President Obama nominated Utah’s current governor, Jon Huntsman Jr., as the new ambassadorto China. Huntsman was a Mormon missionary in Taiwan in the 1980s before going into government service.
Last summer in Beijing there were four American students at my university who had similar stories as Gov. Huntsman . They all grew up in Mormon families in Utah or Idaho, graduated from high school, went through several months of intensive language training, and then were sent to Asia for two years. Two went to Taiwan and the other two went to Korea. All four were really nice people and sharp students. I got to know three of them really well and had no idea that they were Mormon and had already lived in Asia until it came up one day. I imagine schools like Brigham Young University must be long on mature and hardworking 20 or 21 year old freshman who speak a foreign language.
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