Week 4 - Delft - "Hallo"

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

We decided to math today haha :) Love these two Elders.

It won't be long until I sleep on the trains too!  It's all still a new adventure to me :)

Warrior Strong

Got a light rain coat for those times when it's blue skies and then decides to down pour.

Exchanges with Elder Denpai.  Love him he is so cool!

Loved this video - these two eating these hot peppers from their plant a member gave them.
Way to be tough Elders!

Week 3 Delft - Goede Dag iedereen!

Hello hello:)

 

Wow what a week! Time is flying by here in Delft, I cant believe I am already half way done with the first transfer of my mission. It seems like I just barely left. But I am loving every second of it and am learning and growing so much each day its incredible. This short two months that I have been gone I have changed so much for the better. It really is amazing how just putting more time and effort into this gospel how big of a change you can have. This really is the true gospel and I know it. Well this week has been super good, got a lot accomplished and had fun doing it.

 

       Cool opportunity for us Elders and Sister in our district this week. The Den Haag ward and Zoetemeer ward (both in our district) are the two biggest in the Netherlands. And so in September we have Elder Ballard coming and giving us a mission conference, super exciting. But he is also speaking in our stake. So we were all asked to be in a special choir for Elder Ballard. (singing in dutch of course and one English song:) which is so much fun. I have gotten to know so many of the ward members that much better and just grown to love this ward. So I am super excited about that, It'll be such a fun experience.

 

 Elder Hulet and I did a TON of contacting a few days this week, but it was so much fun. We talked to so many people. So we made a goal to try and share our testimony with every single person that we talk to. That has been so cool and spritiual for me. Well we actually didnt find any single solid Investigator this week but we found a few potentials. Eventhough we didn't find anyone it was still awesome just at least being able to bare our testimonies to them. Cause No one can take away what I know to be true!

 

Belgium! So this week I got to go down to Belgium with all of the MTC buddies again to get our visa there. That was a long but fun trip. It took pretty much all day but it was good. Imagine this.....8 Missionaries in a nice big van all rocking out to MOTAB for a solid 3 hour drive. Yeah fun right? lol. No It was a good time and fun to see everyone again. But might I add I am glad I am not in Belgium right now because... FLAMS is hard to understand! They sound so weird. So to say the least I lucked out. :)

 

 We had a few good lessons this week as well. But nothing to crazy, just the 1st lesson and they seemed to think it was interesting so crossing my fingers. But one man Micha who has been an investigator for like 8 months now and such who just really loves the missionaries and his relationship with them finally is going to let us start teaching him full lessons again and not just stop by and say Hi type of thing. That was a true miracle because he has had no interest in the lessons for a while. I'm excited to see how it goes! I know that this gospel can make him that much better so this will be a good experience.

 

Well the super stroop waffles are still amazing and the people are still crazy, but i love them. The work is still hard and there are still times that aren't fun. But the good weighs out the bad 10000x. This work has changed me already, and I couldn't be anymore grateful for it. This gospel is true, and a blessing for each of us, the power of prayer is real, our Heavenly Father And Jesus Christ love us very much and are ALWAYS there for us. That's amazing to me. And We are blessed to know that for ourselves, and cherish that.

 

Well I love you all and I hope all is going well back at home. Thank you for the letters\emails and all of the love and support. Hope you guys all have an another amazing week. Your the best. The church is true!!!!

 

Love Elder Parr 

#ReturnWithHonor

Double Rainbow in Delft

Week 2 -Heel goede week en ook dag 54 op mijn zending!

The Hague Temple in the Netherlands and one good looking Elder Parr.

Check out my sweet ride.

Hallo eidereen,

 

First things first you are all great and thanks for the emails I love them! It's crazy how much you look forward to emails and letter out here. Oh and guess what here in the wonderful land of Europe people are CRAZY! 1st: there is NO FREE WATER and No Ice! Yes that is terrible but it's okay thats what the sink is for right? 2nd: we all decided that the weather here hates us, one the wind always in in our face no matter which way we go, so we decided it blew straight down! and also the only times it rains is when we are outside. The second we get to the homes and such it stops. Fantastic right? 4th: The biking city....its so funny we always see super old couples on dates riding Mopeds tgether and stuff its great! and also the kids are like "ya I'll bike over and pick ya up you can sit on the back"I love it, it's hilarious. 5th: People here have parties in the Centrum like everyday! There are hundreds of people from ages 12-80 its great. They all jam out to music and drink. Fun right? You should see the looks we get when we have to walk though there.  Welcome to the Netherlands I guess. Oh and Mom and Dad guess what there hasn't been a dish in our sink since I have gotten here! Thought you would be proud. :) 

Here are some of the highlights of my week.

Monday:

First P-day went awesome! Had a fun district sleep over (with the elder) at the Den Haag apartment. But we played soccer bright and early with a bunch of the members here in our ward. And can I say they are soooo GOOD! They make all of us look like idiots, it's not fair. This place is like known for soccer! Fields in every neighborhood. But one play I was sprinting to catch up to this guy Nathan and couldn't stop and totally ran him over... Everyone was dying and said "Hey elder..Wron Futbul man" Yea I got crap the rest of the day. Love those guys. And also shopping here is so different Nothing looks the same and I cant read it so Half the time I don't even know what we get.

 

Tuesday:

What a day..this was probably one of the hardest days since I have been out to be honest. But before I go there I had my first district meeting and that was awesome. Elder Yocum Is our DL and he's from Kaysville and is an absolute stud. But after that we have language lesson from this old dutch women. Yeah she got mad at me for not standing when I said my prayer and that it wasn't in perfect grammar. That kind of put a damper on my day to say the least. Then contacting we got plenty of doors slammed in our faces. Yeah there are some mean people in the world. We were getting pretty down and sad after knocking forever and not getting anyone so we decided to say a quick prayer. And like no joke 30 seconds after one of the guys who slammed the door but took our card like 5 minutes earlier came running out saying he looked up the website and wanted to know more! That was a true Miracle to me! We got his number and stuff so lets hope that goes somewhere!

 

Wednesday:

Awesome day! So last night Eder Hulet and I were praying for a street to contact this morning and we came up with one. This morning the very first door that we knocked let us in and and we taught him about the restoration and he is now an investigator!! We are going back to teach him this week, so cool. And every door but one or two on that street at least gave us the time of day and talked to us so that was amazing. True miracle...the power of prayer and having faith is seriously the greatest thing ever, keeps me going! We also had a dinner appointment with the Perschier family.  A young couple in the ward and awesome family. The Husband Dan is a returned missionary and he goes on splits with us a lot so thats fantastic! Oh and today one of our investigators called us to come over and he gave us a bunch of pepper plants. He's the nicest guy ever, excited to see his future.

Thursday:

Today we did "real"missionary work all day. Had zero appointments so we did doors, street contacting and look up's all day long. But we did find 3 potentials so thats exciting:)

 

Friday:

Exchanges! Well today i was in Zoetemeer with Elder Yocum. We got to teach an investigator the second lesson and then he let me invite her to be baptized! At first she said no not yet I  am not ready and was really unsure. So he Yocum leaned over and said Testify. So thats exactly what I did and told her why we need to be baptized and the blessing that come from it. Such a powerful spirit...well she did say she would! But not the date they wanted...still that was probably one of the most powerful moments so so cool. I love this work just being out here trying my best to help people, its incredible. This gospel truly is amazing and such a blessing. We are all so lucky be apart...Live it, Love it and share it!

 

Saturday:

Elder Hulet and I  Made some amazing homemade Pizza and Banana bread. Yeah you can call us Master Chefs alright! Oh Wait we did find a new investigator tonight as well and that was incredible.  2 in the last 3 days we are on a role:)

Sunday:

Well second day of Dutch church. And it was packed today! There was a Homecoming in the ward so there were a good 150 people ther. Felt like I was in Utah again except  I could still only understand half of the meeting. So church was a wholel lot better this week which was good. And tonight me and Elder Hulet totally remodeled all of our apartment its looking great.

Nice and clean remodeled apartment

Monday:

Spent pretty much the whole day in Leiden doing visa stuff so no p-day. And then we played some soccer with ward members and people who were already at the park. First off I get schooled by like 10 year olds and then a bunch of like 60 year olds. It's just not fair everyone is just so good at soccer in this country!

 

This week has been absolutely amazing. Loving it. Learning more and more each day and coming closer to my Savior. This gospel is so true and I can not deny it, I'm so thankful O am able to be out here in Delft gathering the lost sheep. I love you all and thanks for everything. I hope all is going great back at home. Have a good week!

 

#ReturnWithHonor

 Love Elder Joshua Parr

Week 1 - "Greetings from Delft Netherlands"

Hello hello!

Wow where to begin....This has been the craziest week and a half ever. And also one of the most tiring weeks of my life! The last few days in the MTC and now the other side of the world! Love it. The real mission has begun and I couldnt be anymore pumped to get out the door and go to work! Well here are a few little highlights from the week and a half.

Sunday:
Sunday was my last day in the MTC and to say the least it was soooo busy! Both an amazing day and a bad day all in one. The good stuff first, This gospel couldnt be anymore true! It is just 100% amazing and i love it! We had one last district testimony meeting which was soo soo cool! I want you all to go and watch this video called "Missionary work and the Atonement" and you'll see why it went so good. The bad news, well we were all getting ready to go into a leadership meeting when a security gaurd came and took one of the kids from our district and said his parents were here for him...well he didnt come with us to say the least. And that was soo sad for all of us its crazy how close you get with people in such a short amount of time here. And lastly can I just say that I love Elder Jensen, It was so nice having him in the MTC with me and that last night with him was such a stong spiritual experience!

SC Warrior Missionaries at MTC before most of us flew out!

Monday:
5 AM comes along and we are ready to leave the MTC and head to the airport! Ahh so crazy right? We grabbed our bags got on the bus they took us to the train then off to the plane. I have no idea how missionaries travel with so many bags and a bike, the bags were hard enough. But we made it to say the least. Flew all day and pretty much skipped monday.  It was so good talking to my family that day.

Tuesday:
We landed here in Amsterdam at 8 am and got going! The two APs (who are absolutey awesome btw) and President and Sister Robinson were all there to pick us up and take us to the mission office. We had to fill out tons of paper work and visa stuff but I don't remember any of it because I was so Jet lagged.

We all got the Famous windmill picture and then ate at the BEST PANCAKE place I  have ever had in my life all of the rumors are true this place is amazing. Went to the mission home and then found out where we would be serving. Guess where I got? THE Most beautiful city ever!! DEFT, Netherlands.  It's right by Den Haag which is actually apart of my area as well. Its absolutely gorgeous here!

Wednesday:
Woke up and we were moving, Back to the mission office for a little bit of training and then we got to meet our Trainers. My trainer is Elder Hulet from Cedar City. He is an absolute stud of a kid and I love him already. After meeting our trainer we were booted out the door before I even knew what was going on haha, gotta love missionary work! So yeah on the way over to our appartment I totally lost my backpack in all the crazyness but luckily our zone leaders found it. What a good way to start off right.  We took all day looking for a bike and had no success so that was great. But on the brightside I contacted some people today..SO hard and I had no idea what they were saying but I tried anyways:)

 Thursday:
The bike search continued today but rather looking in Delft we took a train to Den Haag which is so pretty as well. We looked for a solid two hours and never found one which you'd think it would be easy being in the biggest biking city in the world but everywhere we went they were either super expensive or the store was closed because of their 3 month vacations and what not. But then we had a meeting with the ZLs about the zone vision and they took us around in their car after and we finally found a BIkE:) Its great haha. We then drove to a member house Sister Kelly and we all gave her a blessing such a cool experience, she said she instantly felt relief:) ahh so cool.

Friday:
Had my first coorilation meeting with the ward mission leader Brother Scherjf.  He is so cool and helpful! I lucked out I hear. Then after that we had our first twelve weeks thing and then contacted for the rest of the day. I decided Dutch is hard hehe.

Saturday:
Market day in DELFT. So I thought you would all like to know that the rumors are true and fresh stroop waffles are SOOOO good!! Nothing compares to them. After that we went and I got to meet two of our investigators both Chinese students going to TU here and they are awesome but leaving on vacation so thats kinda hard all of our investigators are gone until the end of this month.  So looks like we have to find new ones which will be great!  I also met another one named Micha and he is so crazy but so nice.  He hates God but thinks our religion is true so Idk how that works but hopefully we can work on him a little. We made brownies with him tonight, America Brownies he was so excited. Love this work already:) But it can be sooo hard at times.

Sunday:
First sunday here in the country. They do everything backwards its so weird, First they have priesthood then Sunday School and then Sacrament.  And to add to that, It was ALL in Dutch so I had no idea what was going on. That was kind of hard for me. Tonight we had a dinner appointment with the Johnson family  an older couple, they are so sweet :) And on our way we got soaked it was awesome! But once again everything was in Dutch and I didn't really understand much. That's been difficult but I learned how powerful prayer is because of it.  God is ALWAYS there for us no matter what and he want us to be happy and will help us and comfort us. Prayer is incredible and Can really change lives.

Well thats kind of what happened here the first week a nice little summary. I am excited to be here serving in Delft and serving my father in heaven. I love this gospel and all of you. I hope you are all doing fantastic and thanks for the support and prayers!

Love Elder Parr

#ReturnWithHonor

The following pictures are from when Elder Parr first arrived in Netherlands from the mission blog.  I am so grateful for the pictures and TLC that they show to these missionaries.

At the airport in Amsterdam with the Mission President.

Filling out the paperwork at the mission home.

Off to the best pancake house to Welcome the new missionaries to the Netherlands

Looks Delicious

At the mission home reading their first assignment area and companion

Delft Netherlands with....

Meeting his first companion Elder Hulet