Chinese at restaurant. Thu, Nov 16, 2006.

11/16/2006. 748. I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that I haven't been to before. It's in a strip mall, but a bit nicer than a typical strip mall Chinese restaurant. I sat down and the waitress took my order. By the time she came back with my water, I had the Chinese Book of Mormon out, and made my presentation. Before she could respond, the phone rang, so she had to go back and answer it.

When she brought my food out, she started talking about polgyamy as if the church currently practiced it, and my hopes sank. I tried to respond, but it's difficult to respond to those concerns with just a sound bite. I wasn't sure if she had preconcieved notions, or someone in the kitchen had just then given her a quick fill-in. She talked about reading the Bible every day, and how she reads both the English and the Chinese Bibles. But she didn't have a parallel bilingual Bible with both translations in one. I had run out of the inexpensive Chinese/English bilingual New Testaments, and didn't have any with me. I gave her the web site for the International Bible Society, and informed her she could get a two-in-one Bible with both translations from them. (They have a $3.50 paperback bilingual New Testament, and a $20 hardcover bilingual full Bible.)

On her next trip back to my table she asked some questions. At this point she was curious, whereas during the previous trip to my table she seemed to have erected a barrier. She politely asked what the Book of Mormon was about and how it differed from the Bible. So I gave the 30 second explanation.

Something happened, because she then said she'd take one, so I gave her the Simplified Script version. I also offered the English, and she accepted that too. I then offered a multilingual DVD, but she just wanted the books.