Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: Vietnamese declined. Thu, Jan 25, 2007.

Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon

(One drop at a time.) My journal entries about offering copies of the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other LDS church books, mainly to immigrants in their native language, mainly in Indianapolis, Indiana. With 106 translations, the Book of Mormon (along with the Bible) is a good "Rosetta Stone" for learning English or other languages, in addition to being a missionary tool.

My goals in keeping this blog/journal are: to encourage others to offer people copies of the Book of Mormon and the Bible, to illustrate the incredible number of recent immigrants who are eager for bilingual material, to illustrate the ease of encountering them and offering them material, and to make known the wonderful deeds of the Lord (Ps 105:1, Isa 12:4) in arranging many of these encounters. I realize that the concept of offering foreign language books to strangers is just plain weird to many people, so here are some hints if you are intrigued by this and wish to try it. Respectful comments and constructive criticism are invited.

The goal of the book placement effort is to provide, in a friendly non-threatening way, gospel material to someone who is willing to receive it in their native language and English.

To the recipients of these books who read this: I thank you again for allowing me to be of service to you. I encourage you to read the material, and pray to God that He confirm the truth of it to you. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are both the Word of God. Living according to their teachings brings happiness.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Vietnamese declined. Thu, Jan 25, 2007.

01/25/2007. 785. I had supper at a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant that I haven't been to before. It's not far from where I now live. The restaurant's name is Vietnamese, so I assumed that the owners/operators were Vietnamese. I asked, and the cashier/waitress confirmed she was from Vietnam.

I ordered and sat down, and put out a Vietnamese Liahona and Book of Mormon, and an English Liahona and Book of Mormon. When she brought my meal I asked if she liked to read in Vietnamese, but it seemed like she didn't understand. I offered her the Vietnamese Liahona, the November 2006 issue that has a painting of Christ and a child on the front. She looked at the cover, and humbly shook her head and said "no thanks."

The food was really good, so I plan on eating there again.

I haven't had much (if any) success at placing material at Vietnamese restaurants. So I was not surprised, and only slightly disappointed, that she turned me down. The Vietnamese folks I've met at restaurants have been either Buddhist, and aren't interested in Christian material, or they've been Catholics who think Mormons aren't Christian.

But a note to anyone who wants to try this: Sisters in the church have reported to me that they have had success placing Vietnamese/English Books of Mormon at Vietnamese owned nail salons.

Labels: Vietnamese declined