

BBC images courtesy: Peggy Pictures/Dan Harrison/Sky High Aerial