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