There are certain people that you just connect with. Simon Jones was certainly one of those people for me. Whenever there was an opportunities to serve, (cleaning the Temple from 9pm until midnight, volunteering to work at the bishops store-house, baptisms for the dead early morning before class, providing sacrament meeting at the elderly home, mutual at the juvenile center, etc) we were always both there. We have been roommates these past three semesters and is now one of my best friends. My friendship with my roommate here in Beijing, Josh Riches, has been much the same way.
This morning a small group of us BYU-Idaho students cleaned the church here in Beijing. Waking up at 6:30am on a Saturday morning is a small thing, and I really don’t mind the hour and half bus/subway ride to the chapel. The time really flies as Josh and I interact with the people who are crowded around me. (This is a holiday weekend, so the subways were especially crowded this morning. Switching from one subway line to another, with bells ringing signally that the doors would soon be closing, we pushed our way into the subway just as the doors were slamming shut. A man, farther in, let out a yelp as he was smashed in the crowd of people filling the area around him. It was like sardines; every inch of space packed with people shoulder to shoulder. It was truly an amazing site to see.)
Just before we finished cleaning, a Chinese lady working in our same building walked up to me and asked me what we were doing. I simply remarked that we were cleaning our church in preparation for our Sunday meetings. She knew that we were Christians and asked if she could attend our church meetings tomorrow. I wanted so bad to say: ‘YES!’ I wanted so bad to tell her that I knew that the gospel of Jesus Christ could make all the difference in her life, and that she was a child of God! I wanted to explain to her that God had a plan that would allow her family to be together forever, but I couldn’t. Brother Liu, a Taiwanese member who was helping us clean the church this morning, overheard our conversation and came over. He explained to her that the Chinese government had laws that wouldn’t allow her to do so right now. It just broke my heart. There are so many souls in China prepared to receive the restored gospel. I look forward to day when the doors swing wide open, and I hope to have even a small part in that taking place.
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