Meeting Legends - Ahoutoué, Côte d'Ivoire

Hey everyone! Its been a crazy week.

I got transferred to a tiny village called Ahoutoué on Saturday. It's a bit of a change from my last area but it also feels like a bit of a return to pace. Serving in tiny villages is always the best. 

Elder Leight and I got news on Thursday that we would be moving to the same apartment to train a couple of new Elders. Friday was spent going from house to house and breaking the news to all of our amis and members from Atlantique and Aéro-cité. There were a few really difficult goodbyes.

I think the hardest goodbye was with Frère Koffi. Elder Leight and I found him my first day in that area. Over the last 3 months, he has become more converted to the Gospel than any other ami that I've worked with. He was sad to see us go and said "Je ne vais jamais vous oublier," or, "I will never forget you."

On Saturday, we met our new trainees and made our way to Alépé, the village where our apartment is. My companion is named Elder Ho Ching and he's from California. It's really fun to be with a new Elder. We have a few tiny villages that we cover and I'm really excited to get to know them.

Yesterday we had our first sacrament meeting with one of our branches. The branch is very small, only a dozen or people or so, but all of those people are really awesome, dedicated members.

In that sacrament meeting, I met two people that I've been waiting to meet for a long time. Phillipe and Annelies Assard were the first members in Côte d'Ivoire. Phillipe left for Germany in the 70s for school. While there, he met and married Annelies. After meeting the missionaries and being baptized, they moved to Côte d'Ivoire to bring the Gospel to Phillipe's homeland. 

Ever since I read about their story at the beginning of my mission, I've wanted nothing more than to have the opportunity to shake their hands. 

Yesterday, Elder Ho Ching and I were the first to arrive at our small church building in Ahoutoué. Not long after who walked in but none other than Phillipe and Annelies Assard.

Of all of the places that they could have chosen to live, they live in Ahoutoué, the smallest village you've ever seen. It was so amazing to meet them and to be a part of the small branch with them.

This week has been really good. I'm looking forward to the challenges ahead in our little village. 

Thank you all and have a great week, 

Elder Farr

Feliz Navidad - Port-Bouët, Côte d'Ivoire

Joyeux Noël! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas last week.

I am elated to say that my Christmas was very merry. We did everything that we could to really make it feel like Christmas and, to our luck, it worked. 

We had a few events that really helped to make the weekend jolly. The first was a mission devotional on Christmas Eve that we had with half of the mission. I had the chance to sing in a quartet with a couple of other Elders. It was great to see so many Elders that I dont get to see so often.

On Christmas we were invited to a branch party on the other side of our zone. We traveled with a few other missionaries to the village and ate and celebrated with the members of that branch. I also won a viscous game of musical chairs against the other Elders.

Later that day, we met with some members in one of our wards for a Christmas dinner. We walked inside to find enough food for 6 men on the table for the two of us. We did our best to eat as much as we could out of fear of being found rude. We had a great visit with the family and learned a lot more about their story and journey with the gospel and the church.

It was a great week with a great Christmas. I hope you all have a fantastic New Year.

See you all next year,

Elder Farr

Merry (almost) Christmas - Port-Bouët, Côte d'Ivoire

Bonjour! I hope you've all had a great couple of weeks.

We've been working really hard out here in Aero-cité. I've been focusing especially hard lately on changing up the way that I teach. When I was first learning French, it was a bit too easy to learn just one way of teaching things. It was more comfortable. But now I've been tasked with getting off of my habits and explaining things in a different way. Since doing so, the spirit has been invited so much more fully and powerfully into our lessons. I've loved the experience.

We're getting excited for Christmas. Christmas, as would be expected, is a bit different here. Not much is done to celebrate it. So we've had to put in a bit of extra effort to really make it feel like Christmas. We've been having fun with it. Since last Christmas, my relationship with Christ has grown exponentially. It makes me appreciate the holiday much more. I love my Savoir so much and I am so grateful for Him.

I hope you all have a great Christmas!

Joyeux Noël,

Elder Farr

we got dumped :-( - Port-Bouët, Côte d'Ivoire

Hey everyone! We had another good week.

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. We talk a lot about the way that we teach and how we can improve it to better invite the spirit. It really peaked my drive and motivation to get out and get working. I love this work so much.

On Saturday we received some good news and some bad news. 

The bad news, and the subject of this email, was that our friend, who was preparing to be baptized in a couple of weeks, told us that she has instead returned to her old church. Lucky for us though, she still wants to meet with us. We are really praying that everything will work with her.

The good news is that our friend, Prince, who has been coming to church consistently for about 5 months, finally has the plans for his wedding finalized. After the wedding in a couple of weeks, he wont have anything else keeping him from being baptized like he's wanted for so long. We are super excited for him!

That's about all for this week.

À la prochaine,

Elder Farr

On Nage Comme Des Sirènes - Port-Bouët, Côte d'Ivoire

Bonjour tout le monde!

It's been another great week here in Côte d'Ivoire. We've been able to make some great progress with a lot of the families that we've been working with. We've also found some great new friends that we're really excited about.

A big issue that faces us here in Côte d'Ivoire is marriage. Here, there is a cultural form of marriage that is separate from legal marriage. As such, many people opt to do the cultural marriage without going through the trouble of a legal marriage. It's a complication that I've dealt with many times since I got here. Right now we are working with a lot of families who have the same issue. They all have such great testimonies so we are hoping and praying that these weddings work out. This is admittedly not a part of missionary work that I had to deal with in the States. 

This week has been heavy with rainstorms. The roads have been more flooded than I've ever seen them. Every day we've had to jump from rock to rock or wade through the water to get to our appointments. Many of our amis have been astonished that we even took the effort to travel to their house through all of the rain and flooding. At the end of the day, it makes the work much more interesting.

I've started to really feel like I'm at home in these two wards. I've started to grow really close to the members and amis here. I hope with all of my heart that I will get to stay here a bit longer than I got to stay in my last couple of areas. I really want to be able to make my mark here. I love these people so so much.

That's all for this week. See y'all next time!

Elder Farr

Un An!!!!! - Port-Bouët, Côte d'Ivoire

One year in, and the mission only continues to get better. I love it here and I am so grateful for every experience that I've had so far.

A few highlights from this week include:

Tuesday we had interviews with President Bendixsen at the mission office. The mission office is about a half hour away so it should have been simple. Unfortunately for us, all of the taxis went on strike so we had to find another way to get there. After 3 hours of improvised travel plans, we arrived and had our interviews.

Thursday was the one year anniversary of the start of my mission. We had been invited to a wedding but when we arrived at the supposed venue, there was no wedding to be found. That same day, I fell on the road and scratched up my hands pretty badly. I'm all good now. Anyway, that evening we went with a couple of the other Elders to the Burger King at the airport to celebrate my year mark.

Friday we received that unfortunate news that one of our amis has passed away. Last time that we saw her, just a couple of weeks ago, she told us that she was feeling a bit sick. On Friday, while visiting her daughter, we were told that she had passed away. In the words of the daughter, "nous sommes dévastés," or, "we are devastated." In situations like these, I find myself increasingly grateful for the Plan of Salvation which tells is that, through Jesus Christ, we will one day be reunited with our loved ones. Life does not end with death.

Saturday we had exchanges with our zone leaders. I got to work with Elder Koffi. He's Ivorian and he's a fantastic missionary. I had a great time teaching with him. At the end of the day, while we were on our way to the zone leaders' apartment, Elder Koffi noticed his ami with a glass of beer in hand. He walked up to her, asked her to pour it out and, after she said that she would just do it after we left, he took the glass and poured it out. Afterward, he took the bottle from behind her and poured out what remained. Luckily she didn't seem mad about it at all. We shared a laugh about it afterward.

This week has been great and, in all, the first year of my mission has been fantastic. I am so grateful for all of the change that I've experienced over the last year. In that year, I've become a missionary, moved away from home, moved to Africa, learned French, and made more life-long connections than I ever could have expected. I love this place and I love this work.

Elder Farr

Nous Rencontrons Un Culte - Port-Bouët, Côte d'Ivoire

Hello once again everyone! This week has once again been a great one. We've been able to get quite a bit done. I'm so grateful to be working with a companion who loves to work as much as Elder Leight does. I love getting to go out every day and share the Gospel with everybody around us.

This week we met with a lot of less-active and non-active members of our ward. A new focus for us has been working with said members, who left the church when covid began, and helping them come back to the church. It's been a great joy to meet all of these great people over these last couple of weeks.

We've also been teaching quite a few English classes which has been very fun for us. Interest in learning English here is very high so we've had a lot of fun teaching such large classes.

To finish off this weeks letter, we encountered a cult meeting as we were walking to and from appointments on Sunday. They tried to invite us in but, after seeing that goat sacrifice last week, we weren't to interested.

Anyway, I'm having a great time out here in Côte d'Ivoire.

Ayez une bonne semaine!

Elder Farr