The first Latter-day Saint sent by the church was Jacob Spori who arrived in Constantinople on December 31, 1854.

[1] Shortly after, on January 4, 1885, Hadop and Philimae Vartooguain and their two children, Sisak and Armais, were baptized.

[7] In 1991, 13,000 blankets, 80,000 pounds of clothing, and funds for medical supplies were sent by the church to Kurdish refugees in Turkey.

The Church donated emergency supplies and hygiene kits to victims of a flash flood near Istanbul in 2009.

Boundaries for this mission included Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Church President Russell M. Nelson has announced that temples will be built in Russia, Dubai and Hungary.