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Video shows arrest of Church volunteers


JAHS

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I can't imagine being these missionaries, especially having grown up being afraid of the Russians and their nuclear attacks. These missionaries seemed to handle it well. I thought the church said no proselyting in Russia a year or two ago? Why were these missionaries there, I wonder. Maybe to do service and help ward members? I'm glad they're safe and out of there!

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10 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

I can't imagine being these missionaries, especially having grown up being afraid of the Russians and their nuclear attacks. These missionaries seemed to handle it well. I thought the church said no proselyting in Russia a year or two ago? Why were these missionaries there, I wonder. Maybe to do service and help ward members? I'm glad they're safe and out of there!

They are there as Volunteers to do service. The rules they are supposed to follow is that they do no proselytizing outside of the church buildings.  They were inside the church building and not proselytizing; they were just having a conversation and playing some games in English with the members. They were arrested for teaching English without a license, but they were not teaching it they were just talking with others in English. 

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2 hours ago, Calm said:

My impression was the police were filming it, not media. But easily wrong. 

Maybe , but notice the word "Ruptly" in the corner of the video. Ruptly is a video news agency specializing in video on demand, based in Berlin, Germany and belonging to the RT (Russia Today) televised news network.

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4 hours ago, JAHS said:

Maybe , but notice the word "Ruptly" in the corner of the video. Ruptly is a video news agency specializing in video on demand, based in Berlin, Germany and belonging to the RT (Russia Today) televised news network.

The Russian police only act in situations of this kind if they are instructed to do so.  Russia is not a free country, and they do not have democratic institutions or independent courts.  So this may have been a political act at the local or regional level.  LDS authorities likely know exactly what happened and why.

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I served in Peru in the early 80's. Upon arrival, our passports were collected and stored in the mission home. In their place we were given an official copy of our passport. We were able to use this copy to pretty much do anything inside the country that required identification. In one rural town my companion and I were stopped by the local police and asked to show them our passports. They didn't approve of the copies and detained my companion and told me that they wouldn't release him until we could show them our passports. I contacted the mission home (not easy to do from a rural town in the early 80's) and they sent the passports. After the police released my companion, we sent the passports back to the mission home. From that point on, we planned our routes to avoid the police station.

BTW, my companion told me that the police treated him more like a guest than a prisoner - taking him out to dinner among other things.

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8 hours ago, Thinking said:

I served in Peru in the early 80's. Upon arrival, our passports were collected and stored in the mission home. In their place we were given an official copy of our passport. We were able to use this copy to pretty much do anything inside the country that required identification. In one rural town my companion and I were stopped by the local police and asked to show them our passports. They didn't approve of the copies and detained my companion and told me that they wouldn't release him until we could show them our passports. I contacted the mission home (not easy to do from a rural town in the early 80's) and they sent the passports. After the police released my companion, we sent the passports back to the mission home. From that point on, we planned our routes to avoid the police station.

BTW, my companion told me that the police treated him more like a guest than a prisoner - taking him out to dinner among other things.

I served in LA in the late 1990's and they took my passport as well, my friends think that is inconceivable. I didn't care though, one less thing for me to worry about

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6 hours ago, Duncan said:
14 hours ago, Thinking said:

I served in Peru in the early 80's. Upon arrival, our passports were collected and stored in the mission home. In their place we were given an official copy of our passport. We were able to use this copy to pretty much do anything inside the country that required identification. In one rural town my companion and I were stopped by the local police and asked to show them our passports. They didn't approve of the copies and detained my companion and told me that they wouldn't release him until we could show them our passports. I contacted the mission home (not easy to do from a rural town in the early 80's) and they sent the passports. After the police released my companion, we sent the passports back to the mission home. From that point on, we planned our routes to avoid the police station.

BTW, my companion told me that the police treated him more like a guest than a prisoner - taking him out to dinner among other things.

I served in LA in the late 1990's and they took my passport as well, my friends think that is inconceivable. I didn't care though, one less thing for me to worry about

I was in Austria early 70s and we kept our passports. Sometimes we had to cross the border into Germany and had to show them at the border.

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10 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I don't think the church is honest in saying these are "volunteers". And when sending the call to missionaries, it's listed as a mission. Why is the church doing that? "Honest in all our dealings" except.....

.....Sigh.... more trash talk from the uninformed

Service missionaries do not proselyte.  I did family search indexing assignments but had a name tag, mission leader, etc.  Some of them are full time and live in special housing in SLC.
Be more  careful when calling out the church leaders as liars.    "Support the church leaders even when (you think) they are wrong."

Edited by cdowis
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2 hours ago, cdowis said:

.....Sigh.... more trash talk from the uninformed

Service missionaries do not proselyte.  I did family search indexing assignments but had a name tag, mission leader, etc.  Some of them are full time and live in special housing in SLC.
Be more  careful when calling out the church leaders as liars.    "Support the church leaders even when (you think) they are wrong."

I know, I am so bad at jumping on a bandwagon of others' beefs about what the church does wrong. But when you see news reports of the situation they say "volunteers" . But not missionary volunteers. That is the distinction. But I know the church has to step lightly or carefully around these issues in countries like Russia. So apologise for my remark. I don't know what my problem is. Well I do, but it's been a problem to figure out where I lean.

ETA: Here is a link to DN and LDS Living. In one they are missionaries in Russia and in the other they are LDS volunteers, after Russia said there was to be no religious proselyting in their country. I don't really care about the word usage that much though, but jumped on the wagon, and now getting off it for a bit. 

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900061355/russia-releases-two-latter-day-saint-volunteers-after-nearly-three-weeks-in-jail.html

http://www.ldsliving.com/Church-Defends-6-Missionaries-Deported-from-Russia-Releases-Statement/s/83086

Edited by Tacenda
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Hmmm...

When I hear Russian, I think of James Bond, Mission Impossible, and John Wick movies.

Do the Russians think the same things when they see missionaries from Utah?

Nope, just nice Utah chaps, who probably live in a boring apartment with no internet or TV. A few books, and maybe two pairs of shoes. Very dangerous.

I am going to imagine what the cops are thinking, "these guys are nice and super, duper boring. I don't even want to steal their stuff. We didn't have to smash anything, or punch them. Maybe they know LeBron James? Or the Kardashians?"

When see this video, I feel sadness for the missionaries, and think one day in forty years, when petrol demand is low and the Russian economy is tanking (even more than it is, California's economy is much bigger). The Russian people will think, why do we always have to be the bad guys and goons in movies?

Computer: "see the attached video above."

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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-releases-2-american-mormon-missionaries-detained-almost-3-weeks-n984781

The article that Tacenda links to from LDS Living, I can't find a date**** and it seems to have different info, so it may be another time, which is why they use the term "missionaries".

The DN article has the info though...this is just another.

****Really out of it today...so definitely not referring to the same time.

Quote

On Thursday, August 25, some media published information about the deportation of foreign volunteers who are in the Russian Federation at the invitation of Local Religious Organizations Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the city of Samara.

 

Edited by Calm
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