THE MISSIONARY POSITION

A Novel

In 1962 Jerry Wonder, a 19-year-old Mormon missionary, leaves his comfortable home in South Dakota to journey half way around the world to the rainforests of New Zealand to save souls.

Elder Jerry Wonder's path to redemption is fraught with challenge. He is a compulsive masturbator, or in Mormon parlance, a self-pollinator.

Jerry makes a solemn covenant with his Father in Heaven that each time he self-pollinates, he will find a soul for Jesus. By the time he is in New Zealand for one month, he owes his Father in Heaven 40 converts.

Elder Jerry Wonder is also having trouble with his testimony. He perseveres, determined to be morally clean and to please his parents. After 23 months, he makes one convert--an elderly woman who electrocutes sparrows in her backyard to protect her roses. Leaders of the Mormon Church fear that this woman is in league with Lucifer.

Jerry may be morally unclean and uncertain in his faith, but he is a charmer. Somehow he manages to endure in the face of mounting odds and then exit gracefully.

Within its comic frame, the novel is informative about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It also shows how older men try to stifle and control young men.