Following the Soviet Union’s demise, Moldovans were able to travel abroad. During the mid-1990s a few joined the Church: Vitalii Volosin in Moscow, Russia; Sylvia Vacarciuc in Odessa, Ukraine; and Lilia Carasciuc in southern California.
In September 1995, Paul and Betty Morris arrived in Chisinau, where Paul worked in the U.S. Embassy. In June of that, John Nielson, a private contractor doing development work, arrived in Moldova. And in May 1996, Janet Jasen, a nurse with the Peace Corps, began her tour in Chisinau. These four Latter-day Saints met each week.
Elder Charles A. Didier, a member of the Seventy (one of the highest governing bodies of the Church) and Romania Bucharest Mission president, Robert F. Orton, traveled to Chisinau in September 1997 to meet with Moldovan and American Latter-day Saints and friends. It was announced that the first branch (a small congregation) was shortly to be organized and missionaries were to be assigned to labor in Moldova.
Five weeks after that visit, missionaries arrived in Chisinau. At that time, missionaries could not wear name tags or openly proselyte; rather, they provided service and taught people who had been referred to them by Church members or waited for people to ask them about the Church. On November 11 of that year, five people were baptized in the bathtub of the Morris home, the first baptisms in Moldova. On that same day, a branch was organized with Paul Morris as president.
On December 23, 1998, the first complete translation of the Book of Mormon in Romanian arrived. This “special Christmas gift” was a blessing to the majority of members who could now read the Book of Mormon in their native language.
