Macau, China, convert attends general conference
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Going through some challenges two years ago, including a divorce, Vicky Tai set some goals to improve her life.
One of them — to visit Salt Lake City and attend general conference — was fulfilled when she attended the Saturday morning session of April general conference.
Sunday, she and her friend, Jared Ong, returned to Temple Square because she wanted her 2½-year-old son, Carlo, to see the temple and feel the spirit there.
Sister Tai is originally from Macau, a special administrative district of the Republic of China near Hong Kong. While studying English at Shantou University in China, she took an internship in public relations at Berkeley, Calif., in 2004.
She visited the Oakland California Temple and was taught the first missionary discussion though, she said, she didn't know at the time that it was a missionary discussion. She said she had been subjected to some misperceptions about the Church at her home in Asia, so when she agreed to let missionaries continue teaching her, she said she asked a lot of questions and had no intention of being baptized.
But then, during one of the discussions, the missionaries told her she should pray about being baptized.
"I thought they meant I should pray right then, so I kneeled down and prayed whether I should be baptized," she said. She added that she shocked the missionaries when she finished praying and said yes, she had received her answer that she should be baptized. The ordinance was performed in May 2004.
After returning to Macau, prior to receiving her patriarchal blessing, she was interviewed by China Hong Kong Mission President Ted Ong who, she said, gave her good counsel.
Some interesting connections arose when she moved back to California, attending the Moraga Ward in the San Francisco Bay area. She was in the ward of Basil and Yun-Yun Yeung. She met Jared Ong who lives in Orange County, Calif., through social connections on the Internet. It didn't take her long to figure out he was the son of President Ong, and she also discovered that Brother and Sister Yeung were his aunt and uncle.
When Sister Tai, then living in Washington and a member of the Seattle 3rd Ward, Seattle Washington North Stake, had to go to California to take care of some business, she made a side trip to meet Jared, who is second counselor in the recently created Yale Branch (Mandarin), Irvine California Stake.
A goal that seemed remote for several reasons, including financial — to visit Salt Lake City and attend general conference — became a reality when Jared and his parents invited her to fly from Seattle, and join them for general conference.
She said the experience was "very exciting," and felt especially blessed to be able to show her son the Salt Lake Temple.
