Week 45 – Azerbaijan

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you all are well! I have to apologize for my lack of updates recently, things have been really crazy here recently, and we have been all insanely busy. It’s good work though, and I hope you’ll forgive me when you hear what my main project has been

I’m sure you’re all wondering about the title of the update, so I’ll get right into it.

In 1995 President Nelson dedicated Bulgaria for the preaching of the gospel. A decade later, the country of Turkey was opened to the gospel. After a lot of work, government issues, visits, and meetings, I’m so happy to announce that the country of Azerbaijan is now open to the preaching of the gospel. I have been blessed to have a front row seat to the incredible miracles and work that have taken place for this monumental occasion. There is so much to say, but I’ll just cover a couple highlights.

Back in early march, the spiritual leader of Muslims in Azerbaijan came to Utah to meet with President Nelson. It went really well, and the beginning of the Church’s relationship with Azerbaijan was strengthened significantly. The Sheik ul-Islam also met with Elder Bednar while he was there. Salt Lake reached out to our mission President, and said: “it’s go time.”

A little bit later, BYU provo became the first American university to have an Azerbaijani language program. 

Azerbaijan told the Church that if they wanted to be officially recognized, we needed 50 signatures from residents and government officials. We immediately went about contacting everyone we could in Azerbaijan. 

It’s announced that Elder Bednar will be coming at the end of May. He wants everything ready to go by the time he gets there, and we now have a deadline. 

Church HQ in Frankfurt works with President Koivisto and the Europe Area Presidency to put together “Folders” With information about the church and a “signature page” to help get the necessary signatures. President Koivisto puts my companion and I in charge of putting together these folders, including design, printing, and assembly. He also gave us a budget of “yes” and said have it done by the end of the week. No Pressure.

We reached 20 signatures on May 14th. There’s also a problem with the folders, and we have to reprint everything. 

President goes to Azerbaijan a week before Elder Bednar and is talking to people like crazy, handing out folders like candy. We got a few more, and everyone is very stressed. Also while he is there, a few of the biggest facebook groups in Azerbaijan start posting Anti-Church material and propaganda. A few of the people who signed take back their signatures and everything becomes much harder. Anxiety is very high.

The day before Elder Bednar arrived, we hit 53 signatures. He arrives safely and on Thursday, with signatures in hand, dedicates the country for the preaching of the Gospel! That night, he also hopped on a Zoom call with us, which was awesome! 

So yeah, that’s how it all went down. Our celebration was legendary, we sang, cried and shouted for joy. It was truly amazing to be a part of something so awesome. We are now patiently awaiting for everything to get sorted, and we will have multiple baptisms when it does. 

So, thank you all for your patience, and your prayers. Please continue to keep the people of Azerbaijan in your prayers, with faith and hope, everything will move forward! 

Обичам те! 

Elder Thornton