"All continues to go well in our mission, we have 106 missionaries, including 78 Elders, 22 Sisters, one traditional couple and two CES couples. The present batch come from 7 countries including: Germany, Israel, Mexico, Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, and the USA.
I feel we are blessed with the finest missionaries the Church has to offer. They are extremely hard working missionaries that serve the Lord with all their heart. We now have 2,496 members in 17 branches located in 11 cities. The mission has two districts and a mission district. The Samara District has seven branches with 977 members. The Saratov District also has seven branches with 1231 members. The Mission District has three branches with 288 members.
The major challenge we face, is obtaining Church owned buildings for our members to meet in on Sundays and other times as needed. This is improving as a conscientious effort is being made to find and purchase buildings and building sites.
The second most important challenge in our mission is training of leadership to understand and implement both the written and unwritten order of things in the Church. More emphasis is being placed on teaching leaders to do things in the Lord's way.
Last month the BYU chamber orchestra preformed in both Samara and Saratov. Both performances were well attended and were very much appreciated and accepted by all that were fortunate enough to obtain tickets. This did much to help build the image of the Church in both cities. The chamber members did a great job of representing the Church both on and off the stage.
Shortly after that, we had Sister Tomas from the General Young Women's Presidency along with Elder and Sister Hancock come to speak to the women in both Samara and Saratov. They did a great job of teaching the women in both areas. Everyone was well pleased with what they learned.
It appears that the Saratov district could be the first district in Russia to become a stake. This is still a ways off, but it could happen while we are still here. Everyone is working very hard for this.
Sunday June 11th we held a branch conference in Orenburg, this is the easternmost city in our mission. At this conference I called, sustained and set apart a Russian member to be the branch president. We just opened this city to proselyting last August and they already have 80 members. Another interesting thing is happening in Orenburg. On June 21st we created a new zone, the Orenburg zone. The goal is to have the Orenburg second branch going by June 2001.
Today the Church put a down payment on a building in Kazan. Yeah! Also last week the Church put a down payment on a piece of Land in Samara to build a new Church from the ground up. Yes, things are starting to happen. "
-- President Gashler