Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: English at fitness center. Fri, May 29, 2009.

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 29, 2009

English at fitness center. Fri, May 29, 2009.

05/29/2009. 1150. I had gone to check something at my apartment's fitness center, not working out. I was in street clothes, not workout clothes. A 60-ish lady who I didn't recognize came in to exercise. She was a smiley person, and gave off a good vibe, kind of like a halo. I struck up a conversation with her, not with a placement in mind, but just to be chatty, and maybe give encouragement and be upbeat about exercising.

I helped her with some exercise and cardio-vascular tips. The conversation gravitated to the book she was reading, and then religion. She's a minister in a protestant church. Then we started talking about the LDS church, and some of the history. At some point she said she'd like to read the Book of Mormon, so I offered to get her one. Since she's a serious Bible student, I also offered her an LDS edition KJV Bible, because it has our footnotes and Topical Guide, which everyone else calls a "concordance." I also offered her the Sunday School manual, Gospel Principles. She agreed to receive all three, so I went to the car and my apartment and got them for her, and we exchanged calling cards.

[Follow-up to this story here.]

Labels: English, gym