Week 6 Amsterdam - Fastest 6 weeks of my life!!

Hello Hello,

What an crazy, fun, hot, cold, humid, exciting week it has been! Missions are amazing. It doesn't get any better then being out here serving the Lord in this beautiful country. This is His work and we are sharing His message. Incredible!

Well this week went by so fast I can hardly remember what even happened....so I'll my best to remember some of the highlights. We were able to meet with Peter and Evy this week and that was great! They are seriously the coolest people in the world. They have a heart of gold and are so nice. On top of that they love this gospel. They tell us every time that we go how badly they want to go to the temple so they can be sealed to each other. How cool is that? Golden!!!! But it has been a little harder to meet with them, his job is keeping him pretty busy and she has been sick with her pregnancy. But everything is still going good there. There papers should finally be on there way here pretty quick so they can get baptized! I can't wait:)

This week was full of some good exchanges too. I was in Leiden, Alkmaar, and then we worked with the Amsterdam sister. But, Elder Bonner and I were working in Alkmaar, a very dutch city. Which is a hard place to see success. But we were determined to see some success. And we worked out butt of the whole day and ended up having an amazing lesson with a family. It was so cool the mom made all of her kids come in and sit in on the lesson. And on top of that we found 5 pretty positive potential investigators. The Lord was blessing us for our efforts that is for sure. I know He is right there watching over me!!

Elder Bringhurst and I had a super cool night a couple of days ago. So we rushed down to the outskirts of the city to go to an appointment and it ended up falling though. It was already late and we would of only had like 20 or so minutes to work and it was raining. So the temptation to just start making our way back was there but we didn't. We started knocking a some doors. The first door was a JW who just tried to wreck us. But we weren't going to end with that so we kept on knocking and the next four doors were some of the coolest potentials I have probably ever met on my mission. One lady was like " Whenever you two are in the area you are welcome to come by grab a snack, some water, etc." Another was a young 18 year old boy who was religious but not in a specific church and who LOVED basketball. So we just talked for a solid 20 minutes and he was like "You want my phone number so we can meet up one time. And I would also love to go to the church with you two. You two are cool guys." The coolest kid ever! And then as we were heading back to the metro we stopped on last guy and he was so cool! We talked for another 20 minutes and we invited him to a ward BBQ and he just lit up and said "if it was today I would of been there yesterday!" haha. So we ended up setting two appointments and getting 3 phone numbers!! What a 'God testifying night' as we would say here haha. I know 100% Heavenly Father is aware of me and is aware of all His children. He lives!

Well this week was also transfer call week. We heard the news last night that Elder Bringhurst and I will be getting separated. He is staying in Amsterdam. I will be heading to a city called Einhoven, picking up another greenie, white washing again and staying DL. So these coming weeks are going to be crazy! It was a bitter sweet phone call. But I am excited, I know that is where the Lord needs me and I am going to go and work my hardest there as well.

Thank you all for the emails and the love and support! You are all the best. I hope you have an amazing week and for some of you and great first week of school!!

Love,
Elder Parr
#ReturnWithHonor

At Roos's house, Elder Bringhurst hard at work drawing:) 

Me taking a nap on the empty metro

Week 5 Amsterdam - What a blur!!

Hello hello,

I know I say this like every week but this week I am serious. I think this week set the new fastest week of my mission. It honestly was here and gone just like that. Even after a year I still don't understand the time thing out here. I guess somethings you never get used to haha. But it has been a good one non the less.

The weather this week was very different from the small storms and rain we ran into last week. We were blessed with some beautiful weather! Actually it was a little bit on the hot end! The humidity is killer, but it's still great. Oh and biking with helmets tends to be a lot hotter then I thought. I kinda miss having the wind blow through my hair. But it has been a good thing. Definitely getting easier as the days go by. Still get weirder looks and rude remarks every now and again, but for the most part you just soak it all in and love it. Love standing out and make the best of it. I will try and get a helmet picture to you so you can see what we mean when we say, ' safety has never looked so good'.

This week we had out interviews with President and Zuster Bunnell and those were just incredible. Those two are absolutely amazing people. It was great to be able to get to know them better. After Zuster Bunnell and I talked about St. George for a good half hour haha. It was great. But they are definitely called of God and inspired. It is going to continue to be great working with them.

This past week we were able to finally meet with a less active member named James Aidoo from Ghana. And we had planned to teach Temple Prep because that is what the other Elders had been teaching him. But we walked in and Bringhurst and I both felt super prompted to teach the Restoration so we did and it was incredible. The spirit was so strong and that is what he needed to hear. But the spirit didn't stop guiding us there. We could see something was wrong even when he kept on saying he was fine. We then found out he had terrible pain in his foot and the doctors didn't see anything wrong. We asked if he wanted a blessing and he just lit up and we were able to give him a blessing. I am so grateful for the priesthood and that I have the amazing opportunity to hold that sacred power to bless others lives. It is a huge blessing for me.

We were able to work with both the Amsterdam and Ijmuiden Zusters this week and had really cool appointments with both of them. It was really cool to see how sometimes it takes a specific person and their unique spirit to touch another heart. Bringhurst and I saw that while we were with them. That just puts a smile on my face, that God knows us and puts us in places for a reason.

Oh and this morning Bringhurst and I were able to go to the Anne Frank house. The house that her and her family hid in during World War 2. That was probably one of the coolest things. There was just something special about being there. It really made me grateful for the beautiful place that we live in. We truly are so blessed!

Sorry I didn't have a lot of time to write you individually but I will try to get to it next week. Thanks for all the sweet letters and the support. I love you all! Enjoy your last couple days of summer!

Love,
Elder Parr
#ReturnWIthHonor

We played some beach soccer today for P-Day.

Week 4 Amsterdam -Helmets, Soccer and Belgie

Hello Hello,

Where to Begin....This has been a pretty crazy week to say the least. We have been all over the place and have a had a good time doing the Lords work. It doesn't get any better right?? Love this work so much.

This week I got to back to Belgium with Elder Bringhurst and that was so much fun! We had to go down for some legal stuff and I got to get my license for Europe! Pretty exciting. But it was so good to be back in Belgium. I have missed that place. And of course we got some delicious Belgian waffles and some nice Belgian Fries. We sure made the best out of the trip.

But this week we were finally able to go and play some soccer with Peter, Evy and Pedro and it was so much fun! We got playing, Elder Bringhurst and I against Pedro and Peter and it was great. Then a bunch of Neighborhood boys showed up and called us out. So of course we accepted the challenge. Well we are all getting pretty into it and it got intense. And get this these two American non soccer players and Peter won all 3 games to 11:) Now that is what I am talking about. I love that family so much. They are so incredible and just have such a solid testimony of this Gospel. The adversary is really trying to stop them from coming unto Christ. But it's amazing to see them put their trust in the Savior and rely on Him. If only you could all see how much their countenance has changed. It would make your whole day. This Gospel really does come with a light. Just makes me think of Heleman 5:12 too. Build your foundation on Christ and You can overcome anything. That is so true.

This Friday was also pretty great. Elder Bringhurst and Elder Nye had a pretty incredible experience. So Elder Bonner and I were teaching a less active member that Elder Bonner had baptized a year ago and just had an incredible uplifting lesson with him and got him back on the right path. So we were just pumped. Well we exchanged back and Bringhurst tells me this story. They had just got out of our lesson and they passed a girl crying on the street and had a feeling they needed to go back and talk to her. Elder Nye began talking to her and she went on to tell him she was about to go end her life. God is so aware of His children. I can't even tell you the spirit that I felt just hearing that. I know 100% That God lives, He knows every single one of His children Perfectly and Loves us beyond measure. Never give up on Him.

So I don't know if I already told you this but as of this past week our mission has become a Helmet wearing mission:) So in this country the only people who were helmets are competitive bikers or 2 year old kids, sometimes not even them. So In all honesty already having gone a year without a helmet this has been great. And this change is already been a humbling experience for me. The rude remarks, the laughs and the pointing fingers has been hard. But If God wants me to wear a helmet, I'll wear a helmet. And me and Bringhurst even came up with a nice little motto, Safety has never looked so good:) So now we got 150 more helmet wearers in this country. It's great.

Thank you all for the sweet emails and all of the support!! You are all amazing. Remember this church is true, God loves you and is always there. Have an amazing week!

Love, Elder Parr
#ReturnWithHonor