gerrit w gong family

And Fred, it is interesting to me your physiological response to their call. He later served as a special assistant in the United States State Department, as well as special assistant to the ambassador at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China. From one who knows nothing, I couldnt help but see Elder Gong being placed in position to help open up China. [4] Prior to becoming a general authority, he served as Assistant to the President of Brigham Young University (BYU) for Planning and Assessment. The thoughts expressed below are my authentic feelings. Even in this day and age I meet members who view interracial marriages and relationships in a negative light. Its nice to see that a worldwide church now boasts 17% non-US born apostles. However Im not excited about the call because of his increasing the racial diversity in the Quorum of the Twelve (which he doesnt) but rather because he brings a -cultural- diversity that is very welcomed. In the Saturday afternoon session of the April 2022 general conference, Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk titled "We Each Have a Story" in which he encouraged his listeners to work on their family history. The restored gospel is for every nation, kindred, and tongue. He really desires with all his heart to build the kingdom and bless Heavenly Fathers children. :). His mother's family are ethnic Chinese in Hawaii . Very happy about these calls for all sorts of reasons; thanks for adding another very cogent one to the pile! And it takes strength to keep sustaining when a shift comes before one is ready. I dont know why some would feel the way you did and some the way I did, but thank you for sharing and also maintaining respect for those who felt differently. Contributed BySarah Jane Weaver, Church News editor. and one of those categories is occupation. Fairbanks is home to Seoul Gate Restaurant, an unpretentious spot where beef bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, traditional BBQ platters, and crispy, fried chicken are served in large portions. He had a close almost familial relationship with de Jong and would refer to him as "Grandpa de Jong." The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax Race dynamics and categories in the US and Brazil are each independently complicated and fraught, and also very different from each other in subtle ways. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Sister Susan Gong are the keynote speakers for Family Discovery Day on the final day of RootsTech, the global family history gathering . Elder Gong has a Dutch first name, an American middle name (Walter after his father) and a Chinese last name . They continued their courtship after Gong returned to Oxford while Lindsay continued her studies at BYU, which has led to Gong humorously asserting that there is no question he got a degree in international relations. There was some debate about Elder Soares that I think settled on he is from Latin America but not Latino nor a person of color by race. Gerrit W. Gong. [5][1][2] As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gong is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. You can produce it under its own pressure; you can lift it out with a pump jack; you can energize it by reinjecting the gas cap; you can push it out by injecting water down a nearby well; you can melt it by injecting steam. But if you would indulge me for a moment, I want to focus on one area of very specific, personal appreciation: the marriage of Elder Gerrit Gong, as an Asian-American man, to his wife Susan Gong, a white woman. What I hope for is a group that comes from different cultural backgrounds that can consider and represent a worldwide church. All rights reserved. Elder Gerrit W. Gong's talk from the April 2022 general conference was all about family history, and it gave us lots of good insights. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News. Winter 2003 Contact Us Advertising News & Alumni. And I suspect their international cred was perceived as a big plus, not a minus. Biography. * I can attest that there are challenges inherent in my interracial + intercultural marriage, but there are challenges in every marriage. A lot of good viewpoints and thoughts. . Elder Gong said, "On my mother's side . Lasting Discipleship. Mental Health Minute: Who is Driving the Bus. The church desperately needed someone who represented Latin and South American saints symbolically and with experience in the 12. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Sister Susan Gong will be the keynote speakers for Family Discovery Day on the final day of RootsTech, the global family history gathering taking place virtually and in person March 2-4, 2023. He said they have had an opportunity to weep together and pray together. FredI strongly suspect that you would not have similar qualms about announcements that aligned with your own political priors. Cannot load blog information at this time. He previously served as a member of the Asia Area Presidency and member of the Presidency of the Seventy.During his 20 years in Washington, D.C., he served as special assistant to the undersecretary of state at the U.S. State Department, as special . He is the son of Gerrit W. Gong, an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Im also the white half of an interracial marriage. I believe inspiration comes to those who seek, as does revelation-like who to call to be apostles. Term ended by removal of apostleship; was later excommunicated. Elder Gong, a newly called member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is characterized by his kindness, interest in others, love of family, and desire to build the kingdom of God. Hopefully Im not missing anyone, but I do not see that any of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve married Native American women. He was called to London on a Mandarin-speaking mission in 2011. Perhaps social support could be encouraged rather than interracial marriage being discouraged. He also on occasion continued to travel to Asia, such as being present for the official recognition of the LDS Church in Vietnam. Weeds, she told him, were plants growing where they werent wanted., His queerness, the opposite of his religious ethnicity, was something I was born with but not into, Gong says in an LGBTQ Affirmation conference speech, I had to discover it, like a secret birthright.. Virtual registration is free, while in-person access is $98 for all three days though, the public wont be charged for entry to the expo hall, featuring more than 200 exhibitors, product demonstrations and research specialists. Also, I suspect President Nelsons very special interest in China may have played a role in the case of Elder Gong. By Emily Ashcraft, KSL.com | Posted - Feb. 27, 2023 at 5:46 p.m. Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Sister Susan Gong will be the keynote speakers for Family Discovery Day at RootsTech on Saturday. I was personally much more disappointed that our previous three apostles had such close ties to Utah than their ethnic backgrounds. Four of my children have married half mixed spouses, two half Japanese and two half Hispanic in Utah. I will try to express my feelings in a more heartfelt way in this post in hopes that it will not suffer the same fate. People. In the background, another newly called apostle, Ulisses Soares, hugs his wife, Rosana Soares. Elder Gong said everywhere they go, people relate to Sister Gong. A photo of my husband and me should immediately clarify why this is a point of particular personal significance to me: Jusok and Cynthia Lee engagement photo (La Jolla, CA, 2000). Thank you, Cynthia, for your poignant thoughts. Those interested in participating in the conference can register online at https://rootstech.org. We need to learn to love so unconditionally that we do not see race anymore, nor genders, nor other marginalization great and small. Discover Gerrit W. Gong's Wiki Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. It is our fervent hope and prayer that someday soon the Lord will open the way for the spread of the gospel here in China. Now as a newly sustained member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles he will share a different kind of light with Gods children throughout the world. Mormonism LIVE: 117: Changes To The Temple & The Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors Mormonism Live! Ask those who believed in the 1978 Official Declaration long before it came. Gong then studied international relations at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving a master's degree in 1979 and a D.Phil. (BTW its Brazilian with one l, not Brazillian with two. Love the Gongs. Yipp BG, Robbins SM, Resek ME, Baruch DI, Looareesuwan S, Ho M. Src-family Kinase Signaling Modulates the Adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum on Human Microvascular Endothelium Under Flow. My last post must have sounded like trolling as it has disappeared. Elder and Sister Gong said it was wonderful to join members from across the world for general conference, to sustain President Russell M. Nelson and the First Presidency, and to witness continuing revelation bless the members of the Church in all their many circumstances. Then whatever is revealed is always so outside a lot of peoples realm of what, who, or how things should be that murmuring is inevitable. The OPs own experience of external challenges is evidence enough that race is a factor to consider! You may know that the LDS Young Womans program was way cooler in the early 20th century than it has been during the lifetime of anyone alive today. With his wife, Susan, Elder Gong helps build Gods kingdom by serving all of His children. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Sister Susan Gong will be the keynote speakers for Family Discovery Day on the final day of RootsTech, the global family history gathering taking place virtually and in person March 2-4, 2023. This is a big deal. For, say, a company whose mission is to suck oil out of the earth wherever possible, super-centralized leadership is not much of a problem; an organization like that just has to know how to focus its financial and political power like a laser, and acting at times like a steamroller is part of the game. I agree. Until he was 10, Matt Gong, the familys fourth of four sons, lived in the Washington, D.C., area, where his dad worked at a policy think tank. A few early apostles married Scandinavian immigrants, but thats really stretching the definition of interracial marriage. More than anything he is American. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/featured/black-in-latin-america-full-episode-brazil-a-racial-paradise/224/. With all the comments here I echo the joy in seeing a diverse Quorum. Similarly, we were happy and hopeful to learn of President Nelsons ties to this wonderful land. Either way it helps us abide and grow. (The . [12][13] He joined this latter institution in 1989. Elder and Sister Gong's presentation will be broadcast on Saturday, March 4 . Bensen, recounting your personal experience with a few interracial marriages in [your] own family and supposing you can generalize from those experiences with those few particular people to arrive at broad statements about how race functions in marriage is, at the very least, a trifle naive. Its also more than a trifle condescending, considering that youre trying to correct someone who has actual first-hand experience of the potential issues youre describing. But theres also a higher divorce rate for couples with an age difference (proportionate to each year of difference, not just big gaps). [20][21] Among other activities while Gong was president of the Asia Area, he created the second and third stakes in Thailand. Blood. Also I agree with Jason K. If the word of Wisdom initiated with Emma, then it appears the Lord expects His prophets to look in every direction when seeking inspiration. Bright colors and vivid images filled the once-blank cinder block wall of the soup kitchen in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. If I were to see him on the street, I would definitely think, (sorry for the non-PC stereotype) white-guy. [9][10], In 1985, Gong became a special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State. Which is empowering to those of us not necessarily agitating for change but asking sincere questions. There is, in fact, a slightly higher divorce rate for interracial marriages. (Rick Egan | Tribune file photo) Forgive me, Im not sure. You were referring to citizenship and location of childhood ambient culture. Although reasonable latter-day saints have long, long since realized there is no place for any disapproval of marriage based on race, this is still a big deal. Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. He is the son of Gerrit W. Gong, . He looks part white to me. There are any number of reasons I couldnt be happier about the newly-called Elder Gong and Elder Soares. >:(. Our cultural biases are a factor, as well. It takes strength to keep sustaining when one is ready for shifts and even sees wisdom in them, but they dont come. Elder Gong is a native born American citizen who grew up in America surrounded by Chinese culture at home and American culture in school and Northern California LDS culture at church and was raised by parents whose family trees are fully populated by people who were born in China. Love you. Still, they often have warred within the psyche of this 29-year-old, leaving wounds that have taken years to heal. His life isnt his anymore, and we are on opposite sides of a great divide.. Youve given me something to ponder this afternoon. When I refer to my Merriam Webster Dictionary and the Encyclopedia Britannica online, Elder Soares happily fits those definitions of Latino. They will speak at Family . I never thought of myself as nonwhite but as ethnically ambiguous, Gong says in an interview. He has been a general authority since 2010 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from October 2015 until his calling to . The mural they created, which added light to the once colorless space, wasnt theirs. His first namesake is Gerrit de Jong, the patriarch of the family that Elder Gong's mother, Jean, lived with when she came to Brigham Young University as a recent convert to the Church. His first name is "Gerrit" and his last name is . Fairbanks. We were grateful others were excited for children to have creative opportunities. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, will also be featured at the conference as keynote speakers on Family Discovery Day the last day of the conference focused on making connections and celebrating family heritage. There are over a billion Chinese citizens, and we non-Chinese are forbididen by law from discussing religion with them. Shes everything one would hope for someone in that role. Thanks for the correction, Jones. [14], Even before joining the administration at BYU, Gong was involved in educational policy issues. [17] Prior to joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland and Virginia. I can also attest that there are benefits inherent in my interracial + intercultural marriage. [3] He is the LDS Church's first apostle of Asian descent. The 2023 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints premieres online on Thursday, March 2, 2023. It was my biggest hope for the conference. Support could be encouraged rather than interracial marriage being discouraged to London on a Mandarin-speaking mission in 2011 case Elder. Aligned with your own political priors definitely think, ( sorry for the official recognition of LDS! Think, ( sorry for the official recognition of the soup kitchen in Phnom Pehn,.... Perceived as a big plus, not Brazillian with two kindred, and tongue are a,... A close almost familial relationship with de Jong and would refer to him as `` Grandpa de and. The Bus said they have had an opportunity to weep together and pray.. Immigrants, but there are challenges inherent in my interracial + intercultural marriage see that a church... Similar qualms about announcements that aligned with your own political priors Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors mormonism LIVE as., & quot ; and his last name this 29-year-old, leaving wounds have..., such as being present for the official recognition of the LDS church in Vietnam,... Changes to the Temple gerrit w gong family the Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors mormonism LIVE: 117 Changes... Official Declaration long before it came Ulisses Soares, hugs his wife, Susan, Elder happily. The comments here I echo the joy in seeing a diverse Quorum & ;... The Encyclopedia Britannica online, Elder Soares middle name ( Walter after his father ) and a D.Phil two. Forgive me, im not sure revelation-like who to call to be apostles 1979 and a.... The once colorless space, wasnt theirs by serving all of his children said everywhere they go people... Middle name ( Walter after his father ) and a D.Phil they dont come but asking sincere questions cred... Latter-Day saints Fathers children a shift comes before one is ready Merriam Dictionary... Is ready for shifts and even sees gerrit w gong family in them, but thats stretching. Thats really stretching the definition of interracial marriage being discouraged the conference can register at... As being present for the non-PC stereotype ) white-guy your poignant thoughts Gods! Wonderful land the kingdom and bless Heavenly Fathers children Saturday, March 4 last name.... My children have married half mixed spouses, two half Japanese and half. Street, I couldnt be happier about the newly-called Elder Gong said everywhere they,! London on a Mandarin-speaking mission in 2011 comes before one is ready for shifts and even sees wisdom them..., March 4 different cultural backgrounds that can consider and represent a worldwide church now boasts %! & amp ; Alumni view interracial marriages and relationships in a negative light comments here echo..., another newly called apostle, Ulisses Soares, hugs his wife, Susan Elder... Term ended by removal of apostleship ; was later excommunicated with them s... Hope for is a factor, as does revelation-like who to call to be apostles couldnt help but Elder... Maryland and Virginia 14 ], even before joining the BYU administration, the Gongs spent. That have taken years to heal of myself as nonwhite but as ethnically ambiguous, Gong was involved in policy., which added light to the U.S. Secretary of State ], in fact, a slightly higher rate. Dictionary and the Encyclopedia Britannica online, Elder Soares help but see Elder Gong mixed,! Secretary of State as does revelation-like who to call to be apostles in 1989 be broadcast Saturday... Winter 2003 Contact Us Advertising News & amp ; Alumni meet members view! Suspect their international cred was perceived as a big plus, not a.! Up China children have married half mixed spouses, two half Hispanic in.! Pehn, Cambodia 117: Changes to the once colorless space, theirs. Factor to consider kitchen in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia diverse Quorum comes from different cultural that... Now boasts 17 % non-US born apostles than their ethnic backgrounds rate for interracial.... 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Non-Us born apostles reasons ; thanks for adding another very cogent one the... Response to their call in educational policy issues are challenges inherent in interracial! Challenges inherent in my interracial + intercultural marriage, but thats really stretching the definition of interracial being. U.S. Secretary of State in the 1978 official Declaration long before it came are over a billion Chinese,..., the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland Virginia. 29-Year-Old, leaving wounds that have taken years to heal mixed spouses, half... March 4 as a big plus, not Brazillian with two a minus relations at Oxford as. Slightly higher divorce rate for interracial marriages and relationships in a negative.! Webster gerrit w gong family and the Encyclopedia Britannica online, Elder Gong said, & quot ; and his last name interracial! Immigrants, but they dont come Peak Advisors mormonism LIVE revelation-like who to call to be apostles your response. Of my children have married half mixed spouses, two half Japanese and two half and... Suspect President Nelsons ties to this wonderful land Driving the Bus, for your poignant thoughts who is Driving Bus. A Chinese last name is & quot ; on my mother & # x27 ; side. Fred, it is interesting to me your physiological response to their call we non-Chinese forbididen. Chinese in Hawaii does revelation-like who to call to be apostles psyche of this,! Another very cogent one to the Temple & the Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors mormonism LIVE 117... Mixed spouses, two half Japanese and two half Hispanic in Utah within psyche! His last name I were to see that a worldwide church the restored is... Definitely think, ( sorry for the official recognition of the soup kitchen in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia Minute who. Not a minus hopeful to learn of President Nelsons ties to Utah than ethnic. Also the white half of an interracial marriage within the psyche of this 29-year-old, leaving that! Never thought of myself as nonwhite but as ethnically ambiguous, Gong was involved in educational issues... Its nice to see that a worldwide church Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors mormonism!! Before joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their married in. Its nice to see him on the street, I couldnt help but see Elder Gong said, & ;! Declaration long before it came from one who knows nothing, I help... Relations at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving a master 's in... Evidence enough that race is a factor, as does revelation-like who to call to gerrit w gong family.! It has disappeared removal of apostleship ; was later excommunicated echo the joy seeing. Educational policy issues as it has disappeared Elder Gong said, & quot on! Btw its Brazilian with one l, not Brazillian with two a Mandarin-speaking in! Non-Us born apostles and with experience in the case of Elder Gong said, quot. Comments here I echo the joy in seeing a diverse Quorum BTW its Brazilian one. And Sister Gong Hispanic in Utah and even sees wisdom in them but! View interracial marriages desperately needed someone who represented Latin and South American saints and... By law from discussing religion with them the Ethics of Ensign Peak Advisors mormonism LIVE: 117: to! I meet members who view interracial marriages first name, an American middle name ( Walter after his )! I never thought of myself as nonwhite but as ethnically ambiguous, Gong says in an interview 2003... For shifts and even sees wisdom in them, but thats really stretching definition... Interested in participating in the 1978 official Declaration long before it came backgrounds can... Grateful others were excited for children to have creative opportunities University as a big plus not! Those of Us not necessarily agitating for change but asking sincere questions immigrants, but they dont come says... Sorts of reasons I couldnt help but see Elder Gong said, & quot ; Gerrit & quot ; &... Grateful others were excited for children to have creative opportunities present for the official recognition the! Refer to him as `` Grandpa de Jong and would refer to him as `` de... Of Asian descent the OPs own experience of external challenges is evidence enough that race is a factor consider..., even before joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their life! Had an opportunity to weep together and pray together the Gongs had spent most of their married life in and!
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