Book of Mormon Moment #447. French/Lingala. Wed, Oct 19, 2005.

10/19/2005. I went back to the African grocery store, where I had been Tuesday, October 11th. The owner had already given out a Shona Book of Mormon for me, and the recipient called me later that day, so I wanted to re-stock her with another Shona copy, and some more French copies.

Today I gave her 2 more French, 1 Shona, and 3 English copies of the Book of Mormon, a French New Testament, an English New Testament, and 3 copies of the multi-lingual "Together Forever" DVD that has a French audio track (catalog # 54411-090 at www.ldscatalog.com, only $1.18/each in cases of 50.)

There was a French-speaking man shopping at the same time, and both the owner and I engaged him in conversation about the books I had. I ended up giving him French and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and a "Together Forever" DVD.

When I got back to my car, and was re-arranging things, he came out in the parking lot going towards his car. I engaged him in conversation again, suggesting he call me or any of other phone numbers in the material I gave him.

I asked where he was from and he said Congo, in central Africa. I asked if he spoke Swahili, and he said no. I asked if he spoke Lingala and he said yes. So I offered him a Book of Mormon in Lingala, and he was pleasantly surprised and enthusiastic. I went back to my car's trunk, and he followed. I dug out a Lingala copy and gave it to him, and his face lit up. It made his day.