Keith Held
Bishop Odense Denmark 1. ward

Gracias
Pamplona, Spain

I love the multi-lingual DVD’s. I’ve bought and given away cases of them. The most common languages I use them for are Mandarin, Cantonese, French (for African immigrants), Spanish, and Korean.

If there is more “room” on the DVD’s for more audio tracks, I’d love to see audio tracks in Twi (Ghana), Igbo (Nigeria), Yoruba (Nigeria), Swahili, Amharic (Ethiopia), Arabic, and Vietnamese.

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By the way #1:
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Please email me at the email I gave in this post. I’m getting some veddy interesting search engine referrals to my blog, wherein the church websites are not appearing on the first page of those searches. I’d like to set up a system, perhaps with a specially coded subject line, so that I can send you those searches (the referral URLs).

I know you called out for such things before, but I’m afraid they will be lost in the clutter of email. If we use a specially coded prefix in the subject line, your email reader could filter them to a folder and you could then handle them as a group when you get the time.

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By the way #2:
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Is there a list-serve so that I could get notified of all new translation work for any curriculum material? As it is now, I have to occasionally order (why can’t we download them as PDFs?) the “Language Material Listings” to see if JS Testimony pamphlets or Gospel Fundamentals or videos have been translated into the languages which I encounter in Indianapolis.

For instance, I have a Burmese Jospeh Smith Testimony pamphlet. But the Burmese Gospel Fundamentals, when it is translated, won’t be listed for sale on ldscatalog.com. It will be listed on the Language Material Listing document (which I can’t download), and I have to have that listing physically delivered via snail mail.

How many times do I have to order “one each” of all the 50 or so Language Material Listings (for the languages in which we don’t have a BoM yet) before the Distribution Center folks finally get the bright idea to make them into PDF’s and let people download them?

Or better yet, when will they finally get the idea to let people place online orders for the Burmese Joseph Smith Testimony pamphlet (which I need because there is no Burmese BoM to give out to the Burmese people I meet) and the Wolof Gospel Fundamentals (because there is no Wolof BoM for me to give out)? As it is now, I have to order those by phone or snail mail, AFTER placing an order for the Language Material Listing.

Some of the unimaginative people that the church employs have responded “Well, those people speak English if they live in the US, give them something in English.” Or “The Wolof people speak French, so give them something in French.” But that’s not the point. The “magic” of distributing gospel material comes into play when you give someone something in their native language. That’s the sizzle that get’s people excited enough to read it, or at least keep it and not throw it away.

There is a frustrating circular reasoning going on. They (curriculum dept, translation dept, and distribution center) say they don’t have a demand for those materials, and I say they don’t have a demand for those materials because they don’t let people know they are available via the ldscatalog.com web site.

The various single language VHS tapes, the multilingual DVDS (which are easily available online), and even the Gospel Fundamentals (aka Gospel Principles Simplified) and the JS Testimony pamphlet in arcane languages (eg: Fon, Fulani, Bemba, Bambara, Yoruba, Pashto, Punjabi, Wolof, Marathi) go like hotcakes when I encounter people who speak those languages.

I feel frustrated because it’s like the church is hiding that material, while in reality, right here in the heartland of the USA, the hundreds of speakers of those languages, whom I’ve met face-to-face, are generally ecstatic to be offered free copies in their native language. Can you imagine devout Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs eagerly reading our material in their native tongue? I testify that they do. My blog documents it.

There are over 20,000 African immigrants in Central Indiana. There are over 10,000, perhaps 20,000, Chinese speaking immigrants. There are over 5,000 Russians. The success rate of my offers of book placements (BoM, Gospel Fundamentals, JS pamphlets, etc) is over 90%. It’s crazy, but it’s happening.

I believe there is a literal need for gospel material in more than just English, Spanish, and French on the ldscatalog.com web site. There is a need for more than just the Book of Mormon. There is a need for various material in more languages than just the 104 BoM languages. (For instance, I’ve placed dozens of copies each of Yoruba and Wolof Gospel Fundamentals, but there is no BoM in those languages yet.)

Other examples: An Igbo lady was baptized in our stake. She was given an Igbo Book of Mormon because they found it on the web. But no one knew there was Igbo Gospel Fundamentals available for her. The missionaries baptized a man from South Africa who spoke English fluently, but his native language was Zulu, and he also spoke Shona and Ndebele. The missionaries never gave him anything in any language besides English. He didn’t even know the BoM was available in Zulu or Shona until I gave them to him, along with the Ndebele Gospel Fundamentals. Months later, I visited his ward, and found him reading the Zulu Book of Mormon I had given him.

I have found many opportunities for placing church publications in those 50 or so other languages that have some “pre” Book of Mormon material. Can they somehow be put on the web at ldscatalog.com?

Can you help me spread the knowledge that so many of these languages (I’ve encountered 70 so far) are spoken right here in the US, by hundreds of thousands of immigrants? Can you help me spread the knowledge that most of those immigants are willing to receive gospel material from our church?