BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: This weekend of Gordon Hinkley's funeral, we note that a major part of his legacy is the global reach of Mormon missions. It's traditional for church members, especially young people, to leave their homes to spend up to two years seeking converts. Hinckley embarked on his own mission to England in 1933. After that, he worked to improve training and support for the program. There are now 53,000 Mormon missionaries in about 145 countries and territories. Several years ago, we took a look at the church's mission training program and the young Mormons who were part of it. John Dancy reported the story.

JOHN DANCY: They show up in suits and ties and Sunday best. These 19- to 21-year-olds have been called to serve as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons. Yesterday they were wearing jeans and T-shirts. Today, they are referred to as Elder or Sister. Immediately they are thrown into an unfamiliar world.

When they agree to serve a mission, they commit to go anywhere the church needs them. Men serve two years; women, 18 months. They pay their own way, or their family or congregation does. The church now has missions in 120 nations and territories. The missionaries will spend three to eight weeks here, depending on the language they study, learning how to be missionaries. Training goes on from dawn to late at night.

Elder EARL C. TINGEY (Executive Director, Missionary Department): You want them to leave home and go out and start this new venture, learning a language. It's not easy to be eight weeks and learn a foreign language, and to learn new techniques of meeting people, learn how to take care of yourself, learn how to wash your own clothes. All of that is new to most of these young men and young women, and by leaving their families and starting anew -- look forward, not backward.

DANCY: The Missionary Training Center teaches 48 different languages -- more if necessary. That is because the LDS church believes every person should hear their message in his or her own language. Teachers are usually returned missionaries. Often in the early going the spirit is willing, but the tongue just won't cooperate. But within a few weeks, missionaries have mastered basic conversation, enough to teach others about Mormon beliefs: that God appeared with Jesus to young Joseph Smith in a forest grove in upstate New York in 1820 and told him he was restoring the true church originally organized by Jesus Christ. Mormons also believe Jesus appeared again after his resurrection, this time to an ancient civilization in the New World. The record of that event is contained in the Book of Mormon, which they believe is divinely inspired, like the Bible.

Serving a mission is voluntary, but the LDS culture exerts strong social pressure on young people to serve.

A problem for the church is that many new converts the missionaries make don't stay active. They drop out after the missionaries who converted them go home.

Mr. McNIVEN: You immediately want to write letters. You want to go find them. You want to go revisit. You want to go back and say, "Hey, don't you remember all those great experiences we had together?" and "How can I help?"

DANCY: Missionaries, whether they serve on Temple Square in Salt Lake City or in Outer Mongolia, must learn to deal with rejection. Most people they approach don't accept their message.

HEIDI ANDERSON (Missionary who served in Stockholm, Sweden): Every door that slams in your face, or not, but every person that's not interested, it's almost a test. Do you really believe what you're saying? Do you really believe in this message of Christ and that God has a plan for you, that there are prophets still on this Earth today? And I think that we have to confront those questions and answer them in our minds and in our heart every day.

MICHAEL SMART (Missionary who served in Manchester, England): The hardest was when they had little kids. When the missionaries came and talked to my mom and dad and I knew what I've gained and continue to gain from my parents' accepting that message and teaching it to me, and I just wish they would do the same.

DANCY: Every Tuesday a new group of missionaries leaves Salt Lake City; this one for South America. For the next 18 months to two years, these young men and women will work 16 hours a day, six days a week. Through the efforts of missionaries, the Mormons expect to have 71 million members worldwide in another 50 years.

For RELIGION AND ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm John Dancy in Salt Lake City.