God’s Army 2000

Life as a Mormon missionary isn’t what 19-year-old Brandon Allen expected: so many rules and so few successes. Los Angeles is as unrepentant as Sodom and Gomorrah. He’s forced to share a small apartment with five young prank-loving missionaries and, to top it off, his first companion, 29-year-old Marcus Dalton, proves to be a harsh mentor. After only one day as a missionary, Allen is ready to hang up his necktie and go home. His point-of-view changes, however, as he begins to see the struggles and sacrifices that the other missionaries endure: Dalton, he soon learns, is fighting a losing battle with cancer. Banks, an African-American missionary, was disowned by his family when he joined the Mormon church. Kinegar, a fifth-generation Latter-Day Saint, finds himself doubting under the intellectual attacks of anti-Mormons. Working and living with these young men, Allen becomes a part of the drama occurring under the everyday surface of missionary life. After only a few intense days, Allen finds faith he didn’t know he had, and courage he didn’t know he lacked. He learns that the time has come to put away childish things, and to become more than just a man–to become a man of God.