Moments #510-511. Chinese to members. Wed, Jan 18, 2006.

01/18/2006. A long time member, who is ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, married a lady from China, and her young-adult daughter was baptized. The daughter lives here in Indianapolis, and her parents live in Illinois. The step-father performed the baptism tonight here in Indianapolis.

A member from Columbus Indiana, an anglo guy, who served a mission in Taiwan, helped the sister missionaries teach the lessons. He was there, and offered the closing prayer in Chinese. After the service I gave him three copies of the Book of Mormon in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and English. I told him a little about giving them out at restaurants.

He said that the young lady didn't have one in Simplified Chinese. I thought she had, because the sister missionaries had indicated so. But he spoke with her, and confirmed she didn't have the right kind. She's from mainland (communist) China, and the book she had was Traditional Chinese, the kind used by Chinese outside of China (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, etc.)

So as we were all standing in the hallway after the service, I handed her one of the Simplified Chinese books.

There is another local member, from the neighboring Avon ward, who was in the Army and was stationed many years in Taiwan, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He's an anglo guy, and knows this Chinese family from Malaysia. I thought he might be a more convenient resource than the brother from Columbus IN. The young lady didn't know him, but her step-dad did. I gave her the phone numbers of this brother in Avon. Her step dad said it's been years since he talked to him, so I called the brother in Avon on my cell phone, and handed it to the Chinese brother from Illinois. I couldn't understand what he said, as they spoke in Mandarin, but I could tell it was a happy reunion. When he was done, I gave him the brother's phone numbers too.