Church Growth in China

So, one of the last things I thought about before moving here was the concept of church growth here through baptisms – however, by end of day tomorrow we will have had 3 convert baptisms in 5 weeks.

The first was an 18 year old young man (Ashouko) whose mother is Romanian (a former ballerina who now teaches ballet in Shanghai) and whose father is Chinese. Since he was born in Romania, he is not a Chinese passport holder, thus eligible to be taught the gospel. Turns out his family was a recipient of a “lottery” green card issued by the US. They were the lucky winners out of tens of thousands of submissions. Since he would be going to the US and is almost college age, Ashouko was thinking about which US college he should attend. While in a park one day he ran into an American - Neil Haddock, one of our members. He asked Neil what American colleges were good schools to attend. Neil mentioned several, including BYU. Ashouko got online to check it out and ended up following links to the Church’s website where he independently started learning about the gospel. Unfortunately, he did not know how to find the church here in Shanghai. One day he was at his mother’s dance studio and overheard one of her student’s mothers (Karen McGee, also a member of our branch) talking about BYU and quickly asked her how he could learn more about the Church. He was at church the following Sunday, and ended up taking the discussions within a 2 week period. I was blessed to be able to participate in several the discussions with him. Truly golden, he would come to every meeting having studied WAAAY more than expected, and having significant and insightful questions, along with his own (accurate) answers to his own questions.

Almost immediately after Ashouko’s baptism, Athena Messick of our branch, who is Chinese, was walking in her neighborhood and saw another Chinese woman walking and felt inspired to tell her about the church. Because we cannot share the gospel with Chinese passport holders, she naturally hesitated. After striking up a conversation she learned the woman was actually a Russian citizen, and shortly invited her to church. The sisters of the branch enveloped her, and she too plowed through the missionary discussion in a week or two. She testified with conviction of the truthfulness of the gospel. Two weeks ago she was baptized by Ashouko, who had just received the Aaronic Priesthood, in Chinese – their mutual native language. Almost the entire baptismal meeting was in Chinese, with many members translating into English for others – it felt just like we were in the Mission field . . . (oh, we ARE – grin).

During this same period of time, one Sunday a visitor sat behind me. This is not unusual, we get members visiting from many countries almost every Sunday. As I introduced myself I learned that the visitor, Dmitriy Maksimenko from Ukraine, was not a member and was not visiting from another country. He lives here in China, sent by his Ukrainian company. He had seen the new Temple in the Ukraine and wanted to know more about it. He had gone to the Church’s website, found the meetinghouse locator and found his own way to Church. He attended all three hours, and had is first missionary lesson later that night. I was once again blessed to be able to sit in on several of his missionary discussions. Due to holidays, work travels, etc., his desire to be baptized earlier did not take place – but now, he will be baptized tomorrow afternoon – Easter Sunday – and views this as representative of his resurrection into a new way of life.

Still others are investigating the Church, and the blessings of these activities are also blessing the lives of members both active and less active. Our branch meetings are now full to capacity and many of us wonder “what’s next?” I think we all know what’s next, and it’s exciting….

I guess the single thread that goes through all of this is the idea to just open your mouth and be a friend.

Happy Easter to all.

Jay and Monique