A junior from Myanmar says she stood firm in her religious beliefs despite being the only Christian among her classmates
In the predominantly Buddhist country of Myanmar, Chit Shin, said she was one of the three Christians in a school with over 10,000 students.
Shin, a junior from Myanmar majoring in information technology, said, “Before I got baptized in [the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], I didn’t understand why I was Christian and why I was the only one Christian in the classroom. I was not confident in my beliefs because my school required students to do meditation and Buddhist chanting every morning before school started.”
However, after her baptism, Shin explained, “I got to know who my Heavenly Father is and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I didn’t feel alone in my class [anymore]... [while] my friends were Buddhists. I was able to have confidence in my own beliefs and stand tall and confident in my religion.”
Searching for truth
She said her family’s decision to join the church stemmed from her father’s sincere prayer, following a thorough exploration of several other churches. Shin’s father. Shin Fawn. said he took his family to various churches based on his schedule. However, he and his wife didn’t like how people in the other churches treated their family, he added. Similar to the LDS Church, he said, they also had tithing commandments. “People in those churches stopped visiting or inviting my family because my family couldn’t pay tithing much,” he said.
Shin said, “The first time I heard about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was when my parents were praying [to decide which] church we should attend,” to help her and her two siblings find true doctrine and grow up in Christ.
Recalling her first experience at the church, Shin said, “One of my mother’s friends visited our home with her friend who is a member of the church. She invited my family to the church the upcoming Sunday,” said Shin. At church, her family met Dale and Lily Simpson, senior missionaries from Utah who later taught them the missionary lessons.
Shin said the couple missionaries only spoke English, but Shin and her siblings didn’t speak English much. Then they had a translator to help them communicate with the couple missionaries clearly, she added.
Regardless of the language barrier during the lessons, Shin said, she was baptized on Nov. 9, 2010, at the age of 12 after being taught for three months.
Lily Simpson said, “It was a great pleasure to teach the Shin family…[They] were so eager to know the truth and the plan of salvation which made them come very close as a family.”
When her family got baptized, Shin said, the church building in Myanmar was a family house instead of a church building. “There were only two branches and 35 members in Myanmar at that time,” Fawn said.
Dealing with criticism
Following her family’s baptism, Shin noticed a change in her relationships with friends who belonged to other denominations. “They started avoiding me because people in other churches around her called our church, the church of Satan,” Shin explained.
Shin also shared how her relatives who were involved in other religious communities, criticized her family for joining the church. She explained her uncle, who is a master of another church, negatively spoke to her mother, hoping to weaken their faith and their commitment to the restored Church of Jesus Christ.”
When Shin and her older sister decided to serve full-time missions, Shin said, they faced criticism from their community again. “People around my family blamed my parents for accepting the gospel in their lives,” she added.
Regardless of these challenges, Shin said two of her cousins got baptized about 24 years ago since she joined the church.
Standing by faith
Highlighting the prevalence of Buddhism in Myanmar, she explained her school strictly educated its students to have strong faith in Buddha. “Students had to meditate, worship Buddha, recite the sutras and clean or place a Buddha statue in each class every morning,” she continued.
Run by the government, she explained the school still required every student to perform those rituals despite being Christian. Shin explained she had to pretend to meditate or worship Buddha due to the strict enforcement by the school headmaster. “The headmaster would come to the school frequently, go around every class and monitor everyone,” she said. “If someone didn’t do those things, the headmaster would slap the student,” Shin added.
However, after joining the church, Shin said she decided to stop pretending to worship Buddha. “As the headmaster found me not doing those Buddhist customs, he asked me why I didn’t do them,” Shin recounted. She then explained, “I’m a Christian, so I can’t do them.”
Recounting a touching moment, Shin said, “I still remember [when] the couple missionary sang “I am a Child of God” for us because I was able to understand the song, and we still sing the song during family home evenings [until today].”
Lily Simpson said, “Shin Fawn was being sent overseas so we felt we needed to keep close contact while her parents went away…It was a very hard situation because Shin’s grandparents were very hesitant for them to go to church, however, Chit Shin kept her faith and remained faithful.” •