English at gas station. Sat, Sep 26, 2009.

09/26/2009. 1191. I was in another town for a church fair. Before leaving that town I felt inspired to stop at a certain gas station. I went in and purchased some soda. I was the only customer so I had opportunity to talk to the cashier. I said I liked to give out Bibles and I asked if he'd like a free one. He wasn't too enthusiastic, but said okay. I went out to my car and brought back in a plastic zip-lock bag containing an inexpensive Kings James Bible, and an English Book of Mormon. I presented the Bible and he accepted it. I pointed out the 3 pass-along cards I had put inside the front cover. He asked which church, so I told him The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I then showed him the Book of Mormon, and said we used it along with the Bible, and asked if he'd like a free copy. Again, he wasn't enthusiastic, but he politely and graciously accepted it.

Chinese/English to members. Sat, Sep 26, 2009.

09/26/2009. Journal Entry. I was at a church-fair in another town, where the local wards or stake were putting on the fair. There was a booth on Spirituality, featuring various religious texts, such as the Bible, Koran, Book of Mormon, etc.

In my conversation with the young couple who staffed the booth, I found out they like to eat at Chinese restaurants. I told them about some of my efforts to offer people foreign language editions of the Book of Mormon. I offered to give them Chinese and English copies for them to take to a Chinese restaurant and they accepted the challenge, so I went to my car and retrieved a pair and present the books to them. I gave them a 2 minute explanation of how I do it. They seemed excited about it.

Cambodian at store. Mon, Sep 21, 2009

09/21/2009. 1190. I was shopping at a store, and the clerk who served me was a very personable and intelligent young adult. He appeared Asian, so I asked where his family was original from. He said he was born here, but his parents were from Cambodia. I took a gamble and asked if he'd like some free Cambodian material from my church so his parents could have something to read in Cambodian. He said sure. I may have asked if he had heard of the Book of Mormon already, but I forget. He did say it was okay to give the material to him at the store. So I retrieved Cambodian and English copies of the Book of Mormon from the car and went back in and present them and he graciously accepted them.

Swahili at store. Wed, Sep 16, 2009.

09/16/2009. 1189. I was shopping at a dollar store, and the man in front of me in the check-out line appeared African, so I asked where his family was originally from. He said Kenya. He spoke Swahili in addition to English. So I offered him Swahili and English copies of the Book of Mormon. We continued to chat a while. After we paid, we went outside, and he was parked close to my car. I got the Swahili and English copies out of the trunk of my car and present them to him, and we chatted some more. It was a pleasant encounter.

Bangladeshis are smart!

To save power, Bangladesh bans suits and ties among government employees.

Another smart Bangladeshi, Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered micro-credit loans.

I hope they read the Bengali Book of Mormon.

Wolof and French at store. Tue, Sep 8, 2009.

09/08/2009. 1188. While on my way to a restaurant, I discovered an African grocery store that I hadn't been to before. I stopped in to browse and buy something. Two of the employees were from Senegal. They accepted my offer of church material in Wolof. But when I went out to the car, I found out I hadn't put those boxes back in the car after taking them out to make room for passengers earlier in the week.

But I still had my case of Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlets. One man accepted Wolof and English copies of that pamphlet. The other guy, with whom I spoke later, accepted copies of the same, plus a French and an English Book of Mormon, and a "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD that has a French audio track.

Asian languages at bank. Tue, Sep 8, 2009.

09/08/2009. 1187. I was at the bank. The customer at the next window over appeared Asian, and he was being chatty with the teller. So after we were both done, I started a conversation with him based on something he said to the teller. It turned out he spoke Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and German. He accepted my offer for copies of the Book of Mormon in those languages, plus English. He was parked just a couple spots over from me, so it was easy to hand them to him from the trunk of my car. He seemed genuinely appreciative of the gifts.

Russian at EQ picnic. Mon, Sep 7, 2009.

09/07/2009. 1186. Our elders' quorum had a picnic on Labor Day. We used a picnic shelter next to a playground in the community area where a few members live.

A woman who I did not recognize as a member of the ward came to the picnic shelter and sat down on one of the benches while supervising her daughter in the play area. I encouraged one of the sisters at the picnic to greet her, which she did. She wasn't a member, but lived in the area and had just come to supervise her daughter play while she organized some papers.

As with most picnics, there was plenty of food, so after a while, I also approached her and suggested she could help herself to any of the food. She politely declined.

I detected an accent in her speech, so I asked her where her family was originally from. She said Russia, so I explained that we were a church group, and that our church had some free material in Russian if she'd like to read some. Since many Russian immigrants are Jewish, I asked if she was Jewish, and she said yes, but she still accepted the offer of material.

I excused myself to retrieve the material from my car, and to my horror, I discovered that I had not restocked the car with another Russian Book of Mormon after giving out my previous copy. But I still had a Russian Liahona, a Russian Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet, and a "Together Forever" DVD (which has a Russian audio track) in the car.

I took them back to the picnic area. She politely accepted the Russian Liahona, and Russian and English copies of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet. She declined the "Together Forever" DVD. I wrote the mission office phone number on one of them. One of the sisters joined in the conversation, saying her brother recently got back from a mission in Russia, and she wrote his phone number down for her too.

Bengali at store. Pass-along card. Thu, Sep 3, 2009.

09/03/2009. 1185. While shopping at a department store I noticed a man who appeard to be from South Asia (ie, the Indian sub-continent). I stopped to ask him where he was from, and he said Bangladesh. He seemed busy, so I didn't want to make him wait while I went out to get a Book of Mormon from my car, so I offered him a customized business card size pass-along card that I had in my wallet. He politely accepted it. I explained that the Book of Mormon was available in a Bengali translation, and I said he could call the 800 number and get a free copy of one in Bengali and in English if he wanted. He was very polite, and it was a pleasant encounter.

I have to give the Lord credit for this. I was driving down the Interstate on my way home, and I felt a spiritual impression to shop for shirts at this store. And I was in need of a few new dress shirts. So not only did I get some nice shirts on sale at a ridiculously low price (I didn't even know the store was having a sale), I was able to make a contact to boot!