Menorca: Falun Dafa was Warmly Received in Mahon

While visiting Menorca recently, I was joined by another UK practitioner. We took the opportunity to tell people about the persecution of Falun Gong in China and we found the Menorcans to be very supportive.

We spent Thursday morning arranging permission from the Ajuntament (council) to hand out materials to the public. Our basic Spanish vocabulary was put to good use and the clerk listened intently and then replied in fluent Spanish, which we found surprisingly easy to understand. She asked us to write our request for permission to hold an activity in Spanish, so we purchased a dictionary and set to work.

After we handed our permission request back to the clerk with a leaflet and a Spanish newspaper about Falun Gong, she kindly rewrote it in a format that would be more effective in getting the permission and was really very helpful towards us. Our patient efforts were rewarded when, suddenly, the clerk started to speak English far more fluently than we could speak Spanish. The clerk told us to go ahead with our activity and show our application form to anyone who asked what we were doing. She also told us to leave some leaflets and she pinned them up on the office notice board in full view of everyone!

The steps leading up from the port in Menorca’s capital, Mahon, are picturesque and attract many passers by. The next day we found a suitable place nearby. It was even shaded by palm trees, a blessing as the sun was already raising the temperature on its way to 35 degrees C.

As soon as we started to prepare our table and materials, a policeman approached to ask what we were up to. We told him about Falun Dafa and the persecution in China and showed him our permission slip. He took a leaflet with him and wished us well. We handed out many Spanish and English leaflets and collected petition signatures. We could have done with French, German and Italian leaflets as well!

Just as we were finishing the policeman returned with a female colleague. She also wanted to learn about Dafa and was very pleased to see what we were doing.

This was a great opportunity for us to cooperate well in a difficult position, where we only had a little understanding of the Spanish language. Problems did come up and we shared our thoughts, eliminating any misunderstandings and experiencing just how powerful righteous thoughts are. I worked hard to get over my fear of speaking Spanish. Before I left the UK, I had been told, “no-one will want to know about this while they’re on holiday!” However, many people were interested in finding out more about Falun Gong.

The clerk that helped us said that she wanted to learn the exercises and Menorca’s local Chinese people have been told the facts as well. Dafa has now touched people in the Balearics!