For Our Family - Reflections 
Julian M. F. Kau – December 2008

3 Nephi 3:19-21

19 - Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;

20 – But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

21 – For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Introduction

Many years ago when my eyes were in need of help with glasses, I made a profound discovery when I acquired my first prescription. As I was finishing college I was aware that I sometimes had difficulty seeing in the distance clearly and often squinted. There was no problem reading or doing close in work so I didn't give any thought that I might need some corrective lenses. It was during an annual physical examination at the U. S. Naval Academy that I learned that my distant vision had deteriorated to 20/200 with the norm being 20/20. Sometimes, if you don't know you need glasses, you compensate or make excuses about not being able to see distant things clearly. Fortunately, I was still in school and didn't own an automobile and didn't have to drive at all. At 20/200, one can still do many things although I wondered why my hand to eye coordination was suffering a bit when playing sports.

I remembering running around the doctor's office when I put on my new prescription for the first time saying, "I can see, I can see, I can see." I didn't know what I was missing in the detail. Colors were more vivid – black was blacker than black, red was redder than red, etc. Edges were sharper. Texture was clearer. Hues were apparent rather than being subdued. I could even see the faces of people through the window rowing and sailing on the Severn River outside Annapolis, Maryland. In summary, is was a profoundly different world that I could now see and I was not aware of what was missing in my perception of things until the contrast was experienced when I first put on my new glasses.

Like visual acuity we are learning, on our mission, that there can be just as profound a clarification in spiritual acuity as one serves the Lord with all his mind, might, will, and strength. Some examples follow.

Closer Together

Mom and I have always been close. We are blessed with children (and their respective spouses) and grand children who are faithful in the gospel and we love them very much. We remember the wonderful times we have spent together in the past and we miss all of you very much, including our precious four footed celestial babies, Tahi and Hina.

After almost 50 years of being together, I believe Mom and I were as close as we have ever been temporally and spiritually when we entered the MTC in Provo on April 14, 2008. We exercised our faith together and we were ready to serve the Lord to the best of our abilities. It is almost 8 months since we left Provo and are finding that Hong Kong is a most wonderful part of the Lord's vineyard. There are hugh spiritual challenges amongst the Chinese but they are a very kind and family oriented people. Our oriental heritage stands us in good stead as people tend to warm up to us quickly when we let them know, in our broken Cantonese, that our fathers were Chinese. Their general response is that they thought so because of our looks but wondered why we didn't speak Cantonese like other Chinese looking people. In our cramped apartment, in our morning and evening prayers, in our daily scripture study, in our commute to work on the bus or train, in our work at the mission office, and in our conversations with each other, we have drawn even close together – I didn't think is possible a few months ago. We are one in the Lord's kingdom, we are one in purpose, we are one as eternal companions in our love for the Lord, for his gospel, and for his missionaries who serve around the world, and especially here in Hong Kong. We so enjoy being closely associated with our missionaries and among the Chinese, the Filipina, and the Indonesian people who live here. We love them as our brothers and sisters and pray earnestly for help to help them have the knowledge and testimony that we have concerning the Plan of Salvation, our Heavenly Father, and His son Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Savior of the world, Joseph Smith and his work of the Restoration, and for a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, on the earth today. I guess the profound feelings center on the reality that we are not only preaching the gospel, we are living it. As a result, and I didn't think this was possible, we are much closer together spiritually and temporally than ever before and we love it and feel blessed beyond measure.

Profound Gratitude

As we have the opportunity to study more closely the scriptures, we marvel at how a young boy of 14 was called to bring forth the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in all of its fullness and majesty. The Plan of Salvation, in particular, is not mentioned in the Bible nor is the understanding of its significance fully understood in many religions of the world nor do they understand that the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes the plan operable for all of the Lord's children. We are so thankful to the Lord for, through the prophet Joseph Smith, bringing forth the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants in these latter-days. We now have explicit knowledge of the plan and all of it's facets that leads us to making covenants with Heavenly Father by participating in the ordinances of exaltation, with the exception of baptism, in the holy temple.

With the knowledge and understanding which we have been given, we feel the urgency in serving as full-time missionaries to help bring the Lord's children home. We are profoundly grateful for the insights we have gained and marvel at the infinite but simple detail which Heavenly Father included in His Plan of Happiness when it was formulated eons ago, even before the Council in Heaven. Our discussions generally center on four major areas – 1) we have a loving father in heaven, whose son, Jesus Christ established His church here on earth during his earthly ministry and who wants his children to complete this life and understand what the Atonement means for each of us as preached and taught by prophets – 2) that there is plan, a detailed plan, for all of this to take effect even the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness – 3) that after the Savior was crucified the earth fell into apostasy and God withdrew his authority for man to minister in His name on earth which made is necessary for a "restoration" in fullness of all things pertaining to the gospel to take place – and 4) that obedience to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ provides a way for us to be exalted. We are so grateful that our gospel acuity is so clear and that we have been specifically commissioned through our missionary call to proclaim this knowledge to all with whom we meet.

Profound gratitude to Heavenly Father for what we know and are learning lead to humility, joy, satisfaction, peace of mind, love, charity, and diligence but with a sense of urgency to get the work of the Lord done without hesitation. We are blessed in not only doing missionary work but to be also engaged in temple work regularly day by day, week by week, and month by month. We are grateful that our living routine and accommodations are comfortable enough (not like home by any means) to permit us to stay focused with an eye single to the glory of God.

Service to Others

The sacrifices and service to others provided by other missionaries both young and senior inspires us to do more. Missionaries of the China Hong Kong Mission love what they are doing and it shows in their countenances. They work long hours but with a cheerful smile and with a warmth to all peoples here regardless of their cultures. Companions are helpful to each other and create a synergy within a companionship in helping others – missionaries, members, and non-members. They are bold in their finding efforts because they are obedient and live the gospel and want the same blessing of Abraham to be extended to all with whom they meet. Hong Kong is a beautiful city in which to live but there are special challenges because the local populace are work oriented and often spend long hours at their daily endeavors. The missionary day in the China Hong Kong Mission ends an hour later than other missions with lights out being 11:00 p.m. Wake up time in the morning is 7:00 a.m. but many arise a little earlier for companion study, athletics, calendaring and planning, etc. Many assimilate into the culture quite easily yet for some the strangeness of the food and cooking smells are challenges generally overcome but not always.

Humility

We are blessed for what we have – here and at home. Many cultures seen at the temple attend the temple in spite of unimaginable challenges. It is humbling to see an elderly couple come to the temple to do work for their family and to be sealed after having traveled non-stop for four days and three nights on a train with only a top bunk upon which to sit and pass the time. Because of limited resources they have to carry all of their food which might only be rice and some salted meat. Recently, when saints from Thailand came to Hong Kong to spend a week attending to their temple work they faced the challenge of having to stay an unplanned extra week because the airports in Thailand were taken over by demonstrators just after they left home to come to Hong Kong. The temple staff and local Thais members had to step up and provide food and lodging. There are many other examples of what people must overcome to come to the temple to do their ordinances of exaltation – quite a bit different from our short drive from Mapleton, Utah to the Provo Temple.

Doctrinal Insights

We have gained much in the way of understanding more fully the doctrines of the Church. Focused study of the scriptures, conference talks, doing the Lord's work for 24 hours a day for 7 days a week, and working in the temple have helped us to better understand such statements as applying the Atonement to all that we do daily, having a contrite heart, feeling the promptings of the Holy Ghost, drawing closer to God, applying the Book of Mormon to our daily lives, enjoying the hymns of the restoration, pondering the scriptures, developing Christ-like attributes, serving others with a glad heart, keeping an eye single to the glory of God, praying with devotion and thanksgiving to God, etc. The list goes on but I believe the foregoing provides a flavor of what we are experiencing.

Increase in Faith

Clearly the cumulative result of all that I have mentioned above is that we are drawing closer to the Lord. Our love for Him and His gospel and our faith in Him have increased by an order of magnitude beyond comprehension. We know that He lives. We know that Jesus is the Christ. We believe in the Plan of Salvation. We know that there is a living prophet called by God here on the earth today, even President Thomas S. Monson. We know that the Twelve are also prophets, seers, and revelators. We love Joseph Smith and know that he was called by God to restore His true church to the earth in this the latter-days and the dispensation of the fullness of times. We are so thankful that God's true church has been restored to the earth today. We support our local leaders who have been called of God – our mission president, our branch president, our temple president, and our district president. We see so many wonderful and divine events which are manifest in the work that is being accomplished here in Hong Kong and in the greater Asia Area. We feel privileged to be a part of this great work and are personally blessed beyond measure and find it difficult to explain in words our thoughts because the feelings are so personal, profound and sacred.

Closing

Hopefully, I have been able to convey in some small way that, like my visual acuity so many years ago, my spiritual acuity has been improved significantly in that my gratitude to God and my faith in God has increased. I can see. I can feel. I can testify. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.