By all accounts, the recently concluded Winter Olympic Games could hardly have found a more ideal locale for its multi-lingual needs than Salt Lake City. A constantly replenished pool of returned Latter-day Saint missionaries speaking a wide diversity of languages makes it a superbly hospitable environment for any international gathering.

Photo by Peter Chudleigh

David Lowman gives well wishes to Japanese journalists whom he assisted as they covered the 2002 Winter Games.

Just before the Games began, Steve Clark, director of staffing for the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, told a Church News writer "Almost 50 percent of our volunteers speak a second language; it is absolutely one of the things we are really proud about. Our volunteers will be able to welcome the world regardless of the position. . . . People will communicate to people from the four corners of the world. For us it is really exciting to have so many volunteers that speak languages."

Among the thousands who exemplified language capability during the Games were three young returned missionaries who assisted foreign journalists: David Lowman served in a paid capacity for SLOC as a driver for the Japan Consortium, a group of commentators, announcers, directors and producers representing a half-dozen television television stations covering the Games. Jerry Hsieh and Eliza Moody volunteered with Church hosting and in that capacity assisted CCTV, a television network in China.

A BYU sophomore whose home ward is the Des Moines (Iowa) 2nd Ward, David Lowman returned from the Japan Sendai Mission in May. His duties involved driving the Japanese journalists to various venues.

As an interpreter, he even dabbled in a bit of journalism himself. "Before the Games started, I had the opportunity to interview a few athletes and translate those interviews for the commentator," he said, "not live, or anything like that, but the commentator would use those [translated interviews] on the actual event day. They would play into his commentary."

Having returned so recently from Japan, he found it to be an opportunity to extend his service to the people he came to love. "I think it was good that most of them did know that some of us were returned missionaries who served in Japan," he said. "I think it was nice for them to see us now as people who lead normal lives."

Photo by R. Scott Lloyd

Church volunteers Jerry Hsieh, left, and Eliza Moody hosted Chinese journalists during the 2002 Olympics.

Working with Church Public Affairs, Brother Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") and Sister Moody offered their services as media hosts without really knowing what experiences were in store for them. In fact, it was quite by accident that they happened on to the CCTV crew.

"We were walking over to [the Church's Media Resource Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building] from the Conference Center parking lot," Brother Hsieh said, "and in the reflecting pool, we saw the reflected image of three reporters from mainland China, just taking pictures of the Salt Lake Temple. They didn't have a clue that the Church had resources here for the media, so we got in touch with them and brought them in and began to establish a relationship."

The two say the Chinese network crew of about 40 otherwise might never have known that the Church offered the resource.

"Both of us felt blessed and grateful for this opportunity, and that it wasn't by chance," reflected Sister Moody, a member of the Colonial Ward in Washington D.C. who served a mission in the Taiwan Taipei Mission from 1997-99.

Sister Moody and Brother Hsieh complied with instructions not to proselytize. But as they hosted their guests at such events as Tabernacle Choir concerts and broadcasts and the "Light of the World" production, they found the journalists had an insatiable curiosity about the Latter-day Saint lifestyle.

One reporter, Brother Hsieh said, after attending a Choir broadcast, remarked that the music that was performed "isn't the typical music that you hear. It was music he felt that really touched his soul."

"I almost felt like a missionary again," Sister Moody said, "because without our proselyting, without our trying to get them to feel the Spirit, it just seemed like they were overwhelmed by it."

Brother Hsieh, whose parents are Chinese and who grew up speaking Mandarin, was converted to the Church five years ago in his home town of Diamond Bar, Calif. He served a Mandarin-speaking mission in Melbourne, Australia, and now attends BYU part time.

"When I first was investigating the Church . . . the Chinese community where I lived viewed the Church in a very negative way, and that really impacted me," he said. "My parents and I had a desire to change that somehow. I've worked with media before within the Chinese community trying to get them to see the Church in a different light. And so when this opportunity came along, I just had to come. I think part of my interest in marketing is so that I can help shape the perception of the Church among Chinese people."

For Sister Moody, who has applied to graduate schools to study organizational behavior, the Church service opportunity seemed to fit a pattern in her life. An experience teaching English in Taiwan was not altogether positive for her, so when her mission papers were submitted, she asked that her experience not be mentioned. She even prayed that she would be called anywhere but Taiwan. Nevertheless, that was where she was called. Then she remembered that as a child in Bountiful, Utah, she had prayed that she would one day serve a mission in China.

Both said their main objective during their service was to establish a friendship with their guests and that they feel they accomplished that.

E-mail: rscott@desnews.com