Natives of Georgia, Roman and Nana Amirkhanashvili were baptized in Hanover, Germany in 1996. Shortly after their baptisms, they returned to Georgia. An American couple, John and Rebecca Dockery, who were working at the U.S. Embassy in T’blisi, met with the Amirkhanashvilis for Sunday worship services until returning to the United States in 1998. The Amirkhanashvilis eventually immigrated to the United States. However, Latter-day Saint involvement in Georgia goes back to the late 1980s.
Doris S. Platt, a Latter-day Saint living in Utah, befriended a Georgian woman, Maya Kavtatadze, who was visiting Utah in 1987. While visiting her Georgian friend in 1992, Platt became aware of Georgia’s meager and outdated firefighting equipment. She returned to Utah and was able to arrange for the donation of two retired fire trucks that were still in good working condition. National television broadcasts showed the fire trucks, with the Salt Lake City emblem still on the doors, responding to a bombing near Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze’s car in 1995.
In June 1999, Philip and Betty Reber were assigned as the first missionary to serve in Georgia. They could not proselyte but served as humanitarian missionaries, answering questions about the Church when asked.
While the Rebers were in Georgia, they met Vazha Natroshvili, a Georgian who had been baptized in Holland some years before. They began holding worship meetings in their home. People asked the Rebers why they were in Georgia, which gave the couple an opportunity to talk about the Church. Since the Church was not registered in Georgia, the first converts, the Mamasakhlisi family and an Armenian, Hike Bagdasaryan, were baptized in Yerevan Armenia, the closest mission location in September 1999.
In September 2002, the T’blisi Branch (a small congregation) was organized. At the end of 2003, there were more than 60 Latter-day Saints in Georgia. Converts were now allowed to be baptized in Georgia, the first baptisms in Georgia were performed in September 2003.
