It was pretty
magical how the Asian Area Conference was conducted on this special Sunday,
October 23, 2011. All the saints in Hong
Kong gathered in various stake buildings to hear the leaders of the Church
speak via satellite transmission. The
whole Wan Chai Church Building was divided into different sessions to
accommodate different languages, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and English. There were signs posted everywhere so
everyone knew where to go.
Bishop Burton of
the Presiding Bishopric conducted the
Conference. The first speaker was
Russell T. Osguthorpe of the Sunday School General President. The second speaker was Ann M. Dibb, the
second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency. Then Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles spoke to us. It was just
like listening to General Church Conference.
After Elder Scott, our Asian Area President, Elder Perkins spoke to us. It seemed as if he were in Salt Lake with the
others, and yet we just saw him in the building in Hong Kong. It was prerecorded making it a very smooth
transition from one speaker to the next.
How technology has helped advanced the preaching of the gospel. I wonder if King Mosiah from the Book of
Mormon time would be astonished to see what we are doing today.
After the
Conference, our own Victoria III Mandarin Branch had a baptism for 2 young
women, 胡騫予, 李夢夏
. The missionaries have been working
with them and it was so good to see them commit to the waters of baptism. The missionaries are doing a fantastic job
here. The meetings are always full of
investigators, who are referrals from members, or people from the mainland
China interested in hearing more about the gospel. It's a young branch as we see many young
people, many are college students.
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| Sister Hu, Sister Li, Bro. Chow, Elder Chung |
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| Sister Hu, Sister Li and the missionaries |
There were also
2 young missionaries who came from Hainan and Zhuhai to be ordained as
missionaries. They will be going to
Provo for the Missionary Training for 9 weeks before going to Sidney, Australia
for their mission. Elder Hu's dad came
with him which was very special as we are seeing member families from China
now. The scripture from Doctrine and
Covenants 65:2 came to mind.
"The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man
on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the
earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll
forth, until it has filled the whole earth."
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| Elder Hu, Sister Wong, Brother Hu, S/E Davis |
The week at the
temple was very interesting as we welcomed 15 members from Thailand. As you may have heard from the news, Thailand
was flooded by the run off from tropical depressions (former typhoons) in the
northern mountains which have culminated in one of the worst flooding in
Thailand history. 75% of the country's
provinces have been impacted with more than 2 million displaced from their
homes. As of today, (Oct. 24), Thai
floods threaten larger areas of Bangkok as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
 |
| "The government has switched to a crisis mode as a massive run-off will
arrive in the capital on October 26, coinciding with a high tide on
October 28," the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC) said in a
statement. |
We are
expecting 50 members from Thailand in the coming week, but we are not sure if
they will come now because of the floods.
Our prayers go to the people of Thailand. We know the Church is right there along with
the other charitable organizations to render help.
Saturday, Oct.
22 was also a happy day for Sister Chung from Victoria III Branch who came to
the temple for the first time. It was a
joyous occasion as many members came to support her and help her celebrate.
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| Sister 莊 Chung and some members of Victoria III BranchAdd caption |
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