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.