Missionary Holding The Book of Mormon

Submission 3,201

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About

Missionary Holding The Book of Mormon is a viral image and exploitable meme format depicting a Mormon missionary holding a small copy of The Book of Mormon, originally shared in a Facebook Marketplace post. The photo went viral after it was reposted to Twitter / X in late December 2023, resulting in several viral fan edits, photoshops and redraws replacing the item in his hand and/or the man himself.

Origin

On December 30th, 2023, X^[1] user @botaniccal posted an image of a Mormon missionary smiling with a suit on and holding a copy of The Book of Mormon close to the camera, writing, "I'm on facebook marketplace and there's a guy selling the book of mormon and this is the picture he chose," garnering over 59,000 likes and 6,600 reposts in a week (shown below). It is currently unknown who the missionary is or what Facebook Marketplace post the image comes from.

Spread

The image became the subject of redraws and edits on X over the following days, also gaining viral spread through reposts. For example, on December 30th, 2023, X^[2] user @mattypoko posted a Super Mario Sunshine edit that gained over 16,000 likes in a week (shown below). That day, the original post was shared by Instagram^[3] user professorgutsv2, garnering over 4,000 likes in the same span of time.

On December 31st, Instagram^[4] user you.are.banned posted the original meme, garnering over 49,000 likes in a week. On January 3rd, 2024, Instagram^[5] user hard.images then reposted it, garnering over 194,000 likes in a week.

On January 7th, X^[6] user @BlitzosMare posted a Hazbin Hotel redraw of the image, garnering over 1,700 likes in three days (shown below, left). On the same day, X^[7] user @KinoFabino posted a redraw depicting the missionary holding a Gameboy Advance SP playing a copy of Wario Land 4, writing, "I'm on facebook marketplace and there's a guy selling Wario Land 4 and this is the picture he chose," garnering over 6,800 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right).