Wonderful partnership of learning. Mon, Sep 18, 2006.

Miscellaneous updates.

09/17/2006. Laundry night. I met an American lady at the laundromat who's a world traveller. She's a trainer for an airline, and not afraid to talk to strangers. We talked about international travel, and about the many countries represented by immigrants in the US. I told her of the annual International Festival in Indianapolis, and gave her the web site. We also talked about some ethnic restaurants and grocery stores in Indianapolis, and she's a fan of ethnic food too. I told her about how I give out foreign language Bibles and copies of the Book of Mormon to immigrants. But I didn't offer her one.

09/18/2006. The investigator came to church for the 2nd time. He's planning on visiting a YSA activity mid-week. I was also able to get the name and ward of a local elder who's currently serving a mission in this investigator's home country, and will be back in the middle of next year.

09/18/2006. I looked up the family of the elder serving in that other country in the online phone book (www.anywho.com), called, confirmed it was the right one, told them of the investigator, expressed a desire to make contact when he returns, and left them my name and phone number. I got the mission address from www.ldsmissions.net and will write the elder a letter.

www.anywho.com is also great for looking up ethnic restaurants and stores in any city. If I forget to write down the address of where I give out copies of the Book of Mormon, I sometimes look them up here when I get home. maps.yahoo.com and maps.google.com are also good for trying to figure out exactly where I was.

I sometimes use www.anywho.com to plan an itinerary of ethnic restaurants in my destination cities when I travel. I try to follow the pattern of what Oliver Cowdery was taught in Section 9 verse 8, to study things out, to do my home-work. That puts us in a position where the Lord can confirm it or not. But also as a result of doing and exploring what we can, the consequence or blessing seems to be further directions that take us beyond what we could have discovered on our own. It's a wonderful partnership of learning. In consequence of trying to do some small things on my own, the Lord seems to give me opportunities to do more. I seek out some restaurants and book-placement opportunties on my own, and then the Lord seems to say "Great, now go do that again over at this other place" and the Spirit leads me to or points out another store or restaurant.

The important point being: If I hadn't studied a little and taken action on my own, I wouldn't have been in position (mentally or geographically) to receive revelation for further steps. And the humbling point being: even the initial desire to study and do something was implanted in me by the Lord in the first place. The Lord Christ is the source of all good. It's all about Him.

For every little thing I try to learn on my own, the Lord teaches me more. I took both styles of the Chinese Book of Mormon to restaurants, and a very kind man taught me the history and the difference between the Traditional Chinese script and the Simplified Chinese script. I took Amharic Books of Mormon to the laundromats, and people taught me the differences and similarities between Amharic, Tigrinya, and Ge'ez. I encountered Africans who taught me the relationship between Shona, Zulu, and N'debele. I encountered Nigerians who taught me about Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, and Isoko. Then I can take that knowledge and go to the Internet and learn more, and the cycle of learning repeats and increases.

09/18/2006. Emailed with the sister with whom I had dinner in Illinois. The information for the three follow-ups from my road-trip has been passed along to the missionaries. None of the 3 contacts formally requested missionaries, but one said she was looking for a new church, so that one at least merits a follow-up. The other two were the restaurant placements.