June 1925 Harris was made a member of the General Board of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association (YMMIA) and remained affiliated with the association until November 1948. He served as a missionary in Japan in 1926. The following year he served a short mission among the Latter-day Saints in Syria. After returning from foreign trips, Harris would often speak in LDS sacrament meetings detailing his experiences. Harris was never an LDS General Authority but did receive some of their privileges. He was given an assigned seat with his name on it to attend general conference. Harris' church service was often combined with his job as president of Brigham Young University. He often taught religious classes and attended church school conventions. On his second trip to Iran in 1950, Harris became the branch president of Tehran. The branch started out with nine members but eventually reached thirty-five individuals. International work Russia The Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia (Yidishe Kolonizatsye Organizatsye in Rusland = ICOR) was established by pro-Soviet Americans in order to develop agricultural settlements in Soviet territory specifically for Jews. In 1928 one of the journalists involved with the ICOR, Leon Talmy, invited Franklin Harris to Russia in order to evaluate the area of Birobidzhan where the creation of a Jewish autonomous district had just been approved. In 1929, Harris traveled to the Soviet Union as chairman of a commission appraising the territory. In July 1929 the commission began searching in Birobidzhan to see if it could agriculturally sustain a large population. Harris spent two months "evaluating the territory for agricultural development." The commission met with Alexei Rykov, chairman of the Council of Ministers as well as Jewish community leaders. Upon Harris' return to the United States, he traveled back to Utah by train in order to stop and speak in many cities about Birobidzhan and rally support for its progress. Harris wrote to Talmy for a time but eventually lost touch. He "regarded his trip to Birobidzhan as a highlight of his professional career." The commission's work on the agricultural potential of Birobidzhan would later help in forming the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934. Iran In March 1939 Harris was asked by the United States Department of Agriculture to consider working with the Iranian government in order to reorganize Iran's Department of Agriculture. Harris and his wife left for Iran the next month. Upon arrival, Harris became