Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: Moment #565. Swahili at gas station. Mon, May 1, 2006.

Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon

(One drop at a time.) My journal entries about offering copies of the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other LDS church books, mainly to immigrants in their native language, mainly in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 106 translations, the Book of Mormon (along with the Bible) is a good "Rosetta Stone" for learning English or other languages, in addition to being a missionary tool.

My goals in keeping this blog/journal are: to encourage others to offer people copies of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, to illustrate the incredible number of recent immigrants who are eager for bilingual material, to illustrate the ease of encountering them and offering them material, and to make known the wonderful deeds of the Lord (Ps 105:1, Isa 12:4) in arranging many of these encounters. I realize that the concept of offering foreign language books to strangers is just plain weird to many people, so here are some hints if you are intrigued by this and wish to try it. Respectful comments and constructive criticism are invited.

The goal of the book placement effort is to provide, in a friendly non-threatening way, gospel material to someone who is willing to receive it in their native language and English.

To the recipients of these books who read this: I thank you again for allowing me to be of service to you. I encourage you to read the material, and pray to God that He confirm the truth of it to you. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are both the Word of God. Living according to their teachings brings happiness.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Moment #565. Swahili at gas station. Mon, May 1, 2006.

05/01/2006. After Singles Family Home Evening at church I felt like taking the long way home. Even now, I'm not sure whether it was inspiration or if it was just my own desires. I stopped at a gas station I hadn't been to before and bought some 12-packs of pop on sale. I didn't see any opportunities until I had left the store, when a man was walking from his car at the pumps towards the door of the store. We made eye contact, and I asked him if he spoke French. He didn't. I didn't continue the conversation. But something about him "stood out." This may have been a missed opportunity. Because I feel the need to blog it, it probably was.

Next stop was some vitamins/minerals on sale at CVS. Nothing happened there.

I stopped at another gas station on the way home. I had been here before, and had given the cashier Arabic and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and an Arabic/English bilingual Bible.

I can't say whether I was inpired to stop, or whether it was my own idea. Maybe I was trying too hard. I bought a newspaper and fountain drink.

I hadn't met this cashier before. He spoke with an accent, but I couldn't tell his ethnicity. His was Hindi (India) but he was from Uganda in East Africa, and spoke Luganda, Swahili, and Hindi. I told him about the other people I met from East Africa (at other locations) who spoke those languages, and he knew them!

Here's the kicker, one of those other guys had given to this man the Hindi Book of Mormon! Cool! The books get circulated!

I asked him if he would like the Swahili and English versions, and he said sure. So I went out to the car and brought them in. I pointed out my card and the info flyer in them. Then we practiced a little Hindi before I left.

Labels: gas station, Swahili