Why I LOVE Attending Church in China

Church is 3 hours long. That's a pretty big part of our Sunday and some Sundays I have to admit that I would rather be home reading a book, taking a walk, drinking a Diet Coke or just taking a nap. However, going to church in China has given me a new perspective on church attendance.

On any given Sunday in our branch, you are likely to hear a prayer given in Korean, a testimony given in Japanese, you can listen in to the interpreters helping translate the meeting to Chinese... you can chat with a friend in Spanish or Italian or listen to families from Australia or New Zealand and enjoy their lovely accent. Besides making for a very interesting event, it's really changed me quite a bit. Through interacting with so many different cultures I have felt testimonies that are clear and true and I have heard stories that strengthen my faith. Today was our District  Conference (instead of Stake Conference) and we were able to hear the conversion story of Sister Goo, who is the matron of the Hong Kong Temple. Here is the condensed version of her conversion:

As a small girl living in China in the 1950's (I might be off on the dates), Sister Goo's family escaped and went to Hong Kong. Unfortunately she wasn't able to come with them and was left behind to live with an aunt. Later, her father paid a woman to take Sister Goo and claim her has her daughter at the crossing. Sister Goo was very young at the time. She had to memorize the name of the woman's daughter that she was pretending to be. Once in Hong Kong, her family was contacted by the missionaries. At that time, they were very closed to foreigners and she remembers thinking of the missionaries as "foreign devils". Through interactions with friends and over a long period of time, she began attending church meetings regularly and got very involved with the church. She gave her simple testimony of prayer and praying about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. She described to us how her parents would not allow her to be baptized. She would return on Sundays from attending church, where she had multiple callings (even though she was not baptized), she would arrive home to find the house locked. Her mother would lock her out and leave her on the front step with no dinner for hours. Sometimes her friends, seeing that she was locked out, would bring her dinner. At the age of 15 she and her best friend were expelled from their Lutheran school for associating with Mormons. She was too afraid to tell her mother what had happened. Her father, not supportive of her religion, but less strict, arranged for a tutor for her and her friend so they could be gone during the day without her mother knowing she had been expelled. However, rumors finally found her mother with the facts of her expulsion. One weekend while her parents were travelling to Macaw, she was baptized, lying to her parents (who happened to come home early from the trip) and the missionaries about having permission from her parents. After being baptized, she remembered the importance of repentance and told her parents and church officials. Things became very difficult for her at home. One of the missionaries at the time was from Idaho. He wrote to his parents about her trials. They had 6 boys, and invited her to come to America and be their daughter. At the age of 16, she got on an airplane to America. She shared with us that she cried all the way from Hong Kong to Japan.  What an amazing story! I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be left by your parents, only to be snuck across the border later... then to be routinely locked out by your parents, expelled from school just for your association with the LDS church... what an amazing trial of faith! I am so thankful for the examples of others.

Wednesday night we celebrated the Relief Society's birthday with our fellow Relief Society Sisters. It is so wonderful to be in a room full of women from all walks of life, from all corners of the earth, and to share the same burning testimony and love for one another. We spent the evening eating dinner and socializing and finished the evening by watching a video put together by a few of our sisters. Several sisters recorded their testimonies and conversion stories and they were compiled into one video. As we watched and listened to testimonies in English, Chinese, Korean and given by sisters from many other countries, our hearts were full and we felt the unity that the gospel brings. I am truly thankful for these experiences I am  having in China.