LDS reassign Russia-bound missionaries

Lundberg is the Russia section head in BYU's department of German and Slavic languages. The university's study abroad program designs trips to Russia to last fewer than 90 days to avoid visa issues, he said.

"A lot of our students are returned missionaries," Lundberg said. "The developments there probably will have a long-term effect on our program, although we don't know what the long-term decisions will be."

Dean said her son and his companions flew 800 miles to Prague, a costly exercise for church leaders.

"It's terribly expensive to travel to another country, wait for a visa and return," said Gary Browning, the first president of the Finland Helsinki East mission when it opened in 1990 with responsibility to begin missionary work in Russia.

Now an LDS patriarch, Browning traveled to Russia this spring. He sees an opportunity in the new situation.

"The church really is growing in its maturity," he said. "All of us would love to have the missionaries remain there. There could be a silver lining to this cloud, because this may give the members an additional incentive to play their roles more effectively, and to find relatives and neighbors and work associates who would be interested in the church."

LDS Church statement

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released this statement Monday about the services of its missionaries in Russia:

A recent change in Russian immigration law now requires foreigners on humanitarian visas (including missionaries) to leave Russia every three months to renew their visas.

The church is working to find an alternative solution to the 90-day renewal requirement. Until an appropriate alternative is identified, new missionary assignments to Russia will be limited to those nationalities not needing visas.

Missionaries currently serving in Russia are not being withdrawn, and the missions are fully staffed. Missionaries needing Russian visas who had not yet left for Russia have been reassigned.

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