Ukrainian at restaurant. Fri, Apr 3, 2009.

04/03/2009. 1130. I had a late lunch at an ethnic restaurant that I haven't been to in a long while. I forget if I had attempted a book placement here or not. Part way through my meal two young adult women sat at the booth next to mine. They were speaking a language that sounded like Russian. But I picked up the word "Ukrainian" in their conversation, so I supposed that was their language.

I had already paid my tab and was reading a magazine when they got ready to leave. Just before they left I asked if they were speaking Ukrainian. They said yes. So I asked if they still liked to read Ukrainian and they said yes. I then offered a free book from church in Ukrainian, and said I had a copy with me in the car, and offered to show it to them. They were going to shop at the store next door anyway, so they waited a few seconds while I retrieved it from the trunk of my car.

They were very interested and asked a couple questions. I pointed out my calling card inside the book, and the 800 number if they wanted another copy. They didn't want an English copy.

Chinese, Ukrainian-Russian. Tue, Mar 11, 2008.

03/11/2008. 1005. I had arranged to have supper with a friend. We met at a Chinese buffet restaurant near his side of town. I had been there and made at least one placement before, but I thought there would be more people to contact than those I had previously spoken with.

I put some material on the table as we ate, and the waitress saw them, but didn't comment. During one of her trips to the table, I asked if she liked to read, and offered the material. She was a bit busy, and she didn't take any of the material from the table, but she seemed to agree to receive the Chinese/English bilingual New Testament, and the Chinese Liahona. She was called away, and didn't come back since we had already paid by then, so I'm not sure what all she wanted. Anyway, when we got up to leave, we left the bilingual New Testament, the Chinese Liahona, and the corresponding English Liahona, and a "Finding Happiness" multi-lingual DVD.

I don't like to just leave things on the table when I leave, because it seems a bit pushy. But I honestly thought she did want the magazine and bilingual New Testament. Most people are timid about accepting more than one or two items, but I think that's mostly out of politeness and deference.

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03/11/2008. 1006. After leaving the restaurant, I received a cell-phone call from another friend who lived in the area, so I stopped by his place.

On the way home, I took a different route than I normally do, and there were a couple choices of which exits I could take to get off the Interstate.

My path took me past a drug store which was closed for the night, but which I had been to before, and I thought about doing a follow-up there, so that's for another trip. Then going past a 24 hour chain store, I felt that I might have been inspired to go there and get something. I wasn't sure. But it was worth a shot.

At the store, one of the employees spoke with an accent. Based on her name-tag and her accent, I asked the cashier if the other employee spoke Russian, and she said yes. So after taking my purchases out to my car, I brought back in Russian and English copies of the Book of Mormon, and a couple Russian editions of the Liahona. She was not too busy when I came back in, so I approached and offered them to her. She gratefully accepted them, and I asked if she spoke any other languages, since there are several countries where Russian is the secondary language. She also spoke Ukrainian, so I said I'd bring in something in Ukrainian. I retrieved a Ukrainian Book of Mormon, and a copy of "The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd" DVD that has a Ukrainian audio track.

She was busier when I got back in the second time, so there wasn't time to make a more formal presentation or explanation, but she accepted them.

Chinese at restaurant, Arabic at gas station, Ukrainian at store. Thu, Jun 14, 2007.

06/14/2007. 829. I had supper at a small mom-and-pop type Chinese restaurant on the NE side of town. I hadn't been here before. I put out the books on my table before my food arrived, but I couldn't tell if the owner noticed them when he brought my food. He was rather quick, and I didn't have a chance to strike up a conversation.

After I finished eating, I went to the counter and offered the Chinese Book of Mormon, and they accepted a Simplified Chinese copy and an English copy.

06/14/2007. Journal Entry. After eating, I stopped to buy a newspaper a gas station that I hadn't been to before. I talked to one of the cashiers, and he spoke Arabic in addition to English, but didn't read it. I don't think I offered him a Book of Mormon, but I suppose I could have offered one to him for any of his relatives that might be interested in reading something that's in both Arabic and English.

06/14/2007. 830. I stopped at one of those mega-stores on the way home. I didn't really need anything, but bought some stuff to build up my year's supply of consumables. I picked up some items, then I scanned the check-out lines looking for either the shortest line, or someone to talk to. I ended up picking the shortest line, which was the self-checkout lanes.

Within a minute or two, I heard someone speaking a foreign language behind me. I asked what languages they spoke, and one said they spoke Ukrainian and Russian. I offered them the Book of Mormon, and they agreed to see it. I asked them to wait near the exit door after they checked out, and I thought they said okay. I got through the checkout lane first, and when I got outside, I ran to my car. I had a Ukrainian, but not a Russian Book of Mormon in the car. By the time I got back to the exit, they weren't there. So the offer was made and the offer was accepted, but the books just didn't get delivered.

I then realized they may have been suspicious of my motives in asking them to wait for me. Or else, they just weren't interested, but were too polite to say 'no.' They had some difficulty understanding me in the first part of our conversation, so the third possibility is that they just didn't understand my offer of free books. I should have just left my shopping cart in the store, and retrieved the books before checking out, and made the presentation in the store so that they wouldn't have cause to suspect I was going to mug them. When people actually see the books in both their native language and in English, hear the word "free", then they usually catch the idea of what I'm offering, and the idea of reading them in parallel.