April 25, 2016

Hey everyone!! #24 hour exchanges!

Hey everyone! It's awesome to be able to send these out every week, and I hope my experience blesses you (and makes you laugh) when you read it (well, if you do. :P)

So let's dive right in, we were able to meet with Lily on Monday night last week, and taught the Plan of Salvation. She really liked the idea of living with her son together forever (Although she joked she wouldn't want that ;) ) And so I think she's really getting that. We went to a suit shop (woah, suits here are cheap, and they're tailored to you) and looked at suits. I bought a super long tie that is blue, which is now my favorite tie XD. Elder Merrell got a suit ordered that's light blue (for post mission) and it's gonna be super nice, it's gonna have purple silk on the inside (By the way, shout out to Elder Merrell, the Coolest Companion of the world!!)

When we got home we noticed something that looked like a leaf hanging on the exit sign on the 34th floor of our apartment (We live on the 34th floor). As we walked back out however, we realized that it was DEFINITELY a bat. We hid as we watched it twitch a bit. Elder Merrell took his umbrella and stuck it through the door we were using as a riot shield to poke it and jabbed it. It took off and landed on the ground. As we snuck closer, we realized we were wrong BOTH times. It was a sphinx moth that was black. That was almost worse than a bat O.o  I can almost feel what my mom feels about moths now.

So this week we ate with Yoshi twice (Elder Love and I) and ate sushi, and then Japanese pork chops. They were for Elder Love's birthday (Which we did not tell Yoshi on purpose) Yoshi told us to go find the other Elders and he'd go to get seats at the restaurant, and while we were waiting he came back up behind us with a cake in hand and handed it to Elder Love. When asked how he knew, Yoshi answered simply, "I know everything." So that was awesome.

Time to get into spiritual stuff:

Cool story: Elder Love and I were in Sheung Shui, waiting for an appointment. Let me explain a little bit about this appointment. So there was a contact online, about someone who was feeling very depressed and wanted to know more about our religion and was truly seeking peace in his life. so we went to stand out where we said we'd meet. Ten minutes passed by, we called him, no answer. 5 more, called him and he said he was coming. 10 minutes, and we call him and he didn't answer. So we got on the bus figuring he decided he didn't want to come. I felt bad about it though, but we had district meeting very soon and we needed to go. I felt really bad about it, like it was wrong to do. As we boarded the bus and scanned in, (Mom, octopus cards are so convenient) he called us and asked us if we were coming. So we got back off (Darnit, $4 wasted) and met with him. To our surprise (which his name was Umer so we shouldn't have been surprised) we met to Pakistani men. Elder Love and I reluctantly approached, a smile on our face nevertheless, and they sat down with us and Umer explained that he desperately wanted to learn about our religion. He told us he hated his past religion (Muslim) because he hates that it causes so much violence and pain and suffering. So he wanted to convert. One thing you gotta know about that: If Muslim people convert (especially from Pakistan) it is legal for their families to kill them. He told us he hates his family because they do evil things, and they hate him. He loves his wife and his children (At the time we thought he had two wives because he didn't know the English word for Divorce. So grateful his Cantonese is basically perfect.) So he explained to us he wanted us to teach him about the "True" religion, and not about the fake one "I do not want any fake in my heart." So we taught him and as we discussed he basically named off about 30 or so principles that fit right in line in the gospel, about family, about God as our Loving H.F. He was amazing. He's so prepared and we've met with him basically every day this week. We can't commit him to baptism because he has to meet with President Lam first. He's an amazing man and has one brown and one blue eye, he has a deep integrity and I'm so happy he was able to find the correct church online!

We had a game night with the Sheung Shui ward, where you have to cover your teeth with your lips and pick a fruit for you to be (Yeah. This was in Cantonese. With Tones and all.) To start, you say yours twice and say someone else's fruit (I've not learned any fruit words, and now I know a bunch) And they have to say theirs twice and call another fruit. My face has hurt since Saturday, but I think I won ;) jk jk.

That's all I have for you!! The gospel is true!

--Elder Farr

(I asked what octopus cards were: "They're like credit cards but you just have to press them on a box and they scan. They are the transport cards here, and they're way better than ticket systems or bus fares. Just press your wallet (and it scans through like 4 of my cards in my wallet) against the squre and it beeps the money. Electronic transactions are so Fong bihn (Convenient)!)

(One more note: Elder Farr didn't give any details, but Norton wasn't quite ready for baptism yet. Hopefully soon!)

This is the food that we ate with Ian (A less active, he's like one of our best friends, and he's very close to being reactivated)

My pictures of my family are being defended from the Evil Chinese Coin assassins via my Ninja brethren. ^.^

And my home looks like it's actually in Columbus (The Bioshock city that flies).

(what a video game nerd, but an awesome picture anyway!)

And since he didn't send a proof of life picture, here's one sent to me by Yoshi.

More funny from Chance:

HAHA, it was SO MUCH DESSERT!

Funny story time: We were sitting eating and Yoshi tells us it's the full birthday dinner for Elder Love, and starts to buy food. We were already full before dessert and he got us each a scoop of ice cream, and we both ate half a cheesecake slice and half a creme brule. (My first time having that.) He then turned to the waiter and ordered something in Cantonese (I heard Jyugulik syut gou, which means chocolate ice cream) And right after talking to the waiter he asks politely, "Do you think you have enough time for more ice cream?" The question was not time, but was definitely room. We still ate the whole sundae (it was made of milk from Japan, and was the Japanese style with cereal like things inside, with crushed oreos and it was seriously fantastic.) 

April 18, 2016

Hey Everyone! #Prep for Baptism!

Hey everyone! It's so nice to be throwing out another email, sending it into the old world :) Haha just kidding, but I'll get started.

One thing I've realized here is that we definitely, definitely can use love to overcome anything. Love is the literal power of Jesus Christ, and it can bring the spirit, it can perform miracles, and it helps us to be better people. It is the great motivator, although fear is much more common. So isn't it awesome that this Gospel is All about love? That's literally all it's about. Is Heavenly Father's love towards us, Jesus Christ's love toward us, and our love toward other people. So I invite everyone to go out and serve someone in love. I know that if you do that, you'll have a happier life regardless of your current circumstances. (That's a missionary promise by the way. ;) )

So things that are happening, Norton will be baptized next week (Lau Hing Daih will perform the service) And we will keep teaching the people we've been teaching as always. Alex has made a bit of progress, he told us he knows that it's true right now but he wants to feel it before he keeps the commandments (How do you explain that's not how it works? :( ). Right now we are working with JR, who is just kind of chilling on either side of the fence, we are trying to help him see how he can show his faith because he has so much. I don't think he has faith in himself, which is crazy because he's awesome.

On Sunday we had an awesome sacrament meeting with Elder Wong (The 70 who spoke the first general conference talk in his native tongue, which was Cantonese btw :D:D) and when he spoke, it felt like all the words were directed to Samuel, a less active who happened to be at church. I'm so happy that he was able to hear it and he seems to have a new resolve to go to the temple. We've been working with Ian and he seems to be doing well. Lily is a woman in her 40s that we've been teaching a bit, she's super nice and she's been reading the Book of Mormon. Relatively new, she's showing really good faith and I know that she can feel God's love for her. I'm excited to see her follow the commandments and repent, like every person needs to.

Funny things that happened this week:

Tong hing daih told us that he learned how to swim through the power of the spirit (he's a recent convert in Sheung Shui)

Norton told us that if he had a million dollars, he'd contribute his 1/10 (this is just part of his English, he knows it better in Cantonese) to the Church, spend 20,000 on his family, spend 35,000 on a girl and the rest on himself.

I was called princess by someone learning English... :P

Norton told us to "Come in!" and bursted in to "Chamachamachamachamachama Chameleon!!" Which now won't get out of our heads.

So overall, life is great here! I'm so happy to be here and have this opportunity to serve.

Last of all, I'm sure a lot of you have heard about Elder Hampton's passing. I knew him in the MTC, and I'm shocked to hear about what happened. I know that he served well, and I know he is definitely doing missionary work right now in the spirit world. Although it is sad to lose him here, he is still living and working hard. I know that the Lord will bless his family with peace and comfort as they go through this trial.

Everyone, Ga yauh.

Love you all,

--Elder Farr

We found these shirts at H&M for 70 HKD (like $9) 

Reuiniting at Training Meeting! (This is his district from the MTC!)

The view this morning out of my window

April 11, 2016

Hello Everyone!

Man, lots of time has passed and it's already another time for another email! :) Hopefully all of your weeks and conferences were amazing, as they always are, I know for sure mine was. :) The times here are awesome, and I can hardly even remember what happened because it all happened so fast (and I left my planner at home).

So the night of P-Day we got to go to a barbecue with the youth, and took Alex along. He seemed to really build relationships and have friends here, which I'm excited for because he needs those. Everyone does right? and so I've decided that Chinese barbecue is WAY good, (I think) better than American BBQ. We ate sardines, (heads and all) cheese tofu mix, fish balls, cheese fish, and a whole bunch of vegetables. We also ate potato chips with chocolate on them. ^.^

The next few days were district meeting and I was basically with Elder Love the whole time. We were together basically all week this week because there are changes being made in the mission so the zone leaders have to do all that stuff. We've been teaching a lot of people lately which was super awesome, and I'm loving every minute of teaching. We taught Leih hing daaih or Brother Lee who cannot read, and cannot comprehend very well. He's the sweetest man, he's got an earnest want to learn about Jesus Christ and what He's done for him. He has pictures of Jesus Christ in his room and when asked to draw what he was grateful for he attempted to imitate the painting. He's such a nice man but he's having a hard time learning to pray, and learning the commandments. I'm very positive when he learns he will follow Christ's example.

As for Ma On Shan, we have JR who decided he doesn't want to get baptized (which I'm sure will change because of the faith he has) but would like to still meet with us.

We have Norton who came to the last session of conference, and said that it was pretty good. He met with the bishop to ask about some tithing questions he had, and afterward when we met with him he asked, "Should I bring my swim trunks?" So yeah. He'll be baptized on the 24th :D He's an amazing man, and we've realized his interesting gong faat (way of talking) really just comes from his inability to practice English with native English speakers (We're the only ones he knows :P) and the way he talks has gotten way better :D

That's it I think, other than we got to listen to the Beatles at a loud volume because there's one bus that blasts it (Siu ba) so we got to hear them for quite a bit :D

That's all folks! :)

--Elder Farr

April 4, 2016

Hello World! #Awesome

Hey everyone! This week went by so fast (Probably because last p-day was on Wednesday. :P)

Time to get into the good of it all :D

So Thursday, I went together with Elder Love, because Elder Merrell had zone business stuff. Super fun, it's super awesome to teach with Elder Love. We traded at like 8:30, and were going to teach at 10:00, take the hour trip to Ma On Shan, teach there, eat there, take the train back, teach 3 lessons over there. So we were at his place doing comp study when we found out that his first appointment couldn't make it. So we went over to Ma On Shan and ate, and My appointment canceled (Got a hold of Anti Mormon stuff. Super Chaam (Miserable) but I'm sure he'll learn the reality of our message.

So we went right back over to his place to run back and forth between lessons. We taught an old man who doesn't know how to read (son of a farmer) named Brother Lee. He's super nice, and he loves to shout "GA YAUH LOU LIHK" (In English it doesn't make sense. Sort of like press forward with strength? Literal translation is add oil with effort, so...) And he's trying to get work off to go to church right now. Then we had to sprint from his house over to Chen Hing Daais in the later part of the night, super dark, and we went through a sketchy shanty town. Elder Love let me know he didn't know where we were, so we knelt and prayed and instantly felt where we should go. The Lord sometimes gives us challenges to see if we will remember that we need to ask.

On Friday I wore my new Uniclo socks, to do personal study and forgot to change them. So I had bright blue socks, which is totally against the rules. So I went and changed pretty quick when we realized ha ha :P That day during my hour lunch learned how to play Viva la Vida on the piano. :D So much fun!!

Then we finally got in contact with Norton and met him at his house. He's doing so well! Progressing so quickly, his baptism will be on April 17th. I look forward to seeing him get baptized and I knkow he will have the faith to do so :)

We went singing finding Saturday night where we just stand on a sidewalk with a banner and sing. We totally have the Nearer, My God to Thee 4-part down, and I always add a new part. 5-part harmonies are awesome, and a few people video taped us that we were able to talk to.

On Sunday it was Fast Sunday, so we were super hungry after church and Brother Lee invited us to come eat all of his leftovers before he goes to Utah for a week. So we ate until we were stuffed (By the way, it was Cow Tongue Soup) and then they gave us a half pear/half peach to try. Luckily his English is perfect so we were able to understand his stuff.

Alex came to church this week, and that was awesome!!

Thanks so much everyone, See ya next week!

--Elder Farr

Alex is super Gihng (Super, but kind of like an awesome or a cool expression)

We did awesome parkour everywhere on these pipes, jumping up and down and stuff. Awesome picture spot, wanna visit it again!

We also ran into some goats by the wayside !! :D

And since this post is late, you get to see the awesome picture from President Lam

and the map of the Hong Kong stakes that I got in the mail yesterday :)