Chinese, Igbo, (French + Wolof)x 2. Wed, Aug 16, 2006.

08/16/2006. 691. NW side of town, on way back from an errand. I was looking for a different restaurant, but saw this one first, and thought it would be worthwhile. The waitress/cashier accepted a traditional script Chinese Book of Mormon, and a traditional script Chinese Liahona. At first she declined the English, but changed her mind when she realized it might help her with English. She's only been in the United States for about a year. Very nice decor, and good food. I was intrigued by additional things on the menu that I want to go back and try for supper some time.

08/16/2006. Journal entry. Further down the street I found a certain restaurant I had been looking for. It was kind of hole-in-the-wall-ish. But worth a trip back.

08/16/2006. 692. I headed towards the Interstate exit, but I saw a small group of stores that I wanted to explore. The sign for one attracted me into that group of stores, but then I saw an African store. It had some stuff I wanted. The owner is from Nigeria and spoke Igbo. The 'g' is silent and it is pronounced EE-boo or EE-boh. She didn't have an Igbo Bible, and was very excited that I offered her one. I went out to the car and retrieved the Igbo Bible, and Igbo and English copies of the Book of Mormon. She accepted the Igbo Bible, but declined the Igbo Book of Mormon in a manner that indicated she had false impressions of it, even though she had never read it.

We chatted some more, and another man came into the store. He spoke French and Wolof. (693.) I offered him material, and he wanted to see it. So I went back out to the car and retrieved Wolof and English copies of Gospel Fundamentals, French and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and the Together Forever and Heavenly Father's Plan DVDs. He accepted all those.

I continued chatting with the owner. We had a nice talk in which she shared some of her beliefs, and she told me a little about the various career and gospel things she does, and her church, and a women's ministry program that she's involved in. From what she shared of her Christian beliefs, I did not perceive anything that was contrary to what we believe.

It took me a while (too long), but I finally gave up trying to correct her misunderstandings of the Book of Mormon and the LDS church. Her assumptions of what we believe, though incorrect, were so intertwined with the roots of her good (and correct) Christian beliefs, that she gave me no opening to correct her understanding of what we believe. It was clear that she had bought into anti-Mormon propaganda. She thought she knew everything about "Mormonism."

It's sad, because when I first joined the church, I had to give up nothing that I believed from the Bible. But she automatically assumed that what we believe is in opposition to the Bible. I hope my giving her the Igbo Bible illustrated that we believe in it. Maybe I should have given her a copy of the LDS KJV Bible too.

I offered her a copy of our Sunday School manual Gospel Principles, and a DVD (Together Forever), and she agreed to see those, so I made another trip out to the car.

It's really sad how a small minority who oppose the church have ingrained a false picture of Latter-day Saint beliefs in the minds of so many good Christians, to the point that they have the false impression that we don't believe the Bible or that we oppose it. One of the tools of the adversary is to create the false impression that we are in opposition to what most Christians believe, when in fact we agree with so much, and merely add more. It appeared to me that this nice lady probably took the word of others as to what we believe, without checking the facts for herself.

Another factor is that when the faith that you currently have makes you so happy and spiritually fulfilled, it just doesn't occur to you that there could be more to the picture, that there's even more faith, knowledge, joy, and blessings available. If someone has peaked with what they believe, they either don't want, or can't conceive that there's more. You can't add more water to a cup that's already full.

08/16/2006. 694. It was now into the afternoon rush hour, and I couldn't make a left turn onto the street that goes towards the Interstate. I'd have to go another way. On that route home, I passed a branch of my bank, and stopped to get some cash. There's a gas station next to it, and I felt inspired to go there. I've given material to several people there before, and thought I could do some follow up. Two young employees were there, and were speaking English with an accent. They both spoke French and Wolof. I only had one French Book of Mormon, and one Wolof Gospel Fundamentals in the car. I offered to show them the church material I had in their languages, and they agreed to see it. I took those in along with the English versions, and a French VHS copy of "Finding Faith in Christ." I handed the stuff to the young man, saying I only had one each of the French Book of Mormon and the Wolof Gospel Fundamentals, so they could decide who gets which, and after looking it over if they both wanted copies, to call me and I would bring more from home.