(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.
The simplest distillation of how I give out material is this.
Labels: ideas
posted by Bookslinger @ 2:43 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Bookslinger-
I've been thinking about this for a long time. Do you ever give out English BOMs? Do you think it is harder?
Matt W.
To answer your literal question, yes, all the time. Just about every foreign-language speaker also receives an English copy. It's the bilingual/ESL nature that creates the excitement.
But you probably meant to ask if I give out English copies to people who only speak English. The answer to that is yes, but less often.
There are usually three situations where I give out just English to someone who speaks only English.
1. They ask for a copy, or indicate they'd like to read the Book of Mormon. This happens. See #669.
There are a few other examples too, but I can't find them right now.
2. The person gives off spiritual light. Do a search on "spiritual light" and you'll find a few entries.
3. The Spirit indicates to offer it to them. This usually happens on road trips, but my last road trip I chickened out several times.
Generally my approach is to offer a Bible first, by saying I like to give out free Bibles. People know what that's about, and can understand someone giving out Bibles. So I give them a Bible if they want one. Then, whether or not they already have a Bible, I offer a free Book of Mormon, saying that we believe in both.
Unfortunately around here we don't have many immigrants except for Mexicans, and they're not always too keen on taking copies (I think probably because Spanish literature is easily accessible, so offering a Spanish book isn't really a big deal).
Joseph: That's pretty much my experience too. My SOP for offering material to Spanish speakers is pretty much the same as for people who speak only English.
Anyway, if you live in a town of 3,000 or more, you probably have at least one Chinese restaurant. They are often interested in bilingual material. You just need to learn the difference between Simplified script and Traditional script Chinese, see here.
bookslinger, you amaze me! each time i check in on your blog, i am moved to tears by how brave and loving and humble you are. you literally amaze me.
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