Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon: Chinese declined at mall. Fri, Nov 5, 2010.

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, November 05, 2010

Chinese declined at mall. Fri, Nov 5, 2010.

11/05/2010. 1261. I stopped at a mall to use their restroom, and on my way out I walked past a Chinese place in the food court. After walking past it, I felt drawn to it, so I went back and bought something inexpensive. There were no other customers, so I talked a bit with the operator. I offered him a free Chinese book from church and he wanted to see it. He asked where the nearest church was so I gave him a card with the name of the church and the web site address, and the address of one of the chapels, but I didn't actually say "Book of Mormon."

I went out to my car and brought back in a Chinese and an English Book of Mormon along with a DVD. When I went back in an presented him, he saw the title and apparently changed his mind, saying he already had one, and the DVD too. He said he goes to a Chinese church about 45 minutes away.

I think it was a case where the word used to translate "Book" in the title of the Book of Mormon conveys the wrong idea or impression. The word for "book" in the title of the Chinese Book of Mormon actually means "Holy Book" and is the same word/symbol used for "Bible." So, if you look at a Chinese Book of Mormon, the title actually says "Mormon Bible", and people think we use it instead of the Bible.

He was polite, and I didn't want to call him on it since he chose to say he already had one as his way of turning it down. Well, maybe he did have one. Anyway, the offer was made, and a testimony, even if was just in the form of an offer, was given. And he physically saw it, so he now has a memory which the Holy Ghost can use in the future when/if needed.

And he still probably has the customized pass-along card with the phone numbers, web site address, and chapel address on it.

Labels: Chinese declined