August 21, 2016

Hi Everyone!
Chance was super busy yesterday and wasn't even at a computer (he was just emailing through his phone) so he couldn't send out a mass email. Here's the info though, from my own letter :)
Happy P-Day Everyone!
Sheriece

Hey Mom!
It's super crazy, I can't believe everyone is going back to school and that Wade is FLIPPIN 10! Man. I just realized that by the time I'm home he'll be 11 and he'll just already be a stinker. I'm hoping he's still as cute as he is right now when I get home. I missed all the good parts and get all the bad parts ;) Haha, Just Kidding!

Everything is great over here, we are just wrecking online right now so that we can have referrals to pan out to the missionaries.

Of course we have funny stories. Yesterday Elder Chan and Elder George started play fighting and Elder George pinned his arms behind him. We have this thing about spanking each other in the temple and so Elder George started spanking Elder Chan repeatedly. Elder Chan, being the scrawny, scrappy guy he is forced Elder George over and started spanking him and accidentally ripped Elder George's pants. Aaaaand it's all on video. XD

Elder Chan's English is coming along really well, he's doing great! My characters are getting pretty good. They are pretty slow but I'm starting to read the Book of Mormon in Chinese. :D

A Ling is hard to get a hold of lately but Rainbow is ROCKING IT! Rainbow wants to be baptized so bad, she's so ready. She wants to develop her relationship with her mom first before she gets baptized, so we are working with her to help her build that relationship. It's so sweet! The field is white!

Also, we baptized someone on Friday. We had Mainland visitors and we got to teach! AAAH! I was so scared to do the baptism! And yes, there are pictures :D

The debate was SO MUCH FUN! It was about an old policy in Hong Kong, and I got named the MVP for speaking a language I didn't know and not being someone who knows about Hong Kong and still providing valid points on the subject. Our less active made the activity so it was awesome to support her and make it fun. I love this ward, we are just so funny, everyone teases everyone.

Love you!!
--Elder Farr

Awesome Debate Pictures!

This little girl crossing her eyes is Aimee. She's hilarious, I taught her how to cross her eyes and now she just sends us random pictures with her crossing her eyes in them.

These are some Mandarin kids. A whole Mainland branch came down for a conference. It was AWESOME. They love missionaries and they treated us so well. Man, I felt a little guilty because sometimes I feel just like a dumb kid. We do our best to be good.

This is Sister Choi, from Mainland China, who we helped get baptized on Friday.

August 14, 2016

Hey Everyone!

Alright, so there's not much time, and we have a lot to do.

So, most importantly, we have had a baptism. Brother Ng was baptized yesterday, and I'm so happy about that! He has done so well and we sang for them yesterday :):) His baptism was really spirit feeling (the boy can't speak English anymore, ha!). There was so much going on, and I'm very impressed with his ability to truly believe. Man, it's strong! He's so awesome :)

We also had a bunch of stuff going on because as house elders we are in charge of other people's housing, and working on those. Life has been literally crazy, we worked super hard pushing the place out. So much fun, and it ended up we needed to move a couch. We couldn't move it out (the elders aren't supposed to take the doors off the apartments but someone apparently had done it to get the couch inside!), so we we cut it in half! With a saw! Yeah, Sister Lam was terrified we were going to get injured, but no such :D:D So yeah, that's it!

--Elder Farr :)

August 7, 2016

Hey Everyone!

Hey everyone I'm so sorry, I have to go really soon and do not have time to send my mass email. Sorry! :(

I'll just give a quick spiritual message: God knows what he's doing and although we never really understand why the tempest rages on, we must know that God knows why. Fung sam (Relax.) God has it taken care of. Love you all.

Hope everything's good!

--Elder Chance Farr

Just a few more tidbits from Mom's letter:

This wee has been alright, lots of stress and pressure but it's not anything I can't handle. It's fun to wake up every morning determined to destroy your challenges. :) I've decided if you wqake up confident and willing to just bust through the wall, that's when the miracles happen. Of course, we as missionaries always remember that God is the only reason we can burst through each individual challenge, but we are "Entitled to the help and power of the Holy Ghost." Therefore, we can be confident in our ability to succeed.

I got a haircut! Let's just say HKers don't know how to cut white people's hair.

I've been eating grapefruits like crazy here. I have no idea why but they are so delicious these days.

It's interesting because I've been looking at how the mission really magnifies your weaknesses and allows you to clearly see them and know if their presence. There are a lot of times when we are blinded of our weaknesses by pride, and I have a lot. I found this week that one of my main weaknesses is wanting everything to be perfect, and I get harsh when something's important to me. I definitely have a lot to work on! Ya'll know, ya'll probably remember :P (I reminded him that he gets this trait from his DAD! :D)

Monday night to Tuesday afternoon was a level 10 typhoon, so we couldn't go outside for that period of time. That was crazy!

Elder Hui left, wow. :( So hard. He's so awesome!

We got to eat with the Au family! Man, it was awesome. Elder Hui was leaving, so we ate like kings, and A Ling our investigator came. Oh my, was that a blast. There was a honeydew melon that was literally sweeter than the popsicles we ate. How awesome is that?? (I asked if they grew the fruit there, he said that most of the fruit is imported so he doesn't know why it's so amazing.)

We have been teaching a less active member and her little girl, and her little girl is HILARIOUS. Obviously I know how to get along with kids but we are seriously like best friends now. It becomes hard because of the fact that we have to consistently take care of her and make sure we are still teaching stuff, not just playing :)

Brother Chu has a baptismal date (in October) AND came to church! I can't wait to share the Plan of Salvation with him because I know he'll benefit from it so much.

All I can share today is that God calls those who are willing, and we have to be obedient to be chosen. :)

So I forgot to tell you, I totally got to watch them put a new statue of Moroni on the temple. That place where I live. I'm so blessed !! :D:D I'm loving the temple! So here's pictures of that, of the massive amounts of food, and last Monday's surprise cheng out with Yoshi. Also a random shot out of an apartment.

In the picture of us eating it has A Ling (our investigator)! She's in the pink.

July 31, 2016

Hey Everyone! The Orientor's here!
(the Orientor is the monthly mission newsletter that Elder Farr is in charge of producing!)

Hey Everyone! I don't have a ton of time, but I'd like to just work on talking about investigators.

So we have been meeting with A ling, and she has been doing really well. She has a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon, and Priesthood power. She's really interesting, and I'm feeling that we might be able to help her progress. It's been a bit slow but slow is good for understanding.

We also taught Brother Chu, and he's accepted a baptismal date! He said this week he can come to church and every week after that! We had to wait on Brother Ng's baptism, just because of the fact that he's in mainland right now. Oh well :P Start of August, he will be baptized :)

Rainbow's doing awesome! She wants to know which church is true and she's been working hard to find out. She's so awesome!

So yeah, no new investigators this week, although we are excited to continue teaching.

Life has been awesome out here, and we have been working hard to keep moving. :)

Thanks for reading everyone! Sorry for the short email!

--Elder Chance Farr

P.S. -- I forgot!

So I forgot to tell everyone about the best thing that happened. So we were coming back from the temple and we had Elder Shukis ask us if we had received a picture yet. We hadn't so we were confused, and then President Lam showed us a picture someone took from the chapel of the temple. It became apparent to us that there were a pair of conspicuous pants in one of the windows. Yeah, Elder Chan's pants. So crazy! So we can't hang stuff in the window anymore :D

Everything's going good. The spiritual thing that I want to tell you is just the fact that the Lord looks after all of our trials, not just the big ones. Also Moroni 7 is awesome, and I'm memorizing Helaman 5:12 :D

Love you all!

I know two of these guys! Who's that third guy on the left??

These two are pictures he has worked on for the newsletter.

The picture that says "The Orientor" is a picture he took in Ma On Shan.

Getting our crazy party goods

 These are pictures of a party we had for our children's' English class, which is the best thing in the whole world. So many investigators. :D

The Hong Kong temple got a new Moroni statue this week!

The following pictures are from Yoshi, who takes care of the Ma On Shan missionaries. He bumped into Elder Farr and Elder Chan today, after eating lunch with Elders Stone, Wilcoxson and Chu, but still took these two out to eat anyway.

Thank you Yoshi!!

The Hong Kong Temple out the restaurant window!

Mmmmm... this Vietnamese food looks delicious!

July 24, 2016

Weekly Update: Miracles (Yeah I say miracles a lot they just happen..)

Hey all! How has your week been? I hope it's been wonderful and you took some time to build a closer relationship to your Savior. This has been an awesome experience over here, so I'll just dive right in (As I always seem to do.)

Anyways, so this week we had a few awesome things happen. First, we have decided we are going to continue translating Mormon Messages, and that it would fall under my jurisdiction. So I am now in charge of translating Mormon Messages and sending them to the area office for checking. That's so cool! I'm so excited and looking forward to taking care of these things. Luckily I have my companion to help with the characters. :P

Our investigators have been progressing well, we actually talked to Brother Ng about wearing the appropriate shirts to church and he just straight up testified of what we were saying and committed himself to it. It was truly amazing. We taught A Ling and she has so many questions. She's been trying to understand the need for a prophet, and how the prophet can really help us. But she's willing to ask and to listen, so I have no doubts for her future. She is definitely meant to enter the church at this time.

We had an awesome lesson with Rainbow in which she felt the spirit, I know that she will be able to progress and grow quickly. Some people are just prepared.

As far as new investigators, we have Nadeem. Nadeem actually just walked up and knocked on the office door, asking us how to join and how to come to our church. He is blind and his ancestry is Pakistan, he has grown up in Hong Kong, so his Cantonese is really good, and I'm super happy about it.

Today, actually, is not P Day. Woah! But we were asked to email today. We are going to the Temple on Wednesday! Super excited, of course.

Hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to see you soon! See ya next time!

--Elder Chance Farr

Funny stories:

So this week all of my work has been piling up super hard, because we just added about 10 more responsibilities to my list, although Pres. Lam knows I'm so busy and that I'm stressed, so he told me to "Maahn Maahn Haahng". Whatever that means. JK, it means to walk slowly. So I have been moving super fast, trying to keep from falling short. But I took the Lord out of it. Whoops, that was stupid. Anyway, I've realized this week that if you plead with the Lord to help you he will, he'll take care of you every time.

The Assistants, Elder Chan and I got into a rubber band fight, I came out with one lash, Elder Wooley and Elder Hui with two, and Elder Chan with 6 and a welt. Yeah, it was fun XD

I told him he must have been sneaky to have gotten away with only one lash, he said this:

Yeah, well President Lam has taught us that, "If you want to beat the devil you must be as wise and cunning as a serpent." Which is in the scriptures. That was him giving us permission to be sneaky :)

So we have been trying to pretend things are slang when they're really not, so we taught Elder Chan that "Reaction" means "Good Looking Guy." So we have been calling everyone in the temple apartment a reaction. It's super hilarious. He also learned "Bladder" but he keeps saying Brother because his accent's not amazing XD He kept going "BROTHER" and I'd be like, "BLADDER!!" He'd be like "BROOOTHHHEEEERRR" and I'd be like "BLADDERRRR! HERE STICK YOUR TONGUE OUT" and he's like "BLAAATHER." Yeah, that's fun.

I scream for....

July 17, 2016

Miracles in HK

Hey everyone! I guess it's that time again where I write another email. :P Man the time flies so fast. I guess I do have a lot to say this week, so let's get into it.

So first we can talk about Brother Ng, who is on track for baptism. We taught him last week about the word of wisdom, and he told us that he loved to drink tea. As we conversed with him, he told us that he was willing to give it up. The Elucidation that followed from the spirit helped him to realize that it was so powerful that he testified of the truthfulness of the word of wisdom and then committed to living it. We visited with him and he hasn't drank a drop of tea. He simply replaced it with Chrysanthemum, a flower tea that is ok to drink. He is now on the path for baptism. He is truly a strong follower of Christ.

Next we have A Ling, who was coming to English class for a while before suddenly asking a member of ours about what to wear, and then coming to church all dressed up. This has never happened before in my life. She's learning and really enjoys the doctrines of eternal family and now also is willing to be baptized. 

And last but not least we have Rainbow. Rainbow is a referral from a member who we just recently met, and were able to teach yesterday. It was amazing, and she felt the spirit nearly to tears as we fervently testified of the first vision. This was one of the best lessons I feel I've ever experienced and truly the Lord has helped us weak things to help these people to the knowledge of the truth. Man it was powerful.

There are so many miracles happening out here and I'm so grateful and blessed to have these spiritually uplifting experiences!! Man it's been awesome!

Apart from all of the crazy and noise, in reality the most important thing is truly the Gospel. Remember to keep it in the center of your hearts. (Also I recommend reading Elder Uchtdorf's talk one more time. "He will place you on His Shoulders and Carry you Home."

--Elder Chance Farr

July 11, 2016

Hey Everyone!! #The 4th (Last week)

Hey everyone, so we have had an awesome time here in Sham Shui Po! I suppose we can get into it! :)

So first on Monday we had a lot of experience after we were done emailing, and we first went over to a nice place called Dan Ryan's for eating. (Is it just me, or can he not speak English normally??) We had a recent convert there with us, and I really like this guy. His name is Jason, and he's really awesome. He's such a nice guy and he acts just like we were missionaries with hugs and stuff. Really good man who was really just looking for some friends when he started meeting with the missionaries but now has so much more. He's so proud of his membership and he's such a good fellow-shipper. We also played board games which was lovely, and then we also made pies. This week has been super crazy, we've been searching out a new apartment in Wan Chai, so we have been all the way down there a few times. We have looked at so many apartments I can't even keep my thoughts about them straight. We also have been fixing up apartments, doorknobs, hinges, anything. So by the time I come home I really will be able to fix anything. It's interesting how I always thought my computer skills wouldn't come in handy here. So often I had a lot of times now that it's just come in handy. It's amazing how the Lord really qualifies those who he calls. I still feel unqualified but I will continue to work. Good luck in all your endeavors my friends, and as always, Ga yauh (Add oil!)

Oh also, I've been starting to learn characters. I'm up to 100, it is quite fun
我是神的仔

See you next week!

--Elder Chance Farr

I gained 20 lbs in Ma On Shan (and now I'm trying to lose some), every time I had people our family picture in the barn, they're like, "Man you were so good looking in this picture!" Yeah. XD So funny!

We made the pie and it was amazing!! Oh my goodness it was seriously the bomb.com. Everyone enjoyed it and we have been eating it like non stop. It made so much so fast! It was so much pie.

Day-to-day life as an office elder:
We wake up, do studies and then come to the office, where we do office work for however long we need. Mostly we just try to schedule lessons during meals and then meet with the people. We still want to have a proselyting spirit, but we don't do it nearly as often as we used to because we have so many things that we need to do. Mostly I've been trying to just keep up on all of this stuff, Sister Lam loves to give new projects ;) It all varies so much, it just depends on how we schedule. In the office, what we do is completely up to us, and therefore, we have to be maximizing efficiency. Always moving, always pushing. I'm getting super used to being extremely efficient, so I'm hoping this will continue in my life.

So I haven't eaten too weird, but I did make myself fish balls (octopus and cuttlefish) Yeah, that was delicious. They are not like meatballs :P It's something I've learned to cook here. We also ate Mao Pu Dao Fu again. It has this taste that reminds me of home from like forever, it's got this Gu Jin Pepper sauce. When I smell it, it reminds me of Christmas in like 2011 and playing Maplestory. I do not know why.

We have been playing a lot of basketball for workouts in the mornings, and it's been a lot of fun. Elder Hui is really good, and he's one who does not like compliments. He's so funny. His companion and I have been constantly calling him #theHui and saying things like, "140 pounds of perfection" and stuff. Seriously great.

We've taught 12 people between the 2 companionships in this ward. Man, we have been working so hard and it really pays off, even though both the companionships here have office responsibilities (the APs and us).

Here are this week's pictures. I'm about to tell Elder Farr that the only pictures I want of food is if the food is on his face, so I can get more pictures of the kid and less of the food!

He gave no explanation for these, but I'm pretty sure they're from lunch on July 4th :)