Yoruba at fitness center. Wed, Oct 7, 2009.

10/07/2009. 1194. I was working out at the apartment complex's fitness center when a group of three people came in. The man was helping two ladies with their exercises. The man had an accent, but the ladies did not. During a break in their conversation, while the man was within conversation distance with me, I asked where he was from. I guessed wrong at first, but he said he was from Nigeria. When I asked if he was Igbo or Yoruba, he looked surprised that I would know about those languages/groups. I said there were lots of Nigerians in town, and he was aware of that too.

After he went back to helping the other two people he was with, I took a quick break and ran back to my apartment and retrieved a Yoruba copy and an English copy of the Book of Mormon. I put the books next to my machine, and started exercising again.

When he had his two friends busy with their exercises, he came back near me and we conversed some more. I eventually asked him if he still liked to read in Yoruba, and he said yes, so that's when I presented the Yoruba Book of Mormon. He was very excited to see a book in Yoruba, so we talked about it, and about the church for the next half hour or so. There was a flyer in the book listing the local chapels, and I pointed out which one I went to, and which one was where he lived in another part of town.

It really made his day to find something to read in Yoruba. He was very grateful. He mentioned that he hadn't been to any church in a while, and he seemed like he might visit some day.