Two female missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were stabbed early Sunday morning after an intruder broke into their Houston apartment.
“The young women were taken to the hospital and are expected to recover,” church spokesman Daniel Woodruff wrote in an email. “We sincerely pray for them and their families as they deal with and heal from this ordeal.”
Harris County deputies arrested a neighbor, according to ABC13 in Houston, after an investigator noticed a man standing outside the apartment complex “who appeared to have been involved” in the attack.
The missionaries told investigators that they were sleeping at about 4 a.m. when a man invaded their apartment and stabbed both of them, the station reported. The two women said they did not know the attacker.
The church did not name the missionaries, who are serving in the Texas Houston Mission, nor say where they are from. The Utah-based faith sends tens of thousands of proselytizers — men can go for two years at age 18 and women can go for 18 months at 19 — across the globe every year to spread their religious message and seek converts.
During the coronavirus pandemic, however, much of the proselytizing is taking place online from missionaries’ apartments.