He is the Gift

Hey Guys,

I'm sorry for my really short message last week. We got back from visting the salt mines and we were visiting with some members that came up to Cluj from Brasov to visit and we had a dinner appointment with someone that night as well and I lost track of time to make sure I had enough time to email. So I was just a little busy, but let me fill you in on what has been going on. 

Elder Gunsay, Marius and Emanuela from Brasov, and me

So last week, like I said, we went to Turda and visited the salt mines there with the people that came up from Brasov and the Cluj district. It was SUCH a cool and memorable experience! They even have an amusement park in the middle of it. Marius (from Brasov) and I played a few games of ping pong and we all went on a big ferris wheel. It was pretty cool. 

Map of the salt mines

Amusement park inside the salt mines

The next thing that happened was that I took a plane down to Bucharest with Elder McAllister. We were actually the only ones to fly into Bucharest from their cities. Our plane did get delayed though by 2 and a half hours so we were a little late arriving to the trainers meeting with the President, but it's okay because he waited for us anyway because, you know, we're the VIP, right. hahaha 

After that I picked up the new missionary whose name is Elder Hellewell. By now you should know that I'm a loser, so the picture that I sent of him to you guys, is him sitting across from me at the library where we do internet. I'll have to get a better picture with him and I soon. But for now enjoy his smile as he writes to his family. 

Elder Hellewell is from Utah

Anyway, after we were put together we waited for our 10 hour sleeper train to arrive and we hopped on it we were back on our way to Cluj. 

We also had another concert this week at the Cluj church. It is a different concert then the one that we did a little bit ago. This concert has just the Cluj Branch and Cluj Missionaries and one Oradea woman who'll do a solo. We are going to be doing the same concert this week on Saturday as well, but in the center of town, on a stage, and opening for a famous singer named Fuego. So this is our chance to make it BIG! haha.

We have a new investigator. His name is Amin, which is ironic because in Romanian at the end of every prayer you say amin instead of amen. And he actually doesn't speak Romanian, he's from Africa Egypt area. He has some deep questions and definitely has a unique outlook on life, so this is going to be a cool experience. Our other investigator, Doru, is also progressing slowly but surely. He is coming to church every week now which is really awesome! We are looking forward to good things happening in the future! 

I hope all of you have had a great week and hope you have another one, especially with Christmas coming around! 

Elder Gunsay and I found Santa hats and a tree! Merry Christmas!

I think the voltage is too high, even with a converter,
so the lights ended up burning out :(

If you haven't already seen it, the church released a cool video called "He is the Gift" and it's on LDS.org. It a big thing that we are promoting to people over here and I'm sure the missionaries back in Vista are probably doing the same thing, but, you know, check it out if you haven't seen it.

Love you guys!

Elder Houk