Bengali declined at laundromat. Sat, Jan 20, 2007.

01/20/2007. 779. The employee at the laundromat was from Bangladesh, and speaks Bengali. I've given out copies of the Bengali Book of Mormon at nearby businesses, so I asked him if he had one already. He said he did, but he did not receive it directly from me. He said he was Muslim, which I already surmised since that is the predominant religion of Bangladesh. I gave him my calling card and a business-card sized pass-along card anyway.

He wasn't busy, so we had opportunity to chat a bit. He said he was trying to learn Spanish because many of the laundromat's customers spoke only Spanish. I offered to make a short list of words in Spanish and English that would be common for the laundromat. We couldn't find any blank scrap paper, so I went out to the car to get some paper. Since I was out there anyway, I brought back in Bengali and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and used the wrapper from the Bengali copy.

As long as it's not an imposition to the person, and if it doesn't cause other customers to wait, I like to actually show the Book of Mormon to people. Sometimes when they actually see it in their native language, they change their mind and want a copy.

Sometimes seeing the sub-title "Another Testament of Jesus Christ" in their native language helps them understand what it is. A few times, people have declined to receive a copy, thinking that the Book of Mormon was not Christian, but upon seeing the sub-title, they changed their mind and wanted it.

He gave me a list of words in English, and I wrote them down on the paper along with the Spanish translation. He seemed grateful for the help.