Moment #532. French / Wolof. Sun, Mar 5, 2006.

03/05/2006. I broke the Sabbath and bought gas today. The way I look at it, I committed the sin of omission yesterday, that of not gassing up the car.

Well, maybe I didn't absolutely have to. I had enough to get to church and back. But last night, before I remembered that I hadn't gassed up the car, I told a friend that I'd go to her house (which was beyond the chapel) to pick something up, and I didn't think I'd have enough gas for that extra distance. I was going to wait at the chapel for her call indicating she was home from her church on the other side of town, then go to her place.

After my church meetings, I went to the next sacrament meeting, of the Spanish speaking branch, because they always have wonderful testimony meetings. I hung around a little bit, but she hadn't called yet. I figured she'd call by the time I drove over there so I went ahead and left.

On my way from the chapel to her apartment, I stopped at a certain brand of gas station. I intentionally chose this brand because they employee a lot of African immigrants. I paid at the pump, but went in to see if the cashier spoke any foreign languages. He was from Senegal and spoke French and Wolof. He accepted my offer of books, so I went out to the car and got him French and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and Wolof and English copies of Gospel Fundamentals, and a Wolof copy of the Joseph Smith testimony.

He graciously accepted them without any reluctance, annoyance or hesitation.

While I was getting the books from the car, my friend had called and said she was on her way to our chapel anyway. So if I had stayed put, I wouldn't have had to buy extra gas.