Navajo at church to member. Sun, Nov 19, 2006.

11/19/2006. 752. I was visiting another ward across town. It was almost 1:00pm and time for the meeting to start, and I scanned the chapel looking for the "right" place to sit. Placing a Book of Mormon was not on my mind, nor was I searching for immigrants. I think I was looking for other singles with whom to congregate. There was a lady sitting by herself on that bench in back near the side door, so I sat between her and the door.

She did happen to be non-caucasian, but I couldn't figure out if she were a Pacific Islander or Hispanic. Eventually I just asked her what languages she spoke other than English. She said Navajo. I asked if she both read and spoke it, and she replied that she only spoke it, and couldn't read it.

I think I told her about the Navajo Book of Mormon, but I forget what her response was. I didn't say I had one with me, or make an actual offer. At some point during the announcements, I retrieved a Navajo Book of Mormon (Selections, not the whole thing), and a set of audio cassette tapes of the Navajo Book of Mormon Selections, from the car.

I kept the audio cassettes of the Navajo translation in the car, because I've already met another Navajo lady who spoke but didn't read Navajo. So I wanted to be prepared for the next time. Well, today was the next time. Perhaps reading/writing Navajo is or wasn't taught in some Navajo schools, or else I just encountered people from families who were not living on a reservation, and only verbally taught the language to their children.

By the time I got back to the chapel, the sacrament hymn had just begun.

I don't like it when other people talk during the sacramental hymn, or during the sacrament, so I contained my excitement and did not offer her the book and tapes until after the sacrament, and then gave them to her. She immediately started flipping through the Navajo Book of Mormon.

I suggested she could listen to the tapes while reading the book, and learn to read that way.

So in addition to breaking the Sabbath by buying gasoline, I broke two of my rules by exiting and returning after the meeting had begun, and by talking to her while a speaker was giving a talk.

Navajo is written in the Roman (a-b-c) alphabet. I believe that the pronunciation rules are simpler for most other languages than for English. So it shouldn't take much time for her to learn the pronunciation of the written words and read by sounding things out.

She asked for my name and phone number, so I gave her one of my cards. I believe she was a member because she was reading a marked-up quad combination scriptures.