“Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong,” Liahona, May 2014, 142
Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong
First Quorum of the Seventy
As a new convert and student at Brigham Young University-Hawaii, Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong gained much more than an education—he gained a sure knowledge that there is a God who knows “the details of our lives.”
Born on May 25, 1962, in Hong Kong, China, to Ngan Kan and Fat Wong, Elder Wong was one of seven children growing up in a small apartment.
At work he met Carol Lu, who introduced him to the gospel. The young investigator was baptized February 14, 1982.
A year later, on July 9, 1983, he married Carol. They moved to Laie, Hawaii, USA, so he could attend school. Because he was on a student visa, Elder Wong could work only 20 hours a week. “We had to really exercise our faith and prayers,” he said of what it took to sustain his family.
He worked hard to earn a scholarship, then he took as many credit hours as the university would allow. “It wasn’t easy,” he recalls. “Once we had that experience we knew we could always rely on the power of heaven.”
The Wongs were sealed in the Laie Hawaii Temple on August 9, 1984, and their first child was born; three more children would eventually join the family. “Those years were very special, very sacred,” Elder Wong said.
Elder Wong earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting and an associate of science degree in computer science; then he felt the need “to go back to Hong Kong to serve.”
He later received an MBA from the Hong Kong Open University. Elder Wong was the founder and partner of a business and quality consulting company and also worked at a materials testing and inspection group where he began as the senior accountant and left the company as the deputy managing director.
Prior to being sustained on April 5, 2014, as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, he served as a bishop, stake president, and Area Seventy.