The Hate Text Message

Okay, so I know it's been a while since I've posted and I'll do a separate post of my assessment of the semester, but I just have to tell this story. So yesterday I got this text message from a number I didn't recognize and all it said was "Revelations 22:18." So, Katelyn had her Bible with her and looked up the reference and thinking that maybe it was some inspirational verse to edify my day, I was sorely mistaken when Katelyn read aloud: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." Whoa. Putting this into some kind of context, it seemed to be a very condemning verse I'm assuming based on the fact that I'm LDS and that this person (whoever it is) is referring to the Book of Mormon.

When I got home that afternoon I loooked up the area code, hoping to find something enlightening about who it could be (I texted them back and just asked who it was, but I never heard back) and the area code (505) was from New Mexico. This didn't help me in the slightest. I was online a little later messaging Rachelle and recounting my tale of the Hate Text and she provided me with something very illuminating (normally I'd just let something like this slide and not worry about it, but after this bit of information my curiosity about it all was piqued), but in order for this to make sense, here's a bit of history.

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Over the summer, I dated this guy Jon (the guy in the Little Mermaid pictures) and he's not LDS, but at the end of the summer we agreed to not keep dating and I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We're pretty similar in our basic beliefs of Christ and such, so that was a nice way in which we could relate and we'd had a few in depth conversations about what I believe etc. This school year, he was accepted to this school called 24/7 which sounds like a fundamentalist type of institution, one which I wouldn't be surprised if (and almost expect) anti-Mormon propaganda to be taught. This is not good.

Back to the story...
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The first thing I thought of when I received that text message (and the first thing Katelyn, Rachelle, my mom, and Emily thought) was this school. When you look at it, it would be pretty bizarre for someone to just randomly text a phone number this reference and have that person be LDS. Probably not a coincidence, right? Anyway, I was messaging Rachelle and she mentioned that Jon's new friend at this school is from New Mexico. Ah...now it all seems to be falling into place. The connections just seem too odd to be purely coincidential now. So I called the number. Surprisingly someone answered, but I was really confused because whoever answered was speaking in a very affected Texas accent and rambling on and on about something and then ended by saying "I must have the wrong number" (he must have the wrong number?!?! I was the one who called!!) and hung up. Weird. I called again about 45 minutes and was able to leave a voice message (by the way, the voice on the answering machine had a slight Texas twang, but nothing like he was talking when he answered) and all I said was "Hi, my name is Charlotte and I received a text message from this number a little while ago and was just wondering who this is. Obviously you have my number, so you can just text or call. Thanks, bye!" I kept my voice very casual and polite, but I probably won't hear back.

Point of this whole story being 1) that's just weird and 2) it's scary to me how strongly the Adversary can deceive and distort. I'm hoping that Jon wasn't involved in this happening, but I just don't know. He's been weird to me on the phone ever since he got there and I just hope that the Spirit can touch him in a way so that he's not deceived. The actual message itself doesn't really bother me and I laugh at that part of it (I do enjoy calling it a Hate Text), but what bothers me is that one of my good friends is probably involved and obviously deceived. That's what's sad and disturbing. I don't feel threatened myself, but I hate to see Satan work in those I care about. It's frightening yet unsurprising to see how far he'll go to discount truth.