M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

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.”

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