Wolof at gas station. Fri, May 2, 2008.

05/02/2008. 1016. I was working with some church members, and one suggested I do a follow up at a certain gas station that was going to be on my way to lunch. I had been there at least twice before and placed Wolof and English copies of Gospel Fundamentals*.

So I stopped there on my way to lunch and bought something. There were two employees on duty, who appeared to be from Africa, and who were speaking a foreign language, but I couldn't figure out which language. I guessed French, and asked the one who was not the cashier "Parlez vous francais?". She said "oui." I then asked which country she was from, and she said Senegal. I then asked, in French, if she spoke Wolof, and she said "oui" again. I said, in Wolof, that I spoke a little Wolof, and she broke out into a big smile. Meeting someone who spoke any Wolof at all really made their day.

I assumed that the cashier was her husband. I asked him, in English, if he'd like a free book in Wolof from my church, our Sunday School manual. I asked if they were Muslim, and they were, and then I pointed out it was Christian material, and asked if that was still okay, and it was okay with them. They agreed to see it, so after I paid I went out to my car to retrieve the material. The lady went out to empty some trash, so she stopped by my car on the way in, and I gave the material to her. She was delighted to receive it and immediately started flipping through it.

I offered a French Book of Mormon, and some church movies with French audio, but she politely declined. Actually she said "that's okay", which Americans mean as "no", but I suppose she could have meant it as "it's okay for you to give them to me." I'll have to ask for clarification next time, as I may have misunderstood what she meant by that.

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* Note: English Gospel Fundamentals isn't listed at www.ldscatalog.com any more, but the catalog number is 31129-000 if you want to order by phone. It is the shortened version of Gospel Principles. Gospel Principles has 47 chapters and Gospel Fundamentals has 36. In languages where they haven't translated the Book of Mormon yet, they first translate Gospel Fundamentals, so I use the English version to pair with it, in order to make it into bilingual material. Another thing to note is that the church has renamed this publication, which used to be name "Gospel Principles (Simplified)". You'll find the latter name "Gospel Principles (Simplified)" on the older copies, and on many of the Lanauage Material Listings.