Galati News

Hey guys!

Salt Lake Temple

So I gotta tell you. On my way over to emailing, I saw a lady with a purse. You're probably wondering why I told you that. Well it just so happens that that purse had the Salt Lake Temple on it. I mean it was the the main display! I saw Moroni and everything! And yes, I am like 100.23% sure that she is not a member. Here's another fun fact. I've also seen the Salt Lake Temple displayed in the background for a store at the mall, you know, where they put the manikins and stuff to show off the fancy clothing options of the season. Ironically, it's already sweaters and jeans and it's still like 100 degrees out here or 38 degrees as we like to say here in Europe, but I digress. So I think that Romanians just think that these are the cool American castles or something. Apparently, a missionary in the past had told one of the people working at the store that it was a temple for our church and the lady didn't believe him or something happened, I have a bad memory. But the point is, temples are an accessory here! They probably even want to go and visit them, I mean as well they should. Am I right? haha

So I met Romanian Scott this week. I say that because I don't necessarily consider this guy, his name is Marian, my dad away from home or anything but let me explain why he reminds me of my dad. So, we had met with Marian and his son Alin in the past for English and he wanted his son to have a good knowledge of a lot of different religions so we taught him a little about our church and hope to meet with him in the future too. But so back to the why, Marian is really into sports and his son is too. And we were teaching them the English words for slam dunk and point gaurd and all those sporty vocab in English. Sorry I keep getting off track, So there was this thing going on in Galati where you can sign up and play in this basketball streetball thing and some of our other English students invited us to come with them and check it out. So we went and guess who I ran into, Marian and his son. Marian had signed his son up to play in this streetball thing so we got to talking and he was telling me how he is always taking Alin to all these different tournaments and stuff and paying for tennis and basketball and, you know, always just trying to help him get better in his sports and stuff. It was funny cause we were speaking in Romanian and he was like "people call me as they say in English, Mr. Mom" haha.

Coach dad and Blair with one of his home run balls
Vista National Little League 2008
age 12

He goes on to explain that you gotta be there for your son and stuff, just can't go home and watch tv or whatever. And then he's like, oh so it's Alin's turn. So we go over there and watch him and he's giving him comments and stuff. "oh that guy needs to pass more, look at that shot" and all that good stuff. And then he goes over and talks to Alin and we left. And the next day, the event was on again and it's on our way home, so we stopped and watched it for a sec and there he is again. So I go over there and say hi and Alin is about to go shoot some 3's and stuff and we talked more. And then it hit me and I remembered all those good times in the past where I had a ton of tournaments and stuff and I would be waiting for my turn and I would see Dad over there talking it up with someone, like usual hahaha. Oh and this guy Marian, he could talk too, let me tell ya, he probably beats out Dad by a long shot. But anyway, you know, I just felt like, when I was watching Alin, I felt like I was watching myself and I was the guy that my dad was talking to. Because, you know, I would always wonder what my parents would be doing the whole time I'm playing a game and stuff. And you know, I could really just sit back and actually see from a 3rd persons view what my dad did for me and it really just helped me appreciate how much he did for me. And I remembered all those good times and stuff that we did together. So I just gotta say, love ya Dad and thanks. (Don't worry Mom, you have a story too, you just have to wait :) )

So with other news (just imagine a news announcer from SNL), here's the Galati weekly update with Elder Hooouuukkkkkk! Alright, so to start off with Cornel, he's back with a date. This time it's the 12th of September. I do believe that this will be the one. We are close to teaching him everything and the Branch president feels good about him being baptized. Everything seems to be in place and ready, set, go. We'll see what happens next week with him. So stay tuned. 

Alright, on the other hand we have Rainov. Things went... well not that good. He called us up and said, Hey I can get baptized by anyone right? And we said yes. He said, well I want the President to baptize me (meaning the Mission President. President Ivory.) So we were like Okayyyy... we'll give him a call. President says unfortunately, "I'm not going to be in Galati and it would be better for him to be baptized there, but here's what I'll do, he can come down for district conference and I'll confer upon him the Aaronic Priesthood  and he can be a special guest here." We relayed that info to Rainov (this is all over the phone) and Rainov didn't take that very well. He kinda throws a grown up tantrum in a way and we talk to President more and we gave Rainov a verse and tried to explain the situation. We decided to give him a little space for a day or so and then on Sunday he told us he's going down to Buc (where President is) to find our President and talk to him, himself. We let President know what's up and he told us to just let it go and if he finds him he will gladly talk to him and explain the situation. So there's a little cliff hanger to keep you glued to next weeks Romania weekly update with...THE ROMANIAN HULK!

So there it is guys, love you all tons and hope you have a great week!

ELDER HOUK 

*Galati of Pranks

Hey Guys!

Setting up the baptismal font. That was a pain! I'll send you a picture later of it set up

So to update you on what's been going on. Unfortunately, our investigator Cornel decided to disappear for a few days and so he wasn't able to get baptized. And interesting enough he showed up to church on Sunday like nothing happened. haha 

That's okay though, we're keeping that positive attitude and hopefully we will continue to meet and work with him. However, an 8 year old boy was baptized here in Galati this last Sunday and is now the newest member of this branch! The baptism was a great learning experience for all of us. Mostly because our branch president was the last baptism here in the Galati branch. The father wasn't able to come to the baptism on time and everything was pretty disorganized in the way it all came out. But let me tell you, even though everything seemed to be going wrong, everyone was still smiling and I'm sure feeling the spirit of the Lord. I'm thankful for this gospel! 

We hope to meet up with our other investigator, Rainov, this week. We will plan his baptism hopefully tonight, and when his work program permits him, we will work toward that date for his baptism. 

Fratele Prada playing my comps ukulele

This week I had the opportunity to prank some fellow district members at a members house. We had eaten before we went over to her house and then she served us some more food, like snacks and some sandwich stuff. Of course we ate that stuff as well because they just won't let you say no. Then the time came when she offered us some of her turkey neck soup and because the newer missionary doesn't know the lang that well I told her that he wanted some even though he really didn't and he was full. And then she asked me if his comp would like some too and I just added him into the mix as well. haha Just doing some older missionary jokes on the the younger guys. Well things just worked out that the newer missionary and his comp ended up eating it because they just really wanted to :) That was fun.

Lovin it out here. Thanks for you support guys and I'll see you soon! Have a great week!

ELDER HOUK

*Galati is pronounced Ga-lots

Countdown Challenge

Hey Guys,

This last week was a little stressful with a lot of stuff going on but we ended it great with our mission wide conference up in Brasov. We went up to Busteni and climbed a mountain and got to see a water fall as well as stay in a hotel. We had a testimony meeting that next morning and then bussed over from Busteni to Brasov. Where we gathered as a mission to listen to President Ivory and his family speak. The main topic of discussion was the BOM. 

Pres. Ivory (orange shoelaces) getting missionaries ready for hike in the Transylvania Alps

Elders in front of waterfall

Ahh! Friends together again. Elder Bateman, Elder Houk, and Elder Weaver

The Romania/Moldova Mission at Bran Castle in Brasov

We have been challenged to read the BOM in 84 days through an outlined chart that has been provided. This is pretty cool and weird for me at the same time because at the end of the 84 days, I finish my mission. So I will finish the BOM and my mission at the same time. I'm actually pretty dang excited to read the BOM this fast because I think this will be the first book that I will read that didn't take longer than a year! 

Oh yea, so I will be staying here in Galati for another transfer with the same companion as last time. We are planning on having 2 baptisms this week here. One for our investigator Cornel and the other is an 8 year old boy! I also talked to my other investigator Rainov on the way back from Brasov and he expressed to me that he would like me to baptize him into the church as well. So we will have another baptism for him coming soon! 

Thank you guys for being awesome and I hope that you all have a great week! :)

ELDER HOUK

We invite you and your family to join us in our Book of Mormon journey by reading the Book of Mormon every day for 84 days, starting August 19th. 

Right click to save image to computer to save your own

The latin means "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger"

Enduring to the End

If you could ask God one question, what would it be?

Hey guys,

This week I want to fill you in on what's been going on with our investigators, or as we like to call them, our friends. :) haha 

So Cornel was scheduled to be baptised this Friday on the 14th, but due to his work schedule and other things we haven't been able to teach him everything and we want him to be as prepared as possible. He feels excited about being baptised and we are excited that he is...well...excited! We know that this is a big step and we want to make it the best experience for him. 

Our other friend, Rainov, has been progressing quite well as his attitude has changed from a questioning everything to a believing and faithful man. We went over the baptismal questions with him and he seems very strong in his belief that this is the one true church on the earth today. He and Cornel both came to church yesterday and we found out that they are actually work partners and know each other. Rainov wanted to bear his testimony and he expressed his thanks to everyone and explained his belief in the gospel. 

This is a very cool and exciting time here in Galati. I feel like it's right at it's tipping point and soon here everything is going to start exploding.

I'm nearing the end of my mission and I'm feeling the need to Endure to the End! haha as so the gospel goes. I really feel, more than ever, the desire to just work hard and to be obedient! It's not the easiest thing, but it's the thing that I have seen that makes me more happy than anything other! 

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

ELDER HOUK

Got Ping Pong?

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to update you guys on Cornel. He is doing well and even came to church this week and we had a great lesson that we believe that he's going to be ready for his BD. 

We had a great fast Sunday and I hope all you guys did too! 

Scott and Blair have loved playing ping pong since Blair was 5.

Oh yeah this week some of our friends took us out to a professional ping pong place and we played ping pong with each other. It felt like a completely different game with all that pro equipment and stuff! 

It was a pretty solid week and I hope you guys have a great week as well!

ELDER HOUK 

I thought I'd share this from my letter  ~Kim

So a while ago, we were meeting with Sora Marcela. So we went over to her house and she had prepared a meal for us. Well there was some lumps of meat on a plate that we didn't know what they were. She gave us some porc and we understood what that was. I tried some of it and one of the Elders explained it really well. It had the texture of an over cooked egg yoke but tasted like bloody meat, as far as I remember. WELL, guess what it was? haha LIVER!!! I ate liver and I instantly thought of all the times when I'm like, hey mom what's for dinner? and you're like, Chicken Liver, haha well that came true! We kept asking her questions like, does this meat exist in our bodies and she's like, yes it's a filter, haha, and we were like yep. I can't believe I forgot to tell you guys this though haha.