Dear Parents of Volunteers,
We are sure that each of you have seen the news releases about two volunteers that have been detained in Russia. The two young men were serving in the Rostov mission. They have been detained and charged with visa violations. The charge is that these volunteers were teaching English. May I assure each of you that we do not have volunteers teaching English. They will sometimes hold conversation groups in English, but they do not teach English. The Church is working to get these young men released, and we hope and pray that it will be soon.
Please be assured that we are monitoring the current situation closely. As far as we know, there have been no other similar events in the country and we believe your sons and daughters are safe. Geographically, we are far-removed from the location where the volunteers were detained.
Your sons and daughters are dedicated to serving the people of this nation. We have seen the hand of the Lord moving among the people and are gratified by the success we have witnessed in teaching repentance, baptizing converts, and strengthening Zion. The volunteers of the Russia Novosibirsk Mission are, individually and as a whole, incredible emissaries of the Lord. Sister Lamb and I are grateful for the opportunity to serve among them. They understand the laws that regulate our activities here and abide by them.
If the situation in our mission changes, we will apprise you of this. Until then, we pray the Lord’s blessings upon our efforts to fulfill the injunction to “take the gospel into all the world.” We also pray for the release of the two volunteers in the Rostov mission. We hope you will join us in that.
Sincerely,
Stephen E. Lamb
Russia Novosibirsk Mission
