Swahili at store. Mon, Oct 31, 2011.

10/31/2011. 1297. I was shopping at one of my regular stores, and there was another customer who was speaking in English (to her daughter) with a delightful accent. I did not recognize the accent, but it was sort of a British accent, not directly from England, that made me think of people who learned English as a second language from teachers in former British colonies.

I asked her where she was from and what languages she spoke. She was originally from Kenya, and spoke Swahili and another regional language. I offered her a book in Swahili from church, and she agreed to receive it.

I left my shopping cart in the store and retrieved a Swahili Book of Mormon from my car. I waited until they had paid for their purchases, and we went back outside to talk in front of the entrance.

It turns out she had been exposed to LDS literature before, including the Book of Mormon, as she had lived with LDS "host parents" in her youth.

She gratefully accepted the book.

Shona to missionaries. Wed, Oct 26, 2011.

10/26/2011. Journal entry. The missionaries were in my neighborhood and they stopped by to say hi. I found out that the church's Ndebele Gospel Fundamentals was indeed the correct dialect for the ward's recent convert from Zimbabwe.

They recently met another person from Zimbabwe and offered him "a church book in his language" as their conversation starter. He agreed to receive it, and the missionaries said they were going to get him one from the supply at their apartment that I had given previous sets of elders. So... in order to replenish their supply, I gave them another one out of my stash at home.

Ndebele to recent convert. Sun, Oct 23, 2011.

10/23/2011. Journal entry. Our ward had a convert get baptized a couple months ago. I hadn't heard her speak, so I didn't realize she was from Africa. Our ward's missionaries knew where she was from, but didn't know the exact dialect she spoke. This past week they found out she spoke Ndbebele, so I took an Ndebele copy of Gospel Fundamentals to church and presented it to her. She was pretty exited to receive it.

I just found out from Wikipedia that there are two different languages called Ndebele, and they aren't directly related. I'm not sure which one she speaks, though I can deduce it from the information on Wikipedia, and from some information that she gave me. And I'm not sure which one was used for the church's Ndebele Gospel Fundamentals.

(Update: I spoke with our ward's full-time missionaries on 10/26/2011, and they confirmed the church's Ndebele Gospel Fundamentals is written in her Ndebele. They said she read some of it to them at a recent meeting.)

Japanese to missionaries. Sat, Oct 22, 2011.

10/22/2011. Journal entry. Our ward's full-time missionaries asked for a Japanese copy of the Book of Mormon for the missionaries who have a Japanese investigator in a neighboring ward. I delivered it (and a Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet in Japanese) to our missionaries, and they took it to meet the missionaries in the other ward "on the border."

Mormon Modesty blogs noted in UK newspaper.

The UK Daily Mail has an article on Mormon Modesty blogs and fashion.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2049283/High-necklines-low-hemlines-The-rise-Mormon-modesty-blogs--fashion-bang-trend.html


It was given a sidebar headline on both their UK and US main pages.

Indianapolis to be part of "I am a Mormon" ad campaign.

The Indianapolis Star Newspaper had an article on October 3, 2011 on Indianapolis being a market for the "I am a Mormon" ad campaign. Other Indiana cities include Fort Wayne and South Bend.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110030324

One of the main goals of the campaign is to prompt non-members to visit www.mormon.org and learn about the church and the members.

Some profiles of Indianapolis-area Mormons are:

http://mormon.org/me/1P9G/StephenMcFarland/
http://mormon.org/me/4GZ8/BrentonTylerStumpf/
http://mormon.org/me/18ZP/Walter/
http://mormon.org/me/43W6/Kimberly/
http://mormon.org/me/50T1/Allison/
http://mormon.org/me/6VY3/Bill/
http://mormon.org/me/6Q0N/PaulGillSr/ (He appears in the DVD "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons")
http://mormon.org/me/6HWK/MichaelFowler/
http://mormon.org/me/6RGR/Gary/
http://mormon.org/me/6Q91/BrookeVandegriff/
http://mormon.org/me/2K82/Ross/
http://mormon.org/me/6YV3/Douglas/
http://mormon.org/me/6KH6/DianaDReynolds/
http://mormon.org/me/73PZ/Claudia/
http://mormon.org/me/731T/AlexaNoelleHurley/
http://mormon.org/me/73PZ/Claudia/
http://mormon.org/me/70HC/Steve/
http://mormon.org/me/7BVC/AlexClark/
http://mormon.org/me/33W7/AdrianKatschke/
http://mormon.org/me/6ZZM/Bill/
http://mormon.org/me/74SM/Thom/
http://mormon.org/me/1N4T/MatthewDunahee/
http://mormon.org/me/7313/Gabe/
http://mormon.org/me/6YN4/DavidPitcher/
http://mormon.org/me/6X8J/Kevin/
http://mormon.org/me/6W7Q/SteveKeim/
http://mormon.org/me/5QBC/Mark/

English at gas station. Sat, Oct 1, 2011.

10/01/2011. 1296. As I was going back to my car at the gas station (see previous post), a young man asked me if I wanted to buy any movies. I assume he had them inside his jacket. I said no thanks, but I had a couple of movies I'd like to give him. I went to my car and got out a "Testaments" DVD and a "To This End Was I Born" DVD, and went back and presented them to him, and he accepted them.

French at gas station. Sat, Oct 1, 2011.

10/01/2011. 1295. Between conference sessions, on my way to lunch, I stopped at a gas station to visit a friend who worked there. He wasn't there, but the cashier on duty knew him, and told me when he'd be there.

The cashier was from Benin, and spoke French and Fon, and a couple other languages in addition to English. I was out of stock of the Fon Gospel Fundamentals, but I offered him a French Book of Mormon, and a multi-lingual "Together Forever" DVD which he gratefully accepted.

The next day, while at the chapel to watch conference, I gave a copy of the Fon translation of the Joseph Smith testimony pamphlet to the missionaries for that area, and asked them to deliver it.