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.

Vietnamese at nail salon. Sat, Jun 16, 2007.

06/16/2007. 831. I was heading South on the Interstate from Indianapolis to go to a Single Adult dance at another stake. I had planned on getting off at one of exits along the way to look for a Chinese restaurant to have supper. Around suppertime, I stopped at one exit, drove around a bit, and couldn't find anything. I stopped at the next exit, and drove around a bit, but didn't see any Chinese restaurants. However, I did see this nail salon.

I haven't had much success with book placements just by walking into nail salons. However, if one of the employees is standing outside, sometimes I'll strike up a conversation out on the sidewalk, and those sometimes turn into nice encounters.

Here at this one, no one was standing outside, but I felt inspired to go in anyway. I took in Vietnamese and English copies of the Liahona magazine.

They didn't have any customers, and it looked like they were getting ready to close. I asked the closest employee if he liked to read in Vietnamese, and said that I had an extra free magazine in Vietnamese from my church. He enthusiastically accepted it along with the English copy. He seemed positive about it, so I then offered the Book of Mormon, and he agreed to see it, so I went back out to the car and got a Vietnamese copy and an English copy of the Book of Mormon, and took those in, and he accepted them.

We chit-chatted a bit, and it was a very friendly encounter.

Moments 36-39. Road trip to Muncie. Sep 1, 2004.

09/01/2004. Moments #36 - 39. Road trip to Muncie.

Chinese, Vietnamese, English. Muncie, Indiana.

Muncie is a little more than an hour's drive from the West side of Indianapolis.

I had a strange desire to take some copies of the Book of Mormon in Chinese and try to place them at a Chinese restaurant. I supposed a city the size of Muncie must have Chinese restaurants. I had no apparent need to go to Muncie, other than I felt like it. I couldn't tell if it was a prompting of the Spirit or my own imagination. It persisted for several days, maybe a few weeks. It wasn't a still small voice telling me to go, but an idea or desire welling up from within that I couldn't make go away.

After the trip I realized it may have been an "implanted desire."

I put some copies of regular Chinese, simplified Chinese, and extra English copies of the Book of Mormon in a computer case. Because I've encountered Vietnamese and Koreans working at Chinese restaurants, I stuck in an extra copy in Vietnamese and one in Korean.

I didn't know where I was going to eat, but I figured I could easily find a place or that I might even be prompted where to go.

I prepared some special "info flyers" for Muncie, using 3 x 5 cards, and printed the Muncie chapel's address and meeting times on it (2 wards in Muncie proper), and included the Indianapolis Mission Office phone # since it's in this mission. I thought about putting the Muncie missionaries' phone numbers on it, but didn't have them, and didn't have time to call around and get them. I put an info flyer, a pass-along card in each copy of the Book of Mormon.

---

Moment #36:

I was driving along the highway which connects Muncie to the Interstate. As I approached an intersection in the business district, I was gently prompted to turn, and I did so.

I immediately saw a Chinese restaurant ahead, and felt confident that was the place I was supposed to go. I felt both reassured and awed. I did not know beforehand that there was a Chinese restaurant there.

I pulled in and felt like I should put my business cards in the Books of Mormon and I did so. I bought a USA Today and a copy of the Muncie newspaper and then went in.

I went to the cashier's counter and ordered my standard Moo Goo Gai Pan. The cashier/order-taker was a young adult Asian man. He seemed humble, the kind of person who is receptive to the Gospel. I asked where his family was from, mainland China or Taiwan, but he didn't seem to understand the word "mainland", but he said no to Taiwan, and yes to China.

I sat down with my case, my newspapers, and my soda pop to await my food. I took a Simplified Chinese and an English Book of Mormon out of the case and placed them on the table with the Chinese on top. When the young man brought my food he did not notice the books. The food was good and inexpensive.

After eating I went up to the cashier's counter and the young man came out of the kitchen. Showing him the Chinese Book of Mormon, I asked him if he liked to read in Chinese. When he said yes, I asked if I could give it to him for free, and he agreed. To make sure it was the right style I also showed him the traditional Chinese book, and he obviously preferred the simplified Chinese. I asked him how many people worked there and he said three, so I retrieved two more Simplified Chinese and two more English from my case, and presented them.

He started to decline the English copies, saying he didn't speak English very well, but when I said he could have them to help him learn English, he seemed to understand and accepted all six books.

---

Moment #37:

I left the restaurant and noted the street names for later. I drove towards the Interstate. I still had 3 traditional Chinese, 3 English, 1 Korean, and 1 Vietnamese Book of Mormon in my case, plus a few dozen translations in the trunk.

I wondered if my "assignment" was over, and felt prompted that it was not. This was an urgent prompting to turn around, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do.

I guessed that I was supposed to go to the Chapel and leave the other Chinese books there and leave a note for the missionaries to follow up. I turned around and tried to find the turn-off that goes to the chapel, but I realized that the street that the Chapel is on doesn'the highway, and I didn't know the cross street that would take me there.

Then I felt prompted to get rid of the three traditional Chinese Books of Mormon. So I turned into a commercial area where there are lots of stores, hoping to find more Chinese restaurants. I drove around less than 1 minute and saw a nail salon.

Nail salons in Indianapolis are almost all run by folks from Vietnam. Whether the desire to place the Vietnamese book at the nail salon was purely my own concoction, or whether that desire was connected to the idea to put the Vietnamese Book of Mormon in my case before the trip, I can't honestly say. I just thought "Oh boy! I bet there are some Vietnamese people in there, and I got a Vietnamese Book of Mormon!"

We're not supposed to be commanded in all things, and when you can put 2 and 2 together on your own, why bother the Lord for an answer?

I took the Vietnamese book into the store. All the employees were busy with customers, and the employee at the front station looked up from his work and asked if he can help me. I asked "Can I give you a free book in Vietnamese?" and held up the book. He thought for about 1.5 seconds, and maybe just to get rid of me said "Sure, just leave it on the counter" which I did, and I thanked him and left.

---

Moment #38:

I drove around some more, and ended up driving past the restaurant I was at and about two blocks past it there was a Chinese buffet restaurant. I took in the three remaining traditional Chinese books, which is the version that people from Taiwan and Hong Kong read.

The host was an Asian teenager, and he asked "how many?" I said something like "I didn't want to eat, but I'm curious as to where your family is from." He said China, and I realized I didn't have the right version of Chinese with me. But I somehow forgot that I had more Simplified Chinese copies in my trunk. I asked how many of his family worked there and he said lots. We chatted a little bit, and I asked if anyone in his family liked to read in Chinese, and he said one. I sort of ignored the "one" answer, and I said that I'd like to give them some free books in Chinese along with the English translation. I forget what else was said, but upon leaving I said "Merry Christmas" to emphasize the gift aspect, but he didn't seem to get the joke.

Having given away 13 copies, I was feeling satisfied, but still awed by the whole thing. Every prompting and idea seemed to pan out.

---

Moment #39:

There was a gas station on the highway right before the Interstate. I went in and purchased a cold soda pop for the road. The cashier was a very friendly lady in her 40's or maybe early 50's.

As she spoke I could tell she had spiritual light, and I could tell she was at least a believer in Christ if not already a member. I was prompted to do or say something, but I got flustered because I wasn't prepared, I didn't have a book with me, and didn't have any words ready on how to present a Book of Mormon to an English-only speaker. I had practiced for the immigrants, but not for English-only folks.

I didn't say anything, and went back to my car trying to justify myself thinking I had accomplished my goals for the trip. I thought "I was assigned to give out the Chinese books, and maybe a Vietnamese and/or Korean and that's what I did and that's all that I was told to do."

But after I got into the car, I felt a sense of urgency. It seemed as if the Spirit was saying "Yes, you did what I told you, and now I'm telling you to do more."

Then I had two feelings; I was ashamed for resisting the Spirit, and I was scared about how to make the presentation.

I thought for a minute to come up with a presentation. I opened the trunk and got out a zip-lock baggie that contained both an inexpensive King James Bible and an English Book of Mormon. Offering or at least showing the KJV Bible might make the Book of Mormon easier to place.

I seemed to have temporarily forgotten the principle "whatever God tells you to do is always a good thing, so don't be scared." And since the lady was a nice lady, giving off light, she wasn't going to bite my head off.

I went back in and went up to the checkout and asked the lady if she had ever read the Book of Mormon, and I took it out of the zip-lock bag. She said no but that she did have a Bible. She saw the KJV Bible that was still in the baggie, so I think she got the impression that they go together.

I said I'd like to give her a free copy if she'd like to read it. She graciously accepted it. I forget what else was said. The moment was a little awkward, but her kindness seemed to make things smoother.

I went back to the car, got on the Interstate back to Indy, and started to choke up realizing what happened on that trip and what led up to it. The Lord says "Marvel not" several places in the scriptures. I hope I'm not "marveling," but I was in awe.

As I drove past the city of Anderson on my way back to Indy, I felt like the Spirit indicated an exit where I should go on a future trip and do the same thing.