Recently I traveled to Hong Kong and into China for my work. I went there to visit a factory that is making some fancy woodwork for my construction project. We spent a day in Hong Kong and then went to the factory which is about 40 miles north into the People’s republic of China. After working there all day and spending the night at the factory, I wanted to get back to Hong Kong to attend the Temple there. It seemed a unique opportunity.
I had to insist on leaving earlier than my hosts were used to getting going in the morning. I wanted to arrive at the temple for the 9 am session. They drove my companion to the airport and then myself to the train station. Along the way were pickups of other people and stops to get gas that seemed to last forever. I began to grow uneasy about making the session at the temple. Delays continued when I got to the train station at the border crossing. I walked across an enormous pedestrian bridge over the river that marked the boundary between Hong Kong and the PRC. Then it was time to go through an immigration checkpoint. There were already 100 people in line and only 2 people checking passports. At that point I realized it would be impossible to make the 9am session at the temple.
I reset my objective to attend the 11 am session instead. I successfully rode the train from the border back to the Kowloon area of Hong Kong. I donned my tie on the street and walked from the train station to the temple. It was extremely hot & humid so I was looking forward to simply sitting in an air conditioned waiting room while I waited for 11 am. At this point I was quite early for that session.
As I walked into the front courtyard, I saw the white suited figures inside notice my arrival through the windows. As I passed through the doors, the temple president (Pres. Wong from Brisbane) immediately asked me: ” can you help us with baptisms?” When I said yes, it would be a great way to wait for the 11 am session, they flew into action. I had to remind them to check my recommend they were so relieved to have me help. They grabbed my luggage and threw it in a closet and hustled me down to the baptistry.
The situation they had there that morning was that a young lady named Sister Han had traveled by train from Hangzhou in China by train, which is a distance of 1400km. She had only a limited time available to be at the temple before she had to board a train to get back home. The problem was that she showed up right as the temple workers were conducting a special session in Mongolian for a whole bustle of Mongolian saints. So they did not have enough priesthood brothers to do the session, plus baptize, record and witness. So they pressed me into service.
I did my best at pronouncing the Chinese names on the cards, which thankfully had English versions on them. After doing several baptisms, I dressed and waited a few minutes for the 11 am session to begin, sitting beside a young man from Beijing. This experience was eye opening in that I did not realize that we have thousands of members in the PRC.
But what I took away from this experience was a witness that The Lord loves us and knows us individually. And of His omniscience, as manifested in my arrival within literally minutes of when it would have been too late for sister Han to do baptisms. My trip had been scheduled weeks in advance and I came from the other side of the world. The Lord foresaw the need to honor the sacrifice of sister Han in going to the temple and acted by influencing someone to travel halfway around the world at exactly the right date & time to meet the need. He delayed me just enough that morning to ensure I did not go into the 9 am session and put myself out of reach. I marvel at the Lord’s ability to foresee and gently influence events and people to achieve his ends. I felt blessed to see his individual concern for that sister, and blessed to have been an instrument in serving. I know our Savior knows and loves us individually.
By: Mark Robins
