Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: Punjabi declined. Mon, Apr 7, 2008.

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.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Punjabi declined. Mon, Apr 7, 2008.

04/07/2008. 1011. I stopped at a gas station for some gas, and when I pre-paid, I asked the cashier what other languages he spoke. He was from India/Pakistan, and spoke several. He politely but firmly declined my offer of church books in the languages he spoke. I've been to this station before, but hadn't made any placement efforts, and probably haven't talked with him before.

He didn't have a favorable opinion of Christian churches, and declined to receive material on that basis. The interesting thing is that his objections were pretty much along the lines of how the LDS church and many others differ from mainstream Christianity, such as a multiplicity of denominations, hypocrisy, Sunday-only religion, lack of compassion. I wanted to say "But we're different kind of Christians than those other guys", but I didn't. He just plain wasn't interested, and didn't want to waste time reading about Christianity, and I didn't want to contend. Anyway, I basically agree with all his observations. I think that many churches/religions/denominations do suffer from the faults he pointed out.

I'd like to stop by there again and give him opportunity to ask questions and let him continue the conversation if he wants.

Labels: gas station, Punjabi declined