It's 9 a.m. on a sultry summer morning in Manhattan, N.Y., when the second ferry of the day docks at Liberty Island. Two young men, standing conspicuously in their white shirts, watch while leaning against a railing as deckhands lower the gangplank to allow a torrent of tourists dressed in brightly colored t-shirts to disembark.

Name tags clipped to the shirt pockets of the young men signify they are missionaries for the Church.All 40 English and Spanish-speaking missionaries in Manhattan volunteered to work eight hours a week at the Statue of Liberty and at Ellis Island during the peak tourist season of July and August, conducting an extensive survey for the National Park Service.

Four days a week, various missionaries counted visitors getting on and off the ferries. They also timed how long tourists waited in line to see the statue, and administered questionaires identifying the demographics and perceptions of the visitors.

In return for their service, the missionaries have been allowed to dress as missionaries and answer questions about the Church - though they were not allowed to initiate the discussion or hand out referral cards or copies of the Book of Mormon.

"They see from 13,000 to 24,000 people a day," said New York New York North Mission Pres. Ronald A. Rasband. "These people are all seeing our missionaries there. It's tremendous exposure for the Church."

Since its arrival from France in 1885, the Statue of Liberty has been one of the country's most enduring landmarks. Ellis Island, a low-slung cluster of brick and limestone buildings several minutes by ferry from the statue, was once an immigration depot that processed as many as 5,000 people a day.

Descendants of these immigrants make up approximately 40 percent of the population of the United States, according to information given during the tour. The center was shut down in 1954, but reopened as a museum in 1990.

The two tiny islands - about 12 acres combined - draw 5 million visitors a year, ranking these islands among the top seven tourist attractions in the country.

"We've been encouraged by the prophet to have our missionaries involved in community service," said Pres. Rasband. "We try in every area of the mission to seek out and do, what I call, good, unleveraged Christian service."

The Church's participation in the survey evolved out of a request by an Ellis Island employee who responded to a Church-sponsored commercial. She was not interested in the message, but was interested in the offer of the Church to help. Missionaries were soon packing, moving and cataloguing hundreds of valuable and fragile items.

The missionaries made a good impression, and soon, other Ellis Island employees sought the help of missionaries. More missionaries volunteered and were assigned to conduct tours during their community-service time at Theodore Roosevelt's birthplace, while others worked at Vanderbilt Mansion and Franklin Delanor Roosevelt's childhood home in the Poughkeepsie area.

Later, when the National Park Service decided to conduct a survey to learn how to better accommodate thousands of people in a small space, Park Service directors turned to the missionaries.

"Among all the options for volunteers, the [missionaries] - by far - provided us with the greatest benefits," said Richard Wells, director of Planning and Development for the National Park Service.

"They're dependable. And they always bring with them a positive attitude, which isn't necessarily true of other groups."

That attitude has helped the missionaries become good friends with the park and ferry employees during the summer. Deckhands now exchange salutes and handshakes as they arrive.

"At first," said Elder Cameron Cole of Bountiful, Utah, "many of the regular employees on Liberty and Ellis Islands were kind of looking at us because they have to count people too, and they thought we were there to check up on them.

"Now, when they see us, they say, `Clean up your language, the missionaries are here.' "

They're very nice young men and women and they're doing a good service, said Mike Managhan, a dock worker of 21 years, who has become a particular favorite with many of the elders and sisters. He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon from Sister Eva Koleva, from Sofia, Bulgaria, along with the challenge to read and pray.

The missionaries are finding their own rewards in their semi-weekly service.

"We're seeing thousands of people from all over the world," said Elder Cole. "It's just amazing." Elder Cole has taught three discussions in the midst of hundreds of tourists as a result of people asking about him and why he was dressed in a white shirt and tie.

"People see our name tags here," said Elder John Dosdall, Grosse Ile, Mich., "and then they'll go home and they may see [missionaries] with name tags there."

In the meantime, it's early afternoon on this Saturday and Elder Cole and his companion, Elder Vil Koloa, originally from Veitongo, Tonga, before moving with his family to Arroyo Grande, Calif., have completed their time on Liberty and Ellis Islands. They now have other appointments to meet and board the ferry to Battery Park. The ferry moves slowly from the statue that, for more than a century, has been a symbol of freedom, past the island that was a gateway to freedom for millions of people, and toward the jagged skyline of lower Manhattan.

"This is our mission," Elder Cole said, referring to New York City. "It's hard to believe."