Grandma Chan...My family history...

Two Sundays ago, one of our High Counselman gave a talk in church and read a page from his father-in-law's journal. It was about grandma Chan's conversion story. I missed out on this awesome talk since the new baby came but my mom and dad was able to go to church and told me about it. What a small world! I was able to get a copy of this story from our high counselman. It's an awesome story.
Hope you all enjoy this story.
Winnie (My cousin Winnie is in Tucson, AZ)

FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2009
DAVID CHAN'S MOTHERS TESTIMONY

Last night David Chan called me to wish me a happy new year. I had asked him before to send me a copy of his mothers conversion story, and last night I asked again. This is what he e-mailed me. ((I found out that my cousin Ada compiled this for a fireside in 2002. I am so glad because it will be a long time before we'll hear my grandma tell this experience again. Although, I just remembered that I do have audio tapes of her somewhere...))

My very first companion and I tracted David out in my very first area. Later, when I was transferred to my 2ND area I found a referral that I had sent for him. That is a story of it's own I'll tell another time.


Faye Chan Conversion/Pioneer Story

I was born in the early 1900 in the People Republic of China under the rule of Ching Dynesty. My father owned lands and we also had a business in making brick shingles. I was the oldest of 6 children: 3 girls and 3 boys. Ours was a traditional patriarchal home. We lived as a big family with all the aunts and uncles together. My uncle was the oldest in our home and because he did not feel that women should go to school, I was not allowed to attend school. He believed knowledge for a woman would bring her a hard life! I was brought up to believe in God: a God that hear my prayers and grant my wishes if I am obedience. In Buddhism, we had many Gods: a kitchen god, an earth god, a heavenly God. We even worshiped our ancestors and prayed to them for guidance. I was married when I was 16 in a prearranged marriage to my husband. A matchmaker from the village came to our home to propose marriage. My father agreed to the marriage because I was to be married into a more prosperous family who owned lots more lands. I married into a family that had over 70 people in it and I was in charge of the kitchen. I was only 17 and I prayed to God (the Kitchen God) to help me prepare food for over 70 each day. I learned patience during those early years of marriage. You see, even though I was in charge of the kitchen and the food, I was always the last one to eat.

My life changed in the mid 40’s. Revolution broke out in China and with Communist took over China; all the landowners were to be punished. I was imprisoned because my husband was away in Hong Kong for business and my mother-in-law was in her 70’s and was too old to be put in jail. I was beaten, whipped and hanged 2 stories high. The soldiers, many of who were my friends, also made me crawled and barked like a dog and paraded through town. My hands and knees bled, I wanted to die! After I was released from jail, my family and I were constantly mocked because we were “rich”. I walked by a river one day and wanted to jump into it so that I could end all the pain but I couldn’t because I had three children at home that needed me. I remembered praying fervently to heaven that I might have the strength to endure the pain and humiliation, and that the only wish I had at the time was to return the children to their father in Hong Kong safely.

My prayers were answered. Two years later, we were allowed to travel to Hong Kong and to be reunited with my husband. My husband had business ventures that seemed to always go sour. We were never “rich” and we continued to be humbled through trials and circumstances of life. However, in retrospect, we were always blessed. My oldest son graduated from High School and instead of going to Taiwan to college, he felt impressed he should come to America instead. We were able to save and borrow enough money to get him ticket to come here to the United States. He was able to support himself once he arrived here even though we were not able to help him financially.

Unknown to me, the greatest blessing came when my son, David, joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints when he was 18. David was a difficult child. He was always talking back, and never willing to do what he was told. He announced one day that he had met two missionaries and he was going to be baptized into this Church. Even though we were not Christian, I had continued to pray to the Gods in Heaven to help me raise my children. I thought to myself that may be joining a church would make him a better person. When my husband found out that David was baptizing into the Mormon Church, he was worried. You see, Mormon in Chinese has the same tone and sound of the word Devil! He did not want his son to join the devil’s church so he wrote to my oldest son in America, hoping that he would convince his younger brother to leave the church. In order to find out what his younger brother was getting into, my older son investigated the church here in America and soon followed his younger brother and became a member of the church.

Over the years, my sons by then had both came to America, would come home to visit and brought their younger sisters to church. They tried to convince me that I should not worship Buddha, but I couldn’t. The God in Heaven had blessed me all those years and I could not betray my family tradition. In 1976, my oldest son Austin graduated from Brigham Young University with a Doctorate Degree in Physic. My husband came to America and spent six months in Utah with his family. The first word after he returned to Hong Kong was that “we are going to church”. We visited the Church the next Sunday and then two Sister missionaries visited us the following weeks and taught us the gospel. During the discussions, we were challenged to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to Heavenly Father. I was not able to read but I began to pray to Heavenly Father as they had taught me. My prayers about joining the Church were answered by the visitation of Peter, James, and John in a dream or a vision. In the dream, they told me that I would not be forsaking my family tradition by joining the church. In fact, I would be worshiping the true God that I had been praying to all of my life and that my family would be together forever and I would be truly honoring my ancestors because we will be able to be sealed as a family for time and eternity just as God had promised. My two younger daughters, my husband and I were baptized into the Church December 15, 1976.

I have been truly blessed by a Heavenly Father who loves me! Even though I had to suffer physical pain and emotional abuse, I know they were done because of the wickedness of men. Even though I am still suffering from the pain today, I want to say that it was a purifying process for me to learn to forgive others for what they had done. I am blessed to be here to be among the Saints of Zion. I could not have imagined being born and raised in China 85 years ago that I am allowed the privilege to be here in the Promised Land today and to enjoy the freedom that we are blessed with. I bear you my testimony that God lives and He hears our prayers and answers them. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.