I gave you the chain sequence in the first response.
This is probably because you have not selected the right module type. From your photo it is definitely not MD_MAX72XX::GENERIC_HW. There are 4 types and if you read the documentation for MD_MAX72xx you should be able to work yours out.
No, you need 2 zones to display big text. There are examples for this in the example folder and also a number of other forum posts where this is discussed. It is also discussed at https://arduinoplusplus.wordpress.com (search for Parola A to Z for a whole lot of material on using the MD_Parola library).