Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: Shona at gas station. Fri, May 30, 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.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Shona at gas station. Fri, May 30, 2008.

05/30/2008. 1028. I was out running errands on the other side of town and stopped to get gas at a gas station where I've met several cashiers who were from Africa. I paid at the pump, fueled up and went inside to get a soda. I hadn't met this cashier before. He was from Zimbabwe and spoke Shona. He agreed to receive a Shona Book of Mormon, and I thought I had one in the car, but on looking for it in the trunk of my car, I realized I had forgotten to restock the car after the last one I gave out a week ago.

I went back in and gave him just a flyer, that lists the languages of the Book of Mormon, and our local chapels. I included my name and phone number, and also the name and number of a local member from Zimbabwe who said I could give out his information to other Zimbabweans. I said I'd be back within a week to get the book for him, and he said it was okay to leave it there with another cashier if he wasn't on duty when I got back.

Followup: The next day, Saturday the 31st, I was back there, and left a Shona and an Ensligh Book of Mormon with the cashier who said he was going to be on duty later in the day.

Labels: gas station, Shona