WE REALLY ARE AN INTERNATIONAL MISSION

Our missionaries have the opportunity to teach people from all over the world. In the office, we have the Book of Mormon in 111 language and have had requests for many others. So far about 150 different languages and countries have been identified. (Many I have never heard of )

We have a small Chinese group that is growing. The missionaries work very hard to find. Here's is a great example.

I love teaching the Chinese people. I don't think I could ever describe the joy I feel when I find them, and when they want to learn about the gospel. However, it is often difficult to find where they live. One recent evening it was getting late. Elder Chow had just finished checking up on a referral that wasn't interested in our message. So, we pulled out our list of Chinese names and their respective addresses we had found by researching at the library. It was a long list. We only had time to really spend at one of them before we headed back to the apartment. I felt impressed to select the first street I recognized from the time I had served in Centreville. We knocked the neighboring doors. Not a soul was interested. We finally knocked on the house where supposedly a Chinese person lived. Sure enough, someone Chinese opened the door. He was a man in his mid 20's. He welcomed us in before we even said a word.

James had just graduated from college. He found the work place rather dull. He was questioning what seemed to him a boring and uninteresting existence. Such thoughts lead him to question the existence of God. He said that the moment he saw us at the door, he was reminded of a visit he had made 6 years ago to the Mormon Temple, and the good feelings he felt in the Visitors Center. He also told us about the only Mormon person he had ever known in his whole life, a fellow college student he didn’t know very well, but was impressed by his actions. When we explained our religion to James, he smiled and nodded. He finally explained, "Oh, that's why he was like that," referring to the Mormon college student he had been so impressed with.

Now, James and his mother meet with us regularly to take hear the lessons. To teach them is a difficult task because of their Chinese background--they are certainly VERY Chinese. But they have both agreed that if they can come to know that the things we teach them are true, if they can feel God in their lives, they will be baptized. We never know who is closely watching our actions at school or at work!