SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 1, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has debuted a video series aimed at increasing the safety of its more than 65,000 missionaries around the world.
The new 12-part series is called “The SafetyZone,” and focuses on basic safety practices important to missionary safety.
Topics will include pedestrian and bicycle safety, avoiding electrical wires, driving safely, common crimes against missionaries, the safe handling of food, and issues including appropriate behavior around children and what constitutes physical and sexual harassment.
The series follows the recent deaths of two LDS missionaries — one who died while playing sports and one who fell from a roof — and the injury of four others involved in a car accident.
Many young people who leave for LDS missions are unsupervised by parents or guardians for the first time, Episode 1 notes.
“The Lord cares about His missionaries,” said Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, a General Authority Seventy who serves in the Church’s Missionary Department, in a prepared statement at MormonNewsroom.com.
“We’re trying everything we possibly can to think about the situations that they might find themselves in that would take them away from being who the Lord has called them to be, and that is to be his missionaries proclaiming His gospel throughout the world.”
Effective immediately, all prospective missionaries who receive a new call will be asked to watch the first episode of “The SafetyZone” with their parents before they leave, the LDS Church statement says.
The remaining 11 videos will be viewed in missionary training centers as well as by missionaries already serving. The videos will first be available in English with additional languages coming soon, the church statement says.
