Attitude of Gratitude

Hey Guys,

So this week I found out if I would be transferring or not. Guess what...Im not! haha Again! haha But I'm happy because I love Brasov. But this is very unusual for a missionary to stay in his first place this long haha. This is my 7th transfer and there are 16 transfers in an Elder's mission. I am also staying with the same companion! 

Let me tell you what my companion did this week haha. So he wanted to make the BEST and BIGGEST breakfast sandwhich ever. Here's what he did: 2 pieces of bread with butter on them, cheese and 3 pieces of bacon on each piece of bread, fried, 3 eggs, 3 pieces of ham, and 2 patties of hashbrowns all cooked in the bacon grease. hahaha Let's just say he wasn't feeling too great after all that. haha But I have to admit, it probably is the best breakfast sandwich you could make!

This week we recieved "Jar Swag." Basically we bought some jars to drink water from. haha Its great! It tastes better and you don't get the plastic cancer chemical thingys, but most importantly...we get to drink out of a jar! I even made some artwork for it!

An old man came up to us while we were walking and asked us advice on what he should do to get his grandkid to play another year of sports. We advised him that maybe talking to his grandson might be a good route or even praying to God about it. He said thanks and was on his way. I think that was one of the more random moments on my mission so far. haha 

Okay, so food. We made homemade chicken pot pie this week and figured out how to make really good homemade popcorn straight from the kerrnel. Even got it to taste like kettle corn. Was pretty great.

This week our investigator really opened up to us and told us his sad life story. We have been trying to help him and referred him to a talk given by Elder Uchdorf called the "Attitude of Gratitude" It really is a great talk and I would invite you guys to check it out too! 

I just want to say that I am gratefull for all you guys and my opportunity to serve a mission! Love you guys and talk to you next week!

-Elder Houk

pastry lab 

A picture for dad?

A cute video by the silly boys

Brasov Philharmonic

                                                 

Video of Busteni from last week

On Cloud 9

Hey Guys, 

 

So today we had some fun! We went to Busteni and hiked up to the cross on the mountain. It was such a great experience. When we were up there a cloud even rolled in and right through us. It was pretty dang cool. 

Fun Fact: This week I found that Romania doesn't sell "Get well" cards at all. We had an investigator who was feeling sick and wanted to find a card for her only to find that they don't even exist!

Raziel came to church this week! Which is a pretty big improvement and we had a cool lesson with him after. Juliana said she wants to come back to Cali with me hahahaha. I told her that she doesn't have a passport and then she said, Yea I do! haha So I said that I would be here for two years and she kinda left it alone from there haha. But they are both doing great.

I don't think I mentioned it last week, but I volunteered for a talk in Sacrament last week because I haven't given one yet. And it went really well. I spoke on the Book of Mormon and for 19 mins. haha

I also made Blueberry pancakes this week and yes, it was so delicious it knocked my socks off.

Well that was my week. It was good and I hope that yours was good also. Have a good one this week and I will talk to you next week.

-Elder Houk

Brasov District - Houk, Bateman, Weaver, Brown, Honey, Marcheschi

Senior Couple Bair

Lending A Voice

Hey Guys,

This week was good!! We kept meeting with the people I told you about last week, and they are doing good. 

On Thursday I had the opportunity to do some service for someone, by lending him my voice for a few hours. So we met this guy on the street and he said he needed help with the making of an environment video and he needs an American voice. We took this as a service project and this week we got to meet with him and do it. I spoke for about 3 and a half hours. The guy chose me to do it because, let's face it, I have a beautiful voice, but I digress. haha. This ended up being an interesting experience. At first it was just a normal environment video thing and, you know, the humans are destroying the earth and all that good stuff, but then I got into the middle of his dialog and all of a sudden the line "Hitler was a racist, but I'm not" got thrown in there. And from there it just started going down hill. He wants to reduce the number of people on the earth to 1 billion by limiting only "Beautiful, Athletic, and Healthy" people to procreate and teach everyone else how not to. But anyway, haha, He is going to claim that my voice is his so I guess its all good, haha. He will send me the link, he said, when he finishes it. It might take him up to a year to make it so don't expect it anytime soon haha. We did have a lesson about the restoration with him after and left him with a Book Of Mormon, so maybe he will become an investigator?

But we are having fun here and doing our best to bring people unto Christ. I hope you all have a great week and enjoy Labor Day!

-Elder Houk

The word HOSPICE is spelled in dozens of clay figurines all made by one man.
A possible fundraiser? Blair didn't know.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Hey Guys,

We have 2 new investigators! Whew! haha Excited. So we have this thing called 30/30. It's a meeting with someone whenever, where ever they want, just us and him/her. They agree to 30 mins of English if we can share a gospel message with them about our church for 30 mins. Each agreed to that and we met with them both and they both seemed to become more interested in what we believe rather than English! One investigator's name is Juliana and the other is Raziel. They seem to be interested to learn more and we hope to meet with them more this week.

This week we also went up to Sibiu for Zone Training. We had to leave early in the morning. The train left at 6 am. So my comp and I planned everything the night before and we woke up on time and everything and got ready and then the taxi service just let us down completely. They had no taxi's to give us. So this has never happened before, so we ran to a place that ALWAYS has taxi's. There was not even ONE there. So, of course, I was bumming out because I should have been prepared for something like this and wasn't, but our lovely, great, not very senior, couple saved us and drove us up to Sibiu. They said they were actually glad they went by car because it ended up being an awesome trip up there and everything ended up working out great in the end!

So I have been in Brasov for awhile now and I have never given a talk in sacrament meeting. At first I was pretty stoked that I didn't have to give a talk, but this week I realized that I should probably give a talk because everyone already did and some are even going twice around. I didn't know the reason why I haven't given a talk yet, but I decided to volunteer myself for next Sunday. So we'll see how that goes haha.

We got a SWEEEET looking rainbow this week! Apparently its really rare for that to happen in Brasov. That guy on the video was stoked to see that it was a double rainbow. haha

Our water went out for a little while this week haha. But that same day it came back on, but it was brown for a while. haha yum! (Refer to pic) We did, however get our hot water back but we are still waiting on our washing machine. We needed the help from the super, awesome, Idahoin' senior couple again. And they washed some of our clothes for us so we could survive while we wait for the washing machine to be fixed.




Oh yea, we also studied outside this week. Twas beautiful.

This P-Day we visited another Castle, this one being in Rasnov. Our cool, fly, senior couple took us up there and we got some awesome pictures of the view on the way up and of the castle. Was a great day, today.

Okay, so that about wraps up this week. Definitely was a great one! Thanks for reading and viewing the Blog. It's all thanks to my lovin', hip, cool, awesome, great Mother! haha Have a great week guys!

-Elder Houk

A cute video of the rainbow. You even get to hear Blair speak a little Romanian.

Photos of Rasnov Fortress. Also random photos and a few videos.

The Latest Buzz

Hey Guys,

This week was a great week. I will start with my haircut. I just got it cut by the other missionaries about an hour ago and they buzzed my hair, haha. It's the shortest it's ever been, but the experience was priceless. 

Before

After

Also we have been making great food such as the banana boats. 

Our power, hot water and washing machine went out this week. So we've been having some cold showers for the past couple of days, but on the bright side I've been really awake in the morning, so it's been pretty good, haha.

We have also been trying this week to talk to a lot of people and we seemed to find some interested, but it's tough when we call them and they want to meet and they don't show up or they say they don't have time. But we're trying not to get down about it and we just keep doing what we are suppose to be doing and we know everything will all work out. It's important to just keep pressing on in whatever you're doing, as long as you know that the thing you are doing is the right thing. And even if you don't see the results you want or in your time, they will come eventually and I believe that.

I hope you guys have a great week and keep doing your thing!

-Elder Houk

My backyard

My crazy companion

Cel mai scurt parul l-am avut vreodata!
(The shortest hair I've ever had!)

Good Morning Brasov!

Hey Guys,

So half of the week was with my last companion and half with my new son! His name is Elder Bateman. He is fired up and ready to go! After picking him up from Bucharest on Thursday we headed back to good ol' Brasov. I hope I will be able to relate to him. I remember sitting at the same desk that I am now, doing the same stuff that we are doing, except this time I am the missionary who has been here a little longer. I guess I can also say that I know this city better than the back of my hand, haha, so we won't have a problem getting around. 

Varstnicul Bateman & Varstnicul Hauc

Elder Bateman is already talking to people in Romanian and even though I may have to tell him what they say to him, he can already respond back and have a conversation. I'm so proud! :') haha He's already a great missionary!

Elder Bateman's P-day nap, He's got his shoes on

and everything! Doesn't want to waste time

after nap time is over! haha

We had a lesson with the man who is of the Baptist faith. We made an agreement that he could teach us what he believes if we could teach him what we believe. He agreed. He took us to his church and showed us two videos of Baptist Sermons preaching. After, we discussed them and then it was our turn. We tried to teach him about the apostasy and prophets, but he was more interested in proving us wrong than really listening to what we had to say. We did however give him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read Moroni 10 and that if he wanted to know if it is true, that he should pray to God asking if it is.

I'm excited for the future and I hope you guys are too! Have a great week!

-Elder Houk

"Expecting" Changes This Transfer

Hey Guys,

So this week was pretty crazy. First of all this last week we found out where we are going and who our new companion is...and.....I'm staying in Brasov...Again! anddddddd I'M PREGNANT! With a child of my own! haha. I will be training a new missionary that is coming in! So this is pretty exciting and nerve-racking news. Of course the question, "Am I ready for this?" comes to mind. So I will have to be relying on the Lord to help me teach this new missionary right and be able to survive in the process haha. 

This week we also met with a man who is of the Seventh Day Adventist faith. He was interested in what we believe, but he also seemed to have another purpose to meet with us also, if you know what I mean. But he was very nice about it. 

Later that week, we were walking on the street and a man stopped us and was asking a lot of questions to try to "disprove" us or our religion. We were able to explain what we believe and understand each other a little better. He said that he wants to meet again and that he wants to send me a video of a sermon that we can talk about later. We gave him our number and he actually called us and wanted to meet over lunch and get to know each other. He even knew English for me and Italian for my companion. haha I looked at my companion after the phone call and was like,"This guy is speaking each of our languages and wants to meet and discuss religion, he is US!" haha 

So at the beginning of this transfer I made some guacamole for my companion and he loved it and told me "I want to make a pasta sauce out of this!" So here we are, last week of the transfer and WE DID IT!!! GUACAMOLE PASTA! and guess what, IT was GOOOD! haha will definitely be a recipe to remember! 

So that pretty much wraps up this week! I hope you guys have a great one and I'll talk to you later!

-Elder Houk (Bucătarul)(chef)

What a nice surprise to get an email from a Utah woman who was bringing her 16 year old son to visit Romania to meet his birth parents. She saw the missionaries and the Senior Couple, took a picture and emailed all of the families. Looks like a yummy place to eat!