Thursday, February 23, 2006

Moment #527. Diet Coke and Amharic. Thu, Feb 23, 2006.

02/23/2006. On my way to an early supper I went a little out of my way to a certain gas station to buy a newspaper there instead of a closer newspaper vending machine in order to see if they had soda on sale, and to possibly follow up on previous book placements there.

Neither of the employees I met on a previous trip were working there, but they did have Diet Coke on sale, two 12-packs for $4.99, with a limit of 10. I got a newspaper and four 12-packs. My cashier was a Caucasian English-speaking guy, but the other cashier appeared African.

I took my purchases out to the car, but hadn't reached the limit, so I went back in for four more. This time my turn came with the African cashier. As he rang me up, I asked if he was from Ethiopia. He said he was from Eritrea. (Eritrea was part of Ethiopia at one time.) I asked if he spoke Amharic, and he said yes. I said "ndayt-wahloo" (good afternoon) and he started speaking in Amharic. I said all I knew as "ndayt-wahloo" and "ndayt-ahmahshoo". I told him that our church has a book in Amharic, that it's a Christian book, and offered him a free copy. He eagerly agreed to see it. I took my stuff out to my car, and brought back in an Amharic and an English Book of Mormon, and waited in line again. I think there was someone in line behind me, so I wanted to be quick. He flipped through the Amharic quickly, read the title, and asked where our church was. I said it was in the flyer inside, and my phone number was also there. I excused myself saying I didn't want to bother him at work, but that he could call me. He seemed upbeat and wasn't reluctant.

2 Comments:

At 2/24/2006 05:46:00 AM, Blogger Ryan Mercer said...

:)

 
At 2/27/2006 07:50:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Safety lesson for you. Be careful with people following you to your car.

As far as the Lord hand it things... why wouldn't He? One of the reasons we are here to help lead others to the gospel. In the early days of the church everyone of them were commanded to "thrust in his sickle" and that applies to us today. The Lord also has said that He will provide a way to accomplish His commandments.

President Kimball also said that people are put into our circle of friends for a reason and that is to share the gospel with them. I think if you see someone join the church because of your efforts... eternal friends would certainly apply.

Just my humble opinion.

 

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