DIEGO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
=D
This week was weird. Yup. Really
weird. Also, I apologize in advance because I feel that my English has gotten a
lot worse this week. I now speak in mostly just Thai all day. So English … yeah
… it might be best if Barbie doesn’t read these emails until someone else edits
them first. (Too late)
Monday. Normal. Good. FHE was about
the sacrament and the real reason we come to church—not for friends or social
stuff but for God and Christ and to renew our covenants.
Tuesday we got the call that Sister
Embley would be moving at the mini transfers on Wednesday. It was expected but
still very sad.
Wednesday morning we get to the
office and the new missionaries have yet to arrive—some huge storm somewhere in
Asia halted their arrival. We still had mini-transfers though. In my humble
opinion, President Senior is insane. Perfect. Genius. Amazing. Fantastic. Has
the vision. But insane. Do you want to know what mini-transfers were like? So
the office has many floors, right? For the mini-transfers he had us all (about
16 people?) stand on the first floor while he, his wife, and his three
assistants stood on the second floor. He said he had just finished reading
about King Benjamin and his tower that morning, hence the inspiration for the
set up. So yeah. First example of his insanity is the set up. Second, he had
the trainers come forward first and some missionary commented that it was like
the Hunger Games. He told us that our companions would be coming sometime
around 1pm so we would have to wait.
Noon comes along and they told us
that because of the storm, the new missionaries still hadn't come. Stand by.
Not super fun because you don't know how to plan for each day. You have to be
very flexible. So Sister Du Plessis (another trainer) and I go back to my area
(because my area is in Bangkok and hers is too far away) and continue
working.
Miracle during this time. As we were
going to lunch, I called up one of our investigators—Gob—who was supposed to
get baptized yesterday, trying to set up an appointment. She said she wasn't
free all this week and wasn't sure if she even still wanted to get baptized.
This obviously was very hard for me because I just lost one of my best and
closest companions. I was also worrying about training, especially training in
Thai. But! God is good. And this is His work, not ours. Not two hours later (on
our way to Bangna) I get a call from one of the assistants. "Hey, so your
investigator Gob is at the church here in Asoke and wants to learn. What do you
want us to teach her?" Apparently she was working near Asoke and was able
to find the church. It just showed me that God can do all things and there is
never reason to fret. God's got it. Who better than the assistants to resolve our
investigator’s concerns?
Thursday. Sister Du and I are in
Bangna. Assistants called and said that the new missionaries would get in
around the evening so to go to Asoke Friday morning.
Friday. Finally get my new
companion. Another story to show you that President is insane but also insanely
inspired. All you can do with President is to expect the unexpected and enjoy
the ride. There are five new missionaries, right? Two sisters and three elders.
Sister Du and I are the sister trainers and we were pretty positive that we
knew who would be companions with whom. One of the Thai sisters was from
Bangkapi (a baby area) and that was only about an hour or two away from Bangna
(my area), and that’s far too close. So, logic would say that she (Sister
Yanisa) would go with Sister Du and the other sister (Sister Autamakul) would
go with me. I forgot that logic plays no factor when President is
involved.
He asks all ten of us to go into a
room to match us up. He did the elders first. He took the name badges of the new
missionaries and 'randomly' picked out which one would go where. He made it
look completely random but I'm pretty sure (or at least am hoping) that he knew
which name badge was whose. So the elders went with their companions and it was
now time for the sisters. We made the comment that we were pretty positive who
we were already going to be with. He looked at us and then stood up and said
that he had to pray some more.
He comes back after a time and asks
us four sisters to come into his office and explains the situation to us.
Apparently that morning he was
pretty positive that Sister Yanisa would go with Sister Du and Sister Autamakul
would go with me. Then when he was praying about it (the first time, not this
last time), the Lord said to switch it. President said that that made no sense.
The Lord still said to switch it. Then President did the whole calling us into
the room to match us with our companions. When he got to the Sisters and we had
already 'done' it, he thought “Yes! That would make more sense” and that's why
he went back to pray some more. The Lord still said to switch it. So President
switched it. He also reminded us of the story when the Lord had Prophet Samuel
pick David to be the King (Old Testament). God's ways are not the world's
ways.
So we all leave the room completely
shocked but willing to do whatever the Lord said. Who needs logic anyway? They
tell us to go eat lunch but to come back in an hour.
An hour passes and we ten return.
President calls us four sisters back into his office and starts telling us the
Bible story of Abraham. God had tested Abraham's obedience by telling him to
sacrifice his son. Abraham was confused, among other things, but he trusted the
Lord and so obeyed. Before Abraham actually sacrificed his son though, an angel
stopped him. President Senior told us that the Lord told him to switch the
companionships back again. It was an obedience test. Were we—and mostly
President Senior—willingly to obey despite the insanity of what we were told to
do? Yes. :)
I'm almost out of time and I still
need to write President Senior.
I love you all very very very very
very much!!! =D
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