December 29, 2015

This is Chance's Mom. There was some sort of trouble with the servers yesterday morning, so he wasn't able to write until about 8:15 last night and then sent a whole bunch of pictures today. I'm not really sure if he sent a massive email to everyone this week or not, but if there was one, he didn't send it to me! So I'm just going to write a quick post of cool things that happened this week. Chance called on Christmas Day of course, and it was wonderful to be able to talk to him and hear his voice. The language is coming along and he was able to teach us how to say his name in Cantonese, and he shared his testimony with us in Cantonese as well. Of course, this mom shed a few tears  :)

Some excerpts from his letter yesterday:
The language is completely insane. I feel like I'm learning so much but it's kind of like when you have a thimble and you start pouring a fire hose on it, expecting to catch all the water. I'm scared I'm gonna forget almost everything and I hate it a lot when I mess up, but I'm just kind of that person who hates being bad at stuff!! It's all right, I'm really frustrated but I know that I will be strengthened by the Atonement in more ways than I can imagine. I just have to be patient!

The best thing I've learned this week is that in a literal sense, Charity is 1)The pure love of Christ and 2)the Atonement literally saved us from every action AND reaction. Every hard feeling or sadness felt is still healed through Christ, and that's the best part of it.

I asked him to tell me something funny that happened this week:
Elder Caloobanan throat chopped Elder Harding the other day because he scared him, but it was like he walked in with a blank face and then chopped him and kept walking, no expressions involved. I saw the whole thing it was hilarious!

Also I just wanted to share quickly an experience. The two sisters in our district didn't have anything to open on Christmas Day so we all wrote letters to them and put some of our candy that we got and stuff in there for them and it almost made them cry. It was a heartfelt experience and made me realize how much I care for all of these people. :)

And now, pictures!

 Chance's Companions: Elders Harding and Caloobanan

 The District: He says this district is the best, and so is his zone.

 Elder Torres: This guy reminds Chance of his uncle, Justin, "only a little more Asian". Apparently he has the same long fingers and a similar sense of humor. He's the Zone leader, strict on the rules but a happy, laid back guy.

 Every week we are get to pick one of Chance's ties for him and he's planning to take a picture in that tie to send back to us. This was our first choice.

 Here's Chance and his companions, 

I'm pretty sure they should be working instead of dorking around.

 Elders Chin and Harding... this picture cracks me up.

 This one is Elders Caloobanan, Hagen, Chin and Sister Hansen, 

"basically doing what we feel like doing every day in class".

Christmas Art Projects!

 Here's another Christmas project, doesn't it make you feel festive?

 Elder Vang, in his own words is "A big Asian duuuuude."

Chance said he is one of the nicest guys he's ever met and he's hilarious.

Chance's First Letter: December 21, 2015

Hey everyone, How are you all doing? Haha It's good to send you all an email, today is my first P-day! Pday is every week on Monday (Sorry if that's worded weird the language is getting to me!) and that's when I'll be dropping you an email. I'll try to figure out pictures but for now you'll have to deal with words I guess ;) Haha It's been so great, I've learned to love my Savior even stronger than before, which I didn't know was possible. There are so many things for me to learn here (the language especially) that I know I can take to heart and take with me out to the mission field. My branch presidency is full of people that I know are called of God for us, and my Cantonese teacher is definitely called of God (Seriously, he's the best brother EVER! His name is Brother Smith, or Sihingdaai, and he's one of the kindest people I've ever met! he loves the gospel and he loves to teach us!) The food is great. My companions are good people, and so is my district. we are all serving in Hong Kong, so sharing information we have been told along the way has seriously been a blessing and a half! These people are very kind, and everyone wants to be kind to everyone else because we know that is what the Savior would do!

Life here Is extremely good, and If any of you wanna send pictures I'd like to see them. I like pictures and it would mean a lot to see all of your beautiful faces again :D.

Anyways, I'm quickly running out of time, and thank you so much for all that you blessed me with while I was at home. Each and every one of you blessed me in some way or another that has converted over to my mission, and I can't thank you all for that enough. I'll figure out pictures soon, I promise. Thanks so much everybody. Write me any questions you have I guess? Or write me if you want!!

Ga yauh! 

(Mom's edit here... This phrase means "add oil" in the direct Cantonese translation, but it really means "Good Luck and Keep Going!")

Fong Jeung Lough (<-- and if you didn't realize, this is Chance's Cantonese name.)

--Elder Chance Farr