Samantha Lam, a senior from Hong Kong studying psychology, arrived at the Laie YSA 4th Ward’s return missionary fireside on Sept. 27 without thinking the night would unfold into one of the most memorable nights of her life, she said.
The fireside was just like any other in her mind. She attended with her friends and boyfriend Terry Wong, a senior hospitality and tourism management major from China, who had a drastically different plan set for the evening.
Before the fireside, Wong had decided it was time to propose to Lam, his girlfriend of almost two years. After careful planning, coordinating, and discussions with his friends and certain authorities, Wong said he arranged to propose to Lam at the end of the fireside. It was programmed in as a special announcement so all who attended the fireside remained in the chapel.
Jared Kwak, a senior finance major from California who is also the ward mission leader for the Laie YSA 4th Ward, was conducting the evening’s fireside, said Wong, and helped him with his plan. He was able to play each part of the in-the-moment preparation by helping keep everyone in the chapel and lowering the projector screen as if it was part of the program, so Lam wouldn’t get suspicious.
Wong and Lam had talked about marriage beforehand, but Lam was not yet expecting a proposal. She explained, “I never would have thought that he would propose today. I’ve already talked to my father and I’m going to talk with my mom, and he said he would wait until I talked with my mom, so I never thought the day would come today.”
Wong and Lam met while they were both working at the Polynesian Cultural Center in 2013 where Lam was working in concessions and Wong was a tour guide. Eventually the two began talking and the relationship evolved from there.
As part of the proposal, Wong made a slideshow video that retraced the steps of the couple’s relationship. After the video played, Wong walked down the aisle to where Lam was sitting with their friends and knelt down to ask for Lam’s hand in marriage, to which she said yes. The newly engaged couple were smiling and laughing, and attendees of the fireside congratulated the happy couple as they filed out of the chapel.
In the planning stages, the fireside turned out to be the best option for several reasons. Kwak said, “He wanted to propose this week, and I had been planning this fireside from the beginning of the semester. And we thought, since it was going to be this weekend, to use it as a way to end it that was good because for returned missionaries. Marriage is the next stage in our lives.”
Throughout the proposal Wong said all he could think was, “Please say yes. I was hoping she would say yes. I just wanted the whole world to know how much I love her and there were so many people.”