I saw evidence of this again this week. As I was in the Hong along temple I spoke to one of workers there. Another Asian man had just passed the other way on his way out as I was coming in the dressing room. The brother told me that was the branch president in Guangzhou. I had just come from Zhongshan which is the same area by an hour or two. (And that is traffic, the distance is fairly close). He told me of how the branch was doing and I thought of the branch I had been attending in Shanghai. Then he said a few things that made me flinch. I suddenly realized I likely was wrong. I then asked him if this was the PRC branch. The people's republic of China or actual Chinese citizens. Indeed it was. They had 52 baptisms recently and now had over a hundred people meeting for church. The party officer had just visited and told them they had too many meeting and had to break up the group. We are so blessed to live in a country where we can assemble as we wish. But in following the law they are now setting up two branches. The work is going forth independently when we are still not officially allowed to do any work outside of local citizens talking to their friends. The expat branch I go to takes great lengths as do all expat branches in China to NOT proselyte as we have been directed. But it goes forth without anyone's help but His.
My trip back home from leaving the factory in Zhongshan to getting home was around 38 hours. Augh. But the early part was great because instead of waiting at the airport for 10 hours I went into Hong Kong and went to a session at the temple. It was really great. A unique building and a one time experience. The session was in Cantonese as I listened on headphones in English. I had to wait a while as I missed the earlier session by about 30 mins but I just sat outside in their courtyard and had time to ponder and relax. I was so pleased to be able to finally see it and attend.
I watched an interesting documentary on the way over to China. Called Mayan Blue it was all about a sunken city they found in a lake below some volcanic mountains. They found walls and courtyards and believe it to be a worship center of the area. It was fairly interesting until it went amazing to me as they said through their research, discovery, and interviews about ancient records that this was buried about 2000 years ago. Snap, wouldn't you just know that we have a record in the Book of Mormon that tells all about such cities that were buried at the time of Christ's death. It is neat to see discoveries that reinforce what I already know.
My trip was well spent I. What I learned and accomplished, getting really good meetings that allowed us to get common understanding in a few hours that would have taken months if we were not face to face. And then I was able to get some better learning as I toured a high performing electronics factory and see in action many of the things I have been learning in my class. This was in strong contrast to earlier in the week when a different factory manager wanted a bunch of cash to buy equipment that he thought would solve his problems but in this high performing one, they actually avoided spending cash by being smarter in what they do. They got over 20% more done with the same people and equipment. It's amazing what people can do.
Take the time to study something you have before believed and strengthen what you already knew.
Love you forever,
Dad
3 John 1:4
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