Four young Nigerian men serving as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were taken hostage near Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on Saturday, and top leaders in Salt Lake City are expressing gratitude for the local leaders who are working to free them.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the church's Council of the Twelve told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday night that the church is grateful for the "heroics of the local Nigerian membership of the church — the leaders there," who are working with local tribal chiefs. The native leaders are "very disturbed that they would take hostage men of religion," Elder Ballard said. "This is the first time they've done anything like that with a religious group.

"We just can't say how much we appreciate the empathy, love, prayers and concern of the local Nigerian people. We hope that their efforts will bring those four missionaries back into their area safely."

Elder Quentin L. Cook, executive director of the church's Missionary Department, said a local leader, Bishop Sancho, has been instrumental in working with local tribal leaders to help secure the missionaries' release, as has Elder Adesina J. Olukanni, second counselor in the Africa West Area Presidency.

Elder Ballard said Bishop Sancho has "had one contact with the missionaries" since their abduction, but he was not able to provide details of the conversation. He said the four missionaries — ages 19 to 21 — were together in their apartment Saturday morning in the village of Emohua when they were taken hostage.

"We don't know how they were taken," Elder Cook said when asked if they had been abducted at gunpoint. "The neighbors are the ones that reported it to their African leaders," he said.

"That's one of the problems," Elder Ballard said. "There are many things we're not sure of with exact answers at this stage of the game. We're trying to sort out and understand it ourselves. Nigeria is a long ways from Salt Lake City."

While five older couples serving as missionaries in the area were relocated in January, church members in that area of Nigeria are "quite used to seeing the matter of hostage taking, primarily through the oil employees," Elder Ballard said. "I think the members are very concerned and rallying around and praying for the missionaries like we are here."

The Associated Press reported Monday that three Croatian workers were kidnapped late Sunday in Port Harcourt, the latest in a long string of abductions in Nigeria's "unruly southern oil region," the wire service said. Attacks on oil infrastructure and workers have escalated in the past year, as has violence in the weeks leading up to April elections.