Mormon Missionaries Abducted In Russia

Two American missionaries representing the Mormon church were abducted in Russia, the church said Thursday.

Church spokesman Don LeFevre identified the two as Andrew Lee Propst, 20, of Lebanon, Ore., and Travis Robert Tuttle, 20, of Gilbert, Ariz.

The two were serving in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Russia Samara Mission when they were kidnapped on Wednesday.

The church notified the men’s families and has taken steps to “ensure the safety of all other missionaries in the Russia Samara Mission,” LeFevre said.

The mission is headquartered in Samara, a city southeast of Moscow on the Volga River.

“For reasons of the safety of all missionaries, no other information about the abduction can be made available at this time,” LeFevre said.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, called the kidnapping “extraordinarily troubling.”

Rep. Merrill Cook, R-Utah, like Bennett a Mormon, said the “kidnapping of these two young men is appalling.”

He said he had urged the State Department to take “aggressive American involvement in getting these boys back safely.”

The church has about 57,000 full-time missionaries worldwide and six missions in Russia with more than 5,000 members.