According to the story, some missionaries were teaching a young woman who wanted to get baptized, but faced intense opposition from her family. She told the missionaries she would pray about the matter over the week and then announce her decision on the matter.

During the week, the missionaries decided they wanted to give her a little bit of devotional support, but didn’t want to come across as pushy. They decided to just leave a note on her door that encouraged her to follow what the Spirit told her, and to do what she felt was the right thing. In closing, they wrote, “Remember the words of Nephi!” with a scripture reference.

What the missionaries meant to write was 1 Nephi 3:7, which is a famous verse in the Mormon world about how the Lord always prepares a way:

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father, I will go and do the things the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing in which he commandeth them.

Unfortunately, the missionaries got mixed up and wrote down the scripture reference 3 Nephi 3:7, which reads:

Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us — not our slaves, but our brethren and partners of all our substance.

Needless to say, the out-of-context scripture spooked the poor woman, though the person relating the story reassured me that the missionaries were able to explain their error and she was baptized in the end.