It belonged to the children. [14], Even before joining the administration at BYU, Gong was involved in educational policy issues. I know several members of Elder Gong's extended family, and they couldn't be a more dynamic, talented, kind family. Reserve a spot at the After-Party by FamilySearch using eventbrite.com. It is heartbreaking when we are asked questions about religion, but cannot respond. Come join us on an international journey of connection and belonging at @Rootstech Family Discovery Day any time March 4 after 1:30 p.m. (MST). Here are 6 fun facts about Elder Gong. Elder Gerrit W. Gong and his wife, Susan, participate in a Christmas mural project in Vietnam. And hopefully those last few references to the evils of miscegenation can soon be purged. The strongest marriages are based on mutual core values, and church leaders seem to believe that marrying in the faith takes care of that. 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. [8] He graduated from BYU in 1977 with a bachelor of arts. Mental Health Minute: Who is Driving the Bus. The storyteller and artist came out in defiance of my depression, he says, with a desperate will to survive. Meet Elder Gerrit W. Gong: "Unfailingly Kind" Family Man. His Chinese American family was also highly academic both parents have advanced degrees and had wide-ranging conversations, even heated debates. BTW, given that oil often is found in strange places, experience and comfort with a wide range of cultures is a pretty big advantage. I will update the post as I get further information. 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. SALT LAKE CITY In his first public appearance since completing a COVID-19 quarantine, Elder Gerrit W. Gong, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of . I held my ground and I silenced their rage with my story as I spoke with my own voice. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Gong, will attend. To read the full article on LDS.org, click here. Parents and children can work through the awkwardness and conflict over deep disagreements to arrive at a place where they are simply family. Elder Gongs parents, both professional teachers, collectively spent more than 70 years in the classroom. STE 1058, Provo, UT 84601, Elder Gerrit W. Gong, wife to keynote RootsTech Family Discovery Day. Thank you Jason K. You make an excellent point. Fred: and that is the value of diversity, across every possible category. Having people who know about petroleum extraction is always useful! >:(. It didnt matter if we agreed about everything; were still family. A Rhodes Scholar who worked for the U.S. State Department and for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., Elder Gongs travels have taken him to all seven continents, including living in Asia for more than a decade. That means not only that he has experience with multiple cultures, it also means that his grandchildren will likely be raised in the same country where he lives, which means that it will be a little easier for him and his wife to spend time with them as present and well known grandparents. More than anything he is American. Youd think wed try to start making trends on this issue as opposed to following them. [22] While in the presidency of the Asia Area, Gong resided in Hong Kong but supervised the work of the LDS Church in all of continental East Asia except Korea, Taiwan, and all of Southeast Asia, except the Philippines and south Asia. Gerrit W. Gong and his wife, Susan Gong, leave the stand after the Saturday morning session of the 188th Annual General Conference in Salt Lake City, Friday, March 30, 2018. Cannot load blog information at this time. By Mike Rabus Posted 7/5/2022. In what way have you narrowed that definition that causes you to think you can exclude him from that? God Bless You in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Feel free to delete this comment after the edit.). Two, he is interested in everything, which makes him a fascinating person to live with. In doing so, he gave himself the chance to extend grace to his past selves. Were an international church, and the PTB clearly have worked hard to get our leadership profile to more closely mirror that reality. Reflecting the increasing diversity of the Church, Elder Gong became the first Asian-American Apostle, Elder Soares the first Apostle from South America. Thank you for sharing! they wondered. Leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, first leader of Asian descent. Elder Gerrit W. Gong and his wife, Sister Susan Lindsay Gong. I agree that people should go into an interracial marriage being mindful of the challenges. But getting to this place of peace with his trifold identity, says Gong, an artificial intelligence engineer in Seattle, has required hard work. What I hope for is a group that comes from different cultural backgrounds that can consider and represent a worldwide church. I have had a testimony of the Church and gospel since I was very young, said Elder Gong. Born in Redwood City, California, to Walter A. and Jean C. Gong, Elder Gong comes to the apostleship with a background rich in education and experience. 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. I hope my expression of joy in todays news does not in any way detract from any mixed feelings others may be having. One Latter-day Saint seminary teacher kept trying to tell him he was Korean, because the instructor knew a Korean kid with a similar last name. (Haight had helped to overcome some of the misgivings some family members had about the interracial marriage. I can also attest that there are benefits inherent in my interracial + intercultural marriage. RootsTech 2023, a global gathering of family history enthusiasts, will be in-person at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City and virtually at rootstech.org. The Gongs will speak at 1:30 p.m., walking listeners through some of their personal family story, previously recorded on location in their homelands of Ireland and Hawaii. Today blessed us a beautiful moment. 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.. and one of those categories is occupation. Steven J. Lund. Review of "We Each Have a Story" by Apostle Gerrit W. Gong. That our interactions would be nitpicked to brand us as avatars of ideologies, Gong writes on a Facebook post. What Does the Parable of the Wheat and Tares Teach about the Apostasy? Elder Gong said, "On my mother's side . Biography. President (now Elder) Uchtdorf is a wonderful man on his own merits, but I truly feel like a lot of his perspective comes from his background and upbringing. And definitely in Brazil Soares would be considered white. Im excited for Elder Soares calling as are my Brazilian friends in our ward here in Brazil. AmyT thanks for weighing in! He served as an LDS Church missionary in Taiwan. [24], On March 31, 2018, Gong was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 2003 Apr 1;101(7):2850-7. Big smiles in the Hedgehog home. However, I think that making leadership more diverse is almost certain to be a liberalizing influence over the long term. Calling these two men to the Quorum of the Twelve is a landmark moment, but in terms of what the church really needs, its just a halting first step. 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 Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.. We feel the need to be compassionate to all. For women of Asian descent, this results in a hypersexualized stereotype, an extreme but superficial sexual desirability captured in the ugly term yellow fever. For men of Asian descent, this same underlying stereotype results in media representations and prejudice against them as emasculated and lacking in sexual desirability or prowess. 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. Its pretty easy to support and sustain what were used to; harder when there is a significant shift. I confronted and broke down the lies I had been told about what it means to be queer. If there are, I would love to meet them for a nice cup of group therapy., When the senior Gong took his place for a lifetime appointment in the faiths Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the younger Gong thought: Today is the day I lost my father. The choices you make will determine what happens in the "plot" of your life, and education can have a big impact. So, when I talk about the Church, I mean the Church. When I talk about my father, hes just my father.. Every member of the Gong family had a special role in the project, from creating the sketch to mixing the paint to organizing the children. Ours is a worldwide Church, said Elder Gong. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke during the Saturday afternoon session of April 2022 general conference. Anyone who thinks otherwise is giving themselves a little too much credit. Donors who contribute . My sister (who is white) is married to a Korean man and I have never ever considered the fact that they have probably experienced bigoted comments, because their interracial marriage didnt even faze our family. Felix and Carolyn, First hand knowledge here. Oh goodness. Ill check on her. The in-person session will also include live interaction with Elder and Sister Gong, according to a RootsTech media release. And I suspect their international cred was perceived as a big plus, not a minus. Ask those who believed in the 1978 Official Declaration long before it came. With all the comments here I echo the joy in seeing a diverse Quorum. With his wife, Susan, Elder Gong helps build God's kingdom by serving all of His children. church instruction manuals for institute and youth. Until he was 10, Matt Gong, the family's fourth of four sons, lived in the Washington, D.C., area, where his dad worked at a policy think tank. It depends. But you probably didnt know how cool it was. Elder Gong loves learning and spending time with family. 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. I agree. I confess Im a bit surprised that the OP is so vehemently opposed to suggestions of caution when approaching an interracial marriage. Hales. As far as Soares goes, He looks like a fairly typical Euro-Brazilian. Their circumstances are different, but their faith and testimonies are in many ways the same, he said. )[16] Gong and his wife are the parents of four sons. Elder Gong has a Dutch first name, an American middle name (Walter after his father) and a Chinese last name . Hi Benson, we should definitely all come to the same interpretation of calling the view that a white woman marrying an Asian man is marrying down a white supremacist view. Today, I love myself, scars and all, and I am awestruck by the simplicity at being happy, something I would never have believed possible in my younger years, says Gong, who shares an apartment with his longtime partner. This expressed so much of the happiness I feel today. Copyright Daily Herald | www.heraldextra.com | 1200 Towne Centre Blvd. Elder Gong isnt part-anything. Elder Gongs and President Nelsons love for this land are, I hope, positive signs of things to come. Looking back, Gong sees plenty of clues to his sexuality that he failed to recognize at the time: Staring at a male underwear mannequin when he was a child. I had won the war in coming out but was left as broken as the battlefield.. Additional instruction will be provided by Area Presidencies. He seemed to remember a conversation with someone or something outside of himself that affirmed he was loved. Download Photo. Elder and Sister Gong's presentation will be broadcast on Saturday, March 4 . I dont know how it came to us; it just did, said Sister Susan Gong. We used to hang out during our days at UCSD. Even at school, Gong, who easily passed as straight, grew increasingly silent, afraid of hugs and falling in love. The mural they created, which added light to the once colorless space, wasn't theirs. These appointments in terms of age and church experience were right In the sweet spot consistent with recent apostle picks. The church desperately needed someone who represented Latin and South American saints symbolically and with experience in the 12. I experienced confusion, sexual assault and rejection as I stumbled through my new life, Gong says. But its a relief to know that the oil companies dont have to suck so hard. Contributed BySarah Jane Weaver, Church News editor. John. Much of this post is good, though the backdrop of white supremacy is a bit much. But theres also a higher divorce rate for couples with an age difference (proportionate to each year of difference, not just big gaps). Gerrit Walter Gong (born December 23, 1953) is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). There was almost no better realistic possibility than these two picks. All three parts of Gongs identity have shaped him, including heroic tales of service and sacrifice, and are worth celebrating. [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. One, he is unfailingly kind, she said. Christ Church, Oxford; Edit. Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News. LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream, Gong took his place for a lifetime appointment in the faiths Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, asked in 2018 if having a gay son had affected his views on LGBTQ. As he said, "We each have a story.". Thoughts of not having that became unbearable, he says, and so he repressed them. Yes, I have the most beautiful grandchildren. Ties with ancestors increase family closeness, gratitude, miracles. It was my biggest hope for the conference. Its not a Chinese, Mormon or academic dinner-table topic. And I pray that we will live lives of goodness to honor their memories and to show thanks for the gift of life they have given to us, said Susan Gong. As I said at the last time new apostles were chosenI would have preferred to have seen three Caucasian apostles from outside North America than three apostles of color who were born and raised in Utah. "Ours is a worldwide Church. [20][21] Among other activities while Gong was president of the Asia Area, he created the second and third stakes in Thailand. I believe inspiration comes to those who seek, as does revelation-like who to call to be apostles. Donate to the newsroom now. After Joseph's baptism, the Young brothers taught their family and friends in Canada and baptized over 150 individuals and established four branches of the church, including ones in Kingston and Sydenham. Latter-day Saints across the globe sustained Elder Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares as Apostles during the Saturday morning session of general conference on March 31. Because my story is happening publicly at the highest levels of the church, people ascribe extra meaning to it, he says in the interview, but from within the story, it feels like a typical narrative., The apostle and the queer son are just family, Gong repeats. . He hasnt aged at all. The Gongs were married in 1980, not long after the lifting of the race-based priesthood and temple ban in 1978. That is something the Gongs also learned from the children involved in their mural projects, undertaken during the Christmas season. Oh, the challenge of English adjectives. Mica Nicole is sure she had encountered one but was out and about and couldnt recall the specifics for me. 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. I hope that we will all gain greater appreciation for the struggles, courage, faith and sacrifice of those who have gone before. 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