October 9, 2016

Hey Everyone! #LDSConf

Hey so this week has been pretty good, just been working hard to keep our investigators feeling the spirit! This week was General Conference, a unique opportunity for all of us to learn and receive revelation from the Prophet, God's mouthpiece on earth. It was a unique and refreshing experience to hear all of these talks, and realizing how much they can bless each and every one of them. I encourage you to read Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk: "Abide in My Love". Man it was a powerful read. I encourage you to watch the whole thing if you haven't already, it will definitely bless your life.

Because of health issues, I will have a brief period of return home, to get myself fixed up and back out into the field. Not any big deal or anything, just need to get fixed up and ready to go! I'm still super excited to get back out here, to serve the Lord and help those who need it. There are many who have been blessed in Hong Kong, and many still to be blessed.

Love you all, and I Definitely Love Hong Kong.

See ya'll super soon! :)

--Elder Chance Farr

This is Elder Farr and President Lam at the airport.

Chance will be home this afternoon. 

Hopefully we will be able to get him well again quickly and there will be 

another picture exactly like this, only with him arriving back in HK!

October 2, 2016

Elder Farr didn't have time this week to write a mass email because he had to go to Macau to work out a contract for a new missionary apartment, so I'm compiling the newest news from my last email. 
Enjoy!

Rainbow is doing well, and actually A Ling is moving on track, which is odd because her testimony isn't super high but she's keeping the commandments anyway? IDK. It's kind of a weird situation. Brother Chu still needs more work, I believe he's going to need to wait to be baptized. But that's fine because the Lord always takes us from where we are and puts us where we need to be, so I'm not worried that it might take some time. :)

Cool thing I was just refreshing my brain about: In personal study the other day I was studying all about the Atonement and the power that it can bring. Isn't it interesting that the Law required a perfect person, a loving, gentle, meek and intelligent person to sacrifice his life for the rest of ours? That because he was doing everything right he had to save all of us who do it all wrong all the time? I'm so glad that I have a Savior, and that you do too. :) It's something that I think I didn't remember when I was home but now that I'm here I can remember it better I guess. Just a bit of spiritual thought for ya ;) Love it!

Yeah, so story time: So we moved the Sisters back into Tin Shui Wai, and realized that half their stuff is destroyed so we have to replace it all. We were reassembling the beds when everyone told us that they had to go to lessons, so we had to sit and assemble 3 bunk beds by ourselves. I could practically assemble these things with my eyes closed by now, it's super funny. We got done pretty late and went to the Yuen family's house. That was super fun because their son A Kan is a funny guy, he's putting in his mission papers right now and his entire family's hoping he comes to Hong Kong so that I can train him XD

My new shoes are great, although my back has kind of been destroyed these days. I'll be going to the doc's for it soon I think. We'll work all the kinks out :) (Get it? Kinks in my back!)

I totally forgot to mention that my Mandarin is basically awesome now, and that I've learned some Chinese Sign Language. Elder Chan served in a deaf ward and so he learned a bunch. Yeah, my Cantonese is still doing okay. I might be a bit prideful :P

Love you!

--Elder Farr

This instrument is a Chinese Harp.

And if you know Elder Farr, you know he LOVES Panic! at the Disco and Brenden Urie vines... 

So here's a remake!

September 25, 2016

Hey everyone, How goes the storm over there?

Hey everyone, life has been great over here in the beautiful city of Hong Kong, working in lovely Kowloon Tong, and serving all of the people and missionaries here!

All of our investigators are doing great, actually. Rainbow, Ling, Hou Jai and Brother Leung are all doing SUPER well. All of them are progressing in their own way and I'm so glad to see the love that Heavenly Father has for them. It's been super awesome to really see their change and inspiration as they grow.

This week isn't super special, but it's been awesome to see the many acts of kindness by members and charity of everyone. The world is truly a place of love. Hopefully we can spread it past our church! Get it to everyone that needs it because, in reality, they need it. :)

Life has been really good as we work toward perfect service. We can do better every day and I realize that every day.

Thanks for reading the email, taking a short look into the life of Elder Farr and listening to me. :)

Catch you on the flip side.  :)

--Elder Chance Farr

Did you know that ancient Chinese buildings did not have nails in them? They actually never used nails. How cool is that? We went into a bunch of places that had no nails in them. We had an awesome lunch with Yoshi and he helped us learn all about these cool places in accordance with ancient Chinese lore!

Some of these were taken by Chance, and the rest were taken by Yoshi.

This is the Nan Lian Garden.

September 18, 2016

Hey everyone, sorry about last week, but I'm back! #ElderFarr

Hey everyone, just a quick email to let you know how my investigators are doing, as well as how learning more about the Gospel has been treating me (I'm gonna give you a spoiler alert: it's been awesome!)

RAINBOW'S MOM ISN'T STOPPING HER FROM BAPTISM! Yeah, she'll get baptized soon. I'm psyched she's doing so well. A Ling told us she'd rather be a piece of paper than a person... she doesn't want to have feelings? Yeah, she's kind of an oddball. Brother Chu is trying to quit smoking and working pretty hard for it.

We met with Brother Ng today. It's been really hard for him since he wasn't able to be confirmed, but he's still firm in the faith. It kind of sparked some serious frustration because he's so prepared and his wife won't let him do anything.

A Bo and Hou Jai kept fonging (ditching) us for church but I'm sure they'll come around.

Life's been cool, in Personal I've been studying in regards to the Atonement, and how it can really take the change of our investigators lives. The proof of the use of the Atonement is the joy and the willingness to be baptized, and therefore when we use the Atonement in our lives, we WANT to take the sacrament, we want to change and we want to repent! Keep that in mind as you go throughout your days. Truly, it is a beautiful gift of help and comfort to repent. Good luck all!

-Elder Farr >:)

Dumplings!

Dinner with A Ling and Tracy, who is a member

The Ward Mission Force

Dinner with Brother Kwong, a less active member that's coming back

The missionaries found wigs during a YM/YW activity and decided they better wear them.

Elder Chan sleeping at his desk during personal study

September 11, 2016

So as far as my week, I have a funny story to tell you!

Once upon a time, Elder Farr had a lump on his foot. It just looked like a callus but it was painful to walk on and so he thought something was amiss. However, he assumed it would go away; he didn't have time to take care of it (or so he thought).

Then, as he stared down this small bump he realized it had something black on the inside. So of course, assuming it was a splinter of some sort, he quickly brandished a needle, stabbing mercilessly and attempting to pull. Well, that caused some discomfort as some might think, and so he called the mission nurse who told him to go to the doctor.

Elder Farr went to the doctor and discovered that his foot had been building weird calluses because his shoes are damaging the tissue, as well as allowing a wart virus to get under his skin. So he blasted it with liquid nitrogen and has to go back for yet another treatment. :P

Other than that, life's great. I've really been enjoying stuff, got another Orientor done, it's just waiting on President Lam's part. We have taught a bunch this week! Rainbow is so golden, A Ling is quitting tea, she hasn't drank it in 13 days! Brother Chu is quitting smoking, coffee, tea and alcohol. Pray for him please! My new investigators A Bo and A Hou need some desire. (These are new investigators, about high school age.) We have also just been teaching Sister Wong and her friend's little girls English a bunch.

Also, it's Mid Autumn Festival here. Yesterday I went to a member's house and we all played a game about 4 word idioms in Chinese. It was seriously so fun! And I learned a ton of Chinese proverbs. So many: "Like trying to chase a cow up a tree" = impossible!

I asked about Moon Cakes...

So it's this stuff... they take this lotus seed and red beans and make a paste out of it, and then they make a cake out of it. Literally one is about 2000 calories. You can't even eat a whole one, and they're literally the size of your palm, so you have to eat them by slices. It's like Lembas bread. One bite can fill a man for a full day (How many did you eat Elder Farr?) (....four...)

They're actually not bad, except I don't like the egg in the middle. They have egg yolks that have been boiled or something in the middle. They're interesting. Mid Autumn Festival is just super fun. You eat the cakes and some glutinous rice balls with filling (I love the peanut butter filling ones) that are soaked in ginger brown sugar water. It's awesome :)

(He also said that you play a lot of games during Mid Autumn Festival, so Elder Farr is totally in his element. This is definitely a holiday our family could get behind!!)

Love you!
--Elder Farr

September 4, 2016

Hey Everyone, Another week is lightning fast over!

Hey everyone, so this one is going to be short. Hopefully everything is good there from where you're at and you're rocking it!

So let's get in!

Haha, soo, I like barely remember any of what happened this week. Mostly because it went by so quickly. I'm really surprised actually. We started with transfers this week, which was insane as always, and I didn't move. :) Still here rocking the office! And then right after that we had Zone Conference, so we had to set up tables a lot, which resulted in a lot of basketball (which isn't too bad actually. I'm enjoying it.) and lots of fun. Zone conference was just so powerful, really.

We got some new Cantonese missionaries. Pretty excited about it, we drove the Macau sisters to the ferry, that was such an adventure. I realized I'm totally comfortable with driving now, which is super good!

Rainbow's doing awesome, she's not had a problem with the commandments yet. We've taught her twice this week, the Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, and Sabbath Day. She likes them all! :D

Brother Chu, we scheduled him and taught the last of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he's kinda just fallen off as far as his desire. We are hoping to rekindle him.

A Ling has been impossible to schedule but she's quitting tea right now.

The funniest thing this week was either when Elder Chan got attacked by Elder Woolley and Elder Woolley got him stuck in between his legs and spanked him like 45 times in a row. Super funny. The wrestling is great. The other super funny thing was this week we were teaching Rainbow, and we had Sister Tam scheduled to teach, so we planned to teach Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity in that setting. Sadly, Sister Tam got sick and we last minute scheduled Wing, or Wayne. He's so funny, but he happens to be an 18 year old kid. Rainbow is 20. And we are both like 20. So it was SUPER awkward to teach the Law of Chastity in that setting. But she understood. :P We reviewed next time with Sister Tam.

Life's been good. Working hard, having fun and continuing to progress in life. It's kind of the eternal cycle of life, actually.

Have a nice week, and we'll see you all next week!

--Elder Chance Farr

Here's 2 pictures with me and Elder Oquist, from Sweden. We are starting a Maplestory guild at home eventually. Such a funny dude, he's fun to talk to.

A cool family that just got sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

The ward trip to the temple. We didn't go but we are so happy for them!! :D As our zone leaders said, Ordinances: Gotta catch 'em all!

August 28, 2016

Hey everyone!

Well, this week has been pretty funny! Between trying to teach Elder Chan how to say bleach without swearing, trying to help missionaries with crazy apartment problems, and a lot of different random stuff. We had a lot of things that were just crazy, Mandarin transfers added a LOT of people to the Mandarins this week, and I tried to just Speak Your Language Mandarin with them, my Mandarin's been improving like super fast this week and I feel pretty good about it haha! Looks like they're getting ready to hybrid me. :P

It's been a lot of good things, although all of our investigators fonged us this week (didn't come to the lessons) and so we are kinda bummed about that. Dang, super crazy!

Rainbow is looking like a super good potential, she's ready to be baptized except for she's trying to improve her relationship with her mom before she asks her. She'll be baptized in October! We are so happy!

Thanks for reading the weakly newsletter (Yes, that was a pun because this week is super weak. :D)

--Elder Chance Farr

And....

This week has seriously been awesome. We have been doing what we can, with crazy transfers we have just been pushing to get things done!  I've decided I am going to use Visual Basic in order to design an app that can take care of all the stocking for me. It's been necessary for a long time. Also, we have officially moved to Windows 10! For me it feels like night and day, Windows 10 works so much better for me!

So for the crazy situation in the apartments: This week is what we call the week of the broken toilets. 3 toilets broke this week and all started leaking profusely. And so of course we were called by scrambling missionaries attempting a futile effort at changing it themselves! So we had to have some plumbers go over to take care of them. Explosive toilets.

Spiritually I've had a lot of realizing how much of a gift this gospel is. As well as the gift of tongues. We get a lot of opportunities to speak to mainlanders, so I can speak quite a bit of Mandarin without any study of it.

One of the cool things I gleaned in personal study is this:

"Other than our will, there is no present we can give God that he hasn't given us first. But giving him our agency, something that is ours and something praised in the scriptures, is something that is a true gift to God." That's not direct, but I think it's close to the way Elder Anderson put it. Isn't that a cool concept? Sacrificing our will is truly the thing to be praised.

My past companion, Elder Wilcoxson, got a needle stuck in his foot. Through that experience I learned the word for Industrial Sewing Needle. I've learned these days that President Lam has the funniest dry humor. He told Elder Wilcoxson that now he has just a tiny inkling of what the Savior went through. Yeah, most people would think that comment was inappropriate, especially because of the laugh that came from it. Such a President Lam joke! President Lam (who is a doctor) doesn't actually have a license here, but often times he just takes care of that stuff. In this instance, he is in the hospital because they had to cut his shoe off (RIP Elder Wilcoxson's shoe, 2016) but I heard he should get discharged today.

Me with the branch president from Gwong Zhou 2nd Branch

(a branch from Mainland China that visited Hong Kong)

MASSIVE galleons in Tsuen Wan

A cute little girl that sent us a picture on her birthday!

(I asked, this is the same cutie that he taught to cross her eyes and sends him pictures all the time!)

This is with the Lee family, the bishop's brother who isn't a member. His other entire family are members, so we are trying to work with him. He finally prayed! It's exciting.