Thai at restaurant. Tue, June 29, 2010.

06/29/2010. 1243. I had a very nice lunch at a Thai restaurant. I took in just a Thai Liahona. The waitress flipped through it, but didn't want it for herself. But she was real nice about it, and asked the other employees. No one in particular wanted it, but she said I could leave it there in case anyone else did. I assumed she was referrring to other employees who weren't there at the time, or else Thai customers.

Mongolian. Thu, Jun 24, 2010.

06/24/2010. 1242. I saw an Asian lady, and started a conversation by asking what languages she spoke, and she said Mongolian. I asked if she still liked to read in Mongolian and she said yes, so I offered her a free Book of Mormon and a magazine in Mongolian from church, and she agreed to accept them. I retrieved them, along with an English Book of Mormon, and presented them to her. She seemed genuinely interested in them. She was pretty outgoing herself, so she didn't seem to mind that I had started a conversation with her. She even asked some questions about the church, so I got out the info flyer that I put in one of the books and showed her the chapel I go to.

She didn't know any other Mongolians in town, so I gave her the name and number of the other local Mongolian person who I know. He's not LDS but has contacts with local folks from Mongolia. They used to have an informal group that got together, but I haven't spoken with him in a while. I also told her about the young man who I knew from Mongolia who joined the church in 2006, but has since moved.

Chinese at restaurant. Mon, Jun 21, 2010.

06/21/2010. 1241. I had a very late lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant. I had been there before, shortly after it had opened for business, but it was too busy to offer the people anything.

The cashier and cook were taking their mid-afternoon meal break, but they went back to work to take my order and cook it up. After ordering and paying I sat down. I had forgotten whether I had actually offered them anything the previous trip, so I hadn't brought my Asian book bag in. But thinking it was worth a try, I went back out to the car to retrieve it, and placed a Chinese (simplified script) copy and an English copy of the Book of Mormon on my table, while I read my newspaper.

When the young lady brought my food out, she noticed the Chinese Book of Mormon, and said something about it. I asked where she was from, China or Taiwan, and she was from China. I offered her the Book of Mormon, and she was genuinely interested in it. She accepted it after I explained it was free ("mien FAY"). She claimed she didn't know English well enough to receive the English copy, but I illustrated how to read them together, and I think she caught the idea of improving her English that way. So she ended up accepting both. The cook came over and he was interested too.

She asked about the church, and I showed her the information flyer with the list of local chapels. I also wrote down the name and phone number of a Mandarin-speaking member in the neighboring stake.

There were no other customers while I ate most of my meal, and the cook actually started reading the Chinese Book of Mormon that I had given them!

Missed op at store. Fri, Jun 18, 2010.

I was at a big-box store waiting for a clerk to some get some merchandise down from a high shelf. A lady came down the aisle talking in a foreign language on her cell phone. She asked me a question (in English) about something on the opposite side of the aisle from my item, so I answered her best I could.

I was hoping I could ask her what language she was speaking, but she continued talking on her cell phone. She then moved over a few aisles looking at similar things. By the time my clerk came back and got my items down, she was still on the phone in the other section.

I had waited around for my item for so long, while she was talking on her phone, that I thought it would look too awkward to approach her again. But I should have said something as part of our brief question/answer, or at least interrupted her just enough to ler her know I wanted to ask her something when she got off the phone.