Week 8 Delft - D & C 6:36 "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

Goede Dag iederen!!

This week has been so good to me, full of a variety of things and just a good solid time. It was PERFECT weather for an entire week. Yes a whole 7 days. That never happens, so that alone was fantastic hah. Had a couple cool miracles happen in the district and the mission is just on a high right now. I just feel so blessed being able to serve the Lord at this time. Couldn't be any better. Toured the beautiful city of Delft with all of the other Elders and Sisters in the area. Got to ball it up with all the members and all that good stuff. Here's some of the week:

Monday:

Just one quick little funny story to start off, so when all the district came to Delft and the time came to go home, the Den Haag elders relized they were going to be way late. So trying to be good friends we Acter roeped(Someone just sits on the back of your bike on the little rack thing)  them all the way to the other side of the centrum. So elder Hulet and I take elder Lee and Denpai and I have Denpai on the back of my bike a little suriname Elder. And just as we are going to the street to get to the station he goes "Hey lets try and ride a wheelie"and me being myself am like okay why not? Well not thinking that I have a lot more weight on the back I go for it anyway, I bet you can guess what happened. The bike flies out from under us and there lay the two Mormons laughing their heads of in the middle of the street while everyone else is laughing at us. To funny!

Tuesday:

This afternoon Hulet and I met a new LA named Brother Rombley the funniest old man on the planet. We walk in and he is just shirtless but doesn't care so that was great. Told us all about this invention of his, seriously the funnest appointment ever, but it wasn't all just fun and games no worries. We got him to really open up to us and really had the spirit there super strong. He now wants to start coming to church which is so cool. We also had another lesson with Sarah. We taught her the Plan of Salvation, a solid lesson. But a super hard lesson to teach at the same time. But luckily we had good ol'Boeder Jansen with us because he sure knows his stuff and has the Dutch down to explain it a lot better than us. But she absolutely loved the lesson, hoping to set a date for her this coming week.

Wednesday:

This was my first zone training since I have been out and it was soo good. I don't really want to ramble on and preach to you all about what was taught but just thought I would say It was amazing. The Lord loves us all and is always there for us! I know that. After zone training walking home guess what I found a weed package, like what the! Only in the Netherlands I am telling ya. It's terrible everyone here smokes.

Thursday:

This morning was great, Micha Invited us over to a place where he volunteers. And invited us to make a bunch of Pinatas for little kids. I made a good looking bird I'll be sure to put a picture of it on there. But that was a fun time. Tonight at my dinner appointment I ate some pretty weird thingsI don't know what they are called and have never seen anything like them but boy was that sure and adventure.

Friday:

Nothing to cool today, I had my last trip down to Brussels, Belgium to get my visa card which took up most of the day. But mom and dad, listen up because you are not going to believe this. Tonight at a dinner appointment guess what I ate, a bunch of chopped up sardines and veggies rolled up in a pancake. Yes I ate fish, I am overcoming my fears. Or it could be that since I am a missionary God is helping me hold down food that I would normally never eat. After that meal I got a testimony of that lol. :) Tonight we had a lesson with Arie and Estella. We just read alma 32 with him and he loved it, loves this gospel, but doesn't want to make the comittment to come to church. You see that alot here that people always say It's further then the church I go to now so i think I''ll stay at mine. Which kinda sucks. But a cool thing, Estella, a LA had a interview with the bishop and has her recommend to go and get her Endowment out now. We have got her reactivated and now its sooo cool to see her make that step. I CAN"T wait to go with her to the temple that's going to be something to remember I can already tell.

Saturday:

This morning we got to go over and be at the party thing were all of our pinatas were so that was cool to see them being used. We taught Josh the 2nd lesson and it went really well. he had a lot of questions but seems to have no trouble believing it, which is a miracle, we lucked out with him! Then tonight the ward had a huge ward party, BBQ and activities and all us missionaries were invited too. I love my ward so much they are so cool, I really lucked out with a good first ward thats for sure. Got showed up by all the Europeans in soccer again or should I say futbol, but hey they are teaching me the ways, so all you soccer players back home better watch out;)

Sunday:

Just another good fast sunday nothing to exciting happened for the most part today. Except my stomach would not stop grawling all meeting long, it was fantastic lol. I made my first phone call today were I understood everything and had a conversation that actually made sense. It was a miracle. That really built not only my confidence but my faith in the promise of the gift of tounges, I have been constaltly praying and fasting for the gift of tounges and studying the language and doing my part. And what do you know, the lord Always always keeps his promise's. So that was really cool for me to see. On last thing. so tonight walking back to our apartment after some contacting get this, Elder Hulet and I got egged, yup you heard me right egged. We were both dying though, I mean we easily could of gotten mad but instead just laughed about it. Thats one thing I have learned out here is that Attitude is everything. There is no need to let yourself down because you can always find somethings to be happy about. Just like the song "Count Your Many Blessings" the blessings are there, we just have to realize them and be happy!

Well thank you all for the letters and the emails this week. I couldn't do this without all of you so thanks you! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week. The church Is true!

Love, Elder Parr

#ReturnWithHonor

Week 7 Delft start of 2nd transfer - What a Wonderful Time to be a Missionary!

Hello Everyone,

Missionary life is always full of adventures! Another fantastic week here in Delft. Tons of things that were going on, finding success and a whole lot more. First week in the land were it hasn't rained once. Yeah you heard me right not once, its a miracle. The weather has been so nice and I am loving it. Here is my week for you all:

Tuesday:

Today was our last district meeting with the original gang. So of course we made it a big deal;) But before I go to the crazy stuff, I just wanted to add that I love the spirit in district meetings. We did some role plays and we all had our senior missionary couples crying like crazy, the spirit was so strong, I love it. Okay back to the other part, so today we lost 3 sisters in our district so we all went out to eat at a super sweet restaurant called Vapianos, so lecker. But get this so this restaurant is in the middle of Den Haag Centrum and right when we finished up eating we walk outside and there are like 5,000 people. Turns out that it was Queen day and the the King, Queen and Princess would be touring the centrum in the golden carriage and we got to see it! That was so cool all these military people everywhere, old school horse riders with guns. Awesome sight. After all the fun and games were done and we made it back to Delft we had a truly amazing lesson with our Investigator Sarab. We had Brother Jansen there with us and that was a blessing to say the least. We taught the first lesson and talked about baptism and she said she wants to become baptized but she doesn't want to set a date yet. Which kind of stunk. But none-the less the spirit during our lesson with her was amazing, I have learned to love teaching so much greatest opportunity ever!

Wednesday:

Today was a whole lot of all kinds of contacting gave out a ton of cards and some Books of Mormon. Funny story though, so we passed a house that had pictures of Christ and stuff on the window so we decide what the heck why not knock it. Turns out that this lady was freaking phsyco and she sat and preached to us for like 20 minutes. Kept on telling us that the Book of Mormon was written by Satan and stuff like that. It really just made me greatful for the Book of Mormon and my testimony of it. I am just glad that no matter what anyone says thats just something that they can't take away from me. Oh and right when we were leaving she said you guys knocked on my door expecting to convert me but turns out I am the one converting you haha we so wanted to throw it down but thats not what we are here for. But it was tempting lol.

Thursday:

We had an awesome time doing service this morning. So this family who is from California moved here and called us up to help them flatten like 500 boxes no joke soooooo many. But they were one of the nicest families ever they have a kid our age preparing for a mission and stuff so we got invited back for a family night! Can't wait. And we also had another dinner appointment with Dan and Emma Pesschier, seriously the perfect role models for member missionaries. Best family ever always the best times with them. Yeah so elder Hulet and I ran a 3k tonight and almost died. I thought I was In shape but I guess not. Biking shape is was different then running shape it turns out lol. :)

Friday:

Funniest morning of my life! So we had corrilation this morning and Brother and Sister Romig were there for the first time, seriously hilarious. They started and just watching them try and figure out what the heck was going on and speaking Dutch and like 10 things going on at the same time was just to good. But they did it. I love them, they are the best senior couples ever. Nicest people. We had a lesson with Brother Monte tonight he was our less active but we have had him at church the last 5 weeks now. But that was awesome we just practiced the restoration lesson with him and that was easily the best Dutch I have ever spoken in my life. It felt so good:) And a bonus, he finally opened up and told us that he wants us to come and teach his friend who we have been asking about for weeks. That's later on today so I hope it goes well! Then we had a lesson with our new investigator Arie, the spirit was so strong. We challenged him to be baptized and he said yes, the date is not finalized yet but still so exciting. We are seeing so much success right now I couldn't be more grateful.

Saturday:

Of course we had our weekly super "stroop waffle" to begin the day off right. I love the Delft market it is so beautiful. Today was just weekly panning and transfer goal setting for the most part nothing to exciting. But I did have the most awkward dinner appointment of my life. Oh it was so bad haha. The things that you run into as a missionary is just great.

Sunday:

First investigator in church!!! So Josh came to church today and that was the greatest feeling ever to finally have an investigator there. He absolutely LOVED church and we lucked out because the three talks today were amazing couldn't have been a better first sacrament meeting. He loved the people and the environment. So golden. We are going to invite him to be baptized this Thursday he has already pretty much said he wanted to so I cant wait! He is keeping all of his commitments and reading the Book of Mormon too. Hulet and I seriously lucked out with him, he calls us his brothers. I am super excited for whats in store with Josh!

Awesome week for us here in Delft. So blessed to be having all this success. So one more thing today us and a few other missionaries from Den Haag toured the massive castle things in the Centrum. And might I just say I think that I have the most beautiful mission in the world. Seriously it is so pretty. That building was just mind blowing.

Well I hope that all of you have an amazing week. Thanks for all of the support that you give to us missionaries you have no idea how much we appreciate it! You're all the best. God bless you! The Church is true!

Love Elder Parr

#ReturnWithHonor

The whoop says: Dunking in your own neighborhood?

The whoop says: Dunking in your own neighborhood?

Beautiful City of Delft 

Best District Ever

Eating at Vapianos with the district.

Start of the parade for the King and Queen and Princes touring Delft Centrum

Like real soldiers so cool.

 

The King and Queen in the Gold Carriages and another had the Princess in.

The Green Machine

Biking in the Netherlands

Working on the Golf Swing - at a golf store.

This is for you Allie Oops :)

The Ice Age squirrel - love that movie

Pepper challenge aftermath....?

 Waiting for a bus with the Den Haag Elders

Week 6 Delft - Transfer Week! I get stay in Delft :)

Hello Everyone!

Well I can't believe it, I lasted my first transfer! Time has really flown by out here, days feel like weeks yet weeks feel like days. It seemed like yesterday I was getting dropped off at the MTC and now I am on transfer number two. Crazy. 

This past week has been another amazing week here in Delft for Elder Hulet and I. From days full of service to Elder Ballard Mission conference to good ol'missionary work! Oh and you can't forget the big basketball and Ping pong P-day tournaments. Always a good time.

Monday:

After P-day today we had jofos at the church (youngmen\women type thing) and on our way back from that Elder Hulet and I were making some goals we wanted to accomplish for the week and one of them was more member present lessons. To say the least, we had a little tender mercy and it was so cool. We get off the train and are walking through the Centrum when Dan Perscheir walks by and stops us and talks with us. And one of the first things he said is "Hey is there anytime I could come joint teach with you guys, you need to call me more often I know i'm busy but its worth a shot!"  Like how cool is that, such a cool little miracle if you ask me.

Tuesday:

A nice long morning of contacting this morning. But after some leker contacting The Romigs (senior couple in our area) dropped by to do an apartment check. Mom, Dad, you better be listening to this one. They told us that we had the cleanest apartment that they had seen by far! So we to say the least we were pretty proud of ourselves. :) Tonight we had a lesson with our less active member Tom and we decided to take Bro. Monte with us. Best idea that we ever had. So I think I have already told you this but Tom is not all the way there he has some memory loss and during the lesson Bro. Monte was just throwing it down like a champ on him. Invited him to the Elder Ballard Conference and all, He is such a stud, nicest guy you'll ever meet!

Wednesday:

Ths afternoon we went over to Michas and helped him out in his little garden for a little bit and then talked about the Book Of Mormon. Actally super cool experince. He had a lot of questions and we were able to find the answers to almost all in the scriptures and give back a powerful answer. That was such a testimony builder for me personally just seeing the power behind the Book Of Mormon. A very spiritaual lesson with him. He is finally starting to soften up and listen and try after being an investigator for like 8 months I think. So cool to watch that happen right in front of me. I also finally got to meet our investigator Qian, he is a young Asain kid studying here at TU Delft. Soo so positive and sincere. He is going to be one we try and set a Baptisamal date sometime in the near future. Oh and tonight we made some good old American pigs in a Blanket! Yumm.  

Thursday:

Mission Conference day!!!! So today we had our mission conference with Elder Ballard, Elder Dyches and Elder Halstrom. Definetly a day that I think changed my mission for me and a lot of other people. Definetly one of the most spiritual days of my mission! The power behind the voice of an Apostle of the Lord is absolutely amazing. He taught us so many things on how to become not only better missionaries but better children of God. And said some things that really impacted a lot of missionaries. He also made a big announcement for our mission. So about a 3 months ago a ward mission leader found out a way to use social media to our advantage. The Netherlands is one of the biggest if not the biggest social media countries. And because of the HUGE success this mission saw from that we are now becoming an ipad mission which is pretty cool. I really do think that is going to change how successful this place is after hearing all of the reasoning behing it from Elder Ballard and the others. But tonight we also had another confernce for the stake I am serving in with Elder Ballard. Yet another amazing few hours of listening to these powerful speakers. We had a few people come with us and went out saying that "That man is a servant of God and this is the true gospel." How much more of a miracle could you ask for? So thankful for that experience. It was also super fun getting to know a whole lot of the other missionaries today, we have some pretty amazing people out here. Oh and guess what there are two Elder Parrs!! Just watch we are going to be companions, that would be hilarious:)

Friday:

Today was a rather busy day but a different kind of busy. We had some coralation this morning, best Ward mission leader ever! And then it was a less active members birthday and he invited the Elders in the ward over to celebrate. So nice, its always nice to just have a little time to relax and have fun. And can I say this Surinamer  knew how to have fun and cook. So of course it was a good time!

Saturday:

A day full of service! This morning all 6 Elders and the 2 sisters all did service for a family here. We pretty much remodeled their house 100% (they sure had a lot of trust in us missionaries) I mean from repainting the whole thing to rearranging bedrooms and cabinets all that good stuff. But it was such a fun time just seeing the smiles on their faces as they saw there house coming together. Always a good feeling. And then later tonight we got inivited by Micha to go over with him to help Mica one of his friends with her alotment garden and then have dinner. He has never invited the missionaries to do something like this before or to feed us so that was cool! So after service Mica made some homemade Italian pizza (Best meal I have had since I have been out here) and just sat and talked with us. So the whole time she was saying she had no interest in religion and then towards the end started asking all of these questions about what we believe in and showing a ton of interest. Like how cool is that? Well then Micha, Elder Hulet and I did another pepper eating challenge, and can I say I am never doing one again. These things were hot for a solid hour. But I am offically the pepper eating champion, last one to eat or drink something. So that was an accomplishment. :p

Sunday:

A day of simple little miracles! After church a lady named Maria came and asked Elder Hulet and I if we would help with some blessings. So of course we said yes. The first three were some of her friends and their kids and a member did that. Then it was her turn, she looked at me and Hulet and asked if we would do the blessing. She asked him to do the anointing and me the sealing and blessing. First thought in my head was I have never given a blessing I don't know if I can do this. But of course I said yes. Well that was probably one of the coolest things that I have ever done, I honestly felt like I was literally being told what to say as I gave this blessing. A very powerful and spiritual experience. Well when we were done she asked if I could take a picture with her because she wanted to remember this memory. Probably the coolest feeling ever seeing that all happen and being able to be a part of it. Just made me want to that much more always be worthy for the priesthood! Then tonight we recieved a referral so and we were going to look him up. Well we went to the wrong address but ended up in an area right by a less active African women named Estella. She let us in and her friend was there. We ended up giving her friend a Book Of Mormon and having a powerful lesson. We were meant to get lost. We walked out the door and this referral called us. We went over to his house and met him. His name is Josh and he is from Gana africa. We gave the entire first lesson and I have never seen someone have so much desire to learn more about the gospel. He told us he has been sad everyday for the past 3 years and then after our lesson was the first time he has been happy in that long. One of the most spiritual moments on my mission. He is a GOLDEN investigator sooo excited to see what happens with him. So yeah to me this was a day full of miracles! and the best way to finish off a good week!

So thats my week for ya. Sorry for the long email just had a lot to say this week. Thank you all for everything you do and all the support! I hope you have a great week! The Chruch Is True!!

Love, Elder Parr

#ReturnWithHonor

   

Week 5 Delft - Hallo Family

Hallo!

Delft, Netherlands

Hello everybody! Another fantastic week here in Delft! Many more memories made, miracles and just good times. The work here is finally starting to get back up and moving, we have all of our investigators back from there like 3 month long vacations. I guess thats common over here in Europe. So yeah, thats exciting news. Transfer calls are already here pretty much, and thats insane I feel like I just barely got here. But I really hope that I stay here in Delft with Elder Hulet, we just get along so well and are doing some good things here. 

Here are some of the things that happened this week.

Tuesday:

Exchanges with Elder Yocom round two! So today was district meeting for us and lucky me got put in charge of teaching the Christlike attribute for the week! That was fun, and a good experience. But after that Elder Yocom and I headed off to Delf. Yup no Elder Hulet, I was the man in charge of Delft for the day. That was a little frightening at first because I had only been here for a couple weeks and still not sure where most things are. But by some miracle we didn't get lost. We had a cool little miracle though, so after our lookups we had nothing else to do so we were going to contact of course. We walk out the door and the mailman is there and stops us as we are riding off and tells us that he wants to meet with us, gave us his information and an appointment for next sunday so thats exciting. And one more, we were just about to head home because it was getting late, but we decide to know 4 more doors. And the 3rd door that we knocked we got ourselves a 17 year old investigator named Miguel. This kid is sooo positive and really love the Elders and he made an appointment with us on the spot the next day. Such a stud. That was really cool miracle. We then had a nice dinner appointment on the other end of Delft were i have never been so we were bound to get lost, But just our luck a member who lived in the area pulled up on his bike and showed us the way. Like how lucky can we get. I just love seeing all of the little tender mercies from the Lord in my everyday life. Even the small ones are big!

Wednesday:

Well this afternoon Mich came over to our appartment(permission of course) and helped us make a garden on our Balcony! Yeah, how cool is that? I mean its nothing fancy but hey we got ourselves a garden. After that we went and taught Miguel the first lesson. That was such a cool experience and the spirit was so strong. Half the time I had no idea what i was saying but yet he understood me. The gift of tounges is real! But Miguel is really positive and we are hoping to set a baptism date with him next lesson. So thats exciting! We also got Brother Monte to come to Elder Ballard thing with us thurday night so thats exciting.

Thursdaÿ:
A whole lot of doors and not even one potential. Long morning, but hey thats sometimes how it goes I guess. But luckily for us after a long morning we got our first referal so that was awesome. Went and looked him up, he was really busy at the moment but said we could come back so lets hope that goes somewhere. We had a lesson with Gek-a- Tom tonight, an old man with memory loss, less active member. He is so funny though always a good laugh with him.

Friday:

When service calls we come running! Haha, so bright and early this morning we got a call saying that a member had to be moved out of his house by 3 today. So of course we got the misionaries in the area and took off. And can I say I have never seen a house come apart so fast in my life. And get this didn't even break anything, look at us go haha.

Saturday:

The tradition "SUPER STROOPWAFFEL SATURDAY" I seriously love that part about saturdays, always a good start of the day. But today we had Choir practice with the ward for Elder Ballard and that was probably the most progress we have made, by some miracle a not so skilled choir pulled off and 8 part song. So cool. We met with one of our asain investigators who is back from vacationi Qian and he is still super positive and wants to get baptized so we are going to try and set a date with him some time soon too:) I am loving this.

Sunday:

Packed church for the Netherlands standards. So there was a mission farewell today and holy cow i have never seen so many people in such a small chapel. It was easily the size of my home ward. That was super cool to see so many members come from all over Netherlands to support this Sister. It was a good day at church today. And guess what, once again I let elder Hulet cut my hair. Call me crazy but I did. Although this time I got my revenge and got to cut his. But somehow we both turned out alright. Good times. I love Elder Hulet.

Well thats about all. I hope all of you have a wonderful week. And thanks for all that you do for us missionaries and all of the the lessons that you have taught us to prepare us for not only our mission but life. Love you all!

Love Elder Parr

#ReturnWithHonor

The Windmills are everywhere it is so awesome.

One of the many cheese stores here in Delft

The canal's between the cobblestone sidewalks.

The buildings and houses are so antique looking.

Our puzzle that one of the members gave us.

My turn...haha smile Elder Hulet

Looks Yummy!