I need a vacation (from blogging).

Writing this blog doesn't take up much time. I probably spend more time checking my statistics and tracking service (www.sitemeter.com), visiting the blogs that link to mine, hovering the cursor over the search engine referrals in the log to see what search words people used, and clicking the search engine referral to see where I rank, than I actually do writing things on my own blog.

Oh, and there are five other blogs I check on a daily basis (or more often), leaving comments on various posts. I write more on other blogs (in comments) than I post on mine.

I sit down to "check my stats", and if I don't get up and away from the computer immediately after doing that, I end up spending two or more hours galavanting around blog-land. ARGH!

I've heard this problem euphemistically described as being an "information junkie", but I think a more honest and accurate label is "internet addict."

I'm still going to keep church material in my car to distribute, but I'm going to stop blogging about it for a while, and see how that goes. I've removed the stats-counter code from the blog template so I won't be tempted to "check my stats", which seems to be my main entry point into this time-sink.

I thank those of you who've let me know that you were inspired by the encounters I've written about. I've been extremely complimented by the 58 other people who've linked to me from their blog.

As parting words, I want to point out that most (like around 90% of) people whose native language is not English are very interested, and even delighted to receive free material in their native language plus English (bi-lingual material essentially). This is true even though the material is from a different religion than their own.

Other points:

- Striking up a conversation with someone about where they are from and what languages they speak is a legitimate form of interaction. People are usually proud of their heritage, and it is okay to talk about it.

- I have focused on "making the offer". I don't "give" things to people cold. I verbally offer them material, and only if they agree to receive it or to see it, do I actually hand it to them, or retrieve it from the car. As an article in the Ensign once pointed out, if we consider "making the offer" as "success", we can then maintain our own positive attitude.

- In making the offer, I emphasize two things: 1) it's free, 2) it's religious/Christian in nature. That way, you avoid the common assumption that you're selling something, and the person is not surprised or disappoined when they later see that it is religious.

- You can get a quick list in MS-Word format of the 105 (106 now, please add "Serbian") Book of Mormon languages on this page, www.indymormon.org/files/index.html. (Or 109 languages if you count American Sign Language, English Braille and Spanish Braille.) Or on this blog page.

And then all languages of the Church (164 at last count), can be found here. The difference is that some languages only have a "Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith" pamphlet translated, or a "Gosepl Fundamentals."