February 29, 2016

Hello Everyone! From Hong Kong! #NgohMhDaahkHaahn

Hey everyone! It's been so good to be here in Hong Kong! It's a lovely place and I'm happy to be here. Oh, before I forget the hash tag means "I don't have free time".

Recap time:

So we got here on Tuesday night, and we were picked up by the APs (Assistants to the Presidents). President Lam couldn't do it because he was having dinner with Elder Stevenson of the 12 who was just here. He then met up with us and he told us to sleep in the mission home (Which is a chapel across the street from HK Temple) and those beds were rock hard. We didn't even get to change or anything because we couldn't fit our luggage up there so that was an issue. We only got our carry-ons up there so I had my beef jerky and my dried fruit :P. So those beds were rock hard, the next morning we woke up and we started training. We worked with the APs and learned after an awesome breakfast (Sister Lam even bought us milk which is SO EXPENSIVE HERE). After training we got to try our hand at Finding. We went and ate Chaa Siu Faahn (pork with rice and veggies) and then Elder Taam and I went finding together. Elder Taam is one of the funniest people I've ever met, and I had so much fun finding with him. I'd say "Leih hou ma" and people would be like "ngohmhdaahkhaahn". Elder Taam taught me quickly that as a missionary you have to be willing to say "Mh gen yiu!" (Meaning Whatever! All good!) and we had a lot of good laughs. I actually stop a lot of people because I'm a white person with blonde hair and blue eyes that speaks Cantonese. I'd stop them, and he'd communicate with them because I totally can't. I love Elder Taam, he's so funny!!

Next we slept in the temple, and that was rather comfortable, and the APs even gave us their beds. I told them I wouldn't take it but they do it every transfer so they didn't mind. One of the APs is now in my apartment because he got transferred to the area I'm in. So then we met our companions and basically hit the ground running, dropped our stuff off in Ma on Chaan (Ma on Shan on Google) and went finding. I go finding with Elder Love a Lot (the guy from Beyond Five apparently) because our companions are the zone leaders and we go on splits. He's only been out 4 months so we do our best. We were gonna meet with Yoshi that day but didn't have time. Let me explain Yoshi quick. My teacher in the MTC, Brother Barker, actually baptized him, and Yoshi was a professor at 18 before he joined the church. (That's how cool he is.) He's a private tutor now, and we are so blessed to have him. He feeds missionaries every week, he comes to any lessons we need help with, he's been a force for good, a strong one, ever since he was baptized. I'm so proud to call him my friend and we got a lot of time to talk in church. The teachers are in Cantonese so usually he translates for me on Sundays. So on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and technically Sunday we ate at members houses. Apparently in most parts of HK that's rare, but for Ma on Chaan it's super regular. I also was in a lesson with Kira and was able to share my testimony about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and he came to church! We also had a Sailaihwui (Baptism meeting) right after and that was beautiful. It seemed like we really refined Kira's decision for baptism, I believe he will start coming to church. Life is good, let me know all y'all that have questions :)

--Elder Chance Farr

(Other stuff from mom's email--)

My companion is awesome, his name is Elder Merrell. He's nice but he's a pretty straight forward kind of a guy, which I guess is good in HK. My apartment has been nicknamed the Princess Palace because it's one of the biggest ones on one of the highest floors, it has a beautiful view over the sea. I'm in Ma on Chaan, which isn't quite the city, but not quite the new territories. We're technically a new territory but at the same time not? Ngoh mh ji dou dim yeung gai sik. (I don't know how to explain it.)

We have taught Kira twice, and we will teach both Alex and Tom soon (They are all Chinese, just have English names.) Kira is the jeui leng zai (The most handsome/good looking man) he really likes Karate and Dragon Boat racing. He's so fun to talk to and he always tells me "Hohk Jungmahn! (Learn Chinese!) As a joke between us, I respond with "Hohk Yihngman!" (Learn English!) It's always been funny, I really love him and consider him a good friend. He's 18 just like me ha ha, so that's always good. He had a problem with coming to church because he does Karate on Sunday and Tuesday, but we convinced him and he came to church yesterday (for the last hour so he didn't miss karate). I think he's ready to keep that commandment and if he does we can go ahead and baptize him. I'm in a ward and boy are they good people. Out of the 4 days I've been in this area I've had members feed me literally every day (On Sunday they gave us a bunch of kinds of bread for dinner). We have a thing called a cheng out, which means a member takes you out or feeds you. We get them every day in Ma on Chaan.

President and Sister Lam are so super nice, I am so blessed to have them, they fed us SUPER good breakfast and pineapple bread (Bo lo bao) when we were there and it was awesome.

Pictures!

"This is a typical breakfast."

(Who knew he would enjoy the food more in China than at the MTC--

even enough to take a picture?!)

"Our people we were playing tennis with. Elder Merrell is on my right. He's funny."

(Our people? I guess we will try and figure out who everyone else is!)

Also, here are a few photos of Ma on Chaan that I found through Google...

what an amazingly beautiful place! He better take more pictures from the Princess Palace, lol!

And I just found this one on President and Sister Lam's Facebook page!

February 23, 2016

Dear Parents,

Just a short note and airport picture of your missionary's safe arrival in Hong Kong.

They are a bit tired but excited. We can tell that they are well prepared to serve. We love them already.

Warmest regards,

President Lam
China Hong Kong Mission

February 17, 2016

Hey everyone! The last week in the MTC!

Hey everyone, how is everyone all doing? We are all doing pretty good considering we are about to leave the MTC and serve in Hong Kong, only the best mission in the world (Sorry every other missionary on this list)

I'm so looking forward to sharing this gospel with all of them and I can't wait to be there working desperately to help other people understand the joys of the gospel that I have felt. Repentance is such a beautiful thing, it's funny how we all sometimes think that it's super bad but it's not it's a lovely thing that we get the opportunity to do that and change who we are as people, I know I've needed it in my life and so does everyone.

Funny story of the week: So when you say "ji wai yuh" it means the Word of Wisdom, but if you say it with a slightly different tonality (Up instead of a bit of a bounce) then it turns into "Wisdom Fish". Once upon a time Brother Barker was teaching a lesson to an investigator in Hong Kong and asked the member present to draw a picture of what he thinks "Ji wai yuh" is. The investigator responded quickly, drawing a fish with a graduation cap on! Hahahaha! How awesome is that!

Everything is awesome here, and the spiritual knowledge I have learned is that the spirit works with your talents. I like to listen to people, so when I feel the gift of tongues I feel like I can understand incredibly well. That's all folks, catch you on the flip side!

Elder Farr

Other stuff:
The other day we were talking about Si tou, which is apostle. But if you say it with different tonality, it becomes "esophagus".

I'm striving to be the best person I can possibly be! Even though we all make mistakes sometimes we all get on the path once more. :) Still pushing through, I'm 1/12 done. see you in 11/12ths!

We were teaching Skype TRC and it was super amazing, which means we Skype someone and teach a member a lesson. We taught all about revelation through the Book of Mormon and how it can help and change our lives. She was one of our teacher's best friends and she told our teacher that she's been going through depression and a lot of hard things but our message helped her SO MUCH! I feel so blessed that the Lord would include me in his miracles and I'm so happy that everything is happening so quickly.

I'm Ready to Go... aka the Panic! at the Disco song :)

No pictures of his face this week, if I had his butt here I would just kick it. Here's some awesome photos though....

Elder Farr's flight itinerary -- hope things go as smoothly as this!

Finally got the magic name tag!

February 10, 2016

11 days and counting!

Man has this been a long week in the MTC! How's everyone doing back home?

It's been such a long time here in the MTC but mostly I believe that's because I am ready to leave for Hong Kong (Except for the language bit... I'll get to that later.)

I'm so happy I'm here because I have been able to learn so much while I stayed here. The Lord know I'd need the lessons I'm getting (and the language too) so he called me to stay for this amount of time and I am happy for that. Life is always stressful but when we do everything unto the Lord He will help us and keep us from feeling that stress to a point we can't do it. He loves us and He wants us to succeed in whatever we are doing, isn't it great then that we get to do the Lord's work.

So for the funny story, my companion got a computer mouse (mao si) and cat poop (Mao sih) mixed up the other day, and our teachers couldn't stop laughing. All of us couldn't help it after Jong hing daai busted out laughing, because we'd never seen him laugh that hard before.

Today was an awesome temple trip, I learned even more about the Savior and I feel that I am able to do all things again. I always need that :)

I only have technically 11 days (if you count midnight to 3:30am as a day) and I am so ready to be gone. I know I will miss all of the people I have met here but I already have their contact info so I will again speak to them I'm sure. :)

Good luck everyone, and keep the faith!

Ga yauh!
-方長老

Elder Chance Farr

Extra stuff:
All of my best friends in the MTC left on Chinese New Year, so we had a going away party. President Newell wasn't super happy when he came in, but he didn't stop us. We ate donuts, chips and salsa and basically whatever treats we wanted, helped the Elders pack, and I told them stories.

So about all the people who left on Monday, it was one of the hardest things. Elder White, Elder Hatch, Elder Sagastegui, Elder Heath were all such awesome people and I'm so sad they're gone, but also super happy because they're in Taiwan right now. They're where they need to be and they're gonna serve SO HARD! I'm so happy for them, and I can't wait to follow in their footsteps.

Everything in the entire world points to Christ and Heavenly Father, so look for those things. Also, repentance is the best gift we've ever been given. In Utah people shun people who repent but we all have to do it every day. I've made it a goal to find 5 things I need to repent for daily because we all faan jeuih (commit sin)

This is me, Elder White and Elder Sagastegui. These are some of my best friends I've met here, I love them to death and I've enjoyed the experience I had with them. this picture sometimes summarizes us, and that's laughing for me, not crying. ;)

This is Elder Coats and I. I love him, but that photo is basically our relationship in a nutshell :) He's just making a weird face all the time yaknow?

Elder Heath and I

Elder Hatch and I

This is a selfie I took with the elders and sisters at the temple that are leaving! I miss them so much!

This is Elder Hampton, Elder Baxter, Me and sister Lundquist (who is blonde) and Sister Unguez

This is our party for the Elders going to Taiwan/sahn lihn faai lohk

Mom's turn now... here is a video I saw online of some aerial views of Hong Kong.

What an amazingly beautiful place!

February 3, 2016

Week 6 (I think? It's all one eternal day it feels like.)

Man has this week been a huge one! So many gospel insights to share, so many things that are good, I am only hoping I can remember to include all of them.

Okay so I'll start by talking about Elder Young. Elder Young is one of the strongest, smartest and funniest people I've ever met. He's from Ohio, and therefore he likes 21 Pilots (hehe) So we used to rap them together all the time (Yeah Payton, we rapped it all!) and afterwards would share a gospel insight we learned. He's got a girl at home and he's trying to convert her xD Super funny. I hope it works out for him but if it doesn't I'm sure the Lord has someone even better for him. He left Monday at 3am for Thailand, along with every person we met on like the first day here, because they were the only people in our zone when we showed up. Between Elder Torres and Elder Young it was such a good time to see them both and converse back and forth with them. Elder Torres had this prank that he loved (He got in trouble so don't follow his footsteps). Whenever he'd host he'd take a handful of spoons from the lunch room, hide them, and when he was alone with the luggage of the new Elders he'd slip spoons into their luggage! He was such a funny guy, and his sense of humor and his style reminded me a lot of Justin. I'm sure he'll do so well in Thailand, and I'm psyched for him to email me :) It's been a crazy week.

We got to sing Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer this week in choir, and it was an absolute blast. That song felt so good to sing (Especially because tenors got to belt a High F, that's always fun!) The song was so amazing because the build up of the chord on that High F was intentionally creating tension, coming from a dry soul that needed comfort. Brother Eggett told us that when he hears that note, it makes him think of us on a boat about to get hit by a tsunami, but then the Savior stands up and pushes against the tsunami, taking the wave for us, and pushing us under his wings. It's amazing and I'm so happy we sang that song.

Hah go sin keih gin!

--Elder Farr

Language:
--The language is great, I have a hard time praying in English now (Because I SYL (Speak Your Language) during all prayers) but that's all good, I'd prefer to just speak Cantonese all day if I could, which in like 20 days I will have that opportunity (19 now!)

Funny story, although I didn't really 'get' it...
--Yesterday Elder C (?) walked up to me and asked me, "So, do you think somebody called 911...?" After he saw the "What?" look on my face he was like, "Because that song is 11 years old. Shawty was burning on the dance floor? did anyone call 911?" I laughed so hard, he's such a funny guy.

This is us with Si hing daaih. Saturday was his last day at the MTC teaching us. We are SO SAD about it but he's such an amazing man, I'm sure he will succeed in whatever he does. He's such a funny character, he's a sarcastic kind of guy and we love him to death. On his last day he told us all about his time in HK and all of the amazing things that happened while he was there. He also compared us to bamboo, which I'll share that message:

"Did you know that bamboo literally takes 5 years to sprout? Everyone knows bamboo grows fast but when you start it, it takes 5 YEARS to shoot. It grows its roots down and down and down as far as it can, so that when it sprouts, it shoots up in a month to 15-20 feet. We are working to become tall and strong, but right now we are growing our roots."

This was a very hard day in the MTC personally, because Si hing daai (Or Brother Smith in English I guess) he's such a kind soul and I can't help but miss him. He was full of what we always joked was "Asian Wisdom"(he's half Korean, half American. His first language is Korean, second English, third Cantonese, and fourth Mandarin. He's teaching his third language in his second! Woah! :D) and everyone in our district misses him.

This was just a good view of Provo from the temple. I just thought to take a picture.

This is my district. Yes, we like bubbles.

This is an awesome picture Elder Chin took. On the right is Brother and Sister Averett (Brother Averett is the 2nd counselor in the new Branch Presidency) and they're super nice. We love Brother Averett, he's a kind soul and he just wants to talk and is so excited to have another language here :)

This is gonna be a long explanation. From left to right: President Penrod (Our old branch president), Elder Fomsopha, Elder Harding, Elder Chin, Elder Bouwmeister, Sister Hansen, Elder Caloobanan, Elder Vang in the back, Sister Strickland, Elder Hagen, Elder Vo (in the back), Elder Young (looks just like me, right? Likes 21 Pilots too xD He's the coolest and I miss him) Sister Bates (my violin duet partner) Sister Faa (I can't remember how her full name is spelled. Faakaoselia?) Sister Gomez, Sister Gallahad and Sister Hall.

Most of the ones in this picture have just left the MTC and we miss them (Elder Young :'( ) but I'm sure they are doing awesome. Glad we got this picture because we needed it!

This is the temple walk we took on Sunday. On the left is Elder White, then Sister Gomez, then a tiny Elder Chin in the back, then Elder Rushton, then Sister Hansen, then Elder Caloobanan (The peace sign Asian), then me, then Elder Hagen and Elder Harding. Elder White is my other best friend here (He's so funny, he reminds me of Porter in some ways (Course he can't replace Porter tho.)) It was such a fun walk because I've found out that I can literally pull a chord from any note, and I can find a note based on any note. So we were singing at the temple and I got to sing tenor/alto for every song we sang. It was amazing. I love singing haha!

This trip was so much fun and we got to walk up with Brother Averett.