March 30th, 2025, 2am MDT
Zhang Yi-woo, near Yvonne Chang, sat in front of her computer at her home in Hong Kong, posting a photo of her on the day she was baptized by a member of the church of Jesus Christ 11 years ago.
She then shows some photos of some of her friends when she was baptized. Like her, she is a deaf friend.
In Sign Language, she tells the church news why these photos of her friends mean to her.
“They felt that they were inspired and baptized by the gospel of Jesus Christ as they began to learn,” she said in a February Zoom interview. “The missionaries couldn’t interpret it, so I went ahead and helped them. I feel it’s my responsibility to help them learn the gospel.”
As American sign language is the only sign language currently being promoted by the Church, Chang studied ASL in addition to sign language from her home country, China, in order to better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. She also created resources to enable other Chinese and deaf people to learn the gospel in their own language.
“I love serving the deaf,” said Chang, a single mother to two teenage sons and a member of the Hong Kong China Victoria Harbor Stake in the Aberdeen Ward. “I feel that in my heart, and I want to be able to take that feeling in my heart and share it with others. I love serving.”
Find the gospel of Jesus Christ
Chang said she first met a missionary from the Latter-day Saints of Jesus Christ Church after speaking on the streets with her eldest son, who was four years old. The missionary gave his son a card containing his phone number.
Since missionaries did not know sign language, Chang learned about the gospel through notes written before and after in Chinese. One member of the church knew a bit of sign language and was able to interpret her.
She said reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese inspired her and decided to join the church in 2014. Her sons were baptized when they were each eight years old.
“The more I learned, the more inspirational I became,” Chan said. “I read the Book of Mormon every day and feel more inspired every day. I ask the missionaries, and I feel that those answers are correct.”
In 2015, Chang received her donation at Hong Kong Temple. “I was grateful for the gift the Lord gave me through it,” Chan said of receiving her donations. She didn’t really understand it, but “I knew it was his house, the Lord’s house.”
Chang said attending the temple sparked a desire to learn American sign language as the temple ordinances are available in ASL and not sign language from her hometown.
She prayed to find someone who knew ASL and could teach her.
Dive deeper into the gospel through ASL
About two years ago, Chan came across information about adult religion classes provided by the ASL church. She was enthusiastically enrolled in online classes.
“Studying the Bible was really tough for me. I needed someone to explain something,” Chang said of his motivation to enroll in class. “I was very pleased when I found it because it helped me learn so much. I had been looking for it for a long time. It was very beneficial to me.”
Shortly after Chan joined the class, she was introduced to Kaylen Pugh, a superintendent of the ASL Seminary and a teacher at the institute that seeks to teach ASL.
Despite living 8,500 miles away, Chan and Pyu quickly became friends. They have since met almost one-on-one almost every week via the VideoConferencing app.
“I really enjoyed working with her,” said Pugh, who is deaf and lives in Marietta, Georgia. “She is a fast learner, she is very motivated, passionate and wants to share the gospel with others.”
Although Chang had already learned the ASL alphabet and was able to write in English, she had few signs of ASL. She wrote down unfamiliar words from her class, and Pugh used gestures to explain the words and showed her how to sign with ASL. Chan continues to learn 10 new signs each week.
Pugh recalls. “When we first met there were a lot of gestures and acting that we used. She started learning more ASL.
Chang said that studying ASL helped me to better understand the gospel and the Bible and have a more meaningful experience in the Lord’s house.
“Now I know ASL, so I can better understand temple ordinances,” she said.
Leading others to the gospel
Learning ASL encouraged Chang to have the courage to create resources to help other Chinese and deaf people learn about the gospel. Chang explained that some religious concepts, such as churches and baptism, can be difficult to understand, as they are not practiced frequently in Chinese sign language.
One of the resources she created is a booklet on gospel-related signs in Chinese Sign Language and how they relate to ASL signs. Chang also created a video of himself showing ASL signs of gospel vocabulary with English and Chinese captions.
Chan’s efforts led some of her friends who were deaf to the gospel of Jesus Christ. She also shares these resources with missionaries and members to help her learn ASL.
Pugh added: “She also has deaf friends elsewhere, including the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea, and shares the gospel just like her hometown.”
Chang said he hopes to help deaf people because “it’s what the Savior does.”
“I really have a vision of Jesus Christ,” she said. “He says that one of my responsibilities is to help others learn the gospel. He gives me information and I can teach them, help them and share them with others.
“God loves his children and he wants me to be more active in his work, share the gospel and share that it is a happy message,” she continued. “God loves us all. The gospel of Jesus Christ can make us happy.”
“One Power”
Chang was the only Latter-day Saint deaf in the Hong Kong region, and now he is deaf and has several members he meets frequently.
Rick E. Jensen, the church’s North American ASL coordinator and advisor, said Chan is “a pioneer of the modern era.” When she enrolled in the ASL Adult Religion class, he first met Chan, and he introduced her to Pooh.
Jensen said, like his pioneer, Chan recognized the truth and followed it. “She felt inspired, she knew it was true and had a faith that she would move forward. It took a lot of faith and action on her side, but she is blessing the lives of many others because of her willingness to get involved and follow that faith.
“And you see the same thing in our church history stories. She is a contemporary church history story,” he said.
Elder Peter M. Johnson, a 70-man general authority chairing the church’s ASL Accessibility Committee, described Chan’s story as “the power of sharing the gospel in her own language and culture.”
He added: “Each of us can become someone who can make eternal differences in the lives of others. Use your language, culture and gifts that the Lord has given you.”
