ELDER CLAYTON Nylander strides along the streets of Kowloon City, waving and uttering a hearty jou san to other pedestrians. Despite his honorific, Nylander is only 20, and he isn't just being friendly. He's trying to win converts for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for which he is serving a two-year mission in Hong Kong.
Within 45 minutes, Nylander and his companion, Elder Cheng Wai-lun, 23, a native Hongkonger, have managed to engage at least three people on the street in conversation, despite the busy morning hour. (Male church members over 18 are called 'Elder'.) It's a testament to their conviction, personal charm and, Nylander included, fluent Cantonese.
One of those who stops to talk is Andrew Ma, 31, a sales executive walking by with his one-year-old daughter in his arms. Ma says the proselytising doesn't annoy him, but he has no intention of joining. 'I don't need to know about their church,' he says.
With about 150 such missionaries assigned to Hong Kong, street encounters with Latter-day Saints - or Mormons, as they're also called - are common. The church has taken other highly visible, and expensive, steps to ensure its presence is felt. It's constructing a 13-storey headquarters at 116 Gloucester Road in Wan Chai, due for completion early next year. This will be the 16th building (most of which are used for chapel services) the church owns in Hong Kong, including a 22,600-sq-ft temple in Kowloon Tong built in 1996.
Worldwide, the church's membership has grown significantly along with its real-estate ownership, which includes 117 temples and more than 20,000 chapels, with 300 to 400 new ones built each year. (The church's total assets have been estimated at US$30 billion.) Membership is now largely first-generation converts. There were more than twice as many converts as babies born into the church in 2003. And missionaries are one of the main ways it gains those converts.
'We're a religion with standards,' says Elder John B. Dickson, president of the Asia area. 'Parents like the church very much when they realise we have standards that we live by and our children live by, rather than just going without an anchor into the world.'