Friday, July 01, 2011

Thai at restaurant. Fri, Jul 1, 2011.

07/01/2011. 1287. Had a great lunch at a nice Thai restaurant. My waitress didn't say anything about the Thai Book of Mormon that I had placed on my table, but one of the other wait-staff did. He accepted when I offered it to him, and he also accepted the Thai Liahona magazine that I took with me.

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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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.

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Road Trip. Sat, Nov 21, 2009.

Road trip to Florida.

11/21/2009. 1213. In Georgia Getting ready to leave the motel. Thai/English BoM and the "The Restoration" DVD (with Thai audio track) to guy in motel parking lot, he was changing or adding oil. Joe, from Bloomington Indiana.

11/21/2009. 1214. In Florida. Chinese/English Book of Mormon at lunch, to a father/son at their restaurant. Felt it was inspired.

11/21/2009. I felt inspired to stop at this shopping center. Went to a certain restaurant and got something quick, but didn't make any offers.

11/21/2009. 1215. At another restaurant at the same shopping center, went to a Chinese restaurant for a snack. The cashier accepted one of the DVD's with a Chinese audio track but she declined the Book of Mormon.

11/21/2009. 1216. I arrived in my destination city. That evening, as I was shopping at a bookstore, I saw an Asian man studying at one of the tables. I took a chance and struck up a conversation with him. I offered and he accepted a Chinese Simplified script and an English Book of Mormon, and a Heavenly Father's Plan DVD.

11/21/2009. 1217. Later, I bought something at the local Wal-Mart. My cashier spoke French and Haitian Creole. I offered, and she accepted copies of the Book of Mormon in those languages plus English.

11/21/2009. 1218. As I went back in with those books, and got in line again at her cash register, the people head of me were speaking Albanian. But they politely declined to receive the Book of Momron in Albanian.

11/21/2009. 1219. Later I stopped at a gas station, and offered the English-speaking cashier a Book of Mormon, but she politely declined.

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Sunday, February 01, 2009

Friendshipping investigators. And Samoan, Thai to missionaries. Sun, Feb 1, 2009.

(Coincidences pile up.)

02/01/2009. Journal entry. I gave a ride to the investigator and his young-adult grand-daughter today. This was their seventh time at church. Between the meetings, I asked one of the sisters who's going to the Relief Society's "Enrichment" day to take the grand-daughter and her grand-mother to the event. The grand-mother doesn't speak English and doesn't get out of the house. So it should be exciting for her, and her grand-daughter will be along to translate.

Since there's a YSA (Young Single Adult) branch in town, our ward doesn't have any young singles who are near the grand-daughter's age. I asked her if she'd like to visit the Young Single Adult branch, and she said yes. (She's been to two of the YSA Family Home Evenings so far.) So I went to the YSA branch this afternoon (our ward meets in the morning), to find someone who could take her there.

And coolest of cool, there's a sister member of the YSA branch who lives in the same apartment complex as the investigator family!

So I got her name/number, and gave the investigator's address and phone number, and my name and number to her. I'll tell her (the investigator) who to expect next week if she still wants to go.

I also talked to the sister missionaries who work in the YSA branch (along with another ward that meets there) and told them the story, and to be on the look-out for her.

I also told the investigator (the grand-daughter) that I'd give her a ride to the YSA's FHE tomorrow, and the sister missionaries said they'd be there too.

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02/01/2009. Journal entry. One of the sister missionaries at the YSA branch is from Samoa, and wants to meet local Samoans, so I gave her a Samoan Book of Mormon to give out when she meets any. They also asked for a Thai Book of Mormon since they are teaching a Thai family, so I gave them one, and also a Thai Liahona.

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Thai at restaurant. Wed, Jun 25, 2008.

06/25/2008. 1034. Yesterday (Tuesday) I felt I should go today (Wednesday) to a certain city within driving distance of Indianapolis for supper. It wasn't until shortly before I left that I planned out which restaurant. Thai restaurants came to mind, and I went to www.anywho.com to get the address and directions for one. (Just type in the type of restaurant, and the city/state.)

I had taken in a Thai copy and an English copy of the Book of Mormon, a Thai Liahona, and a copy of "The Restoration" DVD that has a Thai audio track.

As I paid I offered the material to the waitress, asking her if she thought the owners or chef would like them. She thought at least one of them might, so she graciously accepted the material.

I had put an index card in the Thai Book of Mormon that listed the chapels in that city, along with the normal stuff I put in there (a list of Indianapolis chapels, a couple pass-along cards, a post-it note at 3rd Nephi chapter 11, asking that they read it through chapter 26, and a post-it note marking the promise at Moroni 10:3-5.

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Friday, June 06, 2008

Thai to member. Jun 6, 2008.

06/06/2008. Journal entry. I finished up at the storehouse and did some errands on that part of town. While shopping, I came across a part that I needed for a project at the storehouse, so I bought it, and decided to go back and install it while I was on that side of town.

When I got back to the storehouse, a group from a neighboring stake was gathering to use the dry pack cannery. One of the group was a sister whom I've met several times before at church singles events. She had already heard me tell some placement stories, so after I installed the part, I asked her if I could tell her and her friend what happened at lunch.

They said okay. So I told what happened, and explained to the other sister some of the overall picture. The first sister then asked if I had ever been to such-and-such Thai restaurant near where she lives. I said I had not. Since she had already eaten there several times, I suggested to her that she go there and offer them a Thai Book of Mormon and Thai Liahona magazine.

She liked the idea, so I sold her a Thai copy and an English copy of the Book of Mormon, and threw in a Thai Liahona magazine for free.

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Saturday, January 12, 2008

Thai at restaurant. Sat Jan 12, 2008.

01/12/2008. 940. I'm still on a trip down south to visit family. We went to a Thai restaurant. I didn't put the Thai Book of Mormon out on the table until after we started eating. One of the wait staff noticed it, and stopped to ask questions. He said he was Buddhist, but accepted both the Thai and the English copies. There were at least two Thai families represented among the restaurant staff, but I only had the one Thai copy. I explained that if others wanted free copies they could call the toll-free number that I included in the books.

On the way out, the lady who took our order stopped me to ask some questions, so I talked to her a little bit, and gave her the "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD that has a Thai audio track.

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Thai at bank. Mon, Nov 5, 2007.

11/05/2007. 910. My teller at the bank was from Thailand, but he grew up in the States and didn't read Thai. I went back and took in a Thai Liahona magazine, hoping that he knew others who like to read Thai. He enthusiastically received it.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Thai Liahonas, DVD, Bible at restaurant. Tues, Oct 30, 2007.

10/30/2007. Follow-up at a Thai restaurant. I think it's been a couple years since i've been here. If I remember correctly, I placed a Chinese copy of the Book of Mormon with my waitress, and gave a Thai copy to the owners. But I don't think I gave them any magazines.

I was near there on an errand tonight, so I stopped by to follow-up and give them some more material.

Papa-san, the cook, noticed the magazines on the table when he brought out my plate. I gave him one, and he started to read it. But he had to get back to the kitchen before I could present the other material. When mama-san, the waitress, came to refill my water, she also accepted the other magazine, a "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD that has a Thai audio track, and the bilingual Thai/English New Testament.

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Saturday, August 11, 2007

Day trip. 5 people, 9 languages. Sat, Aug 11, 2007.

Some repeated spiritual impressions over the past year or more led me to take this day trip to a major city East of Indianapolis. First it was the city that came to mind. As I browsed the chapel locator at www.lds.org for chapels in that city, I received an impression for a certain ward. I then went to the online maps, and to www.anywho.com to look up Asian restaurants (Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese) near there. I found a particular Thai restaurant online, not far from that chapel, and that seemed to be my intended destination.

The feeling that I needed to make the trip persisted for at least a year, but I never "got around to it." Yesterday (Friday) I got a "go" signal, and knew that today was the day I had to make the trip. Looking back, I should have gone sooner on my own volition instead of waiting for a sense or urgency to hit.

08/11/2007. 862. After leaving Indianapolis and going a few miles down the Interstate I needed to make a stop for gas. As I drove down the exit, a store's sign on the side of their building caught me eye, and I felt drawn to it. So I went to that little shopping center first. I didn't see any stores that caught my attention, so I went to the store that had the sign. It's the kind of store that I would normally browse at because I'm interested in that sort of merchandise anyway. So I was wondering if the attention the sign generated was my own interest for that kind of stuff, or a spiritual tug.

Anyway, I bought something at that store, and started to leave that shopping center. However, one of the other stores in that shopping center now stood out, and now I felt an attaction to go there. It was the nail salon. I had seen it going in, but I don't normally make cold-calls at nail salons unless there's a spiritual prompting. I thought of leaving again, but the spiritual attraction to that store was clear.

I took Vietnamese and English Liahonas (of same issue) and went in. They didn't have any customers, so it was a good time. A teenage girl greeted me, and I offered the magazines. She called to an adult male in back, and he came out, and I offered the magazines to him. The man and the girl were very humble. The man didn't seem very Americanized. He showed genuine interest and gratitude for the reading material.

08/11/2007. Journal entry. A few exits down the road. I forget why I took this exit. I bought a pocket voice-recorder/note-taker, but I need to learn to keep it at the ready to record notes on the fly. I think I just bought some soda pop here. However, on my way back to the highway, I felt tugged to take a side road to another strip mall, and found a Chinese buffet at the end of it. If you go to the furthest gas station at the exit, you still wouldn't have seen it, you'd have to go down the road past all the gas stations to see it. This exit is still within driving distance for a lunch or dinner from Indy, so it's on my list of places to visit.

08/11/2007. 863. The Thai restaurant was really nice. The hostess was Chinese, and the waiter was Thai. I gave a Thai and an English Book of Mormon, and Thai and English copies of the Liahona to the waiter. He gratefully accepted them, and put them aside. However, a little later another family member came along and browsed them. The other family member indicated she had a Mormon friend and had seen the English Book of Mormon before, but not the Thai translation. After I finished eating and paid, I went out to the car and brought back in Traditional Chinese and English copies of the Book of Mormon for the waitress.

In addition to the Indianapolis information flyer in the material, I made a 4x6 card with the name, address, and phone number of the LDS mission office in that city, and put it in the material.

08/11/2007. 864. After leaving the restaurant I saw a nail salon. I'm not sure if it was a prompting or not, but decided to make a cold-call there. The man at the front desk graciously accepted Vietnamese and English copies of the Book of Mormon.

I saw a couple Chinese buffet restaurants in that shopping complex, and made note for possible future visits. This city is a possible way-point for further trips East, so it's likely I'll have opportunity to stop here again.

08/11/2007. 865. After leaving the nail salon, the idea of finding an Indian/Pakistani or Asian grocery store came to mind. This was not a prompting, but just an idea that presented itself. Since this was not a short distance from home, I was hoping there'd be more than just the one restaurant opportunity.

I drove down the main road, away from the Interstate looking to see if such a place were visible from the road. I went a comfortable distance and didn't see any. On the way back to the Interstate I pulled into a couple of strip malls looking for an Asian or Indian store, but didn't find any.

I got back onto the main road, and took it across the Interstate in the opposite direction to see what was over there. I saw the sign for one of my favorite gas stations, for which I have a pre-paid card, so I pulled off the main road to a side street. And just beyond a little rise, there it was, an Indian/Pakistani store.

Sometimes the Spirit works that way, not actually telling you something, and not making it obvious that the message is from him, but just putting an idea or concept in your head to see what you'll do with it. Joseph Smith called it "sudden strokes of ideas" on page 151 in "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" (or at amazon.com).

This guy was really cool, and helped me out in selecting some Indian music. I previously purchased a couple cds of classical Indian music, and liked it. I had even listened to one of the Indian cds on the trip over. I bought some food staples here that I needed anyway (including some sugary snacks that I like, but really didn't need the calories).

There were no other customers so we had a chance to chat and sample some of the music cds he had for sale. He spoke and read a bunch of languages, including Spanish, so we switched to Spanish for a little bit, and he was conversant in it. He told me what languages he spoke/read, so I went out to the car to get him some books, but he followed me out anyway.

It was getting close to closing time, and while we were standing outside some customers came into his store, so we said our goodbyes, and he took his stack of books inside.

He was very excited to get all that reading material.

He has some really interesting stories and life experiences. I hope I can continue in contact with him.

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Sunday, September 03, 2006

Road Trip, Sat-Sun, Sep 2-3, 2006.

09/02/2006. I took a weekend trip to a town in Illinois.

09/02/2006. 700. On the road, at a gas station to get some pop, I met a Korean lady. She declined to receive a Korean Book of Mormon.

09/02/2006. 701. First stop for gas. I gave one of the owners Hindi and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and Punjabi and English copies of Gospel Fundamentals. He was mildly pleased, not overly enthusiastic, but definitely on the positive side of the scale.

09/02/2006. 702. At the next gas station where I stopped for pop, the cashier declined to receive an Urdu Book of Mormon.

09/02/2006. 703. At another gas stop, some young Koreans declined the Korean Book of Mormon. But the young man cut me off when he misunderstood what my intention was. That station was out of gas. So when I went to the next nearest gas station, and they were also there, but I blew an opportunity to approach them again. I was afraid of trying to correct his misunderstanding. The guilty feeling for not approaching the second time let me know that it was worse to let the misunderstanding continue than try to repair it.

09/02/2006. Missed oppotunity: I stopped in one city in Illinois to shop, and saw a lady with children in the store. She was obviously from India, but I failed to seek an opportunity to speak.

09/02/2006. 704. At another gas station, for soda this time, the cashier enthusiastically accepted Hindi and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and Punjabi and English copies of Gospel Fundamentals. He was very pleased to received them. This was an inspired visit, and felt prompted to take that exit.

09/02/2006. 705. When I got to my destination, and got off the interstate, I felt prompted to stop at one of the gas stations along the main crossroad. Ahead of me in line was a woman who spoke Urdu and she accepted Urdu and English copies of the Book of Mormon. I retrieved them from my car, and met up with her outside before she got on her bus to continue on her trip.

09/02/2006. Missed Opportunity: I stopped at another gas station for something on the way to lunch. A woman came in and pre-paid for gasoline. She spoke with an accent, but I blew my chance to start a conversation. It was doable, but I wasn't quick enough.

09/02/2006. 706. I had lunch at a Thai restaurant, and they accepted copies of the Book of Mormon in Thai and English, and a couple copies of the Thai Liahona. I had looked up this place on the Internet before the trip.

09/02/2006. 707. I gave a Gujerati Bible from the International Bible Society to the owners of the motel I stayed at.

09/02/2006. 708. On the way to my dinner date, I felt prompted to go exploring in a shopping center as I passed by. I found a Filipino market there, and went in to buy some snacks. The owner and three customers accepted copies of the Book of Mormon in various languages that they spoke. A) The owner accepted English, Tagalog, and Hiligaynon copies of the Book of Mormon, and the "To This End Was I Born" DVD. B) A male customer accepted Tagalog and English copies of the Book of Mormon. C) A female customer accepted Tagalog, Cebuano, and English copies of the Book of Mormon. D) Another female customer accepted Tagalog and English copies of the Book of Mormon.

09/02/2006. 709. A single lady who is one of the church singles representatives in that stake, and one of her friends, met me for supper at a Chinese restaurant. She picked out the restaurant, but it was on my list that I compiled from www.anywho.com.

We gave Chinese and English copies of the Book of Mormon to our waitress. She also accepted a Chinese copy of the Liahona, and a bilingual Chinese/English New Testament from the International Bible Society. Another waitress who spoke Korean and Chinese and English accepted copies of the Book of Mormon in Korean, Chinese, and English, and a Korean Liahona. We also gave our waitress a bilingual Korean/English Bible to give to the Korean lady. I gave one of the sisters who ate dinner with me a Japanese Book of Mormon to take to work.

I've had so much success meeting immigrants at laundromats, I took some laundry with me on the trip. My dinner date told me where a nearby laundromat was, in a section of town that had a lot of immigrants.

09/02/2006. 710. On my way there, I stopped at a Chinese market, bought some more snacks. The cashier there accepted Chinese and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and a couple DVD's.

09/02/2006. 711. At the laundromat I met a couple from India and they accepted Telugu and English copies of the Book of Mormon. I was out of Hindi Books of Mormon by then, otherwise I would have offered him Hindi too.

09/02/2006. 712. While at the laundromat, I left my English Ensign on a table while I put my clothes in a dryer. A man was looking through it when I got back. I asked if he'd like a free copy in Spanish, and he said yes. So I went out to the car and gave him a Spanish Liahona magazine just before he left. He politely declined my offer of a Spanish Book of Mormon.

09/02/2006. 713. Right after I handed him the Spanish Liahona and walked back in to the laundromat, I met another couple from India and they accepted Kannada and English copies of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet.

09/02/2006. 714. After doing laundry, I went next door to the Kroger grocery store to buy some fruit to eat Sunday. While in the check-out lane, two African-looking couples came in, speaking French. I retrieved French and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and a DVD from my car, and went back in. They were getting ready to check out, and I talked with them a bit. Among their group, they also spoke Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba, so I went back out and got another French, and some Lingala copies of the Book of Mormon, and a Swahili copy, plus a Tshiluba copy of the Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet. They ended up accepting 2 French, an English, and I think at least one Lingala copy, and one Swahili copy.

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09/03/2006. Sunday. I visited one of the local wards in that town. I mentioned a couple book placements to their Bishop before the meetings, and he said to write them down on slips of paper to be taped up on a drawing of a temple that was on display in the foyer. So I grabbed some slips and wrote down summaries before the meeting, and finished them up after sacrament was over.

It was Fast and Testimony meeting. There was a time when no one got up to say anything for at about a minute, and I felt prompted by the Spirit to get up. On my way to the lecturn I asked the Bishop if it was okay for a visitor to speak, and he said yes. I gave very brief descriptions of the above encounters. There were 15 in total. The congregation chuckled when I mentioned I brought my laundry. My encounters were also discussed a bit in the combined Elders Quorum and HP group meeting. And after the meetings, one of the brothers bought a Simplified Chinese Book of Mormon from me.

I also visited the afternoon ward in that building, and gave a couple of the above addresses to the elders (missionaries) asking them to follow-up at the Philippines store and the Chinese restaurant, but to do so as customers, as the people didn't request missionaries. I suggested they shop at the store, and eat lunch at the restaurant, and just ask if they were the ones who received a Book of Mormon and see if they had any questions.

09/03/2005. 715. German declined. After church I stopped at a park before getting on the Interstate for the trip back home. I took a walk on the path around the park. Going the other way were three 20-something ladies speaking a foreign language. I asked what language they were speaking, and one said German. I offered them the German Book of Mormon. The speaker politely declined. I took her answer as being for the group, but afterwards it occurred to me that I should have asked the other two also.

09/03/2006. Journal entry. This was weird, but it resulted in a follow-up. On the road home, I took an exit that I thought was inspired, and bought some bottled water and something else at the nearest gas station. Nothing happened at the gas station. Leaving the gas station, I thought I was prompted to turn away from the Interstate and go the other way. At the next intersection, I thought I was prompted to turn right and take a road that paralleled the Interestate. I thought my imagination was running away with me, but the worst case scenario would be that was going to "go exploring." The road took me to the next little town, and then there was a sign pointing to the Interstate, so I turned there. And when I got to the Interstate, I realized I was at the gas station I visited in # 704. So I bought some pop for the road, and greeted the man I had met yesterday. I'm not sure what to make of it.

09/03/2006. 716. On the road home, I stopped at a place and offered an Hispanic lady a Spanish Bible and Spanish Book of Mormon which she accepted. Another lady with her declined.

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Saturday, May 13, 2006

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.

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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

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.

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Thursday, November 17, 2005

Moment #487. Thai, Thurs, Nov 17, 2005.

11/17/2005. I went to a Thai restaurant today for a late lunch. Got there around 2:30 so as to avoid the lunch crowd, and I was the only customer there.

The waitress was a Caucasian lady. I wasn't sitting where I could see into the kitchen, so I don't know if the cook was Thai or not. When taking my order, the waitress asked how spicey I wanted it on a scale of 1 through 10. I asked for a level four. I put out a Thai Book of Mormon on the table, and the waitress saw it when she brought out my food, but she didn't say anything. The food was pretty hot, and I had to drink some soda after almost every bite. (Note to self: try 2 next time.) Other than giving my taste buds a work out, the food was very good.

It wasn't until she brought the check that I asked "Do you know if anyone here likes to read Thai?" She said that all the other employees spoke it, but they didn't get there until later.

I explained that I had a free book in Thai from my church that I was willing to give to anyone who wanted it. She suggested I could leave it, and she would see that they got it. When I handed it to her, she flipped through it, and asked if my church had Thai members. I said no. I should have said "not locally, that I know of." I then said that it was the Book of Mormon, and the church had it in 103 languages. She seemed positive about it, and didn't give any indication that she thought my offer to be odd.

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