Church in Xiamen, China

I believe most of you are familiar enough with Church as it is run in countries where there are enough members for a branch, ward, and stake. And also where the Church is allowed to hold meetings. Let me tell you about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China where we have special permission from the government to meet, but nothing further.
Here are some of the rules by which we can meet. There are only a total of 11 members in our area who are foreign nationals allowed to congregate. There are other members in China, but they are Chinese Nationals and we are not allowed to have anything to do with them. Not even e-mails or lunch. Nothing that can be construed as meeting. It breaks my heart. Technically people are not allowed to meet for religious reasons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has special permission from the Chinese government for foreign nationals to meet. In each area where there are members in China there are two types of meeting arrangements.

The first is that there is a branch. Where there are enough members there is a branch president and they congregate in larger facilities. I'm not sure where they meet. The other is the group meeting that is tied together by a "virtual branch" based out of Beijing. This is how we meet. We get together with the other two families in our area. We have a designated group leader and we meet at their house. Then we call in by phone or by skype. This past week it was phone because the internet was having issues. When we are connected we can here the prelude music and what is going on with the larger group. This last week they were meeting from Dalian, as that was where the Branch President was conducting interviews for the youth for youth conference. This year Youth Conference is in Hong Kong. Jealous much?

So we call in and sing along with the opening hymn and hear the opening prayer. Then we have our only announcement, the same one we have every week. Please follow the rules by which we are allowed to meet. We have a very good relationship and positive status with the Chinese government. We are not allowed to actively or passively proselyte. If we are asked about why we do/don't do things that are religious in nature all we can say is that we do it for religious reasons and then state that we are trying to live by the laws that govern their country and we have been asked to not talk about it with the Chinese people. We can talk to them outside of mainland China and we can talk to other foreign nationals.

Then we have the sacrament hymn. Then they mute the main meeting for 7-8 minutes to allow each group to have the sacrament. Here they also address the women who are calling in who don't have priesthood authority with them. They are to use that time to ponder the sacrament and their covenants. When this was said it hit me hard and I was immediately very grateful for having a worthy priesthood holder in my life.

After the sacrament we have a regular sacrament meeting. This last week it was a family in Dalian. The mom, dad and the 14 year old son spoke and they gave some very good talks. Sacrament meeting was about 10 minutes short of what we have at home and for that last 10 minutes we do roll call. There are between 35-40 groups that call in each week. Our branch has a little over 200 members in it.

When roll call is over we have a five minute break and then we have a second meeting. One week it's Gospel Doctrine, the other week it's Priesthood/Relief Society. Sister Britton and I went in the other room and had Relief Society/Visiting Teaching. They are a few weeks behind where my ward was at home. After the second block we are done. That's it. 2 hours, comfy couches and an experience I never thought I'd have.

One thing that we talked about is how as members of the gospel we have an added advantage to being foreign nationals. We have the constant companion of the Holy Ghost to reaffirm what we are doing. We have that two way personal connection with our Heavenly Father to lead us, guide us and reconfirm to us that we are doing the right thing. To strengthen us when we waiver. Because I am still in the honeymoon phase I haven't had those hard days of wanting to cry and questioning what in the world we are doing over here. It will come and when it does we will be able to pray for comfort and guidance and feel peace. Only the kind of peace that comes from the comforter.

I am so grateful to be a member of God's church on the earth today. I know we are part of his great plan. Something greater than I ever imagined. God is in control and he has something amazing in mind. We just need to trust him and follow his plan for us.

Be grateful for your freedoms. Freedom of speech doesn't just mean freedom to say what you want, but also to have access to things that other people say. You cannot believe the things that are blocked over here. Wow. As I think of them I will let you know other freedoms that the people of China don't have.