What’s up? This has been a challenging week.
Yuki did not get baptized. I have never seen anyone get “antied” as much as she has, but she still comes to Church. She has really gotten a lot of opposition: As soon as her friends found out she wanted to be baptized they told her that Mormons are eloquent and skilled deceivers who work for the devil.
First of all, if we were in the business of deceit, would the Church send 19-year olds out? Most of us barely passed English class, lol; the thought is so ridiculous. Worse than the Anti-propaganda though, Yuki had a nightmare in which she said a scary man was trying to strangle her, and yelling at her not to get baptized. She got scared, and backed out. But I talked to her about it over the phone and explained that someone who was good and trying to warn her wouldn't try to kill her in the process. Kind of counter productive. Then I read to her the Lord's Prayer, and told her to pray that she would be protected from evil as she sleeps. She came to Church, and she said that she realized that the man in her dream trying to choke her was the devil and that she still wants to be baptized. As we talked, I felt inspired to read Joseph Smith's first vision with her and this time include the part where the devil bound his tongue that he could not speak and tried to [strangle] destroy him.
As she read Joseph Smith’s testimony she said, "This is exactly what happened to me." I told her that the devil was forced to leave once Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ came to him, and that when she gets baptized, she will have the Holy Ghost, and the adversary will be forced to leave. She knows now, that the devil is going to try to stop her from getting baptized, and that the sooner she is baptized and receives the Holy Ghost, the sooner the devil will be forced to leave. Yuki and I have really good conversations.
She told me, "Elda Donton, thank you so much for all your patients, and help. No one else answers my questions, because they can't understand my accent."
Ha-ha, it is funny, I can understand her accent because I grew up around Mom's accent. Yuki hopefully will be baptized next Sunday.
We got our transfer calls, but they could be changing soon. The Stake just shifted a bunch of boundaries, and created a new Ward.
Some things that go on in the Mission field really try my patience, but I promised Yuki the Holy Ghost would give her more patience; so I can't allow myself to get upset – I’ve been given the Gift of the Holy Ghost and I need to Follow His promptings. As for now, my transfer call is this: I'm serving as District Leader where I am here in Fort Lewis, and I'm training a brand new elder from the MTC! I'm stoked, I'm going to have a brand new companion. I can't wait. It'll be an opportunity for me to go back to the fundamentals, and really learn them well. Plus, we get to start fresh, which means hopefully we won't have any obedience issues. Fingers crossed.
I love you guys, I'll talk to you later.
Love,
Elder Thornton
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