Fall is the Air

Hey guys,

We moved our P-Day last week to Wednesday so we could go to Peles. And while we were there we visited the Sinaia Monastery and Pelisor Castle. It was a lot of fun and got to see a lot of things. This was my second time going to Peles. I went again because I've been here so long. My whole district has never been and I was the only one who had, so I was happy to go again, especially because of the changing of the fall leaves. So beautiful! 

Sinaia

electric light pole

Sinaia was the first electrically lighted city in Romania.

Sinaia Monastery

The Sinaia Monastery, located in Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, was founded by Prince Mihail Cantacuzino in 1695 and named after the great Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in Egypt. As of 2005, it is inhabited by 13 Christian Orthodox monks led by hegumen Macarie Bogus. 

It is part of the Bucharest archdiocese.

Peleș Castle is a Neo-Renaissance castle in the Carpathian Mountains, near Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, on an existing medieval route linking Transylvania and Wallachia, built between 1873 and 1914.

Heavily art nouveau in its decor, and about 100m uphill from Peleş Castle, the German-medieval Pelişor Palace has a hard time competing with its neighbour. King Carol I planned this house for his nephew (and future king) Ferdinand (1865–1927) and wife Marie. Most of the furniture was imported from Vienna. Marie died in the arched golden room, the walls of which are entirely covered in gilded leaves.

I don't have much time to write this week, unfortunately, but Rebbeca came to church and said that she liked it and would want to come back! She also told us a story about how when she met us she just saw the CLM [Cartea lui Mormon (Book of Mormon)] pop out to her from the streetboard and that something was pushing her towards it. So cool! 

We went to Sapte Scari today. This was my 3rd time. Haha, it is still great being here though. 

The Seven Ladders Canyon is a mountainous canyon carved
by the Șapte Scări Brook in Romania in the county of Brașov.

Thanks for everything guys! Have a great week!

Elder Houk

Elder Bateman writes, "We are working to begin a course to help people stop smoking this week. 

It will hopefully begin in a couple weeks, and it's a 15 step,10 day course that will hopefully 

help a lot of people in this area. We are currently making posters and soon, we will distribute them around the city." 

Cel Mai Bun Săptămână

Buna Ziua! (Hello!)

I had the cel mai bine (best) things happen this week.

When we were traveling on the street we met an old man, who was so thankful that we gave him a Book of Mormon. I think he would be a great Old Man Disney character.  He would look at us and hug the book and look up towards the sky as if he was praying and then shake his body with glee. He did this several times and even gave us a picture of himself, when he was 18 years old! Dont ask me why he had a picture of himself when he was 18, or why he gave it to us, but he did. He also explained to us that we need wives and not...each...other. hahaha. Needless to say we explained that we were, well, straight and that we are just friends. haha It was the most interesting "contact" I ve ever had! haha

Brasov sign in distance

We also met with a lady named Rebbeca. When we were streetboarding she noticed the Book of Mormon on the board. She gave us her number and we met with her. She said that she had gone to church once before and met with the sisters, but somehow lost contact. She was so thankful, she said, that she found us again. The best part of the lesson was when she expressed to us that whenever she went to church and met with the sisters, she never felt the need to smoke! And she said she smokes a lot. She said, "Look, even right now, when I am with you guys, I don't feel like I need to go smoke! I'm not thinking about when this meeting is going to be over or when the next chance I will get to go and smoke. She said "Look, I only drank one cup of coffee and and that's it! This is such a weird thing for me, but I like it!" It was by far the coolest lesson that I have had with someone. All I can say is that I know that it is the Spirit that teaches people and not us!

Beautiful fall colors!

Our President has told us "Let's do it with Gusto!" So that is what we are going to do. Put your heart into your work and know what you want! If you have the faith, it will happen!

Love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Elder Houk

       

I got to chop off a CHICKEN'S HEAD!!! hahahahaha it was great!
 I even caught it in my hands! 

I'm not the first missionary she had cut off a chickens head. Apparently at one time they had a
bunch of missionaries come over and cut like 30 of them or something haha.

 Sister Miron finished out the task of plucking and cutting for Sunday dinner.

Being Spiritually Fed

Hey Guys,

How are you doing? How was General Conference? On Saturday at 7pm we watched the Saturday morning session. Then on Sunday we watched the Priesthood session starting at 12 and then stayed at the church until 9 watching Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. It was a fun experience. Some members like to watch it in English, so we (The Missionaries) got to see General Conference in our language. I have to say, I think the two talks that stick out to me was Lynn G. Gibbons "Which way do you face?" and Uchtdorf's "Lord, is it I?" I also enjoyed Elder Holland's talk and I quote, "What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean, but if we didn't do it, the ocean would be one drop less". End quote. ~Mother Teresa

I still haven't seen Sunday Night because that played in the middle of the night over here, but hopefully I will get the chance in this next week. 

Street Boarding

This last week we started to do something called "Street boarding" So it's not what you're thinking, haha, its a contacting method. We have a decent sized tri-fold board with a lot of information about our church and we stand by it and answer people's questions when they approach us. It's been pretty successful because the people come to you and ask you questions and it usually ends up that they would like to know more. We have 4 people that are interested in meeting with us from just 2 days and a few hours of standing there. So we are pretty excited. haha

The other day we were on our way to the church with our tri-fold when a little girl asked me what I was holding, I said I was holding Brownies. (fun little fact: Brownies in Romanian literally means "Black Women") I was bringing brownies for General Conference. Then she asked my companion what he was holding, he said, let me show you, and put up the tri-fold. All of sudden, and I mean all of a sudden, all these little kids with some other ladies just gathered and was like what is this? So my companion started to explain a little about what was going on and who we were and while he was doing this, this little old lady targeted me. Just imagine me and this little old bent over lady pointing her finger at me, like scolding me.

haha. So she was telling me about how Romanians were the most faithful people on the earth and then she says that her hand is warm because it is the faith that she has running through her and she took my hand and said look, your hand is cold! huh! What do you think this means!? And then she continued to kind of yell to me about her church and such. It was pretty funny, but she didn't have the most beautiful scented breath I've ever smelt, so I mean it wasn't the MOST pleasant experience. But I mean, you gotta get your old lady scolding in every week or you're just not being a young man. But I tried to ask her one simple question. How did she know the Bible was true? I said through prayer right? And she said yes and through the Holy Spirit and then I wanted to say something but she just continued to rant to me until all I could say was, I'm sorry but I gotta go. And while I was with the old lady, my companion was just talking to all these kids and asking them about school and then they said they wanted to come to church! haha so it turned out pretty good.

That was my week this week, I hope you guys have a great week! Love ya!

-Elder Houk

New and Interesting Experiences

Hey Guys,

making bread

To start off the week, last week I dug my hands into some dough and made some delicious homemade bread, with the help of Sora Bair, of course. The bread turned out so great I needed to take some selfies with it haha. (I only have half because I gave the other half to my companion.) 

bread selfie 

We also had Zone Conference this week. It was in Ploiesti. President and others gave some great inspiring words to us and then we were on our way back to Brasov. 

Romania Central Zone Conference

The next day we went "La Tara" (Country Side) and helped out a member with some some service. We chopped some wood and organized it into a wall. "They used to walk 12 miles to church every sunday before the senior couple here started picking them up. We got to chop a ton of wood to heat her house and help her cook for the winter. Her name is sister Miron and she lives in a little Gypsie village with her daughter, Emma. Her daughter is just about to go on a mission. They are an awesome family! The town they live in is really cool, too. Its tiny and almost all Gypsies... They all get around with horse drawn carriages. We have to get there and back in this random guy's car that goes back and forth from the countryside to Brasov. He charges 4 lei and took us back to the city."   -excerpt taken from Elder Bateman's letter.  

 Random experience of the week: We were walking to KFC after contacting with the district one day and this man with red hair and a red suit invited us up to his apartment. We went into this alley way where a sign was hanging that said "Tea Spot". After which we went up 3 flights of swirly stairs with rainbows painted on the walls. We then arrived and went into his apartment which was more of a Penthouse. One of the first things I noticed was a big Bob Marley poster and then a bunch of famous paintings. We then noticed that they had a huge treasure chest in their bathroom. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty cool, but sketchy nonetheless, haha. He was promoting a church of his own. He handed us an encyclopedia named "mic dictionar"(small dictionary) and this thing was like a foot and half tall, haha, it was huge. He told us we could come back and study it whenever we wanted. haha. As we bid our farewells, he dropped a flower, that he had kept in his suit jacket, beneath the Bob Marley poster and casually mentioned that we shouldn't forget to bring flowers for Bob. haha! What an experience, haha.

We climbed up to the Brasov sign today and went down the other side of the mountain. It was a fun time. 

That's it for this week, Love you guys,

Elder Houk 

The weather is already getting cold in Romania. They have had snow in the mountains but not in Brasov yet. With winter coming Elder Houk is already requesting some Christmas jingles.....seriously.

They have been streetboarding and playing music, even in the rain, to promote their English classes.



Sora Bair has taken some photos with some interesting facts.

This is the way they build a home. It is not a quick process! Most of the homes in the villages are out of brick and cement. The trusses are cement as well. When the outside construction is completed, it is covered with what looks like white Styrofoam and then stuccoed over the top of that. These two homes are currently being worked on, but several are at this stage and we have seen no action on them the whole time we've been here. 

They are full swing into the beet harvest. Lyle has been really interested in their digger which is different than what we have in Idaho. They pile all the beets at the front of the field then a front end loader loads them into a truck to be hauled off.

The Game of Life

Hey guys,

I hope you had a great week!

We had the opportunity to meet with some members this week and play a game called "Spoons." Have you heard of it? Apparently its pretty big back in 'Merica. But my comp taught me how to play and we taught the members how to play. If you've ever played this game, you have to focus on two things at once, getting 4 of the same cards and if someone gets 4 cards then they take a spoon in the middle. Once a spoon is taken from the middle everyone then can take the remaining spoons in the middle and there is one less spoons than there are people so whoever doesn't grab a spoon loses. 

So your probably thinking, is there a reason, other than the fact that this game is awesome, for playing this game? Yes, haha. Think about your life. You probably have many important things going on. If you focus too much on the cards in your hand (like I did, in the game), you're gonna miss the fact that someone took the first spoon 2 mins ago and you're the only one still playing. So, in short, it's important to have that balance of focus in your life, because if you just focus too much on that one thing you're gonna lose out on something else that may be just as important or even more important in the long run. 

Now think of this. You have a jar and that jar is your life. Now you have some big rocks that are the most important things in your life: Your Family, The Gospel, Your Job, etc... Then you have some smaller rocks that represent smaller things in your life and then you have the sand, the things that aren't very important. So how can you fit all this stuff in your jar of life? The only way you will be able to put all these things in the jar is by putting in all the big rocks first, then the smaller rocks, and then the sand. Otherwise not everything will be able to fit. So I would like to invite you guys to look at your life and decide what those big rocks are for you and if you are putting them first in your life. And while you're doing that make sure that your putting in "rocks" plural and not just a "rock".

https://www.lds.org/youth/article/keeping-your-life-in-balance?lang=eng

That's it for this week. Love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!

-Elder Houk

What A Missionary Sees

I wanted to share a letter that Elder Bateman was asked to write to the youth of his ward in Florida about being a missionary. Elder Bateman has been in Romania for 6 weeks and is currently Blair's companion. My hope is that as we read this we can better understand what our missionaries are dealing with daily. I am touched by the strength of this missionary and by his testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that the people of Romania can only benefit by having our missionaries there.   ~Kim
                                                                                                                                            

"Today I want to write a little bit about what it feels like to be a missionary. I hope that through this, you can understand what a missionary sees, hears, and feels and how it differs from a normal person.

If you followed me around for a day, you would see a lot of people, but not a lot of smiles. You would see tons of gypsies begging for money, deformed because of what their parents did to them to make them better beggars. You would see people trying to get by by doing anything they can, like getting meals out of trash cans. Even in the people that are better off, you wouldn’t see real happiness. You would see a lot of anger, mostly directed towards my companion and I. You would see constant rejection and sometimes full days without a single conversation. But let me explain to you what you don’t see. Let me explain to you what a missionary sees. I see God’s children. I see people kept from happiness only because they don’t know where to find it. I see my brothers and sisters who need direction. I see people I love, people I want to see again one day in the presence of God.

Now what would you hear if you followed me around all day. You would hear cursing, mostly at me. You would hear yelling from everywhere, it could be coming from across the street or right in my face. You would hear discrimination, mostly based on my religion. But again, you don’t hear what a missionary hears. I hear evidence of how powerful the adversary can be. I hear voices of anger from good hearts, which simply got influenced by the adversary. I hear evidence that these people need the atonement in their lives.

If you followed me around one day, you might feel sad. You might feel lonely and rejected. That is also not what a missionary feels. I feel hope, not hope defined by baptisms or lessons, but hope that the atonement of Jesus Christ can change lives. Paul once said that “hope is an anchor of the soul.” I have realized that I need to anchor my soul in a firm foundation. The only unchanging thing in this world is Jesus Christ. When I meet other missionaries at district meetings or zone conference, I see the hands of God. I see people doing what I do every day, people doing exactly what they love... I see people that left the people they love most because they love God more.... we are happy.

A mission is a trial, but every trial is just an opportunity to make a choice. As I have done God’s work with my eyes, my ears, and my heart single to his glory, I have learned that there is no such thing as a bad day in the service of our God. As I have anchored my hope in a firm foundation, I have realized what makes this the best 2 years. I have already seen the blessings of this mission in my life and what I want you to know is that, if you go on a mission, no matter where you go, no matter what you do, you will be the miracle in other peoples lives. God will bless you, God will help you, and you will be happy every day. Don’t worry if you don’t think you are adequate, because the truth is, nobody is adequate. It is God’s promise that he will make us equal to his work. God doesn’t take away our burdens, he makes us strong enough to carry them ourselves. That is what makes a mission a huge opportunity to learn and grow. We find happiness when we stop looking for it for ourselves, and start looking for it for other people. This mission is a blessing in my life, and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve."
                                                                                                                                     -Elder Bateman