MESA, ARIZ.
Gearing up for the Oct. 10 nationwide release of the new movie, “Meet the Mormons,” those who were instrumental in making it are traveling the country, giving “sneak peeks” and encouraging others to make the opening weekend a successful one.
Blair Treu, the film’s writer and director, along with producer Jeff Roberts, and Dawn Armstrong, whose story is one of six featured in the movie, were in Mesa Sept. 18.
“We hope that you feel something with this and that you’ll tell your friends,” Brother Treu told 300 people in the theater following the movie.
“The movie opens Oct. 10 so we’re asking you to remember 10-10-10,” he said. “Tell or bring 10 friends on 10/10.”
Elder Todd B. Hansen, Area Seventy, attended the showing with his wife and several of their friends who are not LDS. He said the presentation “creates such a safe, comfortable environment for helping people understand who we are and what we stand for.”
“It led to a very rich and meaningful conversation afterward,” he said.
Mesa was the fifth stop in a tour that started in Los Angeles and included Las Vegas, Boise, Atlanta, Provo, Salt Lake City and New York City.
Brother Treu said the response has been “fantastic.”
“These stories are authentic and there’s something for everybody,” he said.
The movie opens in 200 theaters across the county and it is the first time the Church has released a feature-length film commercially. All net proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross, according to the official website, MeetTheMormons.com.
The moviemakers encourage all who are interested to see the movie as soon as it opens.
“Opening weekend is critical,” he said. “It has to compete with the ‘big guys.’”
Elder Hansen said letters and fliers promoting the movie went out to all stakes in Arizona and there were announcements from the pulpit in local wards and in printed programs. A social media campaign uses the hashtag #MeetTheMormons.
Sister Armstrong, who received a standing ovation after the movie was over, said, “Hope is a universal need for every human … my hope is that you’ll bring that hope to someone.”
Her story begins when she, as a young single mother who lost a baby and struggled to raise another one, had hit rock bottom and was in despair when she met missionaries nearly 10 years ago and eventually joined the Church.
In the audience was one of the sister missionaries who had helped her in her conversion process.
Heather Latimer Updike, of Peoria, Arizona, said she met Dawn Armstrong while serving in the Nebraska Omaha Mission.
Since that time Sister Armstrong married, had six more children, has been an active member of the Church and recently saw her oldest son return from a full-time mission. She now lives in Utah.
“You just never know what one decision or one choice will do to change of life of someone else,” Sister Updike said. “That decision might be to go on a mission or to talk to a friend.”
“You can’t help but watch this (movie) and feel the Spirit, and it puts a smile on your face,” she added.
Sister Armstrong and Sister Updike sat together during the movie.
“Her sacrifices made it so I could have a life I could treasure,” Sister Armstrong said of her friend’s missionary service. “I’m happy. I continue to be faithful and true to the God who gave the gift.”
“My story is just one of many,” she added. “It’s a story of struggle and redemption.”
Others featured in the film are Jermaine Sullivan, an LDS bishop in Atlanta, Georgia; Retired Col. Gail Halvorsen, who was known as “The Candy Bomber” during the 1940s Berlin Airlift; Carolina Muñoz Marin, an amateur kickboxer in Costa Rica; Ken Niumatalolo, head football coach of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; and Bishnu Adhikari, a humanitarian and engineer in Nepal.
