Moment #467. Amharic at Laundromat, Fri, Nov 4, 2005.

11/04/2005. At the 24/7 laundromat.

While doing the wash, I saw one of my previous contacts, Edwin, getting ready to leave, so I went over and talked with him. I told him about the International Festival, and we chatted a bit. I invited him to church on Sunday to meet Brother E in Zionsville ward, who is also from Zimbabwe, but originally from South Africa. This is about the second time I've recently run into him totally by accident.

#467. Two young women, about 18 to 20, used a nearby dryer, and were standing at the other end of the folding table that I was using.

They spoke English with regular American accents, but the older one looked Ethiopian.

The older one looked familiar, and I wasn't sure if I had spoken to her or given her a Book of Mormon before. At what seemed like an appropriate time, I asked her if we had met before because she looked familiar, and she said she didn't think so. I asked where her family was from and she said Eritrea. She spoke Tigrinya, but not Amharic. She had come to the United States with her family as refugees from Sudan when she was four.

The church doesn't have any Tigrinya material, and I was out of Tigrinya Bibles, but she said she couldn't read Tigrinya anyway. She talked a bit more about her family's history and we chatted a bit about Africa and refugees. Her family lived in Minneapolis before moving here and said there was a large population of Eritreans and Ethiopians there.

I mentioned that the church has the Book of Mormon in Amharic, but not in Tigrinya.

Right before they left, I offered her my card, and said that if any of her Ethiopian friends wanted a book from my church in Amharic, to call me. She then volunteered that she had a friend who could speak and read Amharic that she would give it to. I then said I had a copy in the car, and I asked if she would like to give her the book herself, and she agreed. So I retrieved Amharic and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and presented them to her. She was surprised, but impressed and grateful.