Adramatic new video produced by the Church entitled, "Called to Serve," features the profound impact of missionary service on both the missionaries and their converts.

`It is a wonderful, inspiring video," said Elder Robert L. Backman of the Presidency of the Seventy and executive director of the Missionary Department. "I think it will cause a surge of missionaries coming aboard."The video, which features both young and older missionaries, is a documentary with an original music soundtrack that highlights the hymn, "Called to Serve." The video shares the spirit of missionary work as it portrays actual missionary experiences. Missionaries are shown opening their call letters, in training at the Missionary Training Center, arriving in the mission field and teaching investigators.

Missionaries portrayed in the video

say the work isn't easy and success is often difficult to find, but when one family embraces the gospel, that makes it all worthwhile.

In a letter about the video to priesthood leaders in English-speaking areas, President Howard W. Hunter of the Council of the Twelve wrote, "We are confident that Called to Serve will be a powerful tool as you work to inspire youth to serve missions."

President Hunter asked bishoprics and branch presidents to arrange a meeting to view Called to Serve. "Please make a special effort to invite families, Aaronic priesthood-aged youth, parents, priesthood leaders, and advisers to attend.

"After the initial showing it could be used as a resource in missionary preparation classes," he explained. "Home teachers, Aaronic Priesthood advisers, or other priesthood leaders may show this videocassette in the homes of less-active youth to motivate them to consider missionary service."

It is particularly appropriate for Aaronic Priesthood-aged youth, according to leaders in the Missionary Department, which produced the video through BYU's Motion Picture Studio.

"It carries two or three messages," said Elder Backman. "We want to make young people feel more comfortable about what will happen, and we want everyone to appreciate the value of missionary work in a young person's life. We also want to show the effect missionaries have on converts."

He explained that in 1985, new missionary lessons were introduced in a meeting of mission presidents in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square. That meeting has had far-reaching implications. At the meeting, the hymn "Called to Serve" was re-introduced by missionaries who entered the Assembly Hall from three sides, singing as they came. The hymn had a galvanic effect and since has become the "missionary national anthem."

An outgrowth of the meeting also has been this video, which was suggested by Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Council of the Twelve, then chairman of the Missionary Executive Council. Elder L. Tom Perry of the Council of the Twelve, now chairman of the Missionary Executive Council, completed the video.

"It has been a long-term project to get it just right," said Sherman M. Crump, managing director of the Missionary Department. "We wanted people to feel that same spirit that mission presidents felt in the Assembly Hall experience.

"It was a turning point. The outpouring of the Spirit had a powerful impact on everyone who was there.

"The hymn `Called to Serve' has gone forward," said Brother Crump. "It has become an anthem. The missionaries stand and sing it at the Missionary Training Center. There is a thrill to it."

He said that as wards gather prospective missionaries and their families to see the video, they will see "what is really happening. They will see what missionaries - including couples - are doing, and there is going to be some profound emotion." He said the video has been put together "masterfully."

Stephen B. Allen, the Missionary Department's media division director, said making the video was a long-term project.

"It was filmed in five missions in the United States and is intended to give a realistic look at what missionary work actually is," he said.

Original music for the video was created by well-known LDS composer Kurt Bestor, which adds a great deal to the video, said Brother Allen.

Copies of the video will be sent to each ward and branch in English-speaking areas, and additional copies may be purchased from distribution centers.