VIENNA, Va. — In 2007, the city of Farmers Branch, Texas, passed a series of laws aimed at clamping down on immigration, including one that made it illegal for landlords to rent to people without documentation. It was a national story at the time, but McKay Coppins, who was then 19 years old and serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Texas, didn’t see it that way.

The young missionary was dealing with plenty of challenges of his own — learning how to communicate the Gospel to people who weren’t always receptive, and acclimating to the hot, sticky climate of north central Texas, conditions that weren’t especially conducive for a Massachusetts native pedaling a bike while wearing a suit.

But Coppins gained a new perspective the Sunday after the new laws we

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