During a press conference related to the open house for the rededication of the Washington D.C. Temple,Gong shared that one of his first memories was of being sealed to his parents in a temple of the LDS Church.[8]
Gong is married to Susan Lindsay,a daughter of Richard P. Lindsay. Susan is white,making Gong the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in a multi-racial marriage.[16] They first met when Gong was a BYU student who would give presentations on Taiwan's culture to missionaries about to depart for Taiwan from the Missionary Training Center,among whom was Lindsay. They began dating a few years later,in the summer when Gong had returned from Oxford to spend a few weeks with his parents,during a time his father was a BYU professor. They continued their courtship after Gong returned to Oxford while Lindsay continued her studies at BYU,which has led to Gong's humorously asserting that there is no question he got a degree in international relations.[10] The Gongs married in the Salt Lake Temple on January 4,1980. Their marriage was performed by apostle David B. Haight,who had connections to their families from his time in California. (Haight had helped to overcome some of the misgivings some family members had about the interracial marriage.)[17] Gong and his wife are the parents of four sons.[18] Prior to joining the BYU administration,the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland and Virginia.
LDS Church service
Prior to becoming a general authority,Gong served in the church as a stake Sunday School president,high councilor,seminary teacher,bishop,stake president,and area seventy. After his call to the First Quorum of the Seventy,he served as a counselor in the church's Asia Area from 2011 to 2013,[19][20] then as the area's president from August 2013 until the end of 2015.[21][22] Among other activities while Gong was president of the Asia Area,he created the second and third stakes in Thailand.[23] While in the presidency of the Asia Area,Gong resided in Hong Kong but supervised the work of the LDS Church in all of continental East Asia except Korea,Taiwan,and all of Southeast Asia,except the Philippines and south Asia.
In October 2015,Gong was appointed to the Presidency of the Seventy,filling a vacancy created by Ronald A. Rasband's call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.[4] Effective January 4,2016,Gong transitioned from his role as president of the Asia Area and into the Presidency of the Seventy,with responsibility for the church's North America Northeast Area.[24] Among his assignments while in the Presidency of the Seventy,Gong served on the Church Board of Education and Boards of Trustees,where he also served as a member of its executive committee. He also on occasion continued to travel to Asia,such as being present for the official recognition of the LDS Church in Vietnam.[25]
Quorum of the Twelve
On March 31,2018,Gong was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He and Ulisses Soares filled the vacancies created from the deaths of Thomas S. Monson and Robert D. Hales.[26]
In May 2018,Gong and his wife spoke at the BYU Women's Conference. As of June 2018,he was serving as chair of the church's Scriptures Committee (which,among other things,oversees the translation of the scriptures) and as a member of the Leadership and Training Committee,the Priesthood and Family Executive Council,and the Outreach Committee. He also has responsibility in the Quorum of the Twelve for the church's Asia and Asia North areas.[27]
In November 2019,Gong presided over a worldwide broadcast that announced the LDS Church's new youth program.[32][33][34][35]
In early 2020,the church announced that Gong would preside at the November dedication of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple,originally set to occur in mid-November. That was later postponed indefinitely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[36] The church later announced that Gong,whose wife has ties to Taylorsville,Utah,would preside at the October 2020 groundbreaking for the temple in that city.[37]
COVID-19
During the church's general conference in October 2020,it was announced that Gong and his wife had been exposed to COVID-19,and that his address had been pre-recorded as he quarantined at home.[38] A few days later,the church announced that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19,with Gong being the first high-ranking LDS Church leader with a positive test.[39] On October 16,the church announced that he and his wife had successfully completed their quarantines,and that Gong had been cleared by his doctors to resume his regular assignments the following week.[39]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
