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!
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