Last summer I was expected to go on a mission to wherever the Mormon prophet wanted. I even expected myself to go. My father, my mother, and my older brother had all gone on missions.

When I chose not go on a mission because I could not preach something I did not believe, it was a shock to my family. Since then I have been visiting ex-Mormon websites and blogs, trying to understand how the Mormon Church had, and still has to a certain extent, such control over my life.

But one musical may provide me some relief.

When I heard that Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park fame were making a musical about Mormon missionaries, I became excited. I hoped I would be able to trade my bitterness in for laughs, at least for an hour or two.

Parker and Stone teamed up with Robert Lopez, co-writer of Broadway show “Avenue Q,” to highlight Mormons in their musical “The Book of Mormon.”

“Mormons are so Disney and Rodgers & Hammerstein to begin with that it makes perfect sense for them to break into song,” Parker told Vogue. “That’s why, in many ways, this feels like a traditional musical. You’re being cheesy and corny and all — but that’s who Mormons naturally are.”

This is true to a certain extent. Mormons like to portray themselves as picture-perfect.

But the inner conflict is what makes Mormons ideal for musicals. Underneath the perfect Mormon family are doubts and feelings smothered to maintain harmony.

I have experienced this in my own broken family.

“The Book of Mormon” is a Broadway musical that takes its name from the sacred text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons).

The musical follows the story of two young American missionaries and their trials as they attempt to convert an impoverished and AIDS-ridden tribe in Uganda.

There were fears among the Mormon community about what specifically the musical would criticize about Mormonism.

The only response my Mormon father gave when I mentioned the musical was a pessimistic, “We all know how that’s going to turn out.”

And now we do.

Yes, the play is crude. One song includes the line “f**k you, God” and a scene has an enlarged x-ray of a copy of The Book of Mormon shoved up a character’s rectum.

But the play is not too negative towards Mormonism.

“We love musicals, and we love Mormons,” Parker said to Vogue. “I think if any Mormons come and stay all the way through, they’ll end up liking the show. I mean, it rips on them a lot, but in the end their spirit of wanting to help wins the day.”

I would say that the Mormon Church got off easy. That its members are good people is the only positive thing that I am able to say.

The Mormon Church itself is not even worried too much about the impact of the play. In a press release they issued a simple one-liner:

“The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people’s lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ.”

Despite their sarcastic response, the Mormon Church needs the musical “The Book of Mormon.”

The public knows little about Mormon beliefs. The church tries to cover up bizarre and unpopular beliefs until you are a committed member. I discovered some of the doctrine only after I left.

With our information-rich world, the lies and true past of the Mormon Church is easily unveiled.

“The Book of Mormon” musical points out the good and bad in Mormons, the hypocrisy and the good intentions.

The Mormon Church needs to learn from this. It needs to face its past, because it is not staying buried.