December 25, 2011

Hi! I think it's Christmas evening for almost everyone this email is going to, so 메리 크리스마스! That's merry christmas in Korean. My Christmas happened yesterday, and it was so good. I'll start from last Thursday: we had a Mission Conference from 9 to 3, and then P-day from 3 to 9. So awesome. :D At the conference, our Mission President, Lee Yong Hwan (Lee is the surname) spoke about Christ and His mission, and how that ties into the work that we do. Also something I learned that was really deep came from listening to one of the missionaries who is going home next week. He is a professional-level piano player, and he said that one of the comments that gets made all the time in music is whether or not somebody plays with feeling. You can practice for hours to be able to get the technical stuff down with any intstrument, and that results in people being able to play crazy-hard pieces perfectly. But then they have no heart in them. You have to play music with feeling, and the same goes for missionary work. you can concentrate on numbers of lessons taught, how well you proselyte, etc all you want, but if your heart's not in it, it's really not what it's supposed to be. I realized that in the first half of my mission, I was concentrating just on all the technical stuff, and my heart wasn't really in it. That's something I want to work on from now on. After the speeches, all the zones in our mission (a zone is a unit of missionaries with about 16-20 people or so) came up and did a skit and musical performances. Our zones' skit was a fake district meeting where we did impersonations of some of the funnier missionaries in our mission, and it was so funny. I'm pretty sure people laughed the most at ours. :D I'd explain all the jokes in it, but you don't know any of the missionaries, so it's kinda pointless. Rest assured, however, that ours was the best. :D The other skits included one about Harry Potter becoming a missionary and converting a 전도사 (other church's missionaries) named Voldemort; a bunch of missionaries playing a board game in real life that involves Old West style shootouts; and just funny skits about hard things or awkward things or fun things about missionary work. It was awesome. We have some real musical talent in our mission, let me tell you! It was a great conference overall. Then after the conference we went to a nice restaurant and partied and stuff till we had to go home.

Then on Friday, our local church group had a party. I played solos on the trumpet, which was awesome, and I played them almost perfectly and with feeling. My companion got a video of me, and maybe I can send it home somehow. The Christmas party involved just a lot of musical performances and dances; the sister missionaries that work in our same area had been doing a dance class with the members that we participated in, and we got up to do our dance and we completely botched it. It was awesome! It was just a really fun party. Right before we had to leave they had one of the members come out dressed up as Santa Claus, and about 5 seconds later one of the little kids that had gathered around him said in Korean, "Hey, you're not santa, you're Park Jin Woo!" It was really funny. I got lots of vidoes from that and I'll try to send those home too.

Then on Christmas, me and my companion made bacon and eggs (not a common breakfast in Korea) before going to church. Our toaster handle doesn't stay down on its own, so we have to put a wire on it to hold it down while the bread toasts; I put some in and promptly forgot about it. A few minutes later I was wondering why there was so much smoke in the room, and then I realized that all the smoke was coming from our toaster, not the stove, so I had to run over and get the blackened cinders out before they lit on fire. :D But it was ok, I didn't burn the house down. We went to church and handed out the cookies we had made the previous night, and had our musical Sacrament meeting. Then we went to the Stake center (a larger unit that multiple wards meet in) and had a Christmas concert with the whole stake. I was in the ward choir, and I also played the trumpet with the choir for a couple songs. It was such a good night. I felt the Spirit so strong as we were singing up on that stage. I may be really, really far from my earthly family here in Korea, but I felt much closer to Christ than I ever have before yesterday. I'm here doing His work the best that I can, and He isn't leaving me alone.

The best part of the night was when we went to a subway station with about 15 other missionaries and sang carols! There was a drunk guy that apparently loved the attention, because he was jumping around and trying to sing and just being ridiculous while we were singing. He wasn't violent, just drunk. He did attract a lot of passerby, though; at some points there was a considerable crowd watching us. It was so fun just to stand there and sing. I sang "거룩한 밤" ( O Holy Night) as a solo while everyone else hummed, and it was so awesome. Then we went home for the night. So all in all, I had a good Christmas, and got great presents from my family, and I felt the love of God very strongly. What more could I ask for other than being home for it? But in a way, I felt like I was home to some degree. Anyway, my Christmas was good, and I hope all of yours was too. :D Merry Christmas!

Elder Matt Dean

December 18, 2011

Hey, awesome family,

So, I got your package! Woo! I was so excited to get everything in it, you have no idea. Thanks especially for the toothpaste and the Legos, and for sending a lot of unwrapped stuff in it that I don't have to wait for. I love the Legos so much (Note from Matt's mom: we sent him a Star Wars Legos Christmas advent calendar), I forgot how fun they are. My favorites so far are Chewbacca with a lightsaber, those tan battle droids from Episode 1 that have funny voices, an Imperial shuttle, and a black version of R2-D2. I think the last day is Yoda dressed up as Santa Claus with gifts on his back, which should be pretty funny. :D When I get done with building them all I'm going to take them all apart and use them to build a way cool starship or something. I'm way excited to open the wrapped ones, but thanks so much for sending it, it really means a lot and helps me to feel more at home and to feel the Christmas Spirit more.

So how's the Christmas spirit coming along over there? Do you have any snow yet? We have none still, I'm pretty doubtful about Korea's ability to provide the kind of snow I like. But we will see. Hopefully the weather proves me wrong! Things are feeling pretty Christmasy over here, since I'm playing the trumpet with our ward choir for "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful," and then a solo for "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Angels We Have Heard on High." It should be really fun. The christmas conference is this Thursday, and I'm really looking forward to it since it will be my last Christmas in Korea.

Actually it's only six days left till Christmas for me, because we're a day ahead of America over here. :D This week was pretty good. We got special permission from the President to watch "A Christmas Carol" for English class (the animated one with Jim Carrey). It was awesome, especially because I love that story. It really motivated me to do more good in the world and be a better person in general. The book is better, though. :D

That's about all I know. I hope everyone stays safe as the weather gets worse, and with the timing my email next week should get to you on Christmas sometime. :D We have our Christmas conference this week, and it'll be really fun. I'll let you know how it goes. And I just realized I miscalculated the time, so I now have 40 seconds left to finish this.

You know you're in Korea when:

-          reading the nutritional facts on American products is enjoyable

-          using American toothpaste is fun

-          there's usually no sidewalks and

-          there's mirrors in most elevators.

I love you all, have a good week!

도인수 장로

Love, Elder Matt Dean

December 11, 2011

Subject line: It's beginning to look a lot like 크리스마스

Hey all,

December is going by way fast! It's almost halfway over already. It's interesting how the time is picking up for me the older I get. I'm starting to get old in the mission now--I've trained two missionaries and one of them trained again, so now I am a grandfather. Hopefully they will train too and my family will get even bigger.

We're all preparing things for Christmas already--they had us send in pictures for a slideshow, and we'll be doing a white elephant gift exchange on the Christmas Conference on the 22nd. That day will be a party, because we have the conference from 9 to 3 and then P-day from 3 to 9. So awesome. :D I'm excited for Christmas with our ward, we have a musical concert thing on Christmas day and a party a couple days before that. It's going to be great!

The missionary work is going ok. I'm learning every day, that's for sure. Lately I've been learning patience and living by the Lord's time instead of my own. And it takes a lot of love to go out and proselyte sometimes, but we do it anyway because of the good we can do in others' lives, even if they don't accept us right away. I was at a way good meeting this week, and one of our Assistants to the President told a story I thought was way cool. He said one time when he was doing missionary work more for the numbers than for the sake of the people, he talked to a guy on the street for 2 hours, but the guy said that he didn't want to meet. The missionary was really dissapointed and irritated, because he couldn't even put down that that two hours had counted for a lesson because he didn't get a return appointment. About 6 months later he was at a big church meeting, and he saw the same guy out of the corner of his eye and went over to talk to him. "Hey," the guy said, "You're the Australian. I got baptized last Sunday!" He said that was one of the most powerful moments of his mission. The man had met missionaries before, but it wasn't until the missionary I'm talking about had talked to him for forever that he decided to really investigate the church and find out if it was true. Elder Mejia (the missionary) didn't get to put it on his stats, but largely because of him that man decided to get baptized. It was a really cool illustration of how we have to do missionary work for the right reasons, not for the numbers or because we know we should be doing it. We have to do it because we love the people and we want to help them be happy. If we can do that, we can be successful. It's hard to do missionary work that way, but it's the best way, and the only way to do it by the Spirit of the Lord.

I learned a lot of other things from that meeting too, that will help me be a better missionary. Now I just have to apply them somehow... :D That's always the test, when all is said and done. You can learn a lot from the Bible or meetings or whatever, but how well you apply and live it is the real test of who you are.

I'm thankful that we have Christ to cover our mistakes when we don't do as well as we should, as long as we follow His teachings the best that we can.

So...I maybe might have forgotten to do a lot of "You Know You're In Korea When..." moments. :D It's not like I don't have any more important work to be doing, right? :D Here's a couple I can think of now:

When the soap in public restrooms is sometimes attached to a metal stick that comes out of the wall near the sink. Don't ask me why.

When everyone waits for the oldest person to eat first to show respect.

I'll do better next week. :D Love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

December 4, 2011

Dear everybody,

The last couple weeks have been awesome! I'll start from Thanksgiving. There is an English  branch of our church in Seoul which is pretty big, and families from the branch volunteered to have all the missionaries inour zone over for Thanksgiving. We went to the Hildebrands' house, along with another family from the English branch. It was so fun. They had four kids, and the other family brought about five, from 2 to 12 or 13 or so. We came in and sat on the couch for a minute, and it was pretty weird at first, but then the kids started showing us their toys, and next thing I knew I was on the floor playing with all of them! It was nice to be around American kids who aren't afraid of me. :D We were quoting the movie "A Christmas Story," the classic, and telling each other about funny videos we'd seen on America's Funniest Home videos. I just had a blast with them. Then we had the dinner, and it was delicious. The turkey was huge, and they had pies and everything. The whole shebang. It was a really good thanksgiving, and I really appreciated their generosity.

Next thing...My companion is a greenie this transfer! He came in a couple weeks ago, and he is awesome. He's super obedient, super fly at Korean, and he studies and works really hard. I'm learning things myself as I train him. We're doing pretty well out here in Bong Cheon, and we're seeing lots of miracles. For example, we were walking on the street to go to a member's house, and this guy who was parking his van said hi to us. We said hi and kept walking, but we both got this feeling that we should go talk to the guy. My first thought was, "no, that's weird, he's in the middle of parking his van," but we really felt like we should go back, so we did. It turned out that he was pretty good at English, and we talked about religion for about ten minutes and then set a return appointment. He drives a van for a daycare, and he has breaks at certain times of the day, but he can't drive the van on breaks, so we had to go and meet him the next week in his van. We talked for a while and built some 정, and then we taught him a lesson about the church right there in his van because it was raining. :D That was one of the most unique lessons ever for me. I also taught one in an elevator, but that was just a practice one at the MTC. Anyway, he is a really good investigator, and we're looking forward to meeting him more. He had a lot of questions about whether God really exists, and if so, how he can get to him. We have the answers, so it went great. :D That was a really good miracle in my eyes--that we were prompted to go back and talk to him when it would have been just as easy to keep walking.

Another miracle: I now have a trumpet in my possession!!!!!! Woo! It's only temporary, though. One of the sisters in our church found out that I play the trumpet, and since she's organizing our ward Christmas concert, she was able to get me a way old tester trumpet from a music store that they use for practice. From the looks of it they might use it to clean chimneys out too, but it still plays pretty well. :D I'm playing along with a choir, and I might play a solo too. I'm so happy to be playing again, it's so great! I used to think it was really annoying back in America, but I found out how much I missed it when I came here. And now, for this short time, I can play again. I'm so happy!

So, I'm doing really well right now. I'm still not the best missionary that baptizes someone every month, but I'm learning and hanging in there. And I'm learning so much that applies to my life, too. Life is pretty good right now!

You know you're in Korea when...

There are zillions of red neon crosses on top of buildings for all the churches here. There are really more churches than I ever thought possible in one country.

When you don't order chicken nuggets at McDonalds, you order puppy nuggets. Ok , just kidding, that might only be in North Korea. :D

When you can buy fish-shaped fried bread with beans in it on the street that tastes super good!

When sales tax is already factored into the price on the tag at all stores. So nice.

When forklifters drive at 30 mph on the street. It's a little scary. :D

When all your tupperware at the house smells like kimchi.

When lots of people wear surgical masks on the street because they think the air is bad. I don't believe it.

Thank you all for being so great. Love you!

Elder Matt Dean

November 28, 2011

Hi! So today we are going to do a service project at Gwanghwamun--we will go and make kimchi! Yeah! There will be tons of people there that aren't members of our church, even, along with all the missionaries. It'll be super fun, I'm way excited. This may be like a once-in-a-mission experience. Unfortunately it means I didn't have time to read any of the emails I got this week or to write an email of any considerable length this week. Sorry about that. However, our leaders want us to do it like this, so that is what I will do.

I'm still in Bong Cheon! I'm still a District Leader! And I'm training this transfer! My companion's name is Elder Greer. He is from Arizona, but he was actually born in Thailand. He was adopted into a Mormon family, and now here we are. :D We get along great, and we've seen some awesome miracles since he got here. I'm really excited to serve with him.

I'll give you more details next week, when I don't have the opportunity to do an awesome 5-hour service project. I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

November 21, 2011

Hey all,

So, there are transfer calls tonight, which means the next six weeks of my life could be radically different than the last six were...or maybe they'll be exactly the same. Nobody knows for sure till 9:30 p.m. Seoul time, which is the fun of getting transfer calls. You get your fun and excitement where you can get it on a mission. :D

This week was pretty good. The war museum was actually closed on Mondays, so we couldn't go inside, but there were some really cool airplanes and tanks outside that we got pictures of. I got this way cool one of me on a self-propelled Howitzer, it's a great picture. :D We'll have to go some other time to see the inside exhibits, I hear they're amazing. I'm at the place where you have to switch every 10 minutes again, so this will be short and I don't have time to put the pictures out today. Maybe next week.

Today for P-day almost everyone of my MTC group got together at the Olympic Park they used in the 80's and ate lunch at this way nice buffet. It was so fun! It was great to see my missionary friends again, I forgot how funny they all are. It was a party out there for sure. :D We got some good pictures together. I actually wrote letters, too, which doesn't happen often for me. P-days are just really busy.

Other stuff for this week...not much, actually. It was a pretty normal week for a missionary. Oh, it was super cold last night! I forgot how cold it gets here in the winter. I'm so glad I'm not a sister missionary, they must freeze, since they have to wear skirts. Suits are so nice, you can bundle up as much as you want under your suit and it still looks fine. :D

Thanksgiving is this week! The English branch here volunteered to have all the American missionaries over to a ward member's house for a meal on Thursday, which I think is really cool. Hopefully I don't get transferred out. I'm kind of torn; I kind of want to go, but I kind of want to stay, too. We'll see what happens, and as always I will follow the Lord and my mission president.

You know you're in Korea when...

• The Church members always give you food, every single time you visit their house.
• Every single person has dark brown or black hair. Think about that for a minute.
• A lot of cars have little foam things on the ends of their doors so they can push them against other cars. In a city with 25 million people, having to do that is pretty normal.
• Hot dogs come individually wrapped.
• Usually when you go out to eat, one person will pay the bill for the whole group, and then it's expected that next time someone else will do it.
• The post office workers close early on weekdays and aren't open on weekends...oh wait, it's like that in America too. Why don't they work more hours?!

Ok, I'm out of time. But I love missionary work, no matter how hard it is sometimes, and I know this work is the work of God. Thank you all for being such a good influence on me, and I hope you have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

November 14, 2011

Dear everybody,

Wow, it's almost been a year now! I'm starting to be an old missionary, there are people I don't know that are younger than me in the mission now. It's a really odd feeling, actually, being this old. Here is a list of some of the things I have done in the past year:

- Im finally starting to get the language down. Korean is not easy, but it is worth it.

- I'm starting to learn to love other people, even when I can see their faults or when I think I have better ideas than them.

- I've been involved in the conversions of two people. They did all the work, though, I was just kind of there to direct them.

- I became a Senior Companion, a Trainer, and a District Leader, though not all at once. (that would be craaaaazy)

- I've gotten a lot of great packages from my wonderful family, and a lot of letters from my awesome friends. (Sorry the replies are so long in coming....)

- I've done half of a really hard thing, and managed to have fun while doing it.

- I've burned my mouth on a lot of spicy Korean food.

- I realized how much more I should appreciate my family. You never really appreciate something till you lose it.

- I've learned how to take care of myself while living away from home.

- I've learned how to deal with rejection and failure. There's always more of that on a mission than you'd like.

- I've learned to love the Lord and rely on Him. I'm still not perfect at that, but I'm trying.

- I've gained a much deeper understanding of the basics of this Church and how happy it can make people.

- I realized how lucky I am to be an American.

- I've ridden on approximately 600 buses, if you average it out to be two a day or so. That comes out to be....about 600 to 700 dollars, just from riding the bus. Whoa!

- I've seen how narrow-minded I can be, and I'm striving to widen it up a little.

- I've learned to love kimchi. Who said fermented cabbage can't be delicious?

- I've gained a lot of self-control as I've worked for a cause that's bigger than I am, something that doesn't give monetary or reputational rewards.

- I've started to learn how not to be so much of a stick-in-the-mud. I don't know how much progress I'll make there, but we'll see. :D

- I've gloried in the fact that I don't have to worry about homework, a job, or a girlfriend here. (Only one more year of that left, darn it... :D)

- I've gained a testimony and a conviction that this gospel we teach is Christ's true gospel, and that by following it anybody can improve their life and gain peace and happiness.

- I've had so much fun! There are great times on a mission. It's not the funnest or the most exciting time of my life, but it has its moments.

That's about all for now. Things are really great out here, and I really love my mission. It's made such a big difference in who I am, in what I think, in what I plan to do. The most important changes I've gone through are things you can't really put in a list like that; they are changes that have strengthened my character, that have just made me a better person than the Elder Dean that left Utah a year ago. Add that to all the good I'm doing here, all the lives I'm changing, and you really see the wisdom of the Lord in sending us out on missions. We get to take part in helping other people improve their lives and change and come unto Christ, and we join them on their journey. It's not a thing where we missionaries say, "Ok, go down that path" while we sit complacently on the roadside; we learn, we change, we grow, and we walk with the people we teach. That is the glory of a mission: we do good things while we're here, and then we come back and do good the rest of our lives too. A mission is hard, but the changes I'm making from being here are more than worth it to me and to all the people I will come in contact with for the next 50 years or however long I'm alive. I love my mission!

We're going to the Korean War Memorial today. It's going to be so awesome! I'll take lots of pictures and maybe send them back eventually if I feel like it. :D We went to a lantern festival on Saturday night with an investigator and a recent convert; it was so awesome! There's a small river than runs through a part of Seoul, not the Han river, that had huge lit-up lanterns in the shape of people and stuff, that illustrated Korean traditional stories and nursery rhymes. I took lots of pictures of that too, I'll try to send them home next time maybe.

You know you're in Korea when...

- Every single home has hardwood floors, no carpet.

- You DO NOT wear shoes inside the house, or else!

- You don't eat a meal at the table, you sit on the floor cross-legged and eat off a low table that's maybe a foot tall or so.

- The fruit is absolutely delicious!

- Most bathrooms are all tile, and they don't have a bathtub, just a showerhead coming out of the wall. No shower curtain, either.

- You can buy fish-shaped pancakes filled with bean paste off the street. So good!

Well, on Thursday (my time) I will have officially been out for a year. It's been a long journey, but those ones always make the best stories. If Frodo had gotten the Ring to Mordor in three days, would that have been interesting enough to make three epic movies out of? No. Same with a mission, only I'm doing stuff that's way cooler than dropping some dumb ring in a volcano. :D Thanks for supporting me through this journey I've been on; anybody who's reading this has contributed to my life, and I'm so thankful to all of you. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Matt Dean

November 7, 2011

Hey all,

So I just realized that my halfway mark is in a little over a week. What a weird feeling...

This week was pretty good. I saw a lot of little miracles, things that helped me out a lot. I haven't really seen any big miracles lately, but then, most of the things we recieve from God aren't super big. The small things that come steadily over time are worth more to me anyway, since I have a few big ones tucked into the back of my memories. I talked to some really good people this week; I interacted with some not-so-nice people too. For example, last night we were handing out English advertisements to people on the street, and a guy came up, took one, rolled it up into a ball, and threw it at me without even slowing down. He just kept walking. Sometimes we have to take one for the team; in that instance my sacrifice was not chasing after the guy and offering him another flyer just to annoy him. :D I hope he feels a little bigger now that he's persecuted a missionary. But the week was good on the whole.

I'm at the place where you have to get off the computer and let someone else use it every ten minutes, so this won't be super long. Just know that you are all so great, and I have learned a lot about the worth of souls out here. I was kind of in my own little world back before I came out here; I didn't attach as much importance to family as I do now. Thank you for being such a great family to me, and I wish I could be there with all of you now. But I'm in the place I need to be at this time in my life, out here helping people to see the light. I'll keep doing my best out here, and I hope things go great back there. I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

October 31, 2011

Hello everybody,

As you all already know, this last Tuesday was my 20th birthday! It was actually a really good birthday, because our day as missionaries to go to the temple was that day. We go there once a transfer/ every six weeks, and it's always a really spiritual experience. To add to that, when it is our temple day, it's also our preparation day--aka our day off! It was way fun. Me and some other missionaries went to a place called Namdaemun Sijang, which means South Gate Market, and we bought a bunch of souvenirs and stuff which are way cool. I'm definitely going there right before I go home so I can load up on cool stuff. I learned how to haggle for pricing there from another missionary--he told me to play the "poor foreign missionary with no money" card, and i got a couple dollars knocked off. :D Then we taught one of our investigators about the Book of Mormon, and he gave himself an assignment to read the entire book of 1st Nephi this week, which equates to 60 pages or so. All in all, it was a great birthday.

Then the next day, I gave a training at our district meeting. A district is composed of 3 or 4 missionary companionships, and we usually meet once a week. Since I'm the district leader, I have to conduct the meeting and train the missionaries on how to do missionary work for about an hour and a half. I was really stressed about it, but it ended right on time, and the missionaries in my district really liked it. I trained them on teaching to people's needs--we're not just out here to baptize people and add to our number of church members, we're out here to help people find the truth, and we should teach them accordingly. Then after the training, I did something called exchanges, where I traded areas with one missionary so I could do stuff with his companion in his area. I went to a place called Gangnam, which means "south of the river," which is the richest place in Seoul. We had a good time, and it was way fun to stay with some other missionaries overnight and quote funny movies and have fun. Trainings, exchanges, and reporting stats--that encompasses almost all the duties of a district leader, and it's not as hard as I thought it would be. The Lord qualifies those whom He calls.

Today for Preparation Day (abbreviated P-day) the sister missionaries that share a Church unit with us invited a lot of people to come play soccer at a nice field by our church. I'm really, really bad at soccer, so I'll probably write letters the whole time, since I have like 7 to send today. It'll be really fun to see the other missionaries and hang out with them.

We met a really interesting old guy this week. The sister missionaries in our area got his phone number, so we set an appointment with him and went to his house. The air was cloudy with cigarette smoke, there were probably 500 music CDs on shelves on the wall, and some sort of cathedral music was playing. He talked for an hour, straight, no breaks, about how we need a condensed version of the Book of Mormon, smaller pamphlets, and better Korean skills, and then he ended by saying that he needed 2 or 3 years to read the Book of Mormon without our help, and then he would decide between it and the Bible. Not the ideal teaching situation. :D He was nice, there's just no way to teach him because our age difference is too wide. In Korean culture the children do not teach their elders, and he's from a time before their culture started to Westernize. I hope he really does read it over the next two years...

We had a couple miracles this week. Actually, I'm sure we had more, but I'm not good at seeing them yet so these were the only ones I recognized: on the subway I was talking to a high school kid, and I found out he had been baptized in the very ward that I'm serving in a few years ago, and he just hasn't been to church.It was way cool. We got his number, and I hiope we can hang out with him and help him to come back. While we were talking to him, a guy randomly came up and said he had interest in our church, and asked for a name card. I hope he calls back. Lately the missionary work is a little hard, but you can't get discouraged in the hard times, because that only makes you less happy and effective, which leads to greater discouragement. In life you have to always maintain a positive attitude even when nothing seems to be going your way, and then eventually things will get brighter.

You know you're in Korea when...

• There are little shacks on the street where guys that fix people's shoes work. One of them fixed my shoe and then jokingly said I had to pay him 3000 dollars. He did a good job, too.
• There are almost no public bathrooms, drinking fountains, or trash cans.
• People carry around tiny dogs in their jackets, bags, purses, or even baby carriages.
• Sometimes old people kiss your hand on the street. That's only happened once, luckily.
• When members of the church see you working on the street and buy food for you right on the spot.

Well, that's about all with me. Thank you, everybody, for the good influence you've had in my life, and for everything you've done for me. 안녕히계세요!

Elder Matt Dean

October 23, 2011

안녕하세요 여러분!

This week was a pretty good week, when all is said and done. It wasn't without bumps and hard times, just like everything else in life, but really, everything depends on where you put your focus. I heard a quote at a training this week that went like this: "My mission wasn't the funnest time of my life. It wasn't the most exciting or interesting time of my life. But it was the best time of my life to build my testimony, to really find out who Christ is and what He did for us, to learn how to work, to gain skills to succeed in college and marriage and my career, to learn how to love people. So was my mission the best two years OF my life? Maybe, maybe not. Was it the best two years FOR my life? Absolutely." That was from one of the Assistants to the Mission President, who are generally missionaries who have been out for a long time and are skilled in all aspects of missionary work. And everything he said was true. I'm gaining so much more out here than I ever would have if I hadn't come, despite all the hard things, despite leaving everything behind to come out here and talk to people who mostly don't want to listen. Those things are hard, but when I think of all the good that's happening to me, and the good effects that will come from my service, it makes it really easy to bear those hard things. It reminds me of another thing a missionary said: "I had some really hard times on my mission. But when I look back, I can only really remember the good times." That's been true for me as well (at least, for what I CAN remember; you all know how bad my memory is :D). I love being out here, I love being this close to God and not having to worry about college or a job or a girlfriend. It's such a great work that I'm a part of, and I'm surrounded by other great people. And most of all I know God is here and he's helping me along, even though I can't really see how right now. In short, life is really good for me. Thanks to everyone for making me who I am today, I couldn't have done it without you.

On a lighter note, this week I had to go through something of a hazing that happens to most of the missionaries in this area of the mission. There's a restaurant that sells pork cutlets covered in ridiculously hot sauce; they call it 디진닥 돈까스, which is a slang form that translates roughly to "You gonna die, fool." :D Apparently they import peppers from all around the world to make this sauce, and just the sample was definitely the hottest thing I've ever eaten! I chewed it up and it wan't bad; when I started, another missionary started counting, and when I got to 10, I thought, "Whoa, this is really hot." Things went downhill from there. I thought the spiciness level would plateu at some point, but it never really did. I just had this desire to run somewhere, and my throat and lips were literally painful. Luckily there was an ice cream store nearby. :D They have this challenge at the restaurant where you have to eat two humongous cutlets with this sauce on it in 20 minutes or less; they make you take medicine first, and if you start hiccuping they take it away from you because your body is starting to reject it. If you eat it in 5 minutes you get six months of normal food there for free, but if you don't make it in 20 you have to pay $15. Needless to say I didn't try the challenge. :D It was a fun experience, though.

You know you're in Korea when...

Pigeons are the only wildlife.

The buildings are all covered in bright signs, literally covered.

When the members give you food all the time.

When there are fruit trucks everywhere that drive around selling apples or asian pears or clementines or ginger or whatever else you can think of.

When nobody eats on buses or subways, period.

When these little old ladies with matching outfits push fancy carts around selling yogurt.

The missionary work is going well, and I see the blessings from it every day if I look. The trick is remembering to look. :D But when I do I'm happy, which is most of the time. I hope things are going well for everyone back there, have a good week!

Love, Elder Matt Dean

October 16, 2011

Hey all,

So, we got the transfer calls and I'll be in Bong Cheon for another six weeks! I'm really happy, I like this area a lot and we have three really good investigators right now. My companion, Elder Mallory, stayed too, and we will continue to have a great time out here.

Soccer last week was really fun; we played on a big dirt field out by the Han river, which was a great view. I made a spectacular goal on my own team on accident; I was going to kick it out, but I didn't realize that I was directly in front of our goal until the ball was flying at high speed right over our goalie. Oops. :-)  I'll probably be hearing about that one for a while.

I got a call this Thurdsday from our Zone Leaders , which said that this transfer I will be a District Leader! I was pretty nervous about it at first, but it's basically just calling the missionaries in the district and checking up on them, collecting stats to report to the ZLs, and preparing weekly training. The training will be the hardest part, but I'm not that worried about anything. The Lord will help me out.

Today for P-day we're going to hang out with the Zone Leaders, but they wouldn't tell us what we would be doing, they just said to come. I'll tell you next week about the awesome party I'm sure we'll have. :D

My studies have taken me to the preachings of Aaron, Ammon, Alma, and the others in the Book of Mormon. Something interesting that i found is that in almost every conversion story, people saw power that was shown forth from the missionaries, and that made them interested in the gospel, so the missionaries could teach them. That really made it stand out to me how important it is to teach by the Spirit and show forth our spiritual power to the investigators we teach. I'm also working on using questions more when I teach; I really feel a lot better about the teaching environment when I ask good questions, even something as simple as "Do you want to know if the Book of Mormon is true? Why?" It really helps the investigator become involved in the discussion more.

My recent convert, Choi Hyeon Chang, is doing really well. He comes to church every week, and he seems to like being a member. Now we just have to get him connected to the ward, and everything will be perfect!

Life is pretty good for me right now. Some missionaries find it hard to leave the media or girls behind, but it's usually not a problem for me. There's really nowhere else I'd rather be than with the people here in South Korea. :D Thanks to everyone; you have all had a really big impact on me, and I wouldn't be who I am today without you . I hope you all have a good week!

You Know You're in Korea when...

• The suits that guys wear are made of a really cool shiny material.
• You buy bunches of grapes wrapped in paper.
• If two or more people stop to look at something, soon there's a huge crowd. This happpens from events like house fires to people talking to us when we streetboard.
• You have to do battle with mosquitos even in your sleep. There's no better feeling than finally smacking one after it's been bugging you all night!
• Most cell phones have dangly things hanging off of them, from styluses to random keychain-type items.
• When you can do the cha-cha with a 70-year old lady at a ward activity and not have it be weird. No pictures of that one, sorry. :D

Love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

October 10, 2011

Hey all,

 So, I'm currently in a public building where you can only use the computer for 10 mins straight at a time because there are lots of people here, so this will be a short one. This week didn't have tons of awesome stuff, though, just the usual amount of awesomeness, so it's ok that I don't have lots of time.

 The Semi-annual Church General Conference was amazing! We went to a big Church building in Yeongdeungpo to watch it in English, and it was basically just a big missionary party. :D But more than the social aspect, the spiritual aspect was really good. I learned a lot of things I should do/change from the living prophets, and I loved how goofy President Monson was at times. I forgot to bring my journal so I can't tell you my favorite quotes, but maybe I will next time. It was really good, and I'm excited to be able to read it again when the Liahona comes.

 We found a great new investigator this week. He called off a flyer we gave out to him, and then we met him that day. He has a lot of gospel interest; mainly he wonders why people's actions don't match their beliefs a lot of the time and other stuff like that. His name in English is Lee Jae Neung, and he's in his early thirties. I'm excited to be able to teach him.

 I had a cool spiritual experience this week. We were streetboarding, and I felt really discouraged because nobody was listening to us. So I said a prayer in my head and asked for some help, and requested that I'd be able to find somebody. Then I did. :D And I felt a lot better spiritually, too. It helped me to know that God knows me individually, and that He cares about what happens to me. All I have to do is ask Him, and most of the time He will send down a blessing for me. I love this gospel, and I'm so glad I can be here teaching it!

 Today we are playing soccer at a cool stadium somewhere. For me, I'm only attempting to play soccer, but it'll be fun no matter what. :D

 Ok, I'm out of time. Here's the "You know you're in Korea when..." list for this week.

 -  When an outdoor market has live crabs in a pile of sawdust on the road. Also when a restaraunt cook cuts live crabs into pieces with scissors and then breaks them in half. She was a woman, too; I was pretty impressed. :D
-  When old people do crazy exercises in the park outside your apartment. You'd think their arms would fly off or that their hips would snap, seriously. I felt more flexible just watching them.
-  When there are almost more delivery scooters and motorcycles than cars.
-  When the little pizza restaraunt you go to decides to cut up about 50 or 60 onions at once. Everyone in there was sobbing and laughing at the same time, except me. I was just laughing because one of my talents is resistance to onion smell.
-  When 250 pregnant women walk out of a convention where you are streetboarding. Most of them were due soon, too. That's one of the oddest things I've ever seen.
-  When the curbs are a good 4 inches taller than ours are in America.
-  When you sleep on pads on the floor, not beds. They're actually super comfortable.

Thanks for all that all of you do to support me. I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Matthew Tyler Dean



             Here are the latest pictures from Elder Dean:



Elder Dean's new building



A new form of missionary work??  Yeeehaaa!

The ward building



The line dancing activity





Ward members





This is the front page of the copy of Jesus the Christ that Elder Dean's

dad read while he was in Korea, and gave to Matt to read as well.



10/10/11 - A side note from Matt's mom: We got a call from a member of the Church, Sister Yun, who is from Las Vegas and knows Matt's current companion's family today. She is Korean, and just returned from a visit to Korea last week. She got to see Matt and his companion, Elder Mallory, and called to let us know that she had seen him! Sister Yun said that Matt is healthy, happy and doing very well! She also said that he is very fluent in Korean, and is loving his mission. It was so good to talk to someone who had just seen him and could tell us how he is doing!



October 3, 2011

Hey, everybody!

     So, it turns out that this is the last week of the transfer somehow.It seems like yesterday that I got here, in some ways. And yet in other ways, I feel at home here in 봉천. It's not hard to get to know an area when it's so small you can walk across it in half an hour. :D

      The baptism was really, really good! My companion wanted to invite our mission president, and I didn't think it would work, but he came, and it was really cool. The only thing that could have been better was if the boiler had worked. :D Because of a gas leak the main valve was shut off for safety, but we didn't find out about it in time, so they only got a little hot water into the font. They were boiling water in rice cookers so we didn't freeze completely.When I stepped in, I thought, "Whoa, that's cold! But I can handle it. I'm glad I don't have to go all the way under like he does." :D He got the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday, and it was really good. Now we will teach him the new member lessons, especially about the temple. It was only after I came out here that I started to realize what an amazing, amazing gift that marriage in the temple is. I'm so glad that those who are worthy can be married for this life and for forever after we die! I love teaching about that too.

      Yesterday morning a miracle happened. I started off our three hours of study feeling really anxious and worried, because I didn't know what to do for one of our appointments that night. As in, I had no idea at all, and I was starting to panic. So, I said a prayer, and though I didn't feel better right away, I just felt like I should read a certain chapter in PMG. From that, one sentence stood out to me, and I started receiving all these great ideas for what to teach him. Two pages in my journal are covered with my writing from that study period, and the change from a scared 19-year-old to a missionary with answers is clearly visible. It was a real testimony builder that God knows me, He knows the investigator, and He can give me the answers that I need if I will only work for them.That's power and authority as a missionary. That's miraculous. That's missionary work.And, being me, I'll probably forget about studying that way, but I'll do my best to continue the trend. :D

     Ok, here's an experience not related to missionary work at all. Only those of you who have seen the movie "Inception" will think this is cool. I'll explain the context of that movie briefly: a man and his team enter people's dreams down to their subconscious and try to plant ideas there, so when the person wakes up, they think they came up with it. The whole movie, they try and try and everybody thinks it's impossible and people die and the storyline is really complicated. Therefore it's a way cool movie. Anyway, the point is that I actually performed an inception on my companion! He sleep talks a lot, and one night, I decided to start controlling his dreams. So I'd suggest something to him, and he'd see it. For example, he said he saw a car, but he couldn't get in it because there was a glass wall in the way. so I said, "Here's a sledgehammer. Go break it." After a few seconds I said, "Did it work?" He said no, so I said, "Bummer....here's a rocket launcher. Go break it! " He was like, "whoa, cool! " And then he could get in the car. The dream continued like that for a while. Lots of fun stuff happened, like us playing with the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas and his house catching on fire. At one point he said he wanted to go get dinner with some girls, so I made up two of my friends' names and we went to dinner with them. (I had to talk at a high-pitched tone at this point in order to make him think it was a girl.) Through his date, I told him that it would be cool if he had more self confidence (not pride), because then he could be happier. The dream continued and nothing related to that happened again. The next day in the afternoon, we were discussing goals, and all of a sudden he said, "I want to have more self confidence," very decidedly. He thought it was his idea, his desire, but I was the one that incepted that idea into his dreams! I was so excited! It is possible, and you don't need weird injection machines, guns, or a confusing movie storyline to do it. Just call me Elder DiCapirio. :D

      On our Preparation day, we went with our ward up to a park on Seoul National University campus for a picnic, because yesterday was a national holiday. It was so fun! Koreans are way funner than Americans are at parties. :D We played sports in little informal groups, like badminton, catch, football, and frisbee, and then had some delicious food. Then we split into two teams and played some competitive games. They were way fun, and I'll bring the ideas back to America next year since I don't want to take time to type them here. Just know that if I'm ever put as an activities coordinator or something, that ward is going to have a blast. :D  I took pictures, and yes, I am in some of them. I can do it, so there! :D I'll try to send them next week.

      I got your package, Grandma and Grandpa! It was such a good package! I especially liked the journal you sent and the remote-controlled robot. You know me so well. :D Interestingly, I had been using the hardcover version of the journal before (which I forgot to specify when I requested them), so when I saw that the one you sent was soft cover, I was like, "Oh, that's different. Oh well, still awesome." But it turns out that I actually like the softcover more! So thank you for introducing me to that on accident. :D

      Thank you for all your support, including those who I can't email directly but who see my blog. I think about you often, and though it's hard to be away from it all, I know I'm doing the right thing. The blessings to my spirituality, my family relationships, my career, and my future marriage are so many that I'd have to spend an entire email period telling you about them. I'll just do it when I get back, it'll be better to hear it directly anyway. :D I love you all, and I hope you have a good week!

You know you're in Korea when:

- There are old grandmas walking around whose backs could be used to measure right triangles.

   90 degrees,I'm not even joking.

- You can get way nice suits with hot pink linings for less than $150. I haven't done that yet, but I

   definitely will before I come back!

- When you see vegetables laid out to dry all over the side streets.

- When they like red peppers so much you can actually get red pepper hair treatments.

- When all Korean males must do two years of military service after they graduate high school. It used to be

   more than three, but they relaxed lately.

- When there's no garbage disposal, so your food waste goes in a bag. Think about it, and then turn on your 

   garbage disposal once or twice in my behalf, please.

- When most homes' floors are heated by hot water flowing in pipes underneath them. So good!

Elder Matt Dean

September 26, 2011

Hey, everybody,

This week has been pretty great! We were really busy. The busy times are definitely the best times out here. Since we share this area with a couple of sister missionaries, when they decided to start a dance class as a way to find new investigators, me and my companion joined in. It was so fun! I know what you're thinking, it wasn't ballet, it was just line dances this week. One of the sisters is a dance major, and her companion is really good too, so they made up dances and taught them to us and a bunch of the ward members. There were probably 12 people there, and actually some new people that weren't members of the Church. It was a nice way to have fun with the ward members without pressure. We met our guy with a baptismal date and everything's going great still. He will be the first person I found and baptized myself, because the man I baptized in July was found by somebody else.

Tomorrow we get to go to the temple in Shin Chon. I think Dad was there on his mission before it was dedicated, but he might not be that old. :D Anyway, it'll be really fun, because there's always a bunch of other missionaries that you hang out with after the temple. When we go to the temple it becomes our Pday for that week; me and my companion plan to go to a shopping center somewhere and buy him a suit. He needs one because he's lost so much weight. He wrote me up a weightlifting schedule, so when i come back to Utah I'm going to be super ripped. Watch out, Austin. :D

The language is coming along ok. I still have a problem understanding people, but I can usually say what I want to say. Someday I'll be fluent, I hope. I actually heard that there was a missionary that returned last year that tested out of so many Korean language classes at college that he got a minor degree automatically! I hope I can do something like that at Utah State when I get back.

You Know You're in Korea when...

• Anybody you ask is willing to help you. One time I was in Il San, my previous area, and I asked a guy how to get somewhere, and he walked to the stop with me, found the right bus, and made sure I got on it. It actually kinda backfired, because I was only using it as a ploy to start talking to him about the gospel, but hey. :D
• When the buses sometimes break Mach 1. Sonic booms aren't just for jets anymore.
• When there are 30-story apartment buildings everywhere.
• When you can buy awesome ties for $3 each. I'll have to send you some, Austin.
• When saying "Hi" to a group of junior high girls results in a wall of sound that almost knocks you over. That actually happened in Il San, no joke!
• When the 김치/ kimchi is measured by proof. Ok, it's not actually alcoholic...is it?
• When your companion gets interviewed on the street by high school students just for being a foreigner.

That's about all the news I know. I'll let you know how the baptism this Saturday goes. I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

September 19, 2011

Anyeonghaseyo! (that looks so dumb in English....)

      So, as you all can probably see, I sent this to a bunch of people. I have come to realize that making a huge letter and then sending it to everyone is way, way better than taking the time to copy/paste things to make individual letters. It lacks that personal feel, but it brings everyone into the loop, so I figured that was better. I'm really sorry for those who have been left out of the loop for almost a year, and I hope you think my emails are cool enough to read once in a while. :D

     So...This week was pretty good! Actually I'll fill everyone in on where I am and stuff like that. I'm in a district of Seoul called 봉천 (Bong Cheon...rhymes with Foam Fun), which is on the doorstep of one of the S.K.Y. universities in Korea (Seoul University, Korea University, and Yeonsei University). Therefore, there are millions of people here, which means it's missionary heaven. I miss my old ward in Il San, but this place is way better for missionary work. This is my second area on my mission, because I was in Il San for seven months, and I've been here for about three weeks. The area is actually really small, you could walk across it either north-south or east-west in about half an hour tops. It's right by a "mountain" called Gwanak Mountain, but compared to ours it's just a steep hill. :D The ward here is good, there's tons of people to talk to, we can get cheap Korean food at restaurants, we're right next to all the cool things in Seoul for P-day, there are sister missionaries in our area too (which is really fun), our house is big and clean,  my companion is awesome, and we have an investigator who will be baptized two Saturdays from now. Hence the "Success" in the subject line. :D Life is really good right now!

      The investigator's name in English is Choi Hyeon Chang. He is about thirty, and he met with the missionaries at the beginning of the year. However, because of a crazy church he went to (literally, they are INSANE), he lost all faith in God, so he ended up dropping the missionaries at that time. The first day I got to Bong Cheon, we were calling former investigators, and I talked to him. He speaks English really well, which was a relief. I asked him if he believes in God, and he said yes (this was before I read the record that says he doesn't believe in God). So then I asked him if he believes God can answer his prayers, and he said yes. So then I invited him to put our church to the test and find out if it is true, and he accepted. When we met him the first time, he said that he didn't believe in God when he met the missionaries the first time, but about a month before we called, he started reading the Bible again and he really wanted to get closer to God. So, he took our call as a sign, and the rest is history! He went to a fireside with one of our members last night, without us, and he said it was really good. I take that as an answer to my prayers as to how to integrate him into the ward. God really does look out for all of us, and with this guy, he sent the right missionary at the right time that would say the right things to get him to experiment on the word. Interestingly, he only got a real conviction about this church after he followed our advice and acted in order to get an answer, like it says in Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon. You can't know something is true until you try living it first. Once he did, he got an answer, and he's been solid ever since. So that's the thing I'm most excited about right now. :D

      My new companion is named Elder Mallory. He's my same age, but one transfer younger than me in mission age. He's from Los Vegas, and since coming on his mission he's lost like 80 pounds. It's way cool. Korean food does that to you (but don't worry, I didn't lose 80 pounds, that's a little more than half my body weight :D). He's really nice, and he has a big desire to do missionary work. I'm glad I'm finally with someone like that, it hasn't happened since my trainer in January. His dream job is to be a firefighter, like his dad, uncle, and grandpa. He's gone on ride-alongs with his dad before, a lot, and he has some really cool stories. He also played football as a linebacker in high school. We're having some good times. I miss my Korean companion though, we had fun times. My Korean companion is only in his third transfer right now, and he's training another Korean. :D I hope he's doing ok.

      I've decided to start a section in my emails called "You Know You're in Korea When..." I got the idea from someone who emailed my companion. Here goes!

You Know You're In Korea When....

 1.  When toilet paper is used for more than the bathroom...actually, it's used for just 

      about everything: napkins, paper towels, wiping the table, etc.

2.   When old men are wearing more patterns and colors of plaid than they are articles

      of clothing.

3.   When an old man wheels a cart by that has a big pot of boiling silkworm larvae 

      soup on it.      

4.   When your companion can't remember the names of some of the United States

      America. :P

5.   When one elevator only goes to odd floors, and one only goes to the even ones.

6.   When a city with 50 million people has a sweet transportation system that's super cheap and efficient. Like, it's way better than TRAX and *shudder* the Front Runner in Utah. Fail.

That's about all for this week. I'll keep an eye out for unusual/different/cool things. Something my ward mission leader told me was, if something is different it just means it brings something else to the table and makes life interesting. I try to keep that in mind when I see boiling pots of silkworm larvae rolling by me on the street. :D I love you all, and I hope this week goes well for you!

Elder Matt Dean

September 12, 2011

Hey, everybody!

     The second week here in Bong Cheon was pretty awesome, I have to admit! This is a way fun area. For our preparation day, we had a big conference to celebrate Chu Seok, the Korean Thanksgiving. It was so fun! Half the missionaries in the Seoul area went to a place called Yeong Dung Po, which has a huge building our church owns. Our Mission President talked to us about Korean culture and how it relates to Chu Seok; Koreans traditionally believe that when somebody dies, they become sort of a demi-god, so he explained a little about the rituals they do. On this holiday, Koreans go to the graves of their ancestors and bow in respect/worship, in order to gain the favor of those who have gone before, who then bless them. Koreans leave food on tables, too, because a long time ago food was kind of scarce. Thus they give the food as an offering. Also, something I learned is that they never give nectarines, because the spirits hate nectarine trees and actually can't go near them. So the fruits of the trees are out, I guess. :D Also, our mission president explained a little about Korean names. Taditionally, all males of the same generation in a family use a common syllable in their names; hence, in my Korean name, Do In Su, I share the "su" with Ha Yeong Su and Ha Min Su, the two sons of the Ha family. It's pretty awesome. We had a sweet lunch and got some training about teaching people, and the conference was over. However, P-day was from the end of the conference to the end of the day! You should have seen the building, it was a total party. Some people played board games, some people played volleyball, some people sat around and talked. It was really fun. I talked to another elder about video games that we had both played for proably about an hour. :D And then I read a letter I got from Erin van Komen. It was a really sad letter...she's hanging in there, but she's got a lot on her plate right now with college and tuition. I feel like she's trying to be positive, but it's just really hard. Apparently the letter I sent her got there on the day of her mom's funeral, so that was pretty good timing. I hope I can be a strength for her, but there's only so much you can communicate through the mail. I hope Kimee and Sarah are taking good care of her.

     Speaking of Kimee, unless my letter got lost in the mail, she owes me one. It's understandable if she has a boyfriend now, though. Just remember, Austin--girls act all needy and they want you to write them, until they find someone at home. Then you get nothing. :D Just kidding, I'm not bitter. I hope she's doing well. Since Sarah is the "updater" for my friends, could you ask her if she's heard anything about Katie Haggard? I haven't talked to her in like six months, and I wonder if our letters are getting to each other or not. Tell Sarah thanks for being so awesome, and I'm working on getting her a letter soon. :D

     This week...what a good week, from a missionary standpoint. We found two new people to teach; one is kind of a flake, though, and he's only in it for the English. The other one is pretty solid. But the best news is that a guy we're teaching accepted a commitment to be baptized on October 1! We're so excited! He said he got an answer about our church from God in a dream, and as he was telling us about it, I was thinking, "Whoa, this is just like a movie or something." It was seriously way cool. So, we're going to help him get baptized. I asked him why he thought it was so important, and he said it was because we need someone to help us out to be clean from sins, and through Christ we can do that. He said he wants to be baptized, so we will help him there. I feel very thankful to God for giving us this success.

     I got your package, Mom and Dad! It was so awesome! Elder Mallory ate some of the dried mangoes, and he said they were really the best fruit he's ever eaten. Really. :D I really like the journal you sent me, too--it has really great questions in it, and I'm excited to fill it out. I just have to find the time now. You'll be interested to know that out of the 20 questions on that "How Well Do You Know Harry?" test from the newspaper that you send me, I got 18 right. And two of the answers on the key were actually wrong, which is pretty funny. I did it with one of the Assistants to the President and we concluded that the girl who wrote it didn't actually know Harry that well after all. :D And I appreciate the present from Emmy {our cat}, looks like she still sheds as much as always. 开矫. :D

     Mom, you asked about bath houses; basically, you go in there and there are different pools with different things dissolved in them at different temperatures, and you sit in them and relax. There are also saunas that are super hot, and usually swimming pools. Also there are sections where you sit down on a stool in front of a mirror with a hand faucet, and just shower off. It's a really relaxing experience, and I love 'em. I have two more winters to enjoy them in, too. :D

     Grandma, I'm glad you've made progress on Elmo {the barn cat}. They should run a new cable show called "The Cat Whisperer," starring Ruth Ann Brandon. i would totally watch that show. :D

     I was reading an email from another missionary that Elder Mallory got, and it had a section titled "You Know You're in Brazil when..." I figured that I could make one of those for the blog you're making me, and it would be really funny. I'll come up with stuff for next week.

     I love you all - have a good week!

~Elder Matt Dean