Elder Joshua Parr Belgium/Netherlands Mission: Week 4 - Delft

Hello Everybody,

I Hope all is going well for all of you back at home. This week has been another really good and crazy week. I got to go on a couple fun exchanges and meet some new people which was awesome. Had a couple of things thrown at us very last minute but hey we are missionaries that's what we are here for right? However I have continued to learn a lot this week both spiritually and as well with the language. It just gets better and better.

Tuesday:

I had exchanges in Zoetemeer again but this time with Elder Frisby a two year convert to the church who is almost exactly 6 years older than me. Crazy right? It's cool our group that came out was the very first group of 2014 graduates so I am not only the baby of the mission field but also one of the youngest. So in Zoetemeer as we were contacting doors we were about an hour in and an Arabic member there saw us and invited us in. He was super cool and fed us probably the weirdest "cookie" I have ever had. It was like a cresant thingy with who know what in the inside. He said it was an arabic cookie, so doing what missionaries do I ate the whole thing, even though the whole time I though that I was going to die. But hey I didn't . :) We also had an appointment with a less active family in that area and got to teach them. As we taught them the spirit was so strong and I guess he had opened up more then he has ever in the past. He said that this time there was a different feeling than normal, a good one. For the first time in a while he said that he finally felt peace, from the answers that us two young boys had given him about some things that were troubling him. That was a miracle. There is no way that that was me and Elder Frisbee who made him have a change of heart ,we were not there alone, I know that. This work truly is so amazing, and you learn and grow so much from such simple little things.

Wednesday:

Today I had my first Zone Conference, so much fun. I got to meet a whole lot of missionaries and become friends with them which was awesome. President and Sister Robinson taught most of the time. Can I just say that they are so meant for this mission and are so inspired. It's incredible the spirit that can come to a room full of Missionaries learning how to become better. Not only are they awesome spiritually but they sure have a sense of humor! Love them. Later that evening after Conference Elder Hulet and I had an appointment with two less active members. It was fun sharing with them the sacredness and blessings of the temple, and they want to get their recomends so they can go again, so if they do Elder Hulet and I can go with them! So I am crossing my fingers because that would be so cool!

Thursday:

Today I went on exchanges with Elder Moomey one of our Zone Leaders. So I got to live the ZL life for a day. And lets just say its crazy and you never know what is going to happen. We were on our way to an appointment when the Almeria Elders called and said they had locked themselves out. So of course its the ZL's responsibility so off we went on a 1 1\2 road trip both ways. That kind of was different because we weren't able to get a whole lot of actual mission work in but it was a good experience to see what the ZL's do. BI got to know Elder Moomey so much better and that was cool. I really love that kid, great example. But Luckily we were able to make it back in time to contact at least a little bit and make it to our dinner appointment. We ate with a young couple, Jouplin and Rachell and their little boy Noah. They are so awesome. It was fun talking to Rachell because she was born and lived in Arizona most here life and went to St.George alot so that was cool to talk to her. Awesome nice family.

Friday:

Finally a day back in Delft! Well at least for the most part. So this morning me and Elder Hulet took our nice 45 minute journey to Den Haag for corilation and then found out it was canceled right when we got there. So we decided to go and eat with the Den Haag elders which ended up being super fun. We probably looked like idiots trying to Achterroep on the bikes the whole way there. But we got a good laugh out of it :) The rest of the day consisted of a whole lot of bell ups door knocking and street contacting. But we did have another dinner appointed with the Perschier family Jr. and I was asked to do the Spiritual desert. So earlier that day I had found the scripture that I wanted to share but when the time came I felt prompted to switch it to one that was hanging on my wall Mathew 11: 28-30. That was a cool cool ecperience for me it turned out that was exactly what they needed to hear and they both got emotional as they told us the reason on why that was what they needed. Yet again another simple little thing that can be so powerful and such a strong testimony builder. Oh and we found a 600 piece puzzle of the nice Utah red rocks so we bought it and our building it in our apartment, so much fun!

Saturday:

One frustrating morning...so this morning we had choir practice for all of the tenors in the ward choir for Elder Ballard. And it got heated, four people where all trying to tell eachother what to do and be the boss. And obviously that never works out. So after that i was pretty frustrated and such so luckily it was "Super Stroop Waffle Saturday". We went down to the market and got our lecker stroop waffels and all was better, those things work miracles. :p So we met a family from Srilanka today and got to teach them (English finally so I could understand everything!) But that was a really cool lesson and they love the idea of this gospel and have invited us back so looks like we got ourselves a new investigator. :) All of the missionaries (in our district of course) ate together at the church tonight which was fun. Elder Lee made some Chinese Kurie (if thats how you spell it) so that was interesting I have never had that before but it was good. Then we went to look up someone who seemed really positive well ended up he gave us a false address...that wasn't fun.

Sunday:

Woke up this morning got to church to find out that Elder Hulet and I were going to be teaching a lesson to the 16-18 year old class about missions. So that was a shock to us but of course we said yes and did it. This was actually a huge confidence booster for me because we had to teach a 45 minute lesson in Dutch and guess what? At the end the kids said that they actually understood everything that I said. I didn't even realize it at the time but I understood them the whole time as well. It's crazy how much the Lord blesses his missionaries, because there is no way I could be to where I am with the Language without him. The Gift Of Tounges is REAL!

Well that is all for this week. I look forward to talking to you all agian in the week to come. I hope you all have a fantastic week and keep the Lord in your hearts. I love you all, you really are all great and I thank you for the friends, leader and examples that you have been to me. Thank for the support and everything that you all do. Till next time.

Elder Josh Parr

#ReturnWithHonor