Road Trip. 30 encounters. Tue-Fri, July 25-28, 2006.

This is an overview. See previous entries for more details.

I took a trip south to visit family. I packed my suitcase, and then reviewed what languages of Books of Mormon and other material I should take. I ended up giving out some of the material that I felt inspired to take. I actually ran out of Hindi copies on the trip and needed more.

Languages given out included Hindi, Punjabi (Gospel Fundamentals), English, Russian, Kurdish (New Testament), Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Ilokano, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, Indonesian, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, Swahili, Amharic, French, and Hausa (Gospel Fundamentals).

I took a bunch of Korean video tapes, and Thursday I was wondering where I was going to meet Koreans, when the idea came to me that I was going to meet missionaries. There was no direct prompting at that time that the Korean stuff was for the missionaries. It was just that the missionaries popped into my mind while pondering about the Korean stuff. Within the hour, I felt inspired to get off the highway, a gas station was pointed out on the other side of the street, I was prompted further down the road as a "timing loop" and then went to the indicated gas station. The cashier was from Cameroon, and spoke French. When I went back outside to get the material, three missionaries were gassing up their car. They worked in the mission office. I asked if they had any Korean investigators. They said no. I hope I didn't go too far out on a limb by foisting the Korean material on them, and telling them that someone in their mission would have Korean investigators within the next 30 days.

I also gave them some Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon. I didn't get the full story, but they said that they normally didn't go to that gas station. From my viewpoint, that meeting was arranged. I was led by the Spirit to believe I was going to meet missionaries, just not at what place or time. Afterwards I was led to that exact gas station, and there they were.

There were a couple times when I disobeyed the "tugs". And sometimes when I got tugged off the Interstate, I had to go looking for my contact by stopping at several places. But sometimes when I got tugged to take a certain exit, I was also tugged or led to the exact location where someone would eagerly accept material, at either a restaurant, or a gas station.

In one situation, a man accepted a book in his language, Hindi, and asked for a Russian copy for one of his employees. In another, I offered person-A books, and person-B overheard and asked for a copy. In one restaurant, I saw the owner reading the Book of Mormon behind the counter when I left after I finished eating. In one gas station, the cashier was reading the Book of Mormon when I went back a few minutes later to follow up with a Bible. At another gas station, I offered the English-only-speaking cashier a Bible and Book of Mormon, and three more employees asked for English Bibles and Books of Mormon.

I usually file my entries by the date and the approximate time they occur, not when I write them, so see below for journal entries of the encounters on this trip.