Week 17 Eindhoven - It's Christmas Time in the City...

Hello Hello!

MERRY 'almost' CHRISTMAS! If you can't tell we are totally in the Christmas mood on this side of the world. The lights are beginning to come on and of course the Christmas music has been going for the past couple of weeks (months...). The paper snowflake are beginning to fill the house and the spirit of Christmas is alive! To say the least I love this time of year and it's sure a blessing to be able to tell other people in this country why I love this time of year. Families, the gospel, the laughter, the food, the memories made and most of all the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Just like the new video says, "A Savior is Born" so we can always be filled with peace and love. It doesn't get any better then that!

I have a lot of bitter sweet feelings right now. Last night we got the phone call about transfers and I am going to be saying goodbye to one of my best friends. It has been to much fun serving with Elder Da Silva, I have truly made a life long friend the past 4 and a half months. But the sweet is that I get to stay in Eindhoven for Christmas!! I am getting Elder Wilson a stud of a man from Canada. It is going to be a lot of fun serving with him!

Here are just a couple quick highlights from this past week:

So last week Elder Byers and I got let in while knocking doors to a man named Francis. I believe I included that in my last email. So this week Elder Da Silva and I taught him the plan of Salvation and guess what!? Eindhoven finally has a baptismal date!! We got him on date for February 13th and wow we were so excited!!!

We had an awesome Zone Christmas Conference down in Antwerpen. Got to see a whole lot of friends. And get this, the Sister in my MTC group gave her dying testimony.....So weird. I felt like we all just got out here and now she is flying home this week. It was pretty sad to be honest. Time flies!!!!!!!

Jacky aka Shakira taught me how to make some amazing Peruvian rice this week. SO GOOD! Mom you will enjoy that one when I get home.

Working with the ward is beginning to improve a whole lot. We are doing a big Christmas thing with them and were given time during Church yesterday to teach them how to invite people to come, it was great! I love this ward.

We got to go carol to a couple of less active and completely make their entire day!

The list goes on and on. This week was one for the bags. I am loving this work and loving my mission. I know 100% this Gospel is true. I love you all so much and am so grateful for everything you do for me. I hope you have an incredible Christmas season as we remember why we celebrate it in the first place. Have an amazing week!!

Love,
Elder Parr
#Return.With.Honor

Our Happy Family Love these guys.

Week 16 Eindhoven "Sinterklaas, December, Adventures

Hello hello,

This week has been loads of fun! I don't even know where to begin and i have about 10 minutes of typing time....so sorry but this one will be super short. Eindhoven saw a lot of miracles this week it has been so awesome!!!! We are beginning to see the fruits of our labors. Ah I just love missionary work so much, there is nothing else like it! Here are just a few of the highlights from last week.

I was able to go up to NIjmegen and work with Elder Hill there and we had an absolute blast together and saw some really cool things happen. They have been struggling a little bit getting some appointments. They ended up having to drop a lot of investigators because they just didn't want to keep commitments. So Elder Hill and I made a goal to find two people and set up two appointments. That's exactly what we did. We met two really cool people on the door and were able to have nice conversations with them and set up a return appointment. The Lord was really blessing us. And fun fact I got fed a MASSIVE plate of Fufu made by a Ugandan. Yumm....

Wednesday Elder Da Silva and I worked together the first have of the day and saw miracles! We got let in and had an awesome lesson. And had a lesson with a potential we had found the week before. Had a nice lunch with Jacky aka Shakira and had a good lesson with her as well. Then we split with the Ap's and I got to work with Elder Bonner again. So fun, we have become really good friends. But we recorded a Christmas song with brother Stewart and it was so cool. Wow he can sing!!!!!

Friday I got to work with elder Byers in Eindhoven and we had 2 more people open the door and let us right in. We were able to teach the restoration to them both and set up new appointments. The Lords work is hastening! I love it! I also got to cook for Zuster Van Der Riet again. It was great.

We got to celebrate Sinterklass this week with the Van Empels. Man I love that family so much. They do so much for us it's incredible. Sinterklaas was awesome we all got a couple of fun little presents from them and had a really fun evening with one another. We also had to right our zone transfer report that night...I won't even say how late we were up. But we still made it to church on time and had a beautiful Sunday!!!

I love you all and am thankful for all the prayers and support. I hope you have an amazing week and enjoy the Christmas spirit. And always remember the true Meaning of Christmas. Our Savior lives and loves us!

Love,
Elder Parr
#Return.With.Honor

P Day Ballin

Week 15 Eindhoven - Oh The weather outside is frightful.....But I still love it here

Hello Hello,

How are you? or maybe I should say, Como Estas? Or Como Voce esta? Or Comment allezvous? Or hoe gaat het? So we met a couple of people who speak the 5 languages Elder Da Silva speaks and so I got to sit there and feel like a greeny all over again. It was awesome. But on the bright side I am learning some Spanish again. I am loving my life in the mission field, this is the place to be. It's true what everyone says, we are engage in the best work on earth. And serving with Elder da Silva is so much fun!

Here are some quick highlights from last week. It'll be short cause I don't have a lot of time:

Thanksgiving over here was so much fun! So on the actually day of thanksgiving we were all able to go and enjoy some delicious Peruvian thanksgiving, so good! Then Friday for our MLC lunch Zuster Bunnell had made a big thanksgiving lunch for us all. And it was incredible!!!! She is a dang good cook. Then last night members had us over and fed us another thanksgiving meal. I was just in heaven this week. Probably ate way to much food but it was just amazing. Got to love that turkey. And I hope you all enjoy your turkey sandwiches for the next week:)

This past week we were on a whole lot of exchanges. On of the days I was able to work with Elder Stanworth, he is actually from Hurricane and played sports and all that. So we played against each other. But we had an awesome exchanges. Got out and were able to work super hard set up 3 solid appointments it was great. But it was super funny, so we looked up this lady, who I thought was an investigator. And we get talking for a solid 30 minutes on the door and she thought I was the funniest person in the world. I was talking to her like an investigators. Well she shut the door and elder Stanworth said you now that was a less active. I just started dying and it all made sense why she though i was a goofball. But hey it worked, we got an appointment haha.

Saturday I was on splits with elder Crowder one of the elders living with me. And we saw some really cool miracles. First off we just had a super fun day working with one another. But the coolest part of the day is when we re-exhanged and our appointment fell through so we drove them to go do their last look up and we would just knocked some doors on the other side of the street. And within 30 minutes Elder Da Silva and I had made 3 appointments with all new people. It was such a cool miracle. the lord definitely led us to these people.

I love my mission and am so grateful for you all. The love, prayers and support! I am so blessed to have you all in my life. The gospel is true! Have an amazing week.

Love,
Elder Parr
#Return.With.Honor