Yeah! Another slinger of books.

Vearl McBride of Roanoke Virginia has given out hundreds of copies of the Book of Mormon to strangers too. He's been doing it since January 2005. Yippee! I'm not the only one.

Chinese at restaurant, Korean declined. Fri, Apr 24, 2009.

04/24/2009. 1135. I had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant that I haven't been to before. The waitress was so busy that she didn't have time to notice the material that I had laid out on my table, or if she did notice it, she didn't have time to chat. Eventually the owner or manager came by, and when he was about to clear off the plates, he noticed the material and started a conversation about Utah in the news. He accepted a Chinese Liahona, but politely declined to receive a Book of Mormon. When I went to pay, the cashier politely declined material, saying she didn't have time to read.

Arabic, Yoruba at a store. Thu, Apr 23, 2009.

04/23/2009. 1134. I stopped by a store that is run by a former client of mine. It was just a social call. He invited me to come back behind the counter. We socialized a bit in between the time he was serving his customers. One of the customers there spoke with a cool accent. My guess was that he was French speaking, and he was. We started to talk about languages, and he spoke many. I eventually offered him some books from church in whatever languages he wanted. I made sure he knew they were Christian religious books. He requested Arabic and Yoruba. I also asked if he wanted the English translation, and he said okay. So I went out to my car and retreieved an Arabic, a Yoruba, and an English Book of Mormon. I didn't have all my boxes of stuff in there, or I would have offered him a Gospel Fundamentals in one of his other primary languages. I did have a "Together Forever" DVD that has a French audio track, so I threw that in for a bonus. He politely accepted all of them, and quickly flipped through the Arabic and Yoruba.

Ewe at investigator's. Wed, Apr 15, 2009.

04/15/2009. 1133. I was accompanying our ward's missionaries as they were teaching a family from Africa. A friend of the family stopped by for a moment, and during a short conversation he said he knew someone who was a member. I asked if the member had given him anything from the church, and he said no. I offered him a pamphlet in Ewe (his language) that described a little how the church was started (the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet), and he agreed to receive it.

On his way out, I accompanied him and retrieved a copy from my car and presented it to him before he left, and he politely accepted it.

Missed opportunity. Wed, Apr 8, 2009.

04/08/2009. Missed opportunity. I had just left an investigator's home with the missionaries. They were about to pull out of their parking space in their car, and I was about to pull out of my parking space too. A man walking his dog passed by. I felt some sort of desire or need to speak with him. As I pulled away, I felt my attention drawn back to him, and I looked back. In that moment I realized I was fighting a prompting of the Spirit to stop and speak to him. Instead of going back and talking to him, I chickened out and disobeyed. Oh, how much easier it would have been had I just turned off the car and got out before leaving the parking space when the idea first came to mind. Ack. I was handed an opportunity and I blew it.

Chinese at restaurant. Wed, Apr 8, 2009.

04/08/2009. Follow-up with a previous contact. I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant that I haven't been to in over a year. The owner had accepted a Chinese Book of Mormon, a Chinese Liahona and the "Finding Happiness" DVD. Today, the owner was making the rounds in the dining area, and noticed the Chinese Liahona on my table. We struck up a conversation, and I offered it to him and he flipped through it. He accepted it, but declined to receive another church DVD that has Mandarin and Cantonese audio tracks on it.

Now with DIGG-ability.

I've added "Digg" buttons to the posts. And a button in the side bar for the blog as a whole.

John Chipman called to Piura Peru as Mission President.

On February 14, 2009, it was announced in Church News that our Area Authority John J. Chipman was called to serve as a mission president starting in July 2009.

Then on March 7, 2009, it was announced in Church News that he was assigned to the Peru Piura mission. I think it was formerly called the "Chiclayo" mission.

He is currently our Area Authority Seventy, and before that was the Indianapolis North Stake President.

-Update-: The Piura Peru mission address is:

Calle Los Naranjos, Manzana H, Lote 4
Urb. Los Geranios
Piura
Peru, South America.

General Phone (from the US): 011-51-73-310-172

(Note: "011", from the US, gets you international long distance. "51" is Peru's country code. "73" is the area code for Piura, "310-172" is their local phone number.)

-Update-: The Chipmans are now blogging at: calledtoserveperu.blogspot.com.   However, they've made their blog "private," so you will have to write, call, or email them to get permission to access their blog. (And I don't know their email address. Sorry.)

Also see: http://perumissionmoms.blogspot.com/

Yoruba declined at parking lot. Fri, Apr 3, 2009.

04/03/2009. 1132. In the parking lot at the grocery store there were two African men speaking a foreign language. When they had a break in the conversation, I asked what they were speaking. Of the two, one was willing to speak to me, and said it was Yoruba. But he declined to receive a copy of the Yoruba Book of Mormon. Then after I was done at the bakery across the street, they were still there, so I showed the man the Yoruba Book of Mormon, just so he could see it. He did reach out to take it, and then he flipped through it real quick, but handed it back.

Spanish at bakery. Fri, Apr 3, 2009

04/03/2009. 1131. I was getting ready to go to the Single Adults dinner and game night at a chapel, and headed towards a grocery store to buy something for the pot-luck dinner. I noticed a Mexican bakery across the street that was new since the last time I was in that neighborhood. So I parked in the grocery store parking lot and walked over there. I thought I could get some bread or goodies to take. I wasn't even thinking of a book placement as I normally don't offer Spanish material any more, unless there's a clear opening, or unless I receive a spiritual impression to do so.

I spent a few dollars on a variety of stuff. I forget how the conversation started, but I think the owner said something about a church for which he had a flyer on the counter. That opened the door for me to offer him a free Spanish Bible. It turned out that he needed one but didn't know where to buy one. He accepted my offer, so I took my stuff back over to my car and brought back a Spanish and an English Bible, and a Spanish and an English Book of Mormon.

I presented the Spanish Bible, and he gratefully accepted it. I told him he could buy more at Amazon.com, and I gave him the directions to a Mexican Christian bookstore not far from there. I then introduced the Spanish Book of Mormon, and how we use both. He accepted it too. He accepted the English Bible and English Book of Mormon too. He was very appreciative and grateful for the material.

Ukrainian at restaurant. Fri, Apr 3, 2009.

04/03/2009. 1130. I had a late lunch at an ethnic restaurant that I haven't been to in a long while. I forget if I had attempted a book placement here or not. Part way through my meal two young adult women sat at the booth next to mine. They were speaking a language that sounded like Russian. But I picked up the word "Ukrainian" in their conversation, so I supposed that was their language.

I had already paid my tab and was reading a magazine when they got ready to leave. Just before they left I asked if they were speaking Ukrainian. They said yes. So I asked if they still liked to read Ukrainian and they said yes. I then offered a free book from church in Ukrainian, and said I had a copy with me in the car, and offered to show it to them. They were going to shop at the store next door anyway, so they waited a few seconds while I retrieved it from the trunk of my car.

They were very interested and asked a couple questions. I pointed out my calling card inside the book, and the 800 number if they wanted another copy. They didn't want an English copy.

It can matter where you do your laundry. Thu, Apr 2, 2008.

04/02/2008. 1129. Laundry day. I didn't have to do a late night run like normal. So I considered other laundries along the route I was going on to do another errand. I remembered one that I had been to before, but didn't want to go there because it is more expensive and kind of small. However, I received a clear and strong spiritual impression that I was to go there.

It has front-loading washers of various sizes, and I figured I needed the largest size. There were only four of them, and using two of the others was an Hispanic family, who looked like a mom and two daughters of high school age. (Later I learned that the second girl was probably another relative, not a daughter.) So I had a legitimate excuse to be within conversation distance. After I got done loading mine, I started reading the latest Ensign. The family was just a few feet away from me, and one of the daughters was reading something aloud to the other two. I casually looked over, and it was a Spanish Bible. I walked the couple steps over, and asked (in Spanish) if that was the Bible, and they said yes. I said I like to give out Bibles in Spanish to those who need or want them, and I kept a Spanish Bible with me. I asked if anyone in their family or friends would like a Bible, and the mom said that the other girl, the one not reading, had been asking for one.

Soooo...., I walked the three or four steps back to my laundry basket and whipped out the plastic zip-lock bag containing a Spanish paper-back Bible and a Spanish hard-back Book of Mormon. I took out the Bible, and handed it to the girl who had wanted one. Having one "at the ready" like that seemed to impress them. I made some chit-chat, and then introduced the Book of Mormon as another book that the church uses along with the Bible. They agreed to receive that one too. I pointed out the list of chapels inside that included the Spanish branch, and the phone number for the Spanish-speaking missionaries that live near the laundry.

They were definitely interested, and after the conversation, the second girl started reading the introduction pages aloud to the other two.

I talked to them again right before leaving.