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."

Asian languages at bank. Tue, Sep 8, 2009.

09/08/2009. 1187. I was at the bank. The customer at the next window over appeared Asian, and he was being chatty with the teller. So after we were both done, I started a conversation with him based on something he said to the teller. It turned out he spoke Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and German. He accepted my offer for copies of the Book of Mormon in those languages, plus English. He was parked just a couple spots over from me, so it was easy to hand them to him from the trunk of my car. He seemed genuinely appreciative of the gifts.

Chinese, Japanese, Korean. Sun, Jun 14, 2009.

06/14/2009. 1159. I was at the home of some ward members. They were having an open house for their high-school graduate, and the ward was invited. One of the ward members, a 20-something young lady, had brought a friend who wasn't a member. The friend was from China and multi-lingual. I asked the member if she had offered her friend a free Book of Mormon in her native language. She hadn't. So I asked the friend if she'd like some free books from the church in the languages that she spoke. She agreed to receive them, so I went out to the car and brought back in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and English copies of the Book of Mormon. I handed them to the member, and she handed them to her friend. They were well-received.

Japanese to missionaries. Thu, Mar 19, 2009.

03/19/2009. Journal entry. I was on the way home from an older-adult Institute class and stopped at a gas station near home. There were two short-haired young guys in suits gassing up their car at the pump in front of me. Yup, they were missionaries. They struck up a conversation about my car, and I continued the conversation while I was thinking of how to pimp them. They were not our ward's missionaries, and I was wondering if they were the zone leaders who have seen me, or whether they didn't know me.

Anyway, I decided to play it straight and not yank their chain. And showed them the Book of Mormon collection in the trunk of my car.

One asked if I had a Japanese Book of Mormon, so I got it out. He said that the other elders that they live with had a Japanese investigator and that the mission office couldn't get them a Japanese Book of Mormon. Apparently it was temporarily out of stock at Salt Lake.

We got into a "wow, that's a coincidence" conversation for a while. Two missionaries in need of a Japanese Book of Mormon, just happen to run into someone who's probably the only guy in town with a Japanese Book of Mormon in his car. There were no spiritual promptings to bring us together, it just happened. They were duly impressed.

Anyway, when I realized it was about 9pm, I broke off the conversation and told them to get on back to their apartment.

Missionaries' first sashimi. Korean/Japanese. Mon, Mar 3, 2008

03/03/2008. Sorry for lagging on the entries. Rather than try to get all caught up, I'll just start up again, and hope to fill in later.

Yesterday (Sunday), the missionaries asked me for a ride to an investigator's (for today, Monday). Our missionaries share a car with another set of elders and only have the car every other week.

Journal entry. Today (Monday) I picked up the elders, and we went to the investigator's place. The missionaries then invited me to sit in with them. He had taken a few lessons from other missionaries in another part of town, and then he moved into our ward, so this was a get-acquainted meeting. We gave him an English Book of Mormon, a copy of "Our Heavenly Father's Plan" DVD, a copy of "The Restoration" DVD, and a "Contemporary English Version" (CEV) of the Bible (from American Bible Society).

We left the investigator's place around 8:00pm. The elders don't have to be back in their apartment until 9:00pm, and they can be as late as 9:30pm getting back if they have good reason.

1002*. They didn't have any appointments or firm plans for the remainder of the evening, so I offered to take them out to dinner to a Japanese restaurant that I've been to, but haven't made any book placements at. I knew from the previous visit that one employee was Korean and another Japanese.

One of the elders I took tonight had sushi before, but not sashimi, which is plain raw fish. The other elder has had neither sushi nor sashimi. This was going to be a fun adventure.

They agreed to go with me. We went there, and we were the only customers at first, so I figured it would be easy to present some material. I took in my Asian restaurant book bag, and after ordering, put out Korean, Japanese, and English copies of the Book of Mormon, a Korean Liahona magazine, a multi-lingual "Together Forever" DVD, and the "Finding Happiness" DVD.

On one of the waitress's trips, I offered the material, and she was very enthusiastic about receiving it. There are many Korean churches in town, but no Japanese churches as far as I know. I did not ask if she went to one of the Korean churches, but she indicated the Japanese employee, who is a Christian believer, did not have any contact with other Japanese Christians in town. So tonight's event merits a follow-up. Later, the Japanese employee came by our table to say thanks.

The waitress put the "Together Forever" DVD in a DVD player hooked up to the big screen TV to watch it. She didn't know how to select the language, so I helped her use the DVD remote to select the Japanese language. When I went to pay the tab, she said she liked how the music in the DVD made her feel. I also saw the Korean Liahona open at the cashier counter.

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*Yes, the thousandth contact was last month. I don't keep track of actual number of copies of the Book of Mormon, because sometimes I give out other material (DVD's or Gospel Fundamentals/Principles). Some contacts decline to receive material, but I count all contacts where I made at least some kind of offer. As described in a previous Ensign article, just making the offer is a success. The offer is in itself a testimony.

My estimate is that 90% of the people I contact agree to receive material. And some contact events are with multiple people of different families who each receive something, but I only count it as one. Therefore, I would estimate that at least 1000 people (of different households or families) have received material.

I started this project in early June 2004, 3 years and 9 months, or 45 months ago. 1000 / 45 = 22 contacts per month, on average.

Japanese at Kroger. Fri, Nov 17, 2006.

11/17/2006. 750. I was in the Kroger parking lot at the end of the previous encounter. I went back in to do my shopping, and checked out at the U-scan, where the customer scans his purchases at a self-serve checkout. These checkouts have touch-screens, and offer verbal instructions. I generally select the Spanish language, because the female voice used in the English instructions just gets on my nerves after a while. There is one human cashier who supervises 6 U-scan lanes. I was the only customer in the U-scans when I finished up, and the U-scan supervising cashier said something to me, and we started a conversation about the Spanish U-scan, and other languages that the U-scans might use in the future.

I segued the conversation into telling him about my contact with the lady from Africa a few minutes earlier. He had seen her too, so I told him where she was from, and that I gave her a copy of my church's Sunday school manual in her native language. He thought that was cool. He said he was studying Japanese, and wanted to get a Japanese Bible. So I offered him a Japanese Book of Mormon. I thought I had one in my car. He readily and enthusiastically agreed, so I told him I'd go get it.

When I got to my car, I looked and couldn't find it. I gave one out in September, and forgot to replace it in my car. So I went back inside, told him it wasn't in my car after all, and that I'd go home and get it. There would be enough time before he got off work.

I went back home, put away the groceries, and got two Japanese copies, one to give him, and one to re-stock my car inventory. I drove back, handed him the Japanese, and he said something like "awesome!" He accepted the English too. I wrote down the website, www.ibsdirect.com for the International Bible Society, where he could get a Japanese Bible. He said he and a friend were studying informally, and going to take a Japanese class at a local university. I told him there was a Japan society in town, and that he could look it up on the web, as I didn't know the URL off the top of my head.

Moment #101. Japanese at Shell. Nov 17, 2004.

11/17/2004. I dropped off some stuff at the Elder's apartment. I received a "hurry up" prompting from the Spirit, so I did not linger and chit-chat with the Elders. On the way home, I approached a certain Shell gas station, and the memory of Rose telling me about Africans working at Shell stations came to me. Then I felt "the tug." It felt like I was being pulled or pushed to turn into the station, so I did. The feeling was not obvious beyond doubt, it was not the same as being constrained, but it was a feeling.

As I pulled in I could see through the window that the clerk was a Caucasian lady, so I started to doubt. I needed a newspaper anyway, so I went in to buy one. The man in line in front of me was obviously Asian, and spoke English to the clerk with a broken accent. Bingo. He was the one to whom I was to speak. I started getting that antsy feeling of having to choose the right moment without being intrusive.

He paid for his purchases, and while he was gathering his things from the counter, I paid for the paper, and followed him closely out the door. Once outside I asked him what foreign languages he spoke. He had trouble understanding, and in my excitement I forgot to slow down my speech.

He eventually said "Japanese." I'm sure my heart-rate soared at that point. I said I had a book in Japanese, the Book of Mormon, and asked if he'd like to see it. He didn't seem to understand. We were standing just few feet from the rear of my car, so I went to the trunk and got out Japanese and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and gave them to him. I pointed out my business card in one. I thanked him, and we said good evening, and departed.

Meeting someone at a propitious moment like that has happened too often to be just coincidence. I stand amazed at how Heavenly Father arranged circumstances of both my evening and that gentleman's in order to put us both at the same place at the same time. 10 seconds either way and we would have missed each other.

I drove home in awe, taking deep breaths. I was almost to the point of trembling.