So I baptized Ko Gwangjin last Saturday! It was really, really good. He has overcome so much to get to this point, and though his testimony isn't amazingly strong yet, I think he will do great. He said some words after the baptism, and it was really good. My first baptism...yes! We will work with him to teach him the lessons again according to PMG, and the ward will give him a calling. I'm so thankful his wife is a member, it will be so good for him to have someone to talk to. It was so good...I can really feel his light now. He's made some great changes, and though I don't have the closest relationship with him because of the language barrier, I'm really happy for him.
Also, I'm training a Korean! His name in english is Kim Jin Oo. He's really cool! He's from down by Busan, and he has a real fire for missionary work. Everything is so much better than missionary work with Elder Pulsipher, let me tell you. I hope he will figure things out someday. His new companion is probably not as much of a pushover as I was, so maybe he's undergoing some good changes right now.
Anyway, back to my companion. He's really great, and the best thing about him is that he's so obedient. If I tell him a mission rule we have to keep, he keeps it with no problems. We got training on how to be a trainer before we received our greenies, and the APs said that if you only teach them one thing, teach them how to be obedient. So that's what I'm doing. Being a trainer is kind of hard, though, because I have to explain everything in Korean. Some things are hard to explain in English, and then I have to switch it into a different language! But it's going ok. the language barrier is not as bad as I thought it would be. Also, I think our ward is really pleased they have someone who can speak Korean again. :D
Challenges with a Korean companion... He speaks fluently, obviously, but he doesn't really know how to be a missionary yet. So when we proselyte, it's been kind of hard. It must take a lot of humility on his part to listen to me, because I still don't speak well yet. Actually, I have a harder time with listening than speaking. But being with him all the time is really improving my Korean, I can feel it! My intonation is better, and I have a living dictionary that I can always ask Korean questions to. He just barely speaks English, but he understands ok.
Dad, I have a few questions. First, is this owner's manual you speak of included in the card or the camera? Because if I have the manual for the camera, I really don't know where it is. I think I might have left it in America...so I don't know how i will format the new card yet. I'll definitely look for it here, though...if it's not here then maybe someone can look it up on the internet, they might have directions there. We'll see.
Second, do you have any ideas for training Koreans? I don't know how to make it fun for him. We had kind of hard day the other day, with talking to people and such, and i don't know how to encourage him or say funny things or basically how to make missionary work enjoyable for him. So if you have any experiences with that, or training in general, I'd really like to hear about it.
I'm going for the second level of Pass-off this week. I did the first half already, and the AP I did it to was really impressed with me. I feel like I'm doing ok, and if we could just find some new investigators, that would be great.
I'm sorry to hear about Kyle Eby. He seemed like he was doing really well in the MTC when i saw him that one time. I didn't know their parents were divorced recently; that must have been really hard. I don't know how he feels, but he needs to be back on a mission. That is where he will find the most happiness, eventually. I'm just so glad I have a great family back home that supports me and is so solid in the faith. Thank you for all you do for me, and for your great examples.
I'm glad the Kerstens are doing a little better. At least, Kyle is. How are the other two patients now?
I'm so pumped about Jake Hall's mission call! Where is the Dominican Republic, anyway? South America?
As for weird things I've eaten, you can tell people I've eaten jellyfish tentacles, squid ink spaghetti, acorn jelly, kimchi (though that's not really weird), baby fish, and ginseng. The herb, not a drink or anything. Nothing too bad. Oh, and whole baby octopuses too. :D And I have eaten nengmyeon once, it was actually pretty good.
I'm glad Camp Helaman went well, I'm sure there are angels bearing everyone up when they do it. And I'm really proud of you, Austin, for working so hard. It sounds like you will be a great missionary, becuase you are already a great person!
It's ok that Nick Olsen messed up my car. It's kind of like I was the last one with it before it died. Now it doesn't even exist anymore, kind of. :D
Well, I'm pretty much out of time. Tell everyone I said hi, and pet Emmy a few times for me. I love you all!
Elder Matt Dean
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| Elder Dean and his 3rd companion, Elder Kim Jin Oe |
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