March 31, 1998

Mormon Missionaries Tried to Teach their Kidnappers

Missionaries describe 4-day Russian ordeal

From: The Oregonian

By Maxine Bernstein

     Despite being kept bound and hungry, Andrew L. Propst and
Travis R. Tuttle reached out with the Gospel repeatedly.

     Andrew L. Propst and his Mormon missionary partner, Travis
R. Tuttle, arrived at a home in Saratov, Russia, seeking to
spread their church doctrine.

     Despite being bound, handcuffed, knocked on the head with
baseball bats and held captive for four days by their hosts,
Propst of Lebanon, Ore., and Tuttle of Gilbert, Ariz., still
appealed to their kidnappers to seek peace with the Lord.

     "Andy said every chance they got, they tried to teach them
the Gospel," his father, Lee Propst, said Friday.

     The men, both 20, spoke to their families Friday from
Frankfurt, Germany, for the first time since Sunday, when they
were released. It was the first time they had given details of
their four-day captivity.

     "Andy said there's no reason he should be alive right now,"
his sister Amy Strickling said.

     Propst and Tuttle were in the first year of a two-year
missionary commitment for the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints at the Russia Samara Mission when they
were abducted.