An obscure village ...

Super cool story! Sometimes people will come into the church building in Wan Chai and want to talk to a missionary about the church. This is a huge 12 story beautiful building that has several chapels for attending church but also has the Asia Area church offices on the 7-10th floors for the church in this part of the world. There are also a lot of missionary couples who have offices here and we are one of them. When someone comes in and wants to talk about our beliefs etc., the security from downstairs calls one of us to go talk to the guest, and this is what happened to Joe the other day.

He was a 19 year old Chinese young man from Beijing with an older woman. As the story goes in his words, he was born in Mainland China and comes from a very poor village that is traditional and strongly holds the communist party's views on government and especially religion. He does have a Buddhist background but always felt like something huge was missing in his life. He kept having dreams that he needed to "get to the west" and learn more about "this God" that many people from the west believe in. He ended up going to Los Angeles to visit for a period of time, and while he was there, met missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the missionaries "just happened" to be from Hong Kong serving in LA. He took the lessons for a while and then had to return to Mainland China.

Side stepping for a moment, in Mainland China there are no missionaries. It's against the law. There are many branches (congregations) but there are a lot of rules around it. The foreigners can not under any circumstances go to church with people from the Mainland. They are separated by law and the church takes all that very seriously. If you are Chinese, you can give a Book of Mormon to your family, but you can not give it to a co-worker. (against the law) If someone wants to get baptized who is from the Mainland, they have to come to Hong Kong and have all the lessons in one day and get baptized here.

SO, this was the case with this young man. He had gone back to China after his trip to LA, had found the church, and his Bishop (or Branch President) told him that if he was ready to be baptized he needed to come to Hong Kong. In the mean time, he had made contact with the mother of the missionary serving in LA from Hong Kong who had taught this young man the gospel in the States.  Turns out, this young missionary in LA is the only member in his family and NOW this 19 year old from China had come to HK and was staying with and teaching the missionary's mother about the church! This was the woman he was with when he was talking with Joe. He was here for a few days and was baptized last Tuesday. He was so excited and feels like he found that "thing" that had been missing in his life and is feeling so much purpose, joy and peace. That is amazing to me!

There is a flu going around Hong Kong that is pretty rough. It's an influenza strain that is extremely contagious and a beast if you get it. Neither Joe or I ever get sick, and this one hit us both really hard. We were both down about 4-5 days and is taking several weeks to get completely well. They have closed kindergarten schools for several weeks trying to stop the spread and hospitals are at 111-123% capacity. The senior missionary couples are dropping like flies and everyone is just struggling with their health! Personally, I don't remember ever being that sick before. The good news is, it was right in-between some big events/assignments coming up so it didn't interfere too much with the work we are doing. We both still do not feel 100% but are getting there.

This week we are doing lunch for the missionary leadership training for the young missionaries. It's always fun to be with them. Chinese New Year is coming up on February 5th and in Hong Kong it is seriously bigger than Christmas. Several days of celebrations and the city basically shuts down. Most of the missionary couples and and the Asia Area Presidency got tickets to this parade that is broadcast all over Asia. It's supposed to be a huge deal so that should be a fun experience. A group of us went to stand in line Saturday morning from 5am-10am to get tickets to this thing. (5 hours) I thought, WOW! This must be some parade!! :):) I'll take lots of pictures.

God hears and answers our prayers. Even in an obscure little village in any and every corner of the world. It may take time and it may not look the way you want it to, but He will answer your prayers.

Love,
Sister Kwan

Dinner at the Lam's home. He is the Stake President of the Island Stake. We were also with the Phillip's (Mission President for the China HK Mission). We had a wonderful time. The Lam's very huge and beautiful "flat" is on the 60th floor over looking the city.

Taco bar at our apartment with the Elders from the Ward (congregation) we attend and Garmin who is learning about the gospel. He is also from Mainland China and is here studying engineering at a University. The one Elder has a mask on because he has a cold.  (That is what you do if you are sick at all...)

Another dinner with four of the Elders. It was Elder Francom's birthday (second one from the end)