Siberian Winter in DC

This week took our winter to a whole new level here in the District. As I was typing my last blog entry we got hit with our first storm Monday evening and we were told to stay inside our apartments and not drive. The ban wasn't lifted until Wednesday when most of the roads were cleared. On Wednesday I got to go on exchange with my old companion Elder Spencer Ng! I can't believe a year and a half has passed already, we are now two very different missionaries. We got to visit with some my favorite families in the mission and catch up on the past year. Those are the kind of sweet experiences I've been having lately, to go back to the places that you have lived and served in before. When you give something of yourself to the people and return to visit there is a special love and joy that you feel. That inspires me to choose to participate in opportunities to help out others no matter where I live or how old I am. There is a sense of fulfillment and peace that is unlike anything else. I also had the privilege to go back into the city ward I served in my second transfer with Elder Synelnikov. I miss that guy! We visited the same couple that I went and visited with my
zone leader when I was on exchange with him as a new missionary. I was surprised that after these two years they still remembered me! They said that they remembered my face. At first she said the same thing she said when I first met them, "welcome to the third ward!" I forgot how fun and exhilarating it is to ride around on a bike and just talk with people. Sure it's cold, but it makes me feel like I'm on an important mission. The next morning we were riding back from the church and we started getting pounded with snow. It stung my face try and ride a bike through it, and I could hardly see anything! Before 3 pm there was already more than 4 inches accumulation so we were grounded once again. We spent another day studying and planning, it
was tough to stay motivated. I was trapped there for an extra day and the singles ward cancelled their sacrament meeting. Elder Fuller and I met back up and decided to attend the third ward church service! It's
a very unique congregation because among  the saints are many converts from traditional baptist congregations so when the speaker says "good morning" the audience will respond good morning! I miss that ward a lot so it was such a pleasure to go there. Every year I think I appreciate more and more the time that I'm blessed to spend with people. Sure we might get snowed in, stranded, or left behind but it's
fine if you make the most of it with the people around you. I definitely won't forget these days on my mission in the best mission in the history of life!

Blessings for Patience

There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can--working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well! -President Uchtdorf
 I didn't know how I was going to get through this week. Not sure if you've ever felt that way before, but I felt this dreading in my heart to work through everything that needed to be done last week. If I do something I want to do it well, and the chances of that go way down when you have more and more things to do. The first big stress was the zone training that Elder Fuller and I were supposed to plan and put together. It's like a district meeting for over 50 people, so we want the meeting to be well worth the time of everyone that attends. The first training was done by some of the sister training leaders of the mission and they covered the plan that President Cooke has for the mission this year. To intro one of the Sisters stormed in and slammed a white board on the table which scared everyone, especially me and even President, it was great. Then she started yelling about members and missionaries working together like she was a coach. Then we had a training on using the spirit of discernment in our teaching which went much better than I expected. We used the Preach My Gospel videos to show where the spirit of discernment is used, and I felt the spirit testify of the principles that we were teaching, that the Lord knows every single person and if we ask Him, He will reveal something about the person to us. I got to give a training on using the gospel library application to our zone and every zone after that throughout the week.
On Tuesday I also got to go on exchange back into Chinese! Our first stop of course had to be to go visit the Fengs! I ran up to Paul and gave him a big hug, I forgot how much I missed him. I can hardly believe it's been a year since I met him and his wife. We have so many good memories together. I was overjoyed to hear that he taught Sunday School last week and is preparing to go to the temple to be sealed next month. Ah! I would serve another two years just to help a family have those blessings. Elder Yang said that he has not seen a missionary have that kind of relationship with the members and that it's something he wants. In the evening I got to see the Azucenas, which we both took as a sign because we ran into each other at the store the same week. Elder Yang is such a great missionary, he loves the branch and wants to serve there, that puts me at peace.
The biggest stress for the week was the missionary stake coordination meeting that we needed to prepare for. The Washington DC Stake leadership has men of a lot of power and influence in it, so of course we want to prepare a meaningful report. We are hoping to change the system a little to improve the accountability of members working with missionaries. We spent ten hours on Saturday preparing the report the next day, and then a killer snow storm hit and the meeting got postponed until next month which means that the information we collected is all obsolete! I can't express how frustrated I felt. I felt like all my sacrifices and my work went to waste and I felt hateful for it not going to any use. I had a hard time showing any gratitude and feeling the spirit in my prayers that night. But when I opened the Book of Mormon I found verses that told me to trust in God, and that you can't know that you are unsuccessful because God sees the bigger picture. The first talk at sacrament meeting was on patience, that was a message definitely just for me. Then 6 investigators showed up to church! We got to teach three of them separately, then there was a baptism after church! Ivan moved his baptism from Valentines day to Sunday so we had to rearrange everything. Then we tried to fill the font an hour early and it was filling in super slowly. But we got the water high enough and he got baptized and it was amazing! I love my mission. My experiences are teaching me that if we hold on and trust in god, even though we don't see the whole picture all things will work together for our good.

All Creatures of Our God and King

For the Winn

I have a new companion! His name is Elder Clayton Winn from Ogden, Utah and has been serving in the French program for about 6 months now. His companion Elder Monsia entered the field the same week that I returned to the mission in 2013 and had to go back to the Ivory Coast for a few weeks to renew some paperwork to be in the states. So Elder Winn gets to hang out with us for a while! He is a great young missionary who knows his purpose and likes to work hard. The teaching appointments that we've had so far have been outstanding and I'm glad we get to work together in a trio.
This week has been off the wall crazy. There are twice as many missionaries in this zone than in my last and President Cooke has a lot of initiatives going on. Just to give you an idea, I know this is really boring but here goes. We had two 24 hour exchanges to go on, five district meetings, a specialized training for new missionaries, we taught 17 lessons to both nonmembers and members, young adult activities, interviews for the zone with President, reports on baptisms and baptismal dates, an upcoming baptism to plan, following up with ever referral in the zone, an a cappella performance at the visitor center with my Elder Fuller, Elder Fisher, and Elder Jamais, and we had to start preparing for stake coordination meeting next week as well as zone training, finding activities, and exchanges. Oh and we put together a big zone activity for today. Whew. There is so many things going on at once I'm just trying to keep up! There are so many more things to think about here than in my last area and I want everything to go well. I am really grateful for Elder Fuller and his talents. We work well together and have been taking care of things tactfully and efficiently. I'm really satisfied with everything that has been accomplished up to this point. The total new referrals that haven't been updated for the zone dropped from over 150 to 10, the zone activity this morning was one of the best I've had. We planned a missionary murder mystery! We cast 12 missionaries to be part of a talent show where a murder occurred and the audience had to ask us questions to find out who killed the President Cooke impersonator. The performance last night was a great experience for me. I don't have a very good voice at all, but I love to sing. I am so grateful that there were a few Elders that were willing to give me the chance to sing with them I really enjoyed performing! That's one thing I'm coming to truly feel, that I have a family here and that we love one another and look out for each other. It's such a unique and wonderful blessing that you have for serving a mission.
This week we taught Ivan once again and figured it would be the make it or break it lesson since he told me he likes to drink. After teaching the word of wisdom with the perspective that it will be something that will invite the spirit and the presence of God into his life he accepted to never drink alcohol again! I felt that it was almost too good to be true, but he is genuine. He came to church late, because he attended the baptism of his friend in Virginia before coming to our 3 hour church block! Again, he is a fantastic guy. Also one of the members brought their friend from China to Sacrament Meeting and he had a great experience as well, this ward is fantastic. The Jewish investigator texted us and said he doesn't want to meet with us again, that was pretty harsh but it happens. I'm glad we got to teach him once. We also met with a born again traveling minister that just left for England after our lesson. As I taught him about the atonement he told me that he disagreed. That grace works differently than our understanding and that the Book of Mormon prophets write in a manner where they glorify themselves. I just continued to control my emotions and testify that I know it is the truth.
I think the lesson that I'm taking away from this week is that we may be asked to do a lot more than we can handle, but the Lord will help you if you rely on Him and ask for His guidance. Oh and I got into BYU Hawaii! I'm glad that's an option, it would be great to go to school where my parents did. Living the dream! Elder Lim

Lovest Thou Me?

Peter didn't know what to do. Have you ever felt that way before? His Savior, leader and guide had left him for the third time and he sat there upon the shores and didn't know what to do with himself and so he said, "I go a fishing." Then after an entire night of not catching any fish (that always happens to me when I go fishing, AJ catches all the fish) the Lord comes to them and tells them where they can find fish. They immediately recognized the Lord, they must have felt dejavu from the first time he called out to them in their boat. Christ prepared a meal for them and had an interaction with Peter that I think is depicted very well by the new bible video made by the church called Feed My Sheep. The Lord asks, "Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me more than these?" Peter fakes a smile and says "Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee." The Lord commands him, "Feed my lambs." The next time the Lord repeats the question Peter musters up a little more conviction to show that he loves the Lord. The command he receives is the same. The final time Christ asks him the same question Peter seems to be pleading with the Lord, "Isn't it true that I love you??" The risen Christ commands him, "Take care of your brothers and sisters." 

Even as a missionary, when life is simple and you have a single purpose, I feel like I get lost along the way. After the 50th time that someone has told you that they don't care if you want to share something amazing with them, it's freezing cold outside, and people are giving you condemning looks, it is hard to accept the command to feed His sheep. This was a moment that I experienced last week while we were contacting at a metro stop. I stopped for a moment to consider how ridiculous this was, and how I could be so much more comfortable now. Then a voice came to my mind, and called me by name saying, "John, do you love me?" No one knows me by that name here. But to me it sounded like, do you love me more than you love being comfortable? Do you love me more than you love doing your own things? And I had to pause to re-evaluate myself and my intentions. A sweet spirit entered my heart and filled me with a desire to be closer to God, and keep trying to help others do the same. I think we all can receive that assurance if we forget ourselves and get lost in others.

We had some amazing teaching opportunities and miracle this week. The first one is an investigator from ShangHai that I mentioned in my last entry. He committed to and came to church, and he brought two of his chinese friends! What a blessing that was to sit with them for fast and testimony meeting. The next investigator is currently attending American University and is one of the deepest thinkers that I have met. I felt genuine curiosity from him as we talked about the convictions we have about the truthfulness of the gospel. He is seeking for something to answer all his questions and I'm excited for him to find the answers in what we have to share with him. We are also working with a student at George Washington that is studying law and business, super smart. He was raised Jewish but said he didn't find the fulfillment he is looking for. He heard that Mormonism is a good transition for those that are Jewish background and so he referred himself on mormon.org. Sister missionaries were at his door within 12 hours, and he called us to set up the appointment. We had one of the best restoration lessons I've been a part of, I love being a part of such a great work!