Ahhhhh Romania

Hey Guys!

So to start off this letter, I want to thank all of you for the Birthday wishes! Thanks [mom and dad] for doing all that you have for my birthday by getting everybody to take a picture and write me. It was awesome!

I gotta say that this week was awesome and crazy. We did a lot of work and met with a lot of people. 

A funny story that I'd thought I'd share was when we were visiting an older member at her house and as we were leaving she shook my hand and said that from the first time that she'd met me I'd looked German or like that I have German features. And I said, you know, "thank you"(...didn't know really what to say). Then my comp said that a member from another city thought that he (my comp) had Russian ancestors, even though, in reality, he really doesn't. And she says to him, "You do! You do!" And then turned back to me, and looked at me for a second and then she threw up her hand and semi-yelled in her little house "Hiel Hitler!" and then turned to my comp and said "Hiel Stalin!" "Esti un Hitler!" We were shocked for a second and then we looked at each other and just bursted out laughing, harder then I have in a while! It was a joke of course, but what more can I say than "That's Romania!" haha. 

Another story this week was when we were with our investigator and we were talking about how he needs to come to church and he told us that he wants to change his job or at least his hours to be able to come to church. So we proposed to him that we wanted to do a fast with him together for the Lord to help him. And so, let me just explain something first, my comp is a little on the, let's say, big boned side. So my investigator says jokingly, "hey you're telling me that I need to fast? I mean look at E. Anderson, he's the one who needs to fast. He should be fasting everyday! I mean I'm fat but I'm old, he's young, he's gotta lose some of that!" Both me and my comp have been here for a while and we both knew that, what just happened there, isn't offensive here in Romania, so we were busting up laughing with him. *sigh* Ahhhhh Romania *smile*.

I have learned here on my mission, that loving those around you brings happiness, as well it brings blessings along with it too. I'm so happy to be a missionary here in Romania and I love these people. I'm lucky that I get to have this once in a life time experience to dedicate my young unlearned, unperfected self to the Lord. May He be with you this week! Have a great one!

Elder Houk

Basketball and Sunsets

So this week was transfers and my companion, Elder Morby, is going to be going home. I am still here in Galati and I am with an Elder who was in my district. His name is Elder Anderson and he's from Southern California as well. We are both zone leaders and I am the district leader as well. 

Things haven't changed much since last week besides the transfers. We finished up with English this week and will be starting in another two weeks. 

A cool thing that happened this week was my comp and I went to the basketball courts and went "basketball contacting." We basically just joined in a pick up game with some teenagers and played some basketball. They asked us why we were here and stuff and we told them about what we do here. They were super cool and even called us the next day wondering if we were gonna come back and play with them. 

We had a pretty cool sunset yesterday from my apartment. 

That's about it for my week, but I hope that you guys keep having great weeks!

Elder Houk

Golden Investigator

Hey Guys,

So a little update on the investigator that we have. We had a lesson with him this week with a member and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. He had a lot of questions like where does all this information come from? We were able to talk to him more about the modern revelation that we have with the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. He was very interested to read it all. On his work days he is studying everything that we give him and then calls us up for more material once he finishes. He has a hectic work schedule and he broke it down for us that he would be able to go to church in 2 weeks and that he is very interested in being baptized. He even addressed if we could pray for him to find a new job or something so that he can come more often. After the lesson we went out to lunch together and we had a good time bonding and, of course, eating. I think that it's safe to say that we have a "Golden Investigator" at our hands. *knock on wood* haha. 

on the train to Iasi

In Iasi on an exchange

This week we also had a special showing of the movie Meet the Mormons. We showed it here at our church building and put up fliers and things for people to come and watch if they were interested. Most of the people that showed up were members, but it was a cool experience. The movie is pretty cool I might say. The funny thing is that I haven't even seen Meet the Mormons in English yet. I've already seen it twice in Romanian.

You guys are awesome and I hope that all of you have a great week!  

Elder Houk

Ps If you have time, this is one of my favorite videos, http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-hope-of-gods-light

Palas Mall. It feels American!

In the Catholic Courtyard

Helping some members concrete up their old house

cool graffiti

Zoning Out

Hey Guys,

This week was pretty cool! We had a lesson with a the guy who found our number on the street and it was a really cool lesson. He basically taught us the Restoration from the pamphlet we gave him before and we answered all his questions and at the end of the lesson we invited him to be baptized if he were to know it is true and he was fully in agreement. Really cool experience! He works as a security guard and has a lot of time to read and study the material we give him. He's a great guy and has certainly been prepared by the Lord. 

We also had what is called a Zone Training this week. Elder Morby and I were in charge of the whole thing. We went to Bacau to meet with almost everyone from our Zone. The training lasted from 10 am to 4 pm. We started it off with an hour long presentation by us and then others presented including President. I had to also give another presentation alone this time for about 20 minutes on working with church leaders. It went well, a little better than I expected. 

The day after that we stayed in Bacau for an exchange and got to meet some new people there. Over here in Galati things are going well and we will be showing a dubbed version in Romanian of Meet the Mormons here at the church and we are going to try and make it a big event and invite lots of people. Romanian was one of the 4 languages chosen to be dubbed in, I think it even beat out Spanish! Pretty crazy. But as they say over here its Galati of fun here! (Galati is pronounced g-uh-lots) 

Hope you have a great week!

Elder Houk   

This is Bacau. Its called the Bacau Creep.

WE ARE STEEL BOYS!! The Galati District

The Lord Is In Control

Hey Guys,

This week we had a cool dude call us up from a piece of paper or probably a pass-a-long card with our number on it that he found. He called us up wanting something to read. We, of course, met with him and he turned out to be a solid guy that has a name a lot like Rhino. He is interested to get all the information he can about what we believe, really cool and really random. Experiences like these definitely show me how much the work is in the Lord's hands and not ours. 

We also planned a FHE [Family Home Evening] for all the members this week and it went quite well. We played a card game that's kind of like Uno but its called Solo.

Other than that things here are going and I hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Houk

Meet the Mormons is going to be streamed around the mission on the 27th in Romanian. It's like 1 of the 4 languages dubbed in the lang, so that's pretty cool. 

Liviu is a 7 year old boy and he got a little bite on his neck and we visited him in the hospital

the river that's near us

tornado?

It's the Clerk Calling

Hey Guys,

This week we met with a man who lost one of his arms. He's a really cool guy and has been investigating the church for a while. We also have a new Branch President who is really cool and on top of it. He is getting things going here in the right direction. 

IN GALATI: The view of the Danube River.

English will be starting up this week on Tuesday and we hope to get a fair turnout. 

We also made some crepes here which turned out to be pretty good. We talked with a recent convert who we would like to meet with a little more often. She told us she makes pastries on Wednesday's. "Elder, I think I know which day is best to meet with her!" 

I have a calling here in the branch as the Branch Clerk. So I'll be dealing with all that stuff for a while. 

Members here are great and we hope to keep getting better everyday. You guys are great! 

Over and Out,

Elder Houk

ps You should have a great week this week!

Getting Used to Galati

Hey guys,

So like I said last week, got transferred to Galati. I spent a couple of days in Bucharest and then came over to Galati on Wednesday. I got in and our apt looks over the Danube River. It's pretty cool. 

People have said that its ugly here, but that doesn't seem to be the case with me. There are trees everywhere and you can walk along the river on a road and it's pretty cool. 

We have taken some chalk and kind of advertised around Galati about our English course, kind of how we did in Orhei. We have been having some success with people calling us and we're hoping that we can have some good sized classes. 

Every Sunday we also have a call with all of the zone leaders to "connect" the mission. We talk about how our Zone is doing and what's going on with the work. It's pretty cool. 

That's about it for this week, and I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Houk

Galați is the largest port town on the Danube River  In 2011, the Romanian census recorded 249,432 residents,^[1] making it the 8th most populous city in Romania. Galați is a major economic centre based around the Port of Galați, naval shipyard, the ArcelorMittal Galați steel plant and mineral exports.

Galati