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!