Urdu at another chapel. Sun, Sep 25, 2011.

09/25/2011. 1294. After my ward got out, I went to visit another ward in another chapel to see a friend. There was a South Asian family milling about in the hallway. They were from Pakistan and spoke Urdu. They already had an Urdu Book of Mormon. I asked if they'd like an Urdu church magazine, and the mom said sure. I went back out to my car and dug out a couple copies of the Urdu Liahona out of my trunk. I took them back in and presented them, and the lady graciously accepted them.

I don't know if they were members or investigators. I didn't see them in the sacrament meeting, so they must have been with the ward that was just leaving.

Chinese at massage place. Mon, Nov 1, 2010.

11/01/2010. 1259. I was walking by a place that offers a quick chair massage, the kind where you sort of sit/kneel, and put your face in a support rest, for only a few dollars for a few minutes. I've recently started doing some new exercises, and my shoulders were a bit stiff, so it seemed worth the price.

The employees were Chinese, and I happened to have been carrying some Chinese and English copies of the Book of Mormon. I had planned on offering them at a nearby Asian restaurant, but I didn't encounter any Chinese employees at that restaurant.

The idea of a placement here was only secondary. It really was just serendipitous that they were Chinese. And my shoulders really have been sore for several days. Honest!

There was some language barrier as they were not very proficient in English. So after I paid for the chair massage, I'm not sure they understood my offer of free material, or whether they formally accepted my offer, but when I handed it to them, they accepted it. It was a Simplified Chinese Book of Mormon, an English Book of Mormon, and a Chinese Liahona.

I've always wondered if those Asian massage places that have been springing up were legitimate or not. But this one was obviously legit, with just the chair-massage deal in an open area. No private rooms. The operator was a bit rough on me, but it worked out well. Though if you have specific instructions you need to give your massage therapist, I would recommend against these types of places due to the communication barrier.

Follow-up at restaurant. Thu, Sep 30, 2010.

09/30/2010. Journal entry. I went to a Chinese restaurant that I hadn't been to in a while. The same people worked there. I had given them material before, so I just took in a Chinese Liahona magazine. The waitress/owner recognized me. As I put the magazine and my newspaper on the counter to reach for my wallet to pay, she noticed the magazine and said something about it, so I just offered it to her right there. It look like she was eager to receive it. We chatted a little bit, and as usual, the food was pretty good.

French at gas station. Sat, Aug 28, 2010.

08/28/2010. 1249. I was on my way home from doing laundry. A new gas station had opened up on the route that I had chosen to drive home. The idea occurred to me to stop and get a newspaper. I don't know if it was a spiritual prompting or not.

Anyway, the cashier was a black man who spoke with a heavy accent. So after I paid, I took a guess and asked "Parlez vous francais?" He said yes, or maybe "oui". I asked where he was originally from, and he said Niger.

I didn't offer anything at the time, but when I got back to my car, I dug out a Together Forever DVD (that has a French audio track), and an old copy of a French Liahona magazine, and took them back in.

I got back in line, and when it was my turn, I asked if he'd like a free DVD in French and a free magazine in French from my church. He was very excited about them, and enthusiastically greed to receive them. I asked if he was Muslim, since most people from Niger are Muslim. He said yes. So I made sure he knew it was Christian material and if he still wanted them, and he said no problem. He also spoke Hausa, but when I offered him a Hausa copy of the Sunday school manual (Gospel Fundamentals), he said he didn't read Hausa, just spoke it.

I don't know why I didn't offer a French Book of Mormon, but since I'm regularly in that area (about once a week) I should have opportunity to follow up.

Thai at restaurant. Tue, June 29, 2010.

06/29/2010. 1243. I had a very nice lunch at a Thai restaurant. I took in just a Thai Liahona. The waitress flipped through it, but didn't want it for herself. But she was real nice about it, and asked the other employees. No one in particular wanted it, but she said I could leave it there in case anyone else did. I assumed she was referrring to other employees who weren't there at the time, or else Thai customers.

Mongolian. Thu, Jun 24, 2010.

06/24/2010. 1242. I saw an Asian lady, and started a conversation by asking what languages she spoke, and she said Mongolian. I asked if she still liked to read in Mongolian and she said yes, so I offered her a free Book of Mormon and a magazine in Mongolian from church, and she agreed to accept them. I retrieved them, along with an English Book of Mormon, and presented them to her. She seemed genuinely interested in them. She was pretty outgoing herself, so she didn't seem to mind that I had started a conversation with her. She even asked some questions about the church, so I got out the info flyer that I put in one of the books and showed her the chapel I go to.

She didn't know any other Mongolians in town, so I gave her the name and number of the other local Mongolian person who I know. He's not LDS but has contacts with local folks from Mongolia. They used to have an informal group that got together, but I haven't spoken with him in a while. I also told her about the young man who I knew from Mongolia who joined the church in 2006, but has since moved.

Lunch at neighboring church, Sun, May 9, 2010.

05/09/2010. 1239. My affinity for ethnic food led me to stop, on my way to our chapel, at a church whose congregation consists mainly of people from a certain other country. I first went there back in April to see if they served a post-services meal like a friend's church did. They did, and they gave me an open invitation to come back. So today I stopped by their church on the way to our Sunday meetings.

Today I arrived in the middle of their services and sat in their chapel. Someone loaned me an English Bible, and another person handed me their hymn-book.

After the service I was greeted warmly. (Probably better than walk-ins are greeted in our ward.) They did have an after-service meal planned. I said my church's services didn't start until 1:00pm, and I asked if I could eat with them if I made a donation. They said I was welcome to stay and partake, and didn't have to pay anything, and they asked which church I go to, so I told them.

I gave the pastor an envelope with a few dollars in it because I didn't want to be a mooch; he said it wasn't necessary, but I insisted. I also gave him a "Lamb of God" videotape in their language. It's pretty generic and is not proselyting oriented or specific to any beliefs that are uniquely LDS. I also offered him a Liahona magazine in their language.

Their food was pretty much along the lines of other meals that I've had at similar churches. I liked it. I sat at a table with several other men, and talked with the pastor and another gentlemen. The pastor had visited LDS services when he was a youth in his home country. He repeated his invitation to come back any time.

I think I'll go back.

Liahona magazine at restaurant. Tue, Nov 17, 2009

11/17/2009. Journal Entry. I had supper at an asian restaurant that I've been to before, but it's been a few years. I think I had given them a Book of Mormon before, so tonight I just offered an issue of the Liahona magazine. I had it on the table while I ate, and the waitress noticed it while refilling my water glass. I offered it to her and she readily accepted it. I forgot to include any contact information on the magazine. I still have some extra issues in that language so I'll likely follow up again with another edition, and try to remember to write some contact info on it

Russian at EQ picnic. Mon, Sep 7, 2009.

09/07/2009. 1186. Our elders' quorum had a picnic on Labor Day. We used a picnic shelter next to a playground in the community area where a few members live.

A woman who I did not recognize as a member of the ward came to the picnic shelter and sat down on one of the benches while supervising her daughter in the play area. I encouraged one of the sisters at the picnic to greet her, which she did. She wasn't a member, but lived in the area and had just come to supervise her daughter play while she organized some papers.

As with most picnics, there was plenty of food, so after a while, I also approached her and suggested she could help herself to any of the food. She politely declined.

I detected an accent in her speech, so I asked her where her family was originally from. She said Russia, so I explained that we were a church group, and that our church had some free material in Russian if she'd like to read some. Since many Russian immigrants are Jewish, I asked if she was Jewish, and she said yes, but she still accepted the offer of material.

I excused myself to retrieve the material from my car, and to my horror, I discovered that I had not restocked the car with another Russian Book of Mormon after giving out my previous copy. But I still had a Russian Liahona, a Russian Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet, and a "Together Forever" DVD (which has a Russian audio track) in the car.

I took them back to the picnic area. She politely accepted the Russian Liahona, and Russian and English copies of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet. She declined the "Together Forever" DVD. I wrote the mission office phone number on one of them. One of the sisters joined in the conversation, saying her brother recently got back from a mission in Russia, and she wrote his phone number down for her too.

French DVDs and Liahona at store. Sun, Aug 9, 2009.

08/09/2009. 1181. I was taking the recent convert couple back home after church. The wife had lost an important item, so we went to the store near where she thought she lost it while getting into a car. She ended up having a conversation with someone she knew, and I was just standing around, so I started talking to a family member of the other lady. We talked about languages, so I offered her some church material in French, one of her languages. She agreed to receive them, so I went out to the car and retrieved a "Together Forever" DVD and an "Introduction to the Church" DVD, and a French Liahona magazine, which she gratefully accepted.

Burmese & Spanish at laundromat. Thu, Aug 6, 2009.

08/06/2009. 1175. Burmese. This was an encounter such that if you believe the Holy Spirit can guide us, you'll understand it, but if you don't believe, you'll think I'm crazy or making up stories.

I had just dropped off some Spanish copies of the Book of Mormon with the ward's full-time missionaries at their apartment. I spent a few minutes talking with them. I did another errand and then headed towards one of my favorite laundromats to do the week's laundry. However, on the way there, the idea of a certain laundromat I had seen on the South side of town came to mind. I had spotted it while on another errand in that part of town months ago. Then it became an impression that I should go there. It was going to be at least 15 minutes more out of my way, beyond the 15 minutes to the closer one. But I wasn't in a hurry, so I decided to follow the impression, and thought "Let's have an adventure."

When I got there, there weren't any people who looked foreign-born. However, after I started my wash (I put everything in one of those big front-loaders), a man walked in who looked to be from Southeast Asia. A few minutes later, I took some stuff out to my car, and as I was heading back towards the front door, he came out and headed towards his car. It was a perfect opportunity to say something.

I asked him if he spoke Vietnamese, but he was from Burma. So I offered him a free booklet from church in Burmese. He had only been in the US two years, so he wasn't too fluent in speaking, but he seemed to understand. He agreed to see the booklet, so I asked him to wait by his car, and I went to mine and got out a Burmese and an English Joseph Smith Testimony Pamphlet. I took it back to his car, wrote my name and number on it, and wrote the mission office number on it, and he enthusiastically received it.

After I went back in, he stayed in his car. It looked like he was reading it.

(I just checked ldscatalog.com, to get the above link, and noticed that "Gospel Fundamentals" is now available in Burmese. Woo-hoo! I'll have to order some.)

1176. Spanish. After I finished doing laundry, and as I was putting the clothes back in the car, I noticed an Hispanic lady folding her laundry. I felt prompted to offer her something, so I went back in an offered her a recent Spanish Liahona, which she accepted. I wrote the mission office number and my phone number on the back.

On the way back home, I stopped for dinner at a Chinese restaurant hoping for another opportunity.

Tear-jerker in the Aug Liahona & New Era, not in the Ensign.

The August 2009 Liahona and New Era have an article that's not in the Ensign, entitled Better Than an A.   PDF version here.   Worth reading.

Chinese at restaurant. Mon, Jul 27, 2009.

07/27/2009. 1170. I went a bit out of my way to a Chinese restaurant. I found it a couple weeks ago while scouting for restaurants, but haven't actually eaten there before. It's one of those walk-up-to-the-counter-and-order kind of places. After I finished eating, I went back to the counter and offered the employee a Simplified Chinese Book of Mormon and a Chinese Liahona magazine, and she reluctantly accepted them. She declined the English Book of Mormon. Since she wasn't enthusiastic about the Chinese edition, I didn't push the bilingual aspect of reading the Chinese and English copies together.

Korean at restaurant. Thu, Jul 16, 2009.

07/16/2009. 1168. I went to an Asian restaurant for supper. The waitress/hostess was from Korea, so I put a Korean Book of Mormon and a Korean Liahona on the table. When she brought the check she commented on them, so after paying I offered them to her. She declined the Book of Mormon because it wasn't the Bible, and she was afraid of it. But she did seem to accept the Liahona and the "Together Forever" DVD. At least I think she did, because she showed interest in them. She had to go wait on other customers, so I left the DVD and the Liahona at the cashier counter. It's pretty good food, so I'll be back for a follow-up in the future.

French, Arabic at restaurant. Thu, Jun 4, 2009

06/04/2009. 1156. I took our African investigator to a local restaurant. I wasn't sure what languages they spoke at the restaurant, so I only took in a couple copies of the French Liahona magazine. They weren't too busy, so the owner had time to chat with us. He was from a country near where the investigator is from, and spoke English, French, Arabic, and a local/regional dialect.

He seemed enthusiastic about the magazines, so I offered him more stuff. He agreed, so I went out to the car and retrieved an Arabic copy and a French copy of the Book of Mormon, and a French video of "Finding Faith in Christ", which he graciously accepted.

The food was very good, so I'm sure I'll be back to follow up.

Spanish at restaurant. Tue, May 26, 2009.

05/26.2009. 1147. After volunteering at the storehouse I had supper at a Mexican restaurant that I hadn't been to before. I'll likely eat at that restaurant again, so I decided to just take in a Spanish and English Liahona, and offer the Book of Mormon on a future trip.

After the meal, as I paid, I offered the waitress the Spanish Liahona, and she enthusiastically accepted it. She also accepted the corresponding English issue. A little bit later, as I walked out, I saw her reading it at the cashier stand.

Chinese, Spanish at restaurant. Sat, May 9, 2009.

05/09/2009. 1137. I was on my way home from the baptism and decided to stop at a Chinese buffet. I've been there before, but I think the waitress was new. I thought I had given out all my Chinese copies to the missionaries, so I only took in a Chinese Liahona and the corresponding English issue, along with a couple Spanish Liahonas to read. I had a second smaller bag with Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon in the car, but I had forgotten about it.

The waitress was busy, but eventually she noticed the Chinese Liahona on my table. She did a couple of double-takes on it. So I tried to strike up a conversation. She didn't seem to understand my offer to give it to her, so I used the limited Chinese I know "gay knee" (give you) and "mien fay" (free, or no money). She accepted the Chinese copy, and initially turned down the English, but I tried to convey the idea she could learn a little by using both. She eventually did accept the English.

1138. After eating, on my way out of the restaurant, I passed an Hispanic family and offered them one of the Spanish Liahonas, which they accepted.

Chinese at restaurant, Korean declined. Fri, Apr 24, 2009.

04/24/2009. 1135. I had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant that I haven't been to before. The waitress was so busy that she didn't have time to notice the material that I had laid out on my table, or if she did notice it, she didn't have time to chat. Eventually the owner or manager came by, and when he was about to clear off the plates, he noticed the material and started a conversation about Utah in the news. He accepted a Chinese Liahona, but politely declined to receive a Book of Mormon. When I went to pay, the cashier politely declined material, saying she didn't have time to read.

Chinese at restaurant. Tue, Mar 17, 2009.

03/17/2009. 1125. Before going to the storehouse, I decided to do my weekly laundry on that side of town at a 24-hour laundry. But first, I wanted to have dinner at a restaurant that I haven't been to for a few years, and it was on my way to the laundry.

I sat down and ordered, and the waitress brought out my soup and appetizer. While eating I put out several books and magazines on my table: traditional and simplified script copies of the Chinese Book of Mormon, an English Book of Mormon, a bilingual Chinese/English New Testament, and Chinese and English copies of the Liahona.

There were a few copies of a Chinese newspaper sitting on one of the other tables, such that the waitress might have been reading them before I arrived. They looked like they were Traditional script.

When the waitress brought my entree, and cleared the appetizer tray, she noticed the material, and I introduced it a little bit. I asked if she were from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or China, and she replied Taiwan, and pointed to the traditional script edition of the Book of Mormon.

I offered her the material, and she accepted the Traditional script Chinese, and the English Book of Mormon, and the Chinese and English Liahonas. She said that she didn't read English very well, but when I opened both the Chinese and the English Book of Mormon, and read 1st Nephi 1:1, while pointing to both, she seemed to catch the idea of learning English by using both. Or else she just went along with me, and accepted the English edition just out of politeness. But she was enthusiastic about receiving the Chinese edition.

Before I left, I mentioned to her that if she liked what she read, and wanted to know more, she could call one of the phone numbers in the material, and could have someone visit her.

Vietnamese at store. Tue, Mar 10, 2009.

03/10/2009. 1122. After eating I went to a nearby close-out for more shopping, and as I was checking out, an Asian family came in: a little girl, mom, and grandma. I got out of the checkout line, went over to them and politely asked what language they were speaking. They said Vietnamese. I offered them Vietnamese and English books and magazines from church, and they were very interested, both the two adults who wanted to learn more English and the little girl who wanted to learn to read Vietnamese. Of the three, the little girl (about 8 to 10) spoke the best English. I put my basket down and went out to the car and brought back in a Vietnamese and the corresponding English Liahona (a conference issue), and Vietnamese and English copies of the Book of Mormon. I went back in and found them again, and all three were excited to receive the bilingual material. They accepted both of the magazines and both of the books. The mom indicated she'd like to visit the church, so I pointed out the nearest chapel on the the flyer I put in the books. She volunteered her cell-phone number, so I'll give her referral to the mission office.