New Meeting Schedule for 2012

The meeting schedule for our Branch Sunday services will revert back to the morning.  Here is the new meeting schedule for the Branch Sunday meetings in 2012:

Sacrament Meeting	9:00 AM to 10:10 AM
Sunday School	10:20 AM to 11:00 AM
Priesthood, Relief Society, Young Men, Young Women, Primary	11:10 AM to 12:00 PM

Read More

December 25 Christmas Sacrament Program

On Christmas Day, the final Sunday of 2011 and the final Sunday of the branch's Worship Through Music Month, we celebrated the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ with special musical guests. To start off, a special quartet (Vincent Li on the cello, Jessica Tsai on the violin, Joshua Tsai on the clarinet, and Melinda Tsai on the flute) played the prelude song, "Beautiful Savior." After the four Tsai children sang the parts for the "Angel's Carol," Brad Johnson shared a Christmas message. Then the all-male choir sang four verses in English of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Following Michael Cunningham's talk, Brother George Chang and the Primary children sang together "O Holy Night." President Patrick Shen shared the final Christmas talk. For the finale, the Branch Choir, together with members from the Washington Chinese Chorus, the Yellow River Arts Ensemble, and the Hua Xia Chinese Choir joined voices and sang the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah.

December has been a wonderful month to commemorate the birth of our Savior through beautiful music with our family, neighbors, and friends.

Read More

December 18 Christmas Sacrament Program

Dear Montgomery Branch Members and Friends:

First, many thanks to the many of you who attended our Sacrament meeting today, during which the children and adults of the Hope Chinese School Chorus sang "Silent Night" for the congregation.  We were also blessed to hear the beautiful voices from our own Primary, the Seminary students led by Bro. and Sis. Anderson, the combined voices of the Tsai, Huang and Theodore families, and a moving closing hymn by Sisters Tsai and Susan Liu.

Of course, the many visitors who visited our church for the first time today were captivated by the inspired words of Ashley Cooper (孔兰欣）, Dan Maxwell （马德安） and Nicholai Lazarev （罗智全）, and marveled at their Chinese proficiency.

We were thrilled to see so many new friends in the Congregation today, and many old friends who had not seen in awhile.  In total, 116 people - a Montgomery Branch record -- came to support our program today.  We recognize that many of our guests are faithful members of their own churches, and some may not belong to any church at all.  We respect everyone's faith, or the right to have no faith.  However, we hope that the music and spoken words everyone heard today brought a special feeling of happiness that will stay with all of us for a long time, making our days a little brighter, or better yet, inspiring us to make other peoples days brighter as well.

This coming Sunday, we will hear from more special musical guests, including members from three different Chinese community choruses who will sing with the Montgomery Branch choir the Halleluja Chorus from Handel's Messiah.  We also look forward to hearing special performances by Brother George Chang who will sing with our primary children, and a song by the Tsai kids.

Brad Johnson, who recently returned from a teaching assignment is Nanjing, will be our guest speaker.

We would be honored if you can spend part of your Christmas day with us.

Sincerely,


The Montgomery Branch

Read More

Christmas Party

You can see all the photos here

'Twas the week before Christmas,
When all through the branch,
Not a member was bored,
But all were busily engaged in a good cause.

This Christmas, we enjoyed a sumptuous meal of turkey and ham, noodles and rice, salad and casserole, sundry dishes, and many desserts, both Chinese and Western. Before the Christmas program, our new mission leader, Da Zhao, presented our beloved full-time missionaries, Elders Kerby and McLane, with a special letter from home and a scripture case from the branch. Helen Mu and Michael Cunningham, our distinguished emcees for the evening, recited the story of the Savior's birth, with additional musical numbers by the Primary children, the youth, and the Relief Society sisters. A special guest, Zane Liu, favored us with a piano solo, "O Holy Night." The audience sang together a stirring concluding hymn, "Silent Night." After the closing prayer, the familiar Jingle bells began to ring, followed by the laugh of the jolly old elf himself, Santa Claus. The crowd cheered, the paparazzi followed, and the children, old and young, lined up anxiously to seize a chance to sit on Santa's lap, inform him of Christmas wishes, pose for a photo, and receive a special gift. While the work of cleaning up ensued, we mingled, hugged, and enjoyed each other's company. Many heartfelt thanks to Sisters Chen and Shen for their organizing of this special memorable event, simple yet meaningful.

Read More

Where Are They Now? ---> Michael Chang

I served as a missionary in MCB from 2008 to 2009. My missionary companions were Elders Cheng, McCully, Chiang, Lin, and Lo. My mission President was President Mansell.

One of my memorable experiences in the branch was the Chinese New Year celebration at the Stake Center. The YM’s lion dance, YW singing, and the decoration in the chapel were amazing. The costumes that members and friends put on especially enriched the Chinese New Year festivity. The Christmas party was a lot of fun too. The Primary children and the youth acted the nativity scenes, and then everyone sang part of 12 days of Christmas from each of the table. The young Primary kids rode their bicycles around at the end be like future missionaries. Another of my favourite activities was singing hymns at the English class. It’s memorable because nobody in the English knew how to sing initially, but by the end we were becoming more confident in singing English songs. I will always remember the song, ’America the Beautiful,’ Hymn #338, because we sang it over and over every week for 3 months. I am forever thankful for the many opportunities to serve in the branch and be able to learn from faithful members in the branch. The love and kindness that many members in MCB possess has motivated me to carry on this journey of labour of love. A small example that I always remind myself is that I should try to feed the missionaries every month now like I used to be fed in MCB.

I have been serving as a branch mission leader and 2nd counselor in the branch presidency in the Chinese branch in Oakland California for more than a year. In a way the branch in Oakland functions a lot like MCB, but there are a few obvious differences. We have 3 sets of Chinese missionaries (2 sets of Elders and 1 set of Sisters) and 1 senior couple serving in the branch to accommodate the huge demand of Chinese population in Oakland Chinatown and East Bay Area. 80% of the Chinese population here speaks Cantonese, which is a lot different from the folks whom I am used to interact with, bu my Cantonese has only improved slightly since I arrived. It’s often that you will see the lessons/talks at Church get translated into three languages – Mandarin, Cantonese, English. The English class in Chinatown is extremely popular in this area, where we have 80 people on average on Saturday and also 3 other time slots during the weekdays. The Oakland branch doesn’t have as many families and kids as MCB, and we know families are important to build growth and stability in the branch and kids are the future of the Church.

I am working in a freight forwarding company, doing import customer service. I am dating a RM girl from Hong Kong, and we are planning to get married next year. I have 6 wonderful roommates from Nepal. They cook really nice curry for me almost every day. I am trying to learn how to cook good Chinese food for them, so that I don’t get kicked out of the apartment. I am still deciding where to live and settle down in the future. I miss New Zealand a lot and want to see my grandma there. And yes! All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup this year, so life is good even though my car was stolen twice in a week last summer. I am very grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and the love and tender mercy of God every day. I am very excited to see how things will unfold as to where I will be staying, and I will only know until the next post!

Read More