Follow-up to #589. Arabic at park. Sun, Jun 18, 2006.

06/18/2006. On May 29th, at our ward picnic, a little girl on a bike, who lived near the park, came over and joined our group. She was from Sudan, Africa, and spoke Arabic and English. I gave the sister missionaries some Arabic/English material. They got her address, or the directions to her house, before leaving.

Today after church meetings, the sister missionaries told me they went to that family's house, and presented the Arabic Book of Mormon. They didn't leave an English Book of Mormon because the parents said they couldn't read English. I encouraged the sisters to always offer the books paired with English to be used as bilingual ESL (English as a Second Language) material. Oftentimes, even if the recipients don't read English, they'll see it as an opporunity to learn or improve their English.

I don't think there's any wrong reason to read the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon in other languages, paired with English, is also a way for immigrants to keep their native language alive, by having something in writing with which to teach their children. So the bilingual nature works both way.

There's more stuff the church has in Arabic, so I'll follow up with the sisters to see if they do more follow-up with that family. If you believe that "there are no coincidence" then there was a reason that little girl came to the park while we were there having a picnic.