Mormon Missionary Recalls Kidnapping Ordeal in Russia

Abstract

Handcuffed to a heater in a shack outside a Russian town, Andrew L. Propst and his missionary partner, Travis R. Tuttle, played word games, practiced Russian grammar and devised a dream team of professional baseball players to keep from going mad.

The two Mormon missionaries, who had been kidnapped, beaten with clubs, bound and gagged by two men to whom they had planned to preach church doctrine, were resigned to die, Propst revealed in the first account of their March captivity.

Propst of Lebanon, Ore., and Tuttle of Gilbert, Ariz., both 20, were assigned to a two-year missionary post in Russia. Both returned to the United States last week for the first time since their abduction.