Day of Miracles & A Never-ending Responsibility

Last Saturday I sat down at my computer and started calling people from my mission that I want to see while here in Hong Kong (thank you Skype). I’d tried to reach some before but didn’t have much success and didn’t have the highest hopes for some of the others. I was calling people I hadn’t talked to in five or six years who now have no contact with the Church, all the while speaking broken Cantonese. In the space of an hour I was able to get a hold of four people and even get one of them to meet with me that afternoon.
The one who I scheduled to meet is named SoYing Ying (Yanny) and I had the honor of baptizing her as the District Leader after the Sisters taught her. I called at 10:40am on a Saturday but still managed to wake her up (woops). She was totally sleepy when she picked up the phone and I’m sitting there trying to explain who I am. “Hello, this is Brother Lai, I was a missionary in Shau Kei Wan six years ago, I’m from America, I helped baptize you.” It all just sounds so weird. What would you do if somebody called saying such things and you hadn’t seen the real person in years?
Much to my surprise she said she was free that afternoon and we could meet to grab some food. We met up at the subway station and walked to a local restaurant. Our conversation was very relaxed and we caught up easily. She spent a year in England so that helped things whenever my Cantonese came up short. She’s working in Central now for a fashion design house, has a good job, boyfriend, her family is doing well, etc. She said she quit going to Church about a year after her baptism and hasn’t been back since. It wasn’t a surprise but it was disappointing. I invited her over for a get together I’m going to throw with all my Chinese friends and she said she’d come so that was nice. We exchanged contact information, walked over to the old Church building and took pictures.
It was great to see her again. She was one of the people I hadn’t communicated with at all since my mission and wasn’t too hopeful of tracking down. Thankfully her cell phone number hadn’t changed since she was baptized and she was amazingly willing to meet some foreign stranger. I’ll be sure to keep in contact with her from now on and encourage her in the gospel.
The other people I talked with are Sum Ka Kit, Ho Jing’s mother, and Chan Bo Sing. I have talked to Sum a few times since finishing my mission and seen him once (in 2004) so I had hope for tracking him down. He’s way busy now with work and other things in life and has slipped into inactivity but still had his happy voice and kind words. We just have to find some time in his busy schedule to meet. Ho Jing was an eight year old boy in a member family who the parents asked us to teach the discussions to and then baptize because the father was inactive. We hadn’t talked in over six years but they were nice and I should be seeing Ho Jing and his mom at Church this coming Sunday. Chan Bo Sing was another miraculous connection. I haven’t talked with him since 2004 and could have sworn his phone number had changed. I tried calling him last year while in town and the number didn’t work but this year I got a hold of him. He’s a cop now up in the New Territories so I’m going to have to make a long trip to see him but will gladly do it if he’ll give me the time.
President Hinckley shared a story from his life in the 1997 April Priesthood Session to help illustrate his teachings on retention. I love it and would commend it to any returned missionary or person leaving on a mission. It reads:
“To illustrate, I think I would like to share with you one of my failures. I suppose some people think I have never experienced failure. I have. Let me tell you of one such instance.
Sixty-three years ago, while serving as a missionary in the British Isles, my companion and I taught, and it was my pleasure to baptize, a young man. He was well educated. He was refined. He was studious. I was so proud of this gifted young man who had come into the Church. I felt he had all of the qualifications someday to become a leader among our people.
He was in the course of making the big adjustment from convert to member. For a short period before I was released, mine was the opportunity to be his friend. Then I was released to return home. He was given a small responsibility in the branch in London. He knew nothing of what was expected of him. He made a mistake. The head of the organization where he served was a man I can best describe as being short on love and strong on criticism. In a rather unmerciful way, he went after my friend who had made the simple mistake.
The young man left our rented hall that night smarting and hurt by his superior officer. He said to himself, "If that is the kind of people they are, then I am not going back."
He drifted into inactivity. The years passed. The war came on, and he served in the British forces. His first wife died. After the war he married a woman whose father was a Protestant minister. That did not help his belief.
When I was in England, I tried desperately to find him. His file contained no record of a current address. I came home and finally, after a long search, was able to track him down.
I wrote to him. He responded but with no mention of the gospel.
When next I was in London, I again searched for him. The day I was to leave, I found him. I called him, and we met in the underground station. He threw his arms around me as I did around him. I had very little time before I had to catch my plane, but we talked briefly and with what I think was a true regard for one another. He gave me another embrace before I left. I determined that I would never lose track of him again. Through the years I wrote to him, letters that I hoped would give encouragement and incentive to return to the Church. He wrote in reply without mentioning the Church.
The years passed. I grew older as did he. He retired from his work and moved to Switzerland. On one occasion when I was in Switzerland, I went out of my way to find the village where he lived. We spent the better part of a day together--he, his wife, my wife, and myself. We had a wonderful time, but it was evident that the fire of faith had long since died. I tried every way I knew, but I could not find a way to rekindle it. I continued my correspondence. I sent him books, magazines, recordings of the Tabernacle Choir, and other things for which he expressed appreciation.
He died a few months ago. His wife wrote me to inform me of this. She said, "You were the best friend he ever had."
Tears coursed my cheeks when I read that letter. I knew I had failed. Perhaps if I had been there to pick him up when he was first knocked down, he might have made a different thing of his life. I think I could have helped him then. I think I could have dressed the wound from which he suffered. I have only one comfort: I tried. I have only one sorrow: I failed.
The challenge now is greater than it has ever been because the number of converts is greater than we have ever before known. A program for retaining and strengthening the convert will soon go out to all the Church. I plead with you, brethren; I ask of you, each of you, to become a part of this great effort. Every convert is precious. Every convert is a son or daughter of God. Every convert is a great and serious responsibility.”

Interspersed are pictures of people I helped teach or baptize. Lately one of the Brethren spoke about how your responsibility to those you teach and baptize as a missionary doesn’t end when you leave your mission but extends throughout your life. I haven’t done the best job of this in the past but am trying now and will keep trying. Pictures going down the left side: 1) David Athukorala's baptism 2) David baptizing his wife Shewanthie a couple months later 3) Elder Krueger, myself, Janson (who we taught and baptized), and Janson's friend 4) So Ying Ying's baptism 5) Chan Bo Sing and I 6) Sum Ga Git, Elder David and myself On the right side: 1) Athukorala family 2) Elder Newman, Marcellos, and myself. Their son was already a member and they would join later. 3) So Ying Ying and I from last Saturday 4) Jasmine Lee's baptism 5) Jasmine and I at at Farewell Fireside.