I'm apparently notoriously bad at keeping a blog updated on a regular basis. Right. So, since my last post, I've received a mission call to the Korea Daejeon mission for the LDS church. I'm leaving for the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo tomorrow morning. I won't be able to go online very frequently at all, as I'm handing over my time to the Lord to do as He would have me do. Fortunately for you, I've taught my mother how to add posts on blogger. If you'd like to hear what's going on in my life, check back here once a week. I realize I posted this one rather late, as I was set apart earlier tonight, but I was just finalizing my packing and remembered I should probably say something. I want to thank everyone who have been a support to me through my life. I appreciate it.
Oh! Check out the China section of my site--I actually added some thoughts and pictures.
For those of you unable to hear my farewell talk, feel free to read it below.
Standing up here and delivering a talk that was written yesterday and polished this morning is intimidating for me, to say the least. I graduated almost a year ago from BYU-I with a degree in English, which means that I’d rather write than talk any day of the week. Fortunately, it isn’t as though I haven’t been required to speak in public before. As many of you are aware, I spent four months in China teaching English. After visiting Beijing, I actually had three of my classes in the same room at the same time—which amounted to nearly one hundred and twenty students. I’m nervous and my knees are shaking today because not only is there more than one hundred and twenty of you, but you can understand almost all of what I’m saying whereas they only caught every third or fourth word. At least, I hope you can understand what I’m saying. I do have a habit of speaking fast when I’m nervous. If you listen fast, I suppose we’ll be alright, and might even get to go home early. Bishop never did give me a specific topic to address today, so I encourage you to listen carefully like a congregation of detectives to figure out what my central theme is.
Jeff and I landed in Hong Kong on August 21 before a category nine typhoon hit the area. Due to the typhoon, our connecting flight to Changsha was delayed for three days. I went to China with a company called China Horizons started by a man who lives in Rexburg named Jacob. Jacob tried his best to get us train tickets so that we could continue our journey, but all the trains from Hong Kong to Changsha were sold out for five days. That happens a lot in China due to the high population. It didn’t help that our entire group needed to go to Changsha to get to Xiangtan. We had a group of over twenty headed to teach English. Due to the Olympics and limited numbers of visas, we were almost all placed in a smaller city called Xiangtan.
So, there we were, in the Hong Kong airport without our checked luggage. I rather stupidly didn’t put a change of clothes or a toothbrush in my carry-ons. We spent the night in the airport with other stranded passengers, curled up on very rough carpet in an air-conditioned building that was downright chilly. Jacob contacted the mission president in Hong Kong the next morning. Fortunately, the mission and temple presidents agreed to let us stay in the patron housing across from the temple until we could catch our rescheduled flight. Normally, this housing is reserved for those Asian saints who save up to come to the temple to be sealed, endowed, or married for eternity. Fortunately, there was enough room for us stranded saints.
There was a very sweet Chinese family at the housing with us. I couldn’t understand a word they said, but the Spirit was very strong nevertheless and there was a lot of smiling. We could all tell we were brothers and sisters in the gospel, even without knowing how to communicate through much more than gestures when Jeff Treft, a returned missionary from Taiwan in our group, wasn’t around. We attended church in the temple. The Hong Kong temple is several stories high, designed to match the vision President Hinckley had of it. The lower floors are used as a meeting house. During sacrament meeting, we got to hear from a lovely young woman who was about to leave to Salt Lake on her mission. Some of the missionaries translated for us. Our group met with a visiting area authority for Sunday School where we were instructed to follow the laws of the land in China and not proselyte.
There are members of the church in China. Some couple missionaries are called to serve in China, actually, offering service and teaching English. Many teachers who go to China are members. But there are also Chinese members of the church, though proselyting isn’t allowed. Expatriates, or foreigners, are not allowed to interact with native Chinese members, so I don’t know how many members there are, but the church is in China. Many will hear the gospel in America and come back and teach their families, which is allowed. After accepting the gospel, our Chinese brothers and sisters save up money to visit Hong Kong to get baptized by the missionaries. Several elders and sisters speak Mandarin and teach and help prepare these saints for a day or so before they’re baptized.
After this spiritually uplifting discussion on making a distinction between doing what is good and what is right, we went back to the airport and hopped on another plane bound for Changsha, which is about an hour by car away from Xiangtan. Mainland China is very different than Hong Kong, which was under British rule until 1999. That’s why there’s a temple in Hong Kong and missionaries are called to serve there speaking Cantonese and Mandarin. We were greeted with utmost courtesy by representatives from our schools and treated to genuine Chinese food. It’s not like Chinese food here.
Shortly after we arrived, President and Sister Brighton, two missionaries serving in China, came to organize us into a group of the church. After quick interviews on Saturday, I was called to be the group’s relief society leader. We were set apart and had a very spiritual and close Sacrament Meeting as a group in an extra apartment owned by our Chinese liaison with the school, Lany. She actually had a wall removed from her apartment so that we could meet as a group to partake in the sacrament. Lany is very curious about the church. Unfortunately, we couldn’t invite any Chinese nationals to our meetings, or we would have.
President Brighton talked to us that Sunday. He said something very significant that changed the way that I think about pioneers. President Brighton pointed out that we were the first group of saints to ever be in Xiangtan—modern pioneers. Our examples to our students would either be beneficial or detrimental to the church as we walked, talked, and interacted with our Chinese brothers and sisters. I had always equated pioneers to the iconic images of those who crossed the plains under the leadership of Brigham Young, or as part of one of the handcart companies, and hadn’t put much thought into the word pioneer. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a pioneer is someone ‘who ventures into unknown or unclaimed territory to settle’ or ‘opens up new areas of thought, research, or development.’ Now, we do owe a lot to the iconic pioneers we celebrate every 24th of July. After all, they helped a city appear from nowhere and decided to use a grid system and wide streets that make driving easier (it’s not that way in China). Pioneers are not relics of the past.
Elder Oaks actually gave a talk in the October 1989 conference entitled “Modern Pioneers.” Sadly, I don’t remember hearing that one because I wasn’t quite three when he gave it. It’s a good read. He refers back to comments made by President J. Reuben Clark on the unsung pioneers who walked at the end of the wagon train faithfully following their leaders on the trek west and then states that “In every nation, in every worthy occupation and activity, members of this church face hardships, overcome obstacles, and follow the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ as valiantly as the pioneers of any age. They pay their tithes and offerings. They serve as missionaries or as Church Service volunteers, or they support others who do so. Like the noble young mothers who postpone the pursuit of their personal goals in order to provide the needs of their children, they sacrifice immediate pleasures to keep commitments that are eternal. They accept callings and, in the service of others, they willingly give their time and sometimes their lives.”
After some thought, I think there are three ways in which everyone can help open up “new areas of thought or development” in becoming modern pioneers. The first of which is with obedience. The second is through service. And the third is through example. It is through obedience of the covenants we’ve made with our Heavenly Father that we become entitled to the divine help we need to accomplish our mission as pioneers. In Doctrine and Covenants 82:10, the Lord states: “I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” By keeping the commandments and striving to be more Christ-like, we become worthy of the Lord’s help in spreading the gospel and opening up new areas of thought to those around us. There are countless wonderful examples of this throughout the history of the church and in the scriptures.
In China, we were instructed to meet together as a group each Sunday for Sacrament meeting and then Sunday school or priesthood and Relief Society. Our group leader was Chase Fly. He and the rest of the teachers were wonderful examples of obedience to me. Chase, and his assistant, Ryan, would come early to set up the apartment for our worship by lining up the twenty-five seats and then preparing the sacrament table. We would then gather together and start our meeting promptly at 10 each Sunday. Due to our small congregations, we were encouraged to contemplate the Savior for a few minutes after the Sacrament was passed. It was very uplifting to be able to renew covenants in China each week. We sang together, and would split apart after about forty-five minutes. It was a nice break from teaching English to be taught the gospel.
The police started becoming suspicious as to what was happening in the apartment on Sundays. It wasn’t against the law for us to meet as long as we didn’t have any Chinese nationals at our meetings, but after Chase talked to the branch president, we decided it would be best to meet in smaller groups. We didn’t want Lany to get in trouble, for she had done so much for us. Sitting in small groups of five or six, watching the sacrament being passed, was a treat. The memory of seeing Ryan kneeling at a coffee table to bless the sacrament in obedience to the branch president’s direction will forever stay in my mind. My fellow teachers were wonderful examples of obedience.
As another example, I’ve decided to focus on Abish. If you know who Abish is, you deserve a cookie. If not, I’ll explain. One of the greatest missionaries, and one of my favorites, is Ammon. After Alma the Younger’s conversion, Ammon repented of his own wickedness and was desirous to bring souls unto God among his brothers, the Lamanites. Ammon was able to open up a discussion with King Lamoni after saving the king’s sheep and being a faithful servant. After discussing the Lord and His plan, the king, queen, and Ammon all fell to the floor as though dead. I don’t know what the servants thought when they first stepped into the room to see what was going on, but I think in their place, I would probably assume there was some sort of terrible disease that had killed them suddenly. Fortunately, Abish was there. She was a Lamanitish woman, and a servant to the queen. Her reaction to the unusual sight is recorded in the scriptures. In Alma 19:17, it reads, “when she saw that all the servants of Lamoni had fallen to the earth, and also her mistress, the queen, and the king, and Ammon lay prostrate upon the earth, she knew that it was the power of God; and supposing that this opportunity, by making known unto the people what had happened among them, that by beholding this scene it would cause them to believe in the power of God, therefore she ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people.”
This is certainly an example of the blessings of obedience. Abish was converted to the Lord and kept her covenants with Him though the rest of the Lamanites had no idea if there even was a God. Due to her diligence in keeping her covenants, she was able to be moved upon by the Spirit to gather the Lamanites together to behold the power of God. As people began arriving, some thought the king and queen were dead. Others believed that Ammon had slain them and tried to kill him in turn. However, the power of the Lord was made manifest, and soon the people started arguing as to whether Ammon was sent by God or not. This contention made Abish understandably upset—the people were viewing a miracle and seemed more interested in making God out to be some sort of villain than feeling His hand in this. So she was the one who knelt next to the queen, who then immediately rose from the ground. She awakened her husband, and soon King Lamoni was preaching about the power of God.
The multitude that Abish gathered were then able to hear from Ammon and the other servants of Lamoni who had been converted. Verse 35 reads: “And it came to pass that there were many that did believe in their words; and as many as did believe were baptized; and they became a righteous people, and they did establish a church among them.” Abish was a pioneer in changing the way a multitude of people thought about God and religion through her obedience to the prompting of the Spirit.
It is also easy to find examples of service in the history of the church, in early church history or even in this ward. One of the great things about trying to follow Christ is that He encourages us to “love one another”. On Halloween, Jeff and I traveled to Beijing with Mark, David, and his wife Rebecca. We were quite excited to get to see the capital of China. It’s a beautiful city, clean and very efficient. We went by train from Xiangtan directly to the west Beijing railway station. The train ride was about sixteen hours long—during which we sat the entire time because we didn’t buy tickets early enough to get a sleeper car. The train was packed full of other people headed to Beijing who spoke very little English more than “Hello,” but I felt safe. My personal example of service came when we arrived at the train station.
The hostel we were going to stay at was across from the other railway station. On their website, we were told to take the number nine bus between stations. Of course, shortly after we arrived, we realized there was no number nine bus. Confused, we decided to try going out one of the doors to see if there were more buses. There weren’t. A lovely Chinese woman noticed our disappointment and discouragement and asked in very broken English if she could help in any way. She pulled out her phone and intimated that she would let us use it to contact the hostel. I got the pleasure of speaking to them on the phone. They spoke English, but I found it difficult to understand the kind young man who answered the phone. They wanted to send a bus out to get us—which would cost a lot more than we had anticipated.
As I was on the phone, a concerned man came over to see what was going on. He spoke English very well—he lives in Canada—and offered to help us find the bus we needed to take. He asked us where we were from and quickly surmised that we were Mormons when Jeff and I answered Utah. He said he liked Mormons and told us he was pleased to meet more Christians. He found out what bus we needed to get on and then took a step further by telling the driver to tell us when to get off before finally saying goodbye. This act of service was a tender mercy of the Lord for our little group. His service made him a pioneer though he was Lutheran, for he changed my way of thinking about other Christians and religions. All my life I had been exposed to members of the church offering service, and hadn’t really thought that other people are doing the same thing we are in trying to follow Christ.
An example of a pioneer through service from church history is Amanda Inez Knight. I had never heard her name before I took the second half of Church history at school. Sister Knight was one of the first single sister missionaries. She was set apart on April 1, 1898. Her companion was Lucy Jane Brimhall, called Jennie. Both Amanda and Jennie attended Brigham Young Academy and had been planning to travel to Europe after graduation. Jennie was twenty-three and Amanda twenty-two. They were called to serve in Great Britain.
Amanda was afraid of speaking in public, but she was determined to become an instrument in the hands of God. Even after she was ridiculed by a woman while tracting, she kept going. The sisters met a lot of persecution, along with the elders in Bristol, but were determined to keep serving as ambassadors of Christ. Amanda is one of my favorite figures because she occasionally was the only woman at meetings. She felt very conspicuous amongst all the elders. I can relate to that. Of course, I got used to being the only girl, but I must admit I’m looking forward to having a companion on my mission. As she was called at a time before there were set mission lengths, Amanda ended up serving twenty-five months as a missionary before returning home in 1900. We will probably never know the impact she had on those living in England and Scotland she was able to teach, but I’m positive her service to the Lord and to her fellow man qualifies her as a pioneer. I know that I’m happy to be following in Amanda and Jennie’s footsteps.
The example of other people is what helps shape and define our personalities. When we see people doing something we like, we emulate them. This is another area in which I feel most modern pioneers excel in. Unfortunately, being an example isn’t quantifiable. I can never really know how I influence you, just like you don’t know how you’ve influenced me.
For my first example of an example, I’m going to be talking about Lany, who will be my example of how examples influence people. She’s a devout Buddhist who has been working with Jacob in placing teachers in China for the past few years. Many of the teachers that she has helped place are members of the church. Consequently, she’s remarkably curious about the LDS church. She’s heard snippets about the early persecution of the church, and can’t understand why anyone, Christian or atheist, would be so upset over some different beliefs. Jeff and I got into a discussion that bordered on religious with Lany one day as she delivered our stipend from the government. Lany is trying to understand why so many religions seem to be at each others’ throats as well. As we talked, she said that she tries to accept any religion, for she sees truth in all of them, and that the purpose of religion is to bring peace and not war. I was amazed by how many of the same beliefs she has that we have, actually. I wish I could’ve told her more about the church, but I didn’t want to break the law.
Lany shared a beautiful metaphor from Buddhism that I would like to share with you. She told us that Buddhists strive to be like the lotus flower. Lotuses grow in mud and dirt and rise above the filth to blossom in purity as a beacon of hope, truth, and beauty. This metaphor reminds me strongly of the injunction to be in the world but not of the world that we have heard from the prophets. I encourage you to be a lotus flower.
My next example of an example is Kim Ho Jik. There are plenty of examples in the church, but I decided on Kim Ho Jik because he was from South Korea. He studied at Cornell University, where he heard about the gospel from some colleagues. He was baptized in 1951 in the Susquehanna River. He wasn’t the first Korean convert to the church, but he was very influential. After he received his degree, he went back home to Korea and was made the vice president of education. From this position, he was able to influence the president to allow the church to proselyte in South Korea. He didn’t live to see the fruit of his labor, for he died in 1959, but in 1965 the first ward was organized and in 1973, the first stake in Korea was organized. On the fourteenth and fifteenth of December in 1985, the Seoul South Korea temple was dedicated. Today there are four missions in Korea. I’ll be serving in the Daejeon mission, which is the southern part of South Korea. Kim Ho Jik’s example of faithful service has paved the way for the Korean saints to have a temple in their midst. I don’t know if he would have ever thought that would happen.
Everyone in this room today is a pioneer. If you’re a convert to the church, you’re blazing a trail for future generations to follow. However, some of you have ancestors that joined the church shortly after it was organized. Perhaps some of you are related to Brigham Young, who was indirectly converted after the first official missionary, Samuel Smith, started proclaiming the gospel to the world. It’s hard to feel like a pioneer if you’ve got four or five generations who’ve been strong in the church. But you are. You are the first person in your family to be living in the year 2009 serving in your position in the Church. Whatever it is, you’re influencing people in ways you can’t comprehend as you strive to be obedient, serve in the church, and live while following the example of Christ. My primary teachers, young women advisors, and Sunday School teachers played a major role in cementing the idea of serving a mission in my mind.
It isn’t easy to be a pioneer. The modern conveniences of today make it easier to live from day to day, of course, but it’s still hard to be true to the faith. Satan is still trying to make us break our covenants we’ve made with God. Some days he does better than others as we make mistakes. It’s important to remember that the Lord is with us just as He was with the saints in the Willie and Martin handcart companies. We have been invited to cast our burdens upon the Lord.
There are countless other examples of faithful pioneers in the history of the church. I encourage you to learn about some of them. I also encourage you to write your own history down. I really regret not writing down more about my adventure in China. It didn’t seem like a very important thing to be doing while I was there, for I had my mind on a million other things (like finding peanut butter and yeast at the Bubugao), but I wish I had. I’ve got a lousy memory, and like rereading things I’ve written to refresh my memory. Write about the modern pioneers who have influenced you, and keep track of your own endeavor in our journey back to Heavenly Father as you strive to keep the covenants you’ve made with the Lord.
I’d like to close with my testimony.
I know that Jesus is the Christ, and that through Him and His atoning sacrifice, we are able to return to our Father's presence. I am humbled by my call to serve in Korea, but I know that the Lord will sustain me as I learn the language and serve for eighteen months. I know the Lord loves all of His children. I also know that the gospel is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in that grove of trees in 1820. I've been to that grove, and I've felt Their holy presence. I'm grateful for those who have taught and supported me through my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
