A Gracious Invitation From Brother Poon!

  Little did I know as a student at Ricks College 42 years ago, that the day would come when I would meet a dear friend of my college roommate on the other side of the world in Hong Kong.
About a year ago, we met Sheldon Poon for the first time at the temple, and he so kindly invited Elder Bodily and I to join him that day for lunch along with his good friends, the Wongs, Ngais, and Lees.
  We have since seen Bro. Poon several times at the temple, and each time he greets us with a warm hello.  This past Saturday was no different, but this time he indicated that he would not be back in Hong Kong before our mission ends next month, and would like to take us to lunch before we leave.
We welcomed his invitation with gratitude for his kindness and generosity.
  To our delight he invited the Chans and the Lams also.  It turns out that Sheldon's older brother is married to one of Fanny's sisters, and Ping Lam is married to another of Fanny sisters.  They have a greater connection to Bro. Poon than we, and yet he included us.  That says a lot about the kind of man he is.  There seems to be a fair amount of people around here who have a connection in some way to Brother Poon.  Now we can add our names to that list.
  We met at the Salisbury Room in YMCA where we enjoyed the buffet.  We listened to Bro. Poon tell us about his conversion, his church service, and his business ventures.  He is really quite interesting to listen to.
  He grew up in Yuen Long.  His cousin introduced him to the church, and he was baptized at 12.  His father felt the church was right, but could not commit to all that church membership requires. Bro. Poon became a Branch President in his early 20s, with Patrick Wong as his counselor, who was only 19 at the time.  He then served as District President for five years.  Then in 1976,  he was called as the first Stake President in Hong Kong which he served for another five years.  During his life, he has seen the church grow by leaps and bounds.  Now there are six stakes here and a temple.
He professional careers have included owning a travel agency,  becoming a gemologist and owning a jewelry business in Utah.  He was actually involved in a business in Sun Valley, Idaho, which was the start of his connection with the Montgomery family, and grew into a strong friendship.  He even took his 2 children on a trip to the Montgomery's home in Rupert, Idaho so they could experience firsthand farm life.
  After a chain of events, and an answer to prayer, he went back to school and became a marine biologist, and is now involved in the aquaculture business.  He is partners with Mr. Hong in raising Artemia (brine shrimp), which originated from the Great Salt Lake, but their factory is in Shandong, the province where Confucious lived.
  He also partners with Craig Jessop in organizing and arranging music instructors from BYU to teach in China.  He has done a lot in his life, and a lot for others.  He still wears the hats of husband, father, gemologist, travel agent, marine biologist, and faithful servant of the Lord.  We thank him, wish him well, and hope our paths will cross again someday.

E/S Bodily, E/S Chan, Bro. & Sis. Lam, Bro. Poon