...This Church Will Fill The Whole Earth.

Yesterday was my second Sunday in Iraq. Church is a little abbreviated
from the normall schedule. Partly this is because there are not many of
us who attend (25 last Sunday, 12 yesterday). I expected a lot more
given the population of the camp, but the activity rate is not very
high. Also, most of us work seven days a week and can't take off for
three hours in the middle of the day for Church. There really isn't
anything like a week end here, although the tempo of work does slow down
a bit from Friday through Sunday.
Anyway, at Church yesterday the Group Leader mentioned that a
representative from the Stake was here to conduct some business. There
is a formally organized Stake, called the Arabian Peninsula Stake,
which, I suppose has geigraphic authority over all of the Arabian Middle
East. In fact, the Group Leader told me that there are two organized
wards and 40+ Military Groups serving mostly western military and
government personnel and other ex-patriots in Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar.
No missionary work is allowed among the native population, of course,
since that would raise legal and political issues with the host nations.
So, although the Church isn't formally recognized by any nation in the
Middle East and can only legally operate where western sovereignty
prevails, it is here, and I think that is a good thing.
Incidentally, missionaries have served in the Middle East before. It
has been a long time, but missionaries, at one time, preached in Persia
or Iran. I don't know when they were pulled out, but there are several
relatively large groups of Iranian members around the world, most of
whom emmigrated at the time of the revolution. One of them was briefly
in my home ward about a year ago. If anyone knows something about the
history of the Church in Iran, please leave a comment.