Anyone remember that the church opened a mission in Tehran immediately before the Islamist takeover? Epic failure of required inspiration? (Just how well did that thing catch on, Monson?)

There used to be a lot of Christians in Iran. Maybe there still are. My guess is that the Mormons were going to proselyte to them. The US was exceedingly chummy with Iran during the Shah years--after all, we were the ones who seated the Shah as our own private dictator. There were a lot of LDS State Dept. and intel people who were posted to Iran in those days, and my guess is that they were instrumental in installing the missionaries there.

I don't remember the mission, but I'm not surprised. I know there were a lot of Christians in Iran, Iraq, Jordan in the 70s and US/Iranian relations were very different. Our town was full of Iranians on work and student visas. I knew a girl who married an Iranian and went back to Iran with him. That was in about '75. I've always wondered what happened to her.

Too bad we didn't have like a prophet on Earth or something to warn us of the danger of Americans being in Iran in the late 70s.

I actually found something. I didn't expect to:

http://nothingwavering.org/2009/06/21/12722-mormon-church-in-iran-a-brief-history-and-iranian-mormon-converts.html


"Unlike Palestine in the Turkish-Armenian Mission, which was dedicated on numerous occasions, an apostolic prayer dedicating the land for missionary work was never offered in Iran."

With that statement, the writer is saying, "So we're cool, right? No harm no foul."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2013 11:23AM by cludgie.

More recently, the BYU Jerusalem center was closed due to local unrest and lack of security, AFTER students were sent for the semester. Then they closed it. After some time passed and things quieted down a bit, it was reopened and students sent. Just in time for the next cycle of violence. Yup, lots of inspiration going on. And no one even asks, how can a prophet not see it coming?

I think a big factor there is lack of security. I don't imagine the church be willing to fork out the money to hire armed guards with AR-15s, though they might have those protecting the big 15.

I knew some converts who had joined the church in Tehran. They were Russian and had fled the USSR. Some time during their stay in Iran they ended up joining the LDS church and then emigrated to the US.