December 2, 2012

Subject line: What the? Last letter?

Well, everybody, this is it. My heart is pounding with a zillion different emotions right now, because this is the last letter home I will write as a missionary. I remember hearing people say that two years went by really fast for them as they neared the end, and I would think, "Man, I don't know what they're talking about, it definitely feels like Ive been out a year, no less!" But right now, at this moment, I can say that I don't know where the time went. It's been fantastic, on the whole.

My immediate family wrote really good last letters; I don't know if i can measure up. :D I'll tell you what I'll be doing for the next few days, I guess. Oh, before that I have one thing to gloat about: Korea is ahead of the USA on time, so while all you in America have 5 days till you see me, I only have 4 days till I see you.:D Living in the future definitely has its benefits!

Today for Pday me and Elder Luker (one of the office elders here) are going to buy some sweet Korean suits for 60 bucks. Then we're going to hang out with other missionaries for the rest of Pday. Tonight we are going to dinner with a girl who we baptized yesterday and her friends from the church that referred her. By the way, the baptism went really well yestderday! Her given name is Jinhae, and she's 16 American age. She's doing really well, and she has so much support from her friends that referred her and from Elder Yoon that I'm sure she'll do great. Elder Yoon baptized her and she'll get confirmed next week; it's sad I didn't get to see that but it's ok. So we'll go to dinner with them tonight. Tomorrow we're picking up the new missionaries (who don't go home till 2015! Haha!), and the next day is transfers. So I'm going with Elder Lee Gyeomjin, my last companion, to visit some members from his favorite ward and my first ward. Then that night he has the final interview with President. The next day we'll probably do some shopping in the afternoon and I'll have my final interview with President before the final dinner and testimony. Then on Friday morning we head to the airport! Now I'm getting really excited. :D It'll be a good week. I'll try not to spend too much money. :D

As I think about my mission, there are definitely things I could have done better. I've spent too much time judging myself for my weaknesses and mistakes though, so I think today I'll just say that I think I did a dang good job. :D But seriously, I think I served a really good mission in that it wasn't perfect but that I tried to see how I could improve all the time, and I did my best to fix what I could. And I always, always tried to be obedient to the rules and the commandments, even now, I'm still doing that. John 14:15 says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." I think that obedience is one of the best ways to show our love for God, and I really love Him. Looking back over what I've done, I can say with confidence that my actions reflect that.

Being on a mission really makes you realize what the important things are. Family. Love. Hard work. The Lord. Living what you believe.  There are things that bring you temporary happiness, like music or video games or sports or a bunch of other things. I love those things, but what will give you permanent and lasting happiness are the things I said above. I hope and pray that I won't get swallowed up in the worldly things and go right back to the way I was, becoming an entertainment zombie or a slave to study or be eaten up by materialism again. Please help me not to do that, everybody. I think that more than anything else is what I fear. But I have faith that as long as I maintain my relationship with the Lord that everything will be ok.

I feel torn in half right now, really. My heart does. But someday I'll be back here, I can just feel it. I can't see myself living here, but my future is somehow linked to Korea. I'll be back someday.

Well, enough rambling. :D I know this church is true, and more importantly than that, God and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost really live, love us, and guide us. It's our job to seek them in our lives and apply their teachings to our daily actions. And when we do, that's when we're truly happy. I really know those things and I can never deny them without some pretty serious things happening. If I ever do, somebody please punch me in the face or something. :D Just kidding, that won't happen. I love you all, and I'm excited to see you in only 4 days. :D

Love, Elder Matt Dean

Final note from Matt's Mom:
Matt comes home this Friday, the 7th, and will speak in the Chapel Hills Ward (1290 N. Church Street) at 11:00 on Sunday, December 9th. Please join us at our home (1208 E. 2350 N.) afterwards for an Open House to visit with Matt. Thank you to everyone who has supported Matt and our family while he served his mission - we love and appreciate all of you, and hope to see you on Sunday!!

November 25, 2012

Note from Matt's mom: Matt will fly home on Friday, December 7!! His homecoming will be in the Chapel Hills Ward on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 11:00. We will have an Open House at our home (1208 E. 2350 N.) after Sacrament Meeting that day.

Subject line: Wow, 2nd to last letter

Hey all,

Happy late Thanksgiving! Can't believe the time has gone so fast this last transfer, it's been unreal. There have been so many things that came up, so much busyness, that the 6 weeks have flown by. Now I'm on my last week of full proselyting and it's looking like a really good week. Last week we went to an American family's house on base, the Clarkes, and had an awesome dinner. They had 3 kids, Max (4), Riley (girl-9) and Cory (boy-12), and they were super fun to be around. We played games and talked for the afternoon and then had dinner in the evening. One of the games we played was called Stratego and it was actually super fun, I'd never heard of it before. Another one was this game where you write a funny sentence on the top of the paper and pass it to someone else, and then they draw a picture according to the sentence and fold the sentence down so you can only see the picture. Then they pass it to somebody else and they write a sentence and then fold the picture down, and so on. Every time I've ever played that game at a party it's been hilarious, and I wasn't disappointed this time. We had one go from "I like pie and ice cream" to "A guy shoots mashed potatoes with laser vision." :D and the pictures were awesome. The Clarkes were both returned missionaries from the same mission (they actually really didn't like each other on their mission), some mission in Texas. They said that from that mission, 9 couples got married, which is crazy! It'd be cool to speak the same language as each other, though, that would be way fun if I could find someone that spoke Korean. I don't have my hopes up though, not many people speak Korean in America yet. Anyway, Thanksgiving was awesome and I ate till I couldn't move.

I'm a little pressed for time today but I want to say thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement these last 2 years. I can't wait to see you all again soon. Love you!

Elder Matt Dean

November 19, 2012

Subject line: The time is at hand......

Hey everyone!

So, I heard that I have to come home soon. I refuse to do a countdown or anything like that, that would just make me trunky. But I'm busy enough here that I'm not finding it hard to focus. We have another baptism coming up this week! A member's friend's daughter has decided to join the church, so we're teaching her the lessons and hopefully she'll be baptized this Saturday. Amid all that, our ward is combining with another ward, which shouldn't be that big of a deal but some members made it that way. We're actually hoping that we can get two baptisms this weekend, one from each ward, which would be way cool. I'm really thankful to the Lord for these great blessings we're seeing.

We had the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Korea mission on Sunday. It was super crazy, lots of last-minute things going on that we had to organize, like clearing parking for VIPs, getting ushers, practicing a song as a mission that we had never practiced all together before, and lots of other stuff. But it ended up going really well! The music was fantastic. There was a violinist who is blind who did things with a violin that I didn't know were possible, and a couple opera singers, and just some really great music all around. Then in the fireside portion of the whole thing, we had a Catholic priest whom our church leaders invited come and talk for a while, and it was really good. He was very friendly. Then we had three prior mission presidents come and speak about the beginning of the Korea mission, the  middle days, and the most recent times. We also had a slideshow with some really old pictures that we were lucky to find, which was way cool. Pictures of the first buildings our churh built in Korea and the first missionaries, prophets visiting the saints there, etc. After the fireside we had some refreshments, and then we went home. The speakers went a little over, so the fireside lasted for an hour longer than planned, but it all turned out ok, luckily. I'm glad it went well and I'm glad it's over. :D

Now I'm on splits in Gangneung, one of my previous areas! I'm working with Elder Coward from Australia for a couple days. He's really cool, really easy to get along with. It's weird being back here, among the people I once lived with and went to church with. But it's also really good.

I feel like I'm closer to God and more aware of Him than ever before in my life, as I finish out this time. That's the best thing I've found here, I think. I love this work, I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

November 18, 2012

Hey all,

So here's the deal. I'm going on splits with the missionaries out in 강릉/Gangneung (two of my areas ago!) and they are taking their p-day tomorrow instead of today. So I'll email you tomorrow. I have good news, so you'll have to just bear with the suspense till then. :D

Love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

November 12, 2012

No letter today - Matt just wrote that today's P-day is crazy, and that he didn't have time to write anything more.   ~ Matt's mom

November 5, 2012

Subject line: Super cool week!!

Hey all!

So this week was really, really cool. On about Tuesday of this week, 6 days ago, we started coordinating with some people in China who wanted to come to Korea to get baptized. After a lot of calls and emails, we were able to settle on a date, and two Chinese guys named Richie and Kick (in English^^) came to Korea on Saturday! They ended up coming out of the wrong gate, so it was hard to find them, but we finally got them and came back with them on the subway. They were both like late 20s and one was married. Their story is super cool. Richie decided that he wanted to have religion, so he started searching on the internet. Then he found our church, and tried to contact a member in China. But in China religion is so restricted that it was super hard, and he'd get in contact but then it would end up not working, off and on. Then, after a really long time of no contact, someone called him, and he and his friend were able to finally come to Korea. They got all the missionary lessons on Saturday and were both baptized, and it went really well. I baptized Richie in Chinese!!! I recorded them saying the prayer in Chinese and then practiced for forever. :D It was a really cool experience. I've been praying most days this transfer for a baptism, and even though they didn't come the normal way of us finding them on a street or anything, it still happened! I'm so happy for Richie and Kick, they've spent so much time and money to get here and get baptized. That was the only reason they came, which I think is really cool. They leave tomorrow morning, but me and Elder Yoon have to give training at Zone Leader Council, so the office elders are taking them back to the airport. I was really sad to say goodbye tonight; I've only known them for three days but we're already way good friends. Richie said that after he was baptized and confirmed, he felt like a new person. Clean. And Kick said something that I thought was cool: "Even in your darkest hour, don't give up hope." He was talking about how they had to wait so long with no contact with church members before they finally got here. It was such a cool experience and such a great miracle to see. God really answers our prayers. I hope that all your prayers are answered as well; I know this church is true, more than ever before. Love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

October 29, 2012

Subject line: So busy!

Annyeonghaseyo!

Wow, this week was crazy. Transfers happened, I got a new companion (Elder Yoon), and we finally got all the new missionaries trained and off to their areas. Transfer week is always an adventure and an ordeal. :D Things are finally settling down though, and I'm having a good time with Elder Yoon. He has a great desire to go work on the street and with the members, which is what I want to do, so we get along great! 

Life is good here. I decided before this transfer started that I would just have a positive attitude and have Christlike love for my companion, unconditional love, and it's amazing how much of a difference it's making. I'm also trying to enjoy every moment here in Korea and just have a great time, and it's going well. I LOVE KOREA! It will be a part of me forever in a lot of ways. I'm excited to speak it with my dad, we're going to be saying tons of funny stuff and no one will have any idea what we're saying. :D 

Elder Yoon is from Daegu, which is kind of in the mid/lower right part of Korea. He's also ridiculously good at English, seriously. He uses words that a lot of Americans don't know! Part of it was because he grew up on an American Army base for part of his childhood, so he learned some English there. He had actually been an Office Elder for 9 months in this area,  gone to another area for 9 months, and will be finishing his mission here. :D That's a total of almost a year in the office when he's done. But he's so good at office work that I think the mission will really improve while he's here. I on the other hand tend to drop the ball with a lot of things, but I'm aware of it and trying to change. I just hope my mission president has enough aspirin to deal with me. :D

I'll end with one miracle: on the subway we met a highschooler from Japan that spoke fluent Korean and also some English, and he wanted to learn about the church, so we referred him to the elders that live near him. I've decided that the Lord preparing a person that has agency and then guiding us to them, three independently thinking and choosing people, is as much or more of a miracle than Him making the stones light up for the Jaredites so they could cross the ocean in the Book of Mormon, or Him parting the Red Sea through Moses. This is a work of miracles, and you can see them every day if you look for them. I know it's true, and I hope you have a good week!

Love, Elder Matt Dean