Korean, English to elders. Fri, Nov 4, 2011.

11/4/2011. Journal Entry. While traveling around the far side of town, I spotted two elders putting air in their bike tires at a gas station/convenience store.

I stopped to chat and see if they needed any church literature to give out.

They did need English copies of the Book of Mormon. The local mission office has cut back on the number of copies of the Book of Mormon they give to the full-time missionaries. I suppose that local members in the wards where missionaries serve need to make up the difference. They used to get 10 copies every 6 weeks, and now it's only 5 copies every 6 weeks.

I gave them one of my English copies, and showed them how I mark it with Post-It notes (at 3rd Nephi 11 and at Moroni 10:3-5), an info flyer, and custom-made pass-along cards.

They had recently received a referral request for a Korean Book of Mormon, but hadn't received the Koren copy from the office, so I gave them one of my Korean copies.

Shona to missionaries. Wed, Oct 26, 2011.

10/26/2011. Journal entry. The missionaries were in my neighborhood and they stopped by to say hi. I found out that the church's Ndebele Gospel Fundamentals was indeed the correct dialect for the ward's recent convert from Zimbabwe.

They recently met another person from Zimbabwe and offered him "a church book in his language" as their conversation starter. He agreed to receive it, and the missionaries said they were going to get him one from the supply at their apartment that I had given previous sets of elders. So... in order to replenish their supply, I gave them another one out of my stash at home.

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."

Feed the mish'es, 3 contacts. Fri, Mar 26, 2010.

03/26/2010. Journal entry. The missionaries did the contacts, I bought lunch and facilitated. (I didn't make the offers, so I don't number it in my encounters.)

I was on my way to lunch, and saw a couple elders walking down the street. I turned around, pulled into a parking lot and called them over. They were about ready to take a lunch break, so I offered to take them to lunch.

One of the elders was from Honduras (the other was a US guy) so we chose a Central American restaurant nearby.

We met one of the office workers from their apartment complex, who was also patronizing the restaurant.

Anywho, we ordered, ate, I paid (and left a good tip), and the missionaries offered the waitress/cashier some material. I think she accepted a Spanish (and maybe an English) Book of Mormon, and a video.

We also flagged down another patron as he was leaving since the Honduran elder thought the guy was from Honduras, but he wasn't. He did accept a pass-along card and a pamphlet though. The missionaries play soccer on the west side of town, and this guy was a soccer player, so they invited him to the missionary soccer.

Right as we left, another lady left the restaurant. And if I understood correctly, she was the one who started a conversation with the elders on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. They offered her a Spanish Book of Mormon and a video, which she accepted, and she said she'd call them. We all chit-chatted in Spanish for a while, and it sounded to me like she really would call them.

I then dropped off the missionaries at their nearby apartment.

Chinese at restaurant w/missionaries. Wed, Aug 26, 2009.

08/26/2009. 1183. I took our ward's two full-time missionaries (elders) out to dinner. The senior companion got transferred in right after the last baptism. The junior companion, a greenie, just arrived in the mission this morning. So this was his first dinner (supper) in the mission.

I took them to an Asian restaurant that is within the ward's boundaries, but I wasn't sure which language the employees speak. The senior companion asked our waitress what languages she spoke, and she said Mandarin, so I got out some Chinese material from my book-bag that I had taken in.

On one of her later trips to the table, we asked if she still liked to read Chinese, and she said yes, so we offered her the Simplified script Chinese (she's from China) Book of Mormon, and a Chinese Liahona, and the "Finding Happiness" DVD. She accepted all of them, but wasn't very enthusiastic about it. I forgot to offer her an English copy. (The restaurant is real good, so I hope to follow up in the future, and maybe talk to other employees.)

Another waitress who refilled our glasses looked Chinese too, but she was so quick we couldn't get a word in with her.

The greenie elder was impressed for his first day in the field. Both elders knew how to use chopsticks, and both ate what I ordered for them, so I was impressed with them too.

Hallo Henderson, Nevada! We has ur mishunary.

07/19/2009. Journal entry. On Thursday I went to pick up the ward's two full-time missionaries to take them to the home of the couple who just got baptized. The senior companion, who had been in the ward for at least 6 months was just transfered out the day before. I made small talk with the new guy, where you from, etc, where's your family originally from, etc, Phillipines, do you speak Tagalog, no, but I can understand Ilokano. He was born in the states, but his older siblings and parents were born in the Phillipines, and his home ward is in Henderson Nevada.

When we're in the car, he starts asking me questions, asking if I blog etc. And it turns out he heard of me before he went on his mission. When he received his mission call to the Indiana Indianapolis mission, one of his ward members told him about me and this blog. Small world!

So a shout-out to the reader(s) in Henderson who "warned" their outgoing elder about me. We's got 'im!

(I just got back from icanhascheezburger.com, so dat's why the LOLspeak.)

Also a shout-out to the regular readers in Denver Colorado, Dayton Ohio, and Swedish American Hospital in Rockford Illinois.

Got missionaries in trouble. Vietnamese. Wed, Jul 1, 2009.

07/01/2009. 1160. I picked up the ward's full-time missionaries and took them to an investigator's apartment for a short lesson. This was the neighborhood where I met a Vietnamese man June 4th, and told the missionaries about it, and gave them a Vietnamese Book of Mormon for him. They hadn't been able to find or contact the man. They had gone there, but no one answered the door.

Since they didn't have another appointment immediately after this one today, we walked over to the Vietnamese man's building, and walked past some people who looked like they might be employees of the apartment complex. The Vietnamese man was outside his building, so it was easy to strike up a conversation with him. He accepted the Vietnamese and English Book of Mormon. The missionaries offered to come visit and offer service, and he invited them over in a few days, and they actually made an appointment.

As we walked back to my car, one of the people we had passed, and who had witnessed our interaction with the man, said there was "no soliciting allowed" on the property and asked us to leave. We were leaving anyway. I mentioned that we had a book in the man's language for him. And we left.

Spanish to missionaries. Wed, Jun 17, 2009.

06/17/2009. Journal Entry. I offered to take the Spanish-speaking missionaries in the adjacent ward, the one we share a building with, to supper at a Mexican restaurant. Then something came up, and I had to back out. But I was still able to stop by their place and give them some Spanish copies of the Book of Mormon, a couple of paperback Spanish Bibles, and a hand-ful of church videos that have Spanish audio tracks. I also gave them some money so they buy their own supper at a restaurant, and use the opportunity for contacting or prospecting.

Chinese, Tagalog, Ilokano at baptism. Sat, May 9, 2009

05/09/2009. Books to Missionaries. Our ward had a baptism of a young married couple. Three sister missionaries from a neighboring ward attended. While the new members were getting dressed two of the visiting sister missionaries bore their testimonies. One of them said she was from China. The other didn't say where she was from, but by her accent I guessed the Philippines.

After the baptism service, I went out to my car and got some Chinese material to give to the one from China, three copies of the simplfied script Chinese Book of Mormon, and one traditional script, two issues of the Chinese Liahona, a Chinese/English bilingual New Testament, a "Finding Happiness" DVD, and a couple English copies of the Book of Mormon. I gave them to her, and told them about my success in placing material at Chinese restaurants. I asked the other sister missionary if she spoke Tagalog and she said yes. She also spoke Ilokano. So I went out to the car and brought back in two copies of the Tagalog Book of Mormon, an Ilokano copy, and two copies of Tagalog Liahonas, and another English Book of Mormon or two.

I told her about the Filipino restaurant in town, and she was excited about that, but it's pretty far from her ward.

Anyway, I told the sisters that I was pretty confident that now that they are "armed" with language matierial, they'll meet people who speak their languages.

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.

Portuguese to missionaries. Sun, Oct 26, 2008.

10/26/2008. Journal Entry. Last night, the missionaries for the other ward that shares our building called and asked for a Portuguese Book of Mormon. This evening, I took a copy over to their apartment, and also gave them a Portuguese Gospel Principles, and a Portuguese Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet.

Russian to missionaries. Mon, Mar 17, 2008.

03/17/2008. Journal Entry. Yesterday, our ward's full-time missionaries told me that the Zone Leaders needed some copies of the Russian Book of Mormon for a member in their ward (they meet in the same chapel as we do) who wanted to give them to some of his Russian-speaking friends. I suggested to our missionaries that the member probably ought to get them from the Distribution Center (www.ldscatalog.com), but that I'd drop off at least one Russian Book of Mormon.

I was passing not far from the Zone Leaders' apartment on my way home from an appointment, so I stopped by. They were not home, but I left one Russian Book of Mormon, 3 Russian Liahona magazines, and a Restoration DVD (that has a Russian audio-track), at their apartment door. I phoned the missionaries the next day and asked if they thought the member could afford to buy some copies, otherwise I would try to help out. They thought that he should be able to both afford it, and purchase them online; so he probably just didn't know how to obtain them.

If the books had been for active investigators, the mission office might have ordered them. But one mission president had previously told me that any books other than English and Spanish, (and any books in excess of the missionaries' allotment {10 every 6 weeks} need to come through the ward mission leader, and out of the ward mission budget.

I'm willing to help out in my ward, and provide material that missionaries are giving out directly, but I think if a member has the means to buy the Book of Mormon on his own, to give to his friends, then he can order them online like I do at www.LDScatalog.com

Chinese declined at restaurant. Fri, Dec 14, 2007.

12/14/2007. 932. I took the ward's two full-time missionaries (elders) to lunch at a Chinese buffet restaurant.

I placed some material on the table right after sitting down, Chinese Liahona, Chinese/English Bilingual New Testament, Simplified Chinese Book of Mormon, Traditional Chinese Book of Mormon, English Book of Mormon, and "Finding Happiness" DVD.

The waitress did a few double takes on them, but wasn't interested. We could tell from later interaction with her that her English was limited to restaurant vocabulary.

I've made little labels that I tape to the books, that say in Chinese "This book is free". A Mandarin-speaking friend did those to me, and emailed a graphic to me to use.

But she just wasn't interested, or perhaps she misunderstood and thought we were trying to sell them.

The hostess/cashier wasn't interested either.

After lunch, we stopped at a gas station so the missionaries could buy some snacks and so I could get a newspaper, but we didn't see any opportunities there.

Some investigators lived in an apartment complex on the way back to the missionaries' apartment. And since the missionaries are on bicycles this week (trading their car off with another set of elders), we stopped by there so they could drop in. They actually saw two households of investigators/contacts, and introduced themselves to a friend of one of them.

Signing on the missionaries. Sun, Nov 4, 2007.

11/04/2007. Journal entry. Our ward's missionaries seemed to have caught the vision of international language placements when they received a referral from Temple Square to deliver a Chinese Book of Mormon, to someone who had requested one while visiting Temple Square. Last Friday the 2nd, I had delivered a couple Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon to them for that purpose.

As I was chatting with them about my Book placements, they seemed to catch the vision. So I offered to give them a supply of foreign language translations if they'd keep them in their car. The senior companion agreed.

Today, Sunday the 4th, I gave them a first installment of a "car kit" with 22 different translations, plus a couple more English: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese-simplified script, Chinese-traditional script, French, Haitian, Hindi, Igbo, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lingala, Portuguese, Russian, Shona Spanish, Swahili, Telugu, Thai, TWi, Vietnamese, and Zulu.

I believe there were Post-it notes in all the copies, denoting 3rd Nephi chapter 11-26, and Moroni 10:3-5. All had info-flyers listing the chapels in town. All were in zip-lock plastic bags to keep out dirt and moisture.

Stocking up elders at church. Sun, May 20, 2007

05/20/2007. Journal Entry. Our missionaries get only 10 copies of the English Book of Mormon every 6 weeks from the mission office. If they need any more, they are supposed to get them from the ward mission leader or members in the ward (or sent from their family.)

I gave our ward's full-time missionaries (elders) five English copies today, along with some food.

I try to give them a combination of nutritious food, but also some snack food that would not normally be in their food budget. One of our missionaries is a former Marine who served in Iraq until he was wounded. Yesterday (Sat), at a Big Lots (close out) store, I saw "Hooah!, Soldier Fuel", and had to get some for him and his companion.

Other stuff included: Pringles potato chips, salsa, diet soft drinks, lemonade mix, jello mix, ramen noodles, fruit/gummy type candy, noodles, beef jerky, a can of La Choy Beef Chow Mein; all stuff at a discounted price at Big Lots.

English and Chinese to missionaries. Sat, May 19, 2007.

05/19/2007. Journal Entry*. I attended a cookout for Single Adults at an LDS chapel in a city outside of Indianapolis. Like most church stuff, there was excess food, so when a couple of full-time elder missionaries stopped by, they got to fill up.

I asked if they needed any copies of the Book of Mormon, and they asked for five. So I gave them five English copies, and an English KJV paperback Bible (from Int'l Bible Society), which they said they could use. I also gave them three church DVDs, one of which they haven't seen yet, The Testaments, of One Fold and One Shepherd.

I asked if they ever went to Chinese restaurants, and I told them a little about my placement efforts. I also gave them a Simplified Chinese, a Traditional Chinese, and another English Book of Mormon to give out at a Chinese restaurant. I explained a little about the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese. I don't know how much sank in, but they seemed to catch on to the idea.

*(I don't number the contact unless I offer something to a non-member.)

Arabic to elders. Thu, May 3, 2007.

05/03/2007. Journal entry. Last night the elders (missionaries) in our ward called to ask for an Arabic Book of Mormon for an investigator. So this morning I took over an Arabic Book of Mormon, a hard-cover English copy, an Arabic Gospel Principles, an English Gospel Principles, and an Arabic Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet.

Chinese and French to Sister Missionaries. Thu, Apr 5, 2007.

04/05/2007. Journal entry. The sister missionaries on the West side of Indianapolis called me to get some more simplified script Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon for some more investigators. They may have asked me for a French copy too, but if they did, I forgot about it. So after shopping at that Asian grocery store in the previous entry, I swung by the West side of Indy to run an errand, and drop off the Simplified Chinese Books of Mormon, and a bilingual simplified script Chinese/English New Testament. I left them with the landlord/home-owner where the sisters rent a basement apartment in her house.

Later in the evening (still Thursday) the sisters called back and asked (or asked again) for a French Book of Mormon, and some more English copies of the Book of Mormon since they had run out of English.

04/06/2007. Journal entry. So Friday (the 6th), in the AM, I stopped by their apartment before they left for the day, after another errand on the West side, and dropped off a French Book of Mormon, a French issue of the Liahona magazine, along with the corresponding English edition of the same issue, a French Gospel Principles, and French "Teachings of Presidents of the Church, David O. McKay."

I don't expect the sisters to give out all those items to their French-speaking investigators at once. I would imagine they'll give out the Book of Mormon first, and then other items at subsequent discussions.

Spanish to street vender. Mon, Mar 5, 2007.

03/05/2007. Journal entry. After attending the singles Family-Home-Evening, I headed towards the Spanish-speaking missionaries' apartment on that side of town. I had some custom-made Spanish language pass-along cards that had their phone number on it, that I wanted to give them.

When I pulled into their apartment complex they were talking to an Hispanic street vendor, and buying some of his food. I parked, and took over a Spanish New Testament, an English New Testament, a Spanish Book of Mormon, an English Book of Mormon, a Special Witnesses of Christ DVD, and an Our Heavenly Father's Plan DVD which have Spanish audio tracks.

Okay, that may have been a lot to give one person, but the missionaries don't have Spanish Bibles to give out, and I like to give out Bibles to illustrate that we believe in the Bible. The missionaries are also afraid to give out any English Bible other than the KJV. However, I think it unfair for us to expect people who are trying to learn English to read the English Bible in King James (Jacobean?) English. Therefore, when I give an English Bible to someone who is not fluent in English, I give them the NIV (New International Version) Bible or New Testament. Remember that part of this project is the bilingual aspect. If that person joins the church, or seriously investigates, we can always get them a KJV Bible at that time.

The vendor can always give the two DVDs to someone else if he doesn't want to watch them, or when he's done watching them. Or he could give them back to the missionaries. I also don't mind at all if he just keeps them. I just really want gospel material, of whatever sort, Bible, Book of Mormon, Gospel Fundamentals, Gospel Principles, videos, DVDs, Liahona magazines to be "out there" so that Heavenly Father has "touch-points," so to speak, to use when people are ready for the gospel or even if they are only ready for some kind of contact or information.

I gave the business-card sized pass-along cards to the Elders, too. The generic Book of Mormon pass-along card I made in English has the local mission office number on it, but no one at that office speaks Spanish. So I wanted the Spanish speaking missionaries to have something with their apartment's phone number on it to give out. There will very likely always be Spanish-speaking missionaries in that apartment, so that number should be good for a while. Also on the same card was the phone number for the Spanish speaking missionaries on the East side of town. (Example: Indianapolis (East) call ###-####. And: Indianpaolis (West) call ###-####. And it's in Spanish, of course.) So I'm giving half the cards to the other Spanish speaking missionaries too.

I realize I interrupted the conversation the missionaries were having with him, but it was a quick in-and-out. And it provided them material and more talking points to have with the gentleman, even if the only benefit was him asking the elders "Who was that crazy guy, and what's this stuff all about?"

Amharic to sister missionaries. Mon, Mar 5, 2007.

03/05/2007. Journal entry. I was on the West side of town doing errands and decided to go the single adults family-home-evening that is regularly held at a chapel just west of downtown. At the chapel I met the sister missionaries who serve in that ward. I had met the one, and the other had heard of how I give out copies of the Book of Mormon. The newer one asked me if I had a certain translation in a foreign language, checked her appointment/note-book, and asked for an Amharic Book of Mormon.

I said "sure," and went out to my car and retrieved an English and an Amharic Book of Mormon, an Amharic New Testament (which I bought at International Bible Society, but is no longer carried by them), an English New Testament, and an Amharic copy of Gospel Fundamentals. I looked for an English edition of Gospel Fundamentals in my car, but didn't find one.

The sister tried to give the hardcover English Book of Mormon back to me, saying they had some, but I wanted her to keep it as the missionaries don't have enough. They only get 10 copies of the Book of Mormon from their mission office every 6 weeks.

For some reason, some missionaries think their 10 books per 6 weeks is a maximum, or a quota from which they should not deviate. I hope missionaries think outside the box, and realize they too can flood the earth with the Book of Mormon, giving out as many as the local members will pay for or provide. Parents can also send extra Books of Mormon to their sons and daughters serving as missionaries. If they are serving in the US, you can order books for them at www.ldscatalog.com, and have them dropped ship anywhere.