Proselyting? What's That?

We had a wonderful, miraculous week. We were not called as proselyting missionaries. In fact our mission is very unique in public affairs, working with "opinion leaders." We've often been told that if we baptize an "opinion leader" we've really defeated the purpose of public affairs because we then lose that person as an "opinion leader." Of course, we all recognize that it is better to have someone join the Church than it is to have them as an opinion leader, but the fact remains that proselyting and public affairs do not share the same goal, at least not in the near term.  It is entirely possible to have a very successful public affairs mission without ever speaking one-on-one with a potential investigator, but we have felt the need to do more. We have been praying for more opportunities to share.

So, with that background we had an interesting experience this week. We hopped aboard our hotel shuttle bus for the 15 minute ride to our hotel from the ferry. On the bus was a woman and her little 2-yr-old boy, "Jerry." We sat just behind them and Laraine started to tease the little boy a bit. The woman turned around and spoke to us in very broken English. She was from mainland China and hadn't been here very long. I tried Cantonese with her but she could not speak Cantonese. So we spoke a combination of Mandarin (mine was very limited), Cantonese and a little English. She told us she reads the Bible. We showed her a pass-along card with Chinese characters telling about the Church, with a picture of our building in Wan Chai. She then said, "I look for Church!" She had been looking for a church, apparently, and gave us a card with her phone number.

We looked at each other and realized we needed to get her in touch with Mandarin speaking proselyting missionaries, but how to do that? The shuttle makes one stop at the MTR (subway) station on its way to the hotel. As we were discussing what to do, we realized we needed to speak to Elder and Sister Pack who work in the mission office (as opposed to us who work in the Asia Area office). So we had just decided to do that when the bus made its stop. Hopping on the bus was none other than Elder and Sister Pack, who sat down next to "Kimmie," our investigator! We just reached up and tapped Elder Pack on the shoulder and said, "Elder Pack, this is Kimmie. She is interested in the Church." He gave her some information about an English class, and promised someone would call her that evening.

We got to our apartment and received a call from some sister missionaries who speak Mandarin. They had contacted Kimmie and she had accepted an invitation to attend church on Sunday. Since Kimmie is a neighbor of ours, we hope to be part of her learning experience in the gospel.

Other highlights this week:

• 40 youth from mainland China attending the temple (Mandarin speakers). They all showed up as a surprise, bright and early on the holiday (SAR day), July 1, to do baptisms for the dead. Incredible to see them all there. 
• Doing sealings in the temple in English and Cantonese. 
• Sharing a July 4th dinner (on July 3rd) with a bunch of other couple missionaries--watching "fireworks" projected on a screen from Elder Crockett's computer. Leading the singing of many patriotic songs. 
• Having dinner with Elder and Sister Whitman in their apartment. What fun people! 
• Dragon boat festival on Saturday (see below).