Indonesian at restaurant. Thu, Jul 2, 2009.

07/02/2009. 1161. I went to lunch at an Asian restaurant that I discovered on a previous errand. I thought that the staff was from the same country as the cuisine, but I wasn't sure. Anyway, I took in my Asian book bag with me. They were busy to start out, but after I was served there was a lull, and the cashier came out to clean off a table. As she was heading back to the counter, I asked where she was from, and she said Indonesia. I didn't have that one already out, but I reached in my bag and got one and presented it to her.

Her English wasn't very good outside of restaurant vocabulary, but I think she understood it to be free, and she accepted both the Indonesian and an English copy. Just then another customer went up to the counter, so she had to get back to work, and I didn't have opportunity to further explain.

I've encountered Indonesians at Asian restaurants before, but not many.

Moments #578-581. Booth at a Multi-cultural Festival. Sat, May 13, 2006.

05/13/2006. Today I exhibited my collection of 104 translations of the Book of Mormon at a multi-cultural festival at one of the local malls. The deal with the sponsoring organization was that I could exhibit and offer materials, but not actively proselyte.

I applied to be an exhibitor in my own name, and not as a representative of the church.

I believe that a book that has 104 world-language translations fits the concept of multi-cultural very well.

I didn't plan ahead very well, and didn't enlist anyone else with a truck or van to help transport the books. There was another person I could have contacted, but I procrastinated and didn't call him.

I ended up taking two complete sets of 104. Plus several more copies of the more popular translations for which I know there are speakers in town.

I haven't done anything like this since July 2004. It's hard to plan for because you don't know how many people will show up, or what languages will be represented among the attendees. I also took about 15 translations of the Bible. It's better to have extras than not enough, so I basically took almost everything I had in stock. It was about 30 boxes.

I got up early and rented a Uhaul truck, left my car at the Uhaul place, drove home, loaded up the 30 boxes and took them to the mall and set up on my two assigned tables. I had to make about 5 trips with the dolly. I left about 4 boxes in the truck since they were extras. I also enlisted the help of three "mall walkers" to carry a box or two each. I figured they were there to get exercise, and I was offering them a chance to be Good Samaritans while getting their exercise.

There were two basic groups of exhibitors. Public schools and non-school groups. The non-school groups included vendors, social organizations, authors, clubs, associations, fraternities, and some other non-profits.

One thing I needed but didn't have was signage on a tripod or easel to draw attention to the display. I was on the 3rd row of tables in from the mall's main traffic flow, so unless someone actually walked down my aisle, they couldn't tell what I had.

I did get several visitors to the tables, and was also able to strike up conversations with other exhibitors.

Moment #578. An English Book of Mormon to an English-only speaking person.

Moment #579. An Indonesian Book of Mormon, plus 3 multi-lingual DVD's.

Moment #580. Tagalog/English and Hiligaynon/English pairs of the Book of Mormon, plus a Tagalog New Testament, and a Samarenyo Bible.

Moment #581. Thai Book of Mormon, Thai Liahona, and Thai/English bilingual New Testament.

There were also some people who accepted just DVD's.
- 2 DVD's to an English-speaking person (Finding Faith in Christ, and To This End was I born).
- 1 Together Forever DVD to a lady who spoke English and Spanish.
- 3 DVD's to another English-speaking lady (Heavenly Father's Plan, Finding Faith in Christ, and Together Forever).

When the event was over, I packed up and loaded the boxes back in the truck. (I didn't have to unpack all the boxes at the exhibit, but had kept some hidden under the tables in case they were needed.) On my way out with the last trip, I met the Thai lady.

I drove home, unloaded the 30 boxes, drove to the Uhaul, checked out, got my car, and drove home. Took a shower, and went to church for a wedding reception for some friends.

I decided not to load all the "standard" books back into the car as I was tired. They were still separated as my "car boxes" as opposed to "home inventory boxes". But I figured it was just going to be for a few hours and I would risk it.

Then Murphy's law happened. I did need them after all. Twice. After the reception, I stopped at the gas station near the church, and recharged my pre-paid gas card (you get a 4% discount that way, almost 12 cents/gallon now). However, their gas was 10 cents a gallon more expensive than another station of the same brand on my way home. So I didn't buy gas there. But I did see two men who looked like African immigrants. There was an opportunity to say something to one of them outside the gas station, but I didn't take advantage of it. I had some pass-along cards in the car, but that was all, and I didn't think of them at the time.

So I drove home, and stopped at the other station on the way where the gas was 10 cents/gallon cheaper. As I was filling up, an African-looking man with an accent asked me for directions. Argh! I still didn't remember I had pass-along cards, but I gave him one of my business cards, and said I'd get him a New Testament and another book from my church in one of the languages he spoke.

Moment #549. Indonesian/Thai.Tue, Apr 4, 2006.

04/04/2006. A female friend and I decided to go out to eat and seek missionary opportunities. She suggested Thai food, so I chose a restaurant near her side of town. I put Asian language copies of the Book of Mormon in one of my bags and met her there.

Immediately after our waiter took our order, I asked him if he liked to read Thai. He said that he was Indonesian. I offered him a free Book of Mormon in Indonesian, and he was pleasantly surprised. I had one in my bag, and gave it to him. He graciously and eagerly accepted it and also the English edition we offered. His waiter station was behind a divider so we couldn't see if he started reading it.

Another man who was taking orders, and who looked like the owner, didn't seem to notice the Thai Book of Mormon on our table, even though he walked past us a couple times.

I forgot to bring in the Thai language Liahona magazines I had in the car, so I went back out to get those, and we put those on our table too.

The owner brought the check, but was quick and efficient, so I didn't see a comfortable opportunity to strike up a conversation with him.

My friend went to the counter to drop off the signed credit card slip, (she paid for the dinner, thanks!) and took the Thai Liahona magazines with her. The man graciously accepted them. She then came back for the Thai and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and he graciously accepted those too.

They had a magazine rack of Thai magazines. She said the man told her he'd put the Liahona magazines on the rack with the others.

Moment #508. Indonesian at Post Office. Tue, Jan 17, 2006

01/17/2006. I stopped at the Post Office on the way to the gym in order to check mail and mail out a package. In my PO Box were some copies of the February 2006 Liahona in several languages. I then got in line to mail out my package.

It's happened before, so I wondered "Will I meet someone who speaks one of these languages?"

There was an Asian-looking man at the counter in the inner lobby. The line was long, so I was standing in the outer lobby. After that man was finished at the counter, he walked by me and I politely got his attention and asked what languages he spoke? He was polite and humble. He said he spoke Indonesian. I said I thought he might have spoken Chinese, and said I was going to offer him a free magazine, and showed him the Chinese Liahona.

I forget how we finished our brief conversation, but we said goodbye and he continued on his way.

I forget at what point I remembered I had an Indonesian Book of Mormon in the car. I think it occurred to me while we were talking, but I wasn't fast or smooth enough to mentally shift gears from Chinese to Indonesian. I was expecting the Lord to make it too easy.

I turned around, and the man was still at a counter in the outer lobby. I came to my senses and realized I could still offer him the Indonesian book. Giving out a Book of Mormon is worth more than losing my place in line.

I got out of line, walked over to the man, and struck up a conversation again. I looked kind of scruffy in my sweats and uncombed hair. There were other people in the lobby noticing us but I didn't care.

I told the man I had a book in Indonesian in my car, that it was from my church, that it was free, and I wanted to give it to him. He seemed a little reluctant, but it was more from surprise that someone wanted to give him a free book. He was a very humble man, and not reluctant to converse, but I was just presenting him with a situation he was not familiar with.

I asked if I could just show it to him, and he indicated it was okay. I asked him to wait in the lobby, and would get it. I retrieved the Indonesian and an English Book of Mormon from my car. He was still at the same spot, and I presented it to him. He was genuinely interested, and probably wanted to chit-chat for longer than I was willing to. He said he's been in the United States for about 30 years, that he was retired, and hasn't read anything in Indonesian for a long time.

He was still surprised at the new situation I had presented him, but he was genuinely grateful, and looked at a couple passages in the Indonesian Book of Mormon almost wistfully. It was more than a merely flip through.

I also presented the English copy, and opened both books to 1 Nephi 1:1, to show him they are parallel, hoping that he would read them together, and hoping it would generate interest.

We shook hands and I then got back in line in the inner lobby.