Open Doors,
Open Hearts, Open Minds
by Brett Stringer
It was just
another ordinary door for Elder Bryan Smedley and his companion,
assigned to speak Mandarin Chinese in the Melbourne Australia Mission.
A respectful but firm “no thanks” to their Chinese door approach.
Training had taught the elders to persevere, so they asked if they
could return one day. The polite resident agreed, that at some point
they could, but she was hardly convincing in her sincerity.
Months later,
whilst again in the leafy street visiting another contact, the feeling
came that it was time to follow through on that polite lady’s previous
invitation to visit again, no matter how sincere. As Julia Zhu opened
the door, a chain of events that piqued her interest in the two
young men before her, and the message they had to share, prompted
her to welcome them into her home.
From this point
began the well-known and oft-travelled path to conversion. Upon
reflection though, it was the last thing that Sis. Zhu had in mind
when they stood before her. “I had many Chinese friends in Australia
that were Christian”, commented Julia, “and I was curious about
their belief in God. Whilst I did not believe, I wanted to know
more about why they believed.” The weeks and months of questioning
her friends that followed provided more questions than answers,
and closed more doors than they opened. Of particular interest to
Sis. Zhu was the treatment of infant death and those who had died
without knowledge of God. Her friend’s answers left her distressed.
“How could God be worthy of my love and respect when, according
to my friends, he treated these people so harshly with eternal punishment
in hell?”
So as the Elders
readied themselves to present their message, Sis. Zhu had a few
questions of her own. Their answers struck a chord. She was now
learning about a God truly of love and compassion. If she was going
to believe in God, this was more like the being she had anticipated.
From there the barriers went down, and the spirit-to-spirit teaching
began. Sis. Zhu felt and recognised the Holy Ghost, and liked what
she was being taught. It felt right.
Suddenly though,
she asked the missionaries to stop coming. The issue repentance.
Elder Smedley explains, “Sis. Zhu did not have any grievous things
to repent of, to the contrary, but the concept of needing repentance
or forgiveness was foreign to her in a cultural sense. This became
a major stumbling block. We had some very frank discussions about
the centrality of this gospel principle, and at this point, she
asked that we stop coming.” But a loving and omniscient Heavenly
Father had other plans, and continued working on this beloved daughter.
“In the time the missionaries were away”, recalls Sis. Zhu, “I was
continually thinking about them and their teachings. I could not
get it out of my head. As time passed, I knew that I needed to correct
things, and do what I now knew was right. That little break helped
me to know, 100%, that this was the right thing to do.”
And correct
things she did. Putting off her deeply held cultural beliefs, Sis.
Zhu contacted the missionaries to tell them not just to resume teaching
her, but that she wanted baptism. The rest, as they say, is history.
Sis. Zhu was baptised just in time to attend the dedication of the
Melbourne temple and feel of the marvellous spirit of the redemption
of the dead, one of her key concerns when originally talking to
the Elders. And in the twelve months that have transpired the other
plans that her Heavenly Father had in mind have partially been revealed.
Not only have the missionaries’ baptised 6 people introduced by
Sis. Zhu (including her 14 year old son Peter), she has been constantly
involved in the teaching, fellowshipping, and strengthening of a
large number of fellow Chinese converts, all of remarkable strength
and depth in the gospel, baptised since her own baptism. In her
own humble words, Sis. Zhu sums up her feelings, “I love God, and
he has blessed me so much to know as I do, about the plan of salvation,
and Christ’s marvellous atonement.”
Sis. Zhu is
not alone in her experiences though. In recent times, in many parts
of the world, Mandarin Chinese have been coming into the gospel.
Not as a trickle, but as a flood. For an ever-increasing group of
faithful mandarin-Chinese saints from the Melbourne Australia Mission,
there are a number of similarities in their conversion stories aside
from language. Notably, the great spiritual strength developed in
remarkably short periods, the common cultural issues that have been
overcome, and the power of the conversion process.
Possibly as
a result of their respective countries high value of education,
the Chinese convert (including those from Hong Kong additionally
to Taiwan and mainland China) is possessed by a rapacious desire
for knowledge, and equipped with the tools to maximise their efforts.
Take for example Sis. Angela Hsiang, and her 10-year-old son Daniel.
After spending years of study and effort to find a religion she
was comfortable with, Sis. Hsiang (pronounced Shyung) met the full-time
missionaries in her area. She was then introduced to the local mandarin
speaking elders, and the teaching commenced. Things moved quickly,
and Sis. Hsiang, a Taiwan native living in Australia, and her son,
accepted the commitment to baptism. In the weeks leading up to their
baptism, she completed the Book of Mormon, and began studying the
other standard works. Since her baptism she has committed the Gospel
Principles manual to memory, and has started Jesus The Christ. And
Daniel has astounded everyone in Primary with his depth of knowledge
of the scriptures gained by devouring the children’s scripture readers
(of interest, sis. Hsiang’s husband who lives and works in Taiwan,
and visits the family twice per year, recently returned, and at
the request of his wife and eldest son, commenced hearing the discussions.
He was baptised 6 days later!). Sis. Hsiang’s experience is not
an isolated one. As the eager new converts use their learning skills
to sate their thirst for living waters, roots of righteousness,
understanding, and spirituality are firmly and deeply sunk into
the gospel and church’s fertile soil. In fact, the Chinese new members
often feel more ready for challenging service opportunities than
their non-Chinese Church leaders feel confident in giving them.
The confidence, however, is always repaid.
Upon reflection
of his time in China in the 1920’s, when dedicating the land for
preaching the Gospel, Elder David O. McKay observed that it was
superstition that would be the greatest obstacle faced in preaching
the Gospel to the Chinese people. In praying when dedicating the
land that ‘the bands of superstition would be broken’, the Lord
started in train the process that would eventually ready the Chinese
for acceptance of the Gospel. As with any culture, the Chinese culture
has deeply seated obstacles etched into the personalities of those
approaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As with Sis. Zhu’s experience,
the concept that she could be wrong, and therefore require repentance,
and forgiveness did not sit well at first. However, this obstacle,
as with many others is over come in time both through the persistent
persuasion of missionaries, leaders, friends, etc; and with liberal
helpings of the Lord’s own gently (or not-so) persuasive influence.
With some of the cultural clashes being so head-on, it serves to
fully induct the new member into the Lord’s culture, and provide
the establishment of the individual on the path to righteousness.
Other mainland
Chinese investigators in this group have been concerned that knowledge
of their religious activities will impact negatively on their careers
with state employers in their newly adopted countries, and/or cause
problems for relatives still living in China. Yet despite such real
concerns, their faith is manifested in their actions as they enter
the waters of baptism and begin a life of covenant making, service
and sacrifice.
Of course, the
most important tool to establish individuals on the path to righteousness
is the conversion received. And it would seem that many of the Chinese
are of delicate spiritual sensitivities. From visions, to detailed
dreams, to audible instructions, many Chinese converts are receiving
powerful witnesses from their Father in Heaven to the divinity of
the Gospel. Maybe the power of this conversion helps to cast away
any culturally based doubts that may resurface from time to time.
For Sis. Zhu, and Angela Hsiang, their sacred, powerful experiences
made the decision clear, and the commitment firm. Whatever the reason,
one thing is for sure, after such a powerful conversion, the new
members definitely have ‘His image in (their) countenance’.
Is the worldwide
growth of mandarin-speaking Chinese converts a coincidence, or a
gathering? You can be the judge on that issue, but it surely seems
in many cities like Melbourne, Australia, as though the Lord’s hand
is firmly being manifest in preparing both a nation and its former
inhabitants for a work, the magnitude of which will astound us all.
This preparation is best done in mature gospel areas, where leadership
has risen above the negative local cultural issues, and grown into
men and women leading and living more closely to the standard established
by Christ. In these settings, new members learn important lessons
on Latter-day Saint deportment. For Chinese, this may mean learning
that it is a gospel principle of supporting and sustaining the government
of the day, a principle long viewed by the government in Beijing
as being a major obstacle for recognising any church in that country.
Or that repentance and forgiveness are not about saving-face, but
rather being at one with god.
As one bishop
of a large number of Chinese converts has put it, “We are providing
an effectual Missionary Training Centre for these wonderful people,
so that when the Lord needs them to go out and harvest the ripened
field of their brethren and sisters however that is made possible,
they will be ready to not only preach, but to firmly establish the
true church and Gospel culture.”
Editors'
Note: Submit your missionary stories to our Meridian Missionary
Journal editor, Peggy Proctor at missionaryjournal@meridianmagazine.com
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© 2001 Meridian
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