Friday, August 31, 2007

Daily Recap: Urdu followup, Russian-Turkish, Igbo, Punjabi. Fri, Aug 31, 2007.

08/31/2007. Journal Entry. I went back to the restuarant where I had supper Tuesday, where the manager had accepted Urdu and English copies of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet. (The church is currently out of the Urdu Book of Mormon.) I had told her I'd bring back an Urdu Bible. So I took one over, and had lunch there today. She accepted it and an English Bible. I gave her an NIV (New International Version) English Bible, from the International Bible Society.

875. After eating, I went to a discount store near there to buy another pair of pants that they had on sale, but they were out of my size. I bought some other stuff I needed, and when I was checking out, there were two young ladies in line behind me speaking a foreign language in what sounded like an Eastern European accent. After checking out, I loitered near the door, and after they paid, I asked what languages they spoke. One said Russian and Turkish. They accepted my offer of Russian and Turkish books from church, and I asked them to wait there while I went to the car to retrieve them.

They didn't wait long, because by the time I got the books out of the car, they were already in the parking lot, but they were coming towards me anyway. They cheerfully accepted the books, and also eagerly accepted the English copy too.

876. Igbo-speaking Nigerian man at Post Office. One of his friends had given him an English copy of the Book of Mormon, but he left the book back home in Nigeria. He gratefully and enthusiastically accepted the Igbo and English copies I gave him.

877. Clerk at convenience store. Punjabi and English copies of Gospel Fundamentals.

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Language Material Listings now available for download.

The church's "Language Material Listings" are now available for download from www.ldscatalog.com. If that link doesn't take you directly there, go to their main page, click on "Other Language Materials" then click on "List of Available Items by Language." There are 164 languages listed, including English Braille and Spanish Braille.

These items list all the materials that are available in a given language. The first three things available are usually the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet, Gospel Fundamentals (aka Gospel Principles Simplified), and the Book of Mormon.

For a list of which languages have a Book of Mormon translation, click here, or my page here. There are 106 languages, plus English Braille and Spanish Braille.

Here are the languages which have any church material available. The last 3 digits of the Catalog # are the 3 digit country code in the LDS cataloging system. Download these files here.

Catalog # Name

93015500 Afar
93015501 Afrikaans
93015502 Akan-Fante (aka Fante)
93015503 Akan-Twi (aka Twi, aka Twi-Asante)
93015101 Albanian
93015506 Amharic
93015102 Arabic
93015201 Armenian (East)
93015104 Armenian (West)
93015014 Aymara
93015514 Bambara
93015515 Banda
93015520 Baule
93015114 Belarussian
93015522 Bemba
93015242 Bengali (aka Bangla)
93015851 Bikolano (aka Bikol)
93015852 Bislama
93015112 Bulgarian
93015256 Burmese
93015019 Cakchiquel
93015258 Cambodian
93015267 Cantonese Chinese, audio-video material.
93015115 Catalan
93015853 Cebuano
93015855 Chamorro
93015265 Chinese written in Traditional Characters, for both Mandarin and Cantonese
93015266 Chinese written in Simplified Characters, for both Mandarin and Cantonese
93015539 Comorian
93015541 Crioulo
93015119 Croatian
93015121 Czech
93015110 Danish
93015275 Divehi
93015120 Dutch
93015553 Efik
93015124 Estonian
93015559 Ewe (pronounced EH-veh)
93015561 Fang
93015858 Fijian
93015130 Finnish
93015562 Fon
93015140 French
93015563 Fula (aka Fulani)
93015565 Futa
93015150 German
93015859 Gilbertese
93015133 Greek
93015033 Guarani
93015036 Haitian-Creole
93015584 Hausa
93015860 Hawaiian
93015861 Hiligaynon (aka Ilonggo)
93015294 Hindi
93015295 Hmong
93015135 Hungarian
93015190 Icelandic
93015593 Igbo (aka Ibo)
93015864 Ilokano (aka Iloku)
93015299 Indonesian
93015160 Italian
93015300 Japanese
93015308 Kannada
93015043 Kekchi
93015613 Kikongo
93015617 Kirundi
93015618 Kisii
93015320 Korean
93015868 Kosraean
93015624 Kpelle
93015044 Kuna
93015331 Laotian
93015153 Latvian
93015639 Lingala
93015156 Lithuanian
93015644 Luganda
93015654 Malagasy
93015348 Malay
93015349 Malayalam
93015655 Malinke (Mandinka)
93015159 Maltese
93015046 Mam
93015268 Mandarin Chinese, audio-video material
93015871 Maori
93015355 Marathi
93015874 Marshallese
93015669 Mauritian
93015048 Maya
93015363 Mongolian (in Russian/Cyrillic alphabet)
93015681 Moore (Mossi)
93015054 Navajo
93015687 Ndebele
93015878 Neomelanesian
93015372 Nepali
93015880 Niuean
93015025 Nivacle
93015170 Norwegian
93015881 Palauan
93015882 Pampango
93015883 Pangasinan
93015058 Papiamento
93015381 Pashto
93015382 Persian (aka Farsi)
93015885 Pohnpeian
93015166 Polish
93015059 Portuguese
93015386 Punjabi (in Hindi script)
93015060 Quechua-Bolivia
93015061 Quechua-Peru
93015062 Quiche
93015064 Quichua-Ecuador
93015886 Rarotongan
93015171 Romanian
93015887 Rotuman
93015716 Ruandan
93015173 Russian
93015890 Samoan
93015202 Serbian
93015731 Shona
93015408 Sinhala
93015176 Slovak
93015177 Slovenian
93015891 Solomonese
93015734 Somali (Af Maxaa dialect)
93015739 Sotho South
93015004 Spanish Braille
93015002 Spanish
93015066 Sranan
93015743 Swahili
93015744 Swahili-Shaba
93015745 Swazi
93015180 Swedish
93015893 Tagalog
93015895 Tahitian
93015418 Tamil
93015421 Telugu
93015425 Thai
93015427 Tibetan
93015900 Tongan
93015901 Trukese (aka Chuukese)
93015760 Tshiluba
93015763 Tswana
93015186 Turkish
93015902 Tuvaluan
93015069 Tzotzil
93015192 Ukrainian
93015434 Urdu
93015435 Vietnamese
93015904 Waray (aka Samarenyo)
93015194 Welsh
93015072 Western Carib Creole
93015773 Wolof
93015774 Xhosa
93015905 Yapese
93015779 Yoruba
93015783 Zulu

So what I'm suggesting, is that if you have a non-LDS friend who speaks one of those languages, download the listing, see whats available, buy a copy of something in that language, and offer it to your friend.

Aside from the Book of Mormon, you have to place orders for languages other than English/Spanish/French by phone. They don't have all the foreign language stuff available on the internet. To order by phone call the LDS Distribution Center at 801-240-3800. (Save the church a buck if you have free long distance.) Or toll-free at 800-537-5971.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Chinese Liahona at restaurant. Wed, Aug 29, 2007.

08/29/2007. 874. I took the zone leaders (young men in their early 20's who serve two years as full time missionaries, and who supervise a "zone" or region of other missionaries) to lunch at a Chinese restaurant around the corner from where they live.

We ordered, and as we sat down, I asked the cashier where their family was from. She said "Fuji." I still haven't figured out if that is a place other than China, or is a province or city in China. I've been to two other restaurants where the owners have said they are from "Fuji" and speak "Fuji."

I believe we also had a little communication barrier, in that when she saw the Chinese Book of Mormon, she thought it was a Bible, and said she already had one from a church down the street. The symbol used to translate "Book" in the title of the Book of Mormon, literally means "holy book", and is the same symbol used to translate the word "Bible." So the title of the Book of Mormon in Chinese reads "Mormon Bible," and this seems to cause confusion at first glance, and requires additional explanation before they get the idea of what it really is.

Anyway, she did accept a Chinese Liahona magazine, but declined the English edition of the same issue. Because we weren't communicating that well, I did not emphasize or try to push the ESL aspect of reading the English along with the Chinese. I also figured that the missionaries could follow up later, in a week or so, therefore there was no urgent need to place any more material in that visit.

One of the zone leaders is from Samoa. So I gave him a Samoan Book of Mormon, and encouraged him to be on the lookout for any Pacific Islanders. I told the elders about the time I met a couple Samoans at a laundromat.

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Urdu at restaurant (Church out of Urdu BoM.) Tue, Aug 28, 2007.

08/28/2007. 873. The manager of the restaurant where I had supper spoke four languages, Urdu, Punjabi, Arabic, and English.

The Punjabi material that the church has (the Gospel Fundamentals Sunday school manual, and the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet) is written in a Hindi script. But Punjabi-speakers from Pakistan use a modified Arabic script for Punjabi, so she couldn't read the church's Punjabi material. She's not the first person I've run into who has explained this. The Punjabi language being written in several different scripts is explained here.

She wasn't interested in Arabic material, but she did want Urdu material.

Unfortunately, I'm all out of give-away copies of the Urdu Book of Mormon. I have two left, one of which is on display somewhere, and one copy I want to keep in case I need to make photocopies. I don't get any response when I write to the Salt Lake Distribution center about it.

So I gave her an Urdu and English copy of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet. I also offered her an Arabic/English bilingual (diglot) Bible, but she asked if I had any in Urdu. I did, but they were back home. I had bought a couple Urdu Bibles from the International Bible Society. So I told her I'd bring her one next time. I'll make a special trip there to give her one.

Update: December 2007. The church has come out with the full Urdu Book of Mormon.

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Monday, August 27, 2007

Day's recap. Mon, Aug 27, 2007.

08/27/2007. Just a recap. Will expand later. I was on the other side of town running errands, then on the way back...

868. Punjabi Gospel Fundamentals and Punjabi Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet to clerk at gas station.

869. Hindi and English copies of BoM at a restaurant.

---. Journal Entry. English only clerk at convenience store. Was going to but chickened out at last moment.

870. LDS edition (English) KJV Bible, English BoM and 2 DVDs (Lamb of God and Special Witnesses of Christ) to a man sitting on his porch with lady and kids. I ignored a feeling to stop three times, then finally drove back and spoke. Turned out he actually wanted the material and was interested.

871. 2 DVDs to two clerks at convenience store. Asked her why she was so happy at the end of a long shift. The Testaments and Our Heavenly Father's Plan.

Journal Entry. Stopped at a single adult FHE on way home, a chapel was near last placement.

872. Urdu BoM and Urdu/English Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet to clerk at gas station.

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Sunday, August 26, 2007

Twi to temple worker. Sun, Aug 26, 2007.

08/26/2007. Journal entry. I was at a fireside for Single Adults here in Indianapolis. The speaker was a counselor in the presidency of a nearby temple. During his talk he mentioned that he and his wife served a mission in Ghana. After his talk we chatted a bit about the Book of Mormon in two of the Ghanaian languages, Fante and Twi, and then I went out to my car and retrieved a Book of Mormon in Twi, and gave it to him.

I encouraged him to keep it in his car, and said if he did so, he'd likely meet someone who spoke Twi. He was friendly and smiled, but acted like my idea was a little "out there."

Later that night I emailed him and told him more of my story. I included in the email the name and phone number of a sister in a neighboring stake (the stake in between my stake and his home stake) who is from the same European country as his wife.

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Book of Mormon is the greatest missionary literature.

Elder Richard G. Scott wrote in an article published in the October 1984 issue of the Ensign magazine: "It is my personal witness that the Book of Mormon is the greatest missionary literature in the Church, and that we can significantly increase convert baptisms by more effective use of the Book of Mormon in our proselyting activities."

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Sunday, August 19, 2007

Igbo to members. Sun, Aug 19, 2007.

08/19/2007. Journal entry. Yesterday, at the evening session of Stake Conference, the YSA branch president invited me to attend a fireside to be held tonight for the YSA's in the region. (I'm not YSA. I'm way past that age.) One of the speakers was to be a returned missionary from Nigeria. He's originally from Nigeria, and served in Ghana for his mission, and is now studying and working in the US. He's only in town for the summer with a sales job, and then goes back to Idaho.

So I met him and another Nigerian member who is here for the summer before the fireside, and got their names and cell phone numbers, and their permission to give out their names and numbers to any Nigerian people whom I meet, and who might be interested in the church.

After the fireside, I gave them each an Igbo and English pair of copies of the Book of Mormon to keep in their car, and give out to any Igbo speaking people they might run into.

I also gave one the phone number of a local bishop who has an Igbo-speaking lady from Nigeria in his ward, in hopes that they'll be able to visit her and give her encouragement.

The one who spoke gave a great talk about how his family joined the church, and some of his mission stories, and about how much early members of the church in Africa have sacrificed to be part of the gospel.

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Saturday, August 18, 2007

Romanian declined at grocery store. Sat, Aug 18, 2007.

08/18/2007. 867. I was shopping at a grocery store that was on the way home, after leaving the evening session of Stake Conference. In the store, I passed by two young adult men, 20-somethings, who appeared to be brothers and were speaking a foreign language. They came out of the store just a few seconds after I did, and so I asked them in the parking lot what languages they spoke other than English. They said Romanian. I offered them a free book in Romanian from my church, and one asked what church. After I answered, he said "We're Orthodox" in a tone that indicated he was declining the offer. I wanted to continue the discussion, but the tone of his "We're Orthodox" response was rather dismissive, so I didn't intrude any more upon them.

I did give the other young man a customized pass-along card, so they have something in case they get curious. I like those over the standard ones because it also says "Available in over 100 languages", whereas the church-produced cards don't mention foreign languages.

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Friday, August 17, 2007

Twi x2 at store. Fri, Aug 17, 2007.

08/17/2007. 866. I found this "international market" two days ago after eating at a Chinese restaurant. Instead of going directly home, I felt like exploring further down the street, and discovered it. It's not too far from where I live, and must be relatively new since I've been up and down that street plenty of times before.

So today while I was on my way home from another direction, I made a point of taking this street and stopping by and buying some food.

The owner and another customer at the store were from Ghana and spoke Twi, so I offered them the Book of Mormon and Gospel Fundamentals, which they eagerly and gratefully accepted. I had two copies of the Twi Book of Mormon, so they each got that plus an English copy. I only had one copy of Twi Gospel Fundamentals, so I gave that and the English Gospel Fundamentals to the customer, since I could easily go back and see the owner again at the store.

We chit-chatted a bit and talked about churches.

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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Chinese at restaurant. Follow-up. Wed, Aug 15, 2007.

08/15/2007. Journal entry. Follow-up to #805. I had a late supper at a restaurant where I last ate March 20th of this year. Tonight I gave my waitress a Chinese copy and the corresponding English copy of the Liahona magazine. She took it to the cashier's station.

On the way out I asked the cashier if she had read any of the stuff I left last time, and she said only a little. I offered her some more videos, and she said okay. There was a Spanish-speaking customer at the cashier station, and I chit-chatted with him a bit in Spanish.

I brought back in some videos, and gave her Finding Happiness, Our Heavenly Father's Plan, and Together Forever. I gave the Spanish-speaking gentleman Special Witnesses of Christ.

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Took missionaries to restaurant. Wed, Aug 15, 2007.

08/15/2007. Journal Entry. I took two Spanish-speaking elders, who are assigned to the ward which shares our chapel, to a Mexican restaurant during their 3pm-5pm lunch break. I explained that I'd pay for their lunch if they offered a Bible and Book of Mormon to the waitress, and they could ask for an appointment or whatever else they felt inspired to do.

We had a nice lunch, and during one of the waitress's trips to the table, one of the Elders presented the Spanish Bible and the Spanish Book of Mormon to her.

She accepted the two books and agreed to an appointment for the missionaries to come by her house on her day off, but moved on to serve others before they could get her address. I gave one of the elders money to go pay the check, and when they went to the cashier to pay, one of them got her address and made an appointment.

On the way out, the elders greeted a couple guys playing pool, and ended up giving them a couple church videos on DVD, and getting an appointment with them too.

After we got back to their apartment, I gave them some supplies of Spanish Bibles, Spanish copies of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, and a few old copies of Spanish Liahona magazines, along with some copies of the info-flyer that I use (that has all the local chapel addresses on it.)

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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Do 3 things, ask 3 questions.

The simplest distillation of how I give out material is this.

Do three things: Eat out, shop, do laundry.

Ask three questions: Where are you from? What languages do you speak? Would you like a free book in your language?

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Saturday, August 11, 2007

Day trip. 5 people, 9 languages. Sat, Aug 11, 2007.

Some repeated spiritual impressions over the past year or more led me to take this day trip to a major city East of Indianapolis. First it was the city that came to mind. As I browsed the chapel locator at www.lds.org for chapels in that city, I received an impression for a certain ward. I then went to the online maps, and to www.anywho.com to look up Asian restaurants (Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese) near there. I found a particular Thai restaurant online, not far from that chapel, and that seemed to be my intended destination.

The feeling that I needed to make the trip persisted for at least a year, but I never "got around to it." Yesterday (Friday) I got a "go" signal, and knew that today was the day I had to make the trip. Looking back, I should have gone sooner on my own volition instead of waiting for a sense or urgency to hit.

08/11/2007. 862. After leaving Indianapolis and going a few miles down the Interstate I needed to make a stop for gas. As I drove down the exit, a store's sign on the side of their building caught me eye, and I felt drawn to it. So I went to that little shopping center first. I didn't see any stores that caught my attention, so I went to the store that had the sign. It's the kind of store that I would normally browse at because I'm interested in that sort of merchandise anyway. So I was wondering if the attention the sign generated was my own interest for that kind of stuff, or a spiritual tug.

Anyway, I bought something at that store, and started to leave that shopping center. However, one of the other stores in that shopping center now stood out, and now I felt an attaction to go there. It was the nail salon. I had seen it going in, but I don't normally make cold-calls at nail salons unless there's a spiritual prompting. I thought of leaving again, but the spiritual attraction to that store was clear.

I took Vietnamese and English Liahonas (of same issue) and went in. They didn't have any customers, so it was a good time. A teenage girl greeted me, and I offered the magazines. She called to an adult male in back, and he came out, and I offered the magazines to him. The man and the girl were very humble. The man didn't seem very Americanized. He showed genuine interest and gratitude for the reading material.

08/11/2007. Journal entry. A few exits down the road. I forget why I took this exit. I bought a pocket voice-recorder/note-taker, but I need to learn to keep it at the ready to record notes on the fly. I think I just bought some soda pop here. However, on my way back to the highway, I felt tugged to take a side road to another strip mall, and found a Chinese buffet at the end of it. If you go to the furthest gas station at the exit, you still wouldn't have seen it, you'd have to go down the road past all the gas stations to see it. This exit is still within driving distance for a lunch or dinner from Indy, so it's on my list of places to visit.

08/11/2007. 863. The Thai restaurant was really nice. The hostess was Chinese, and the waiter was Thai. I gave a Thai and an English Book of Mormon, and Thai and English copies of the Liahona to the waiter. He gratefully accepted them, and put them aside. However, a little later another family member came along and browsed them. The other family member indicated she had a Mormon friend and had seen the English Book of Mormon before, but not the Thai translation. After I finished eating and paid, I went out to the car and brought back in Traditional Chinese and English copies of the Book of Mormon for the waitress.

In addition to the Indianapolis information flyer in the material, I made a 4x6 card with the name, address, and phone number of the LDS mission office in that city, and put it in the material.

08/11/2007. 864. After leaving the restaurant I saw a nail salon. I'm not sure if it was a prompting or not, but decided to make a cold-call there. The man at the front desk graciously accepted Vietnamese and English copies of the Book of Mormon.

I saw a couple Chinese buffet restaurants in that shopping complex, and made note for possible future visits. This city is a possible way-point for further trips East, so it's likely I'll have opportunity to stop here again.

08/11/2007. 865. After leaving the nail salon, the idea of finding an Indian/Pakistani or Asian grocery store came to mind. This was not a prompting, but just an idea that presented itself. Since this was not a short distance from home, I was hoping there'd be more than just the one restaurant opportunity.

I drove down the main road, away from the Interstate looking to see if such a place were visible from the road. I went a comfortable distance and didn't see any. On the way back to the Interstate I pulled into a couple of strip malls looking for an Asian or Indian store, but didn't find any.

I got back onto the main road, and took it across the Interstate in the opposite direction to see what was over there. I saw the sign for one of my favorite gas stations, for which I have a pre-paid card, so I pulled off the main road to a side street. And just beyond a little rise, there it was, an Indian/Pakistani store.

Sometimes the Spirit works that way, not actually telling you something, and not making it obvious that the message is from him, but just putting an idea or concept in your head to see what you'll do with it. Joseph Smith called it "sudden strokes of ideas" on page 151 in "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" (or at amazon.com).

This guy was really cool, and helped me out in selecting some Indian music. I previously purchased a couple cds of classical Indian music, and liked it. I had even listened to one of the Indian cds on the trip over. I bought some food staples here that I needed anyway (including some sugary snacks that I like, but really didn't need the calories).

There were no other customers so we had a chance to chat and sample some of the music cds he had for sale. He spoke and read a bunch of languages, including Spanish, so we switched to Spanish for a little bit, and he was conversant in it. He told me what languages he spoke/read, so I went out to the car to get him some books, but he followed me out anyway.

It was getting close to closing time, and while we were standing outside some customers came into his store, so we said our goodbyes, and he took his stack of books inside.

He was very excited to get all that reading material.

He has some really interesting stories and life experiences. I hope I can continue in contact with him.

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Friday, August 10, 2007

Vietnamese declined at restaurant. Fri, Aug 10, 2007.

08/10/2007. 861. On the way to an evening meeting, I stopped at a Vietnamese restaurant that I haven't eaten at before. I was reading an English technical manual, but I also put a couple copies of the Liahona magazine, one Vietnamese and one English, on the table. When the waitress came to clear my plates, I offered her the Vietnamese magazine, but she politely declined.

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Thursday, August 09, 2007

Twi declined at store. Thu, Aug 9, 2007.

08/09/2007. 860. After supper I stopped at a store to get something to drink on the way home. I wasn't going to stop there, but kind of felt I should. Then I saw that they were about to close, again thought of leaving, but again just felt like I should go there.

When I got into a check-out line, the couple ahead of me looked like they were from Africa, so I asked what country they were from. The lady responded saying they were from Ghana, and I asked if she spoke Twi. She said yes, and I offered a free book in Twi from my church. She politely declined, but we continued to chit-chat a bit about the church. We exchanged cards, so I may visit her store/business.

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Chinese at Restaurant, Thu, Aug 9, 2007.

08/09/2007. 859. There was a coupon ad for a new Chinese buffet restaurant included in a coupon mailer package.

The restaurant is only a few minutes away, not in my neighborhood, but in a nearby commercial district, so I decided to have late supper there.

I took in my "restaurant book bag," and sat at a booth. I got my first plate of food before putting anything out. All I got out at first was a recent Liahona magazine, and the same issue in the Chinese edition.

The Chinese edition caught the eye of the waitress when she came to take away a plate and refill my drink, but she didn't say anything. The next time she came by she looked at it again, and I asked if she like to read in Chinese. She said yes. I asked where she was from and she named a city in mainland China, so I got out a Simplified Chinese edition of the Book of Mormon, an English Book of Mormon, and a bilingual English/Simplified Chinese New Testament.

She quickly flipped through both copies of the Book of Mormon and the bilingual New Testament. It took a while to get across that they were free and that I wanted to give them to her, but I finally remembered the Chinese words I had been taught, "gay nee" for "give you", and "mien fay" for "free" or "no money."

She was very interested, and accepted all the material (both copies of the Book of Mormon, the bilingual New Testament and both magazines). After leaving my table, she browsed it more in depth, checking out the list of chapels and the pass-along cards, and apparently spoke with one of the other employees about it.

As I walked past the waitress station to/from the buffet tables, I thought I saw some other bilingual ESL material, so she probably picked up on the ESL nature and is already eager to improve her English reading. Anyway, she seemed pretty happy and excited about the material, and the religious nature didn't turn her off at all.

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How to waste less time on the Net, poor man's web filter.

Here is a quick-n-dirty way to make your own web filter.

There is (or should be) a file in your C:\WINDOWS directory called "HOSTS" with no extension. This is a plain text file and you can use a text editor like Notepad or Wordpad to edit it.

Add the following lines at the end of the "HOSTS" file. Prior to editing it would be a good idea to back up this file by copying (or "save-as"-ing) to another file, say "HOSTS.1" or "HOSTS.BAK"

-------- cut here --------------------------
216.49.176.33 www.bycommonconsent.com
216.49.176.33 bycommonconsent.com
216.49.176.33 www.timesandseasons.org
216.49.176.33 timesandseasons.org
216.49.176.33 www.millennialstar.org
216.49.176.33 millennialstar.org
216.49.176.33 www.bloggernacle.org
216.49.176.33 bloggernacle.org
216.49.176.33 snarkernackle.blogspot.com
216.49.176.33 video.google.com
216.49.176.33 www.youtube.com
216.49.176.33 youtube.com
216.49.176.33 www.flickr.com
216.49.176.33 flickr.com
216.49.176.33 www.ldsblogs.org
216.49.176.33 www.ldselect.org
-------- cut here ------

You get the idea. :-)

Make sure your browser is closed. Then the next time you start your browser, or re-boot, the changes will take effect.

216.49.176.33 is the "IP address" of www.lds.org. What happens is that whenever someone tries to browse to any of those web sites, they will be taken to www.lds.org instead.

Friday, August 03, 2007

French, Wolof at gas station. Fri, Aug 3, 2007.

08/03/2007. 858. I stopped by the gas station I was at on Wednesday to drop off the Ewe(pronounced "EH-veh") translation of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet. The man wasn't there, but he had said I could leave it with another employee to give to him.

The cashier on duty said she'd give it to him, and she spoke with a beautiful accent, so I asked if she spoke French also. She did, and when I asked where she was from, she said Senegal. I asked (in French) if she spoke Wolof, and she said yes. I said (in Wolof) that I only speak a little Wolof. She got a real kick out of that, and said I was the first white person she's ever met in the US who spoke Wolof. That really made her day.

That's about all the Wolof and French I know, so I switched back to English, and offered her a free copy of our church's Sunday School manual (Gospel Fundamentals) in Wolof. She agreed to see it, so I went back to my car and got out a Wolof Gospel Fundamentals, English Gospel Fundamentals, French Book of Mormon, English Book of Mormon, and a couple of DVDs with French audio tracks "Together Forever" and "Introduction to the Church."

She accepted it all, and we continued to chit-chat with another customer, who was a friend of hers joining in the conversaion.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

French, German, Ewe at gas station. Wed, Aug 1, 2007.

08/01/2007. 857. I stopped at a gas station to buy some gas and soda pop. The cashier was from a country in Western Africa. He spoke English, French, German, and Ewe. I offered him church materials in those languages and he accepted, and specifically asked for a French Bible. I gave him a French New Testament, and French, English and German copies of the Book of Mormon. I was out of Ewe translations of the Joseph Smith Testimony, but I have some back home, and I said I'd drop some off at his gas station later in the week.

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Books and referrals to mission office. Wed, Aug 1, 2007.

08/01/2007. Journal entry. I took the sheets we used at the Festival on Saturday to record contacts, material delivered, and follow-up requests to the Mission Office. I gave it to the office missionary in charge of referrals. And gave her a Russian Book of Mormon for the person who requested one. She then asked for an Arabic Book of Mormon, and I retreived one from my car for her.

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