Ukraine Donetsk Mission
Below is the contact information for the mission office. To write to a missionary currently serving in the mission, please send mail to him or her at this address.The mission office telephone number is for mission office use only. Individual missionaries can not be contacted at this number. Mission Home Address:
Prospekt Bogdana Khmelnitskogo 67a
Donetsk, 83087
Ukraine
Mailing Address:
Prospekt Bogdana Khmelnitskogo 67a
Donetsk, Ukraine 83087
Ukraine
Overview
The Ukraine Donetsk Mission covers eastern Ukraine and serves a population of approximately 20 million people. It was formed from the Ukraine Kiev mission in July, 1993. The mission headquarters are in Donetsk (pop 1.5 million). Missionaries are currently working in ten cities. For more information on the cities see our Cities page
Languages
Eastern Ukraine, and the "Donbass" (Donetsk Basin) in particular, has a large ethnic Russian minority. In many areas, especially the cities, Russians are a majority of the population. Government policy under the Soviets also promoted the use of Russian as the official language of all republics. Since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the government has begun to promote Ukrainian as the official language, but the transformation is a slow process.
The Donbass, especially the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, have resisted the change. They are the only two regions where Russian is a second official language. The first cities opened for missionary work were in the Donbass, therefore, for the first 3-4 years, all missionaries called to serve in the Donetsk Mission learned Russian. Now that missionaries are working in cities outside the Donbass, the need for Ukrainian speaking missionaries has increased. The MTC in Provo, Utah began teaching Ukrainian in 1996.
The Work
With the opening of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to missionary work in 1990, the prophesies concerning this area of the world are being fulfilled before our eyes. A few of these prophesies are listed on our mission timeline page. Today, the people of the former Soviet Union are, for the first time in history, experiencing the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. After over 1000 years of government dictated worship, they are finally free to choose. Many people have joined various Protestant churches, and the LDS church as well.
In the early years of the mission, the church grew very rapidly. 16 branches of the church, all led by faithful Ukrainian priesthood holders were formed between 1993 and 1995. Also in 1995 two district were organized with local leadership, one in Donetsk, and one in Kharkov. The Donetsk Mission was consistently among to top three baptizing missions in Europe, as was the Kiev Mission. Street contacting was the primary proselyting tool used through about 1995. Lately, member referrals as well as English classes have proven more effective, and generated many 1st discussions.
As the Ukrainian economy worsened, baptisms fell of a bit from1994-1996. The situation was aggravated by persistent visa problems which did not allow new missionaries to be sent, sometimes for months at a time. The problems seemed to subside under President Manzhos, but lately missionaries are being delayed again. In the last few years, interest in the church has been on the increase, and growth is as high now as it ever has been.
Below you will find links to more detailed information on the mission. we will do our best to keep the information up to date. As with anything else on the site, if you have newer or better information, please let us know. This site will only be as good as the information we receive. Send any updates to the webmaster.