Elder Matt Dean: January 1, 2012

Saebong mani badeuseyo!

Happy New Year! This past year was pretty good for me, seeing as how i was a missionary for the whole thing. :D It's been a year of speaking Korean, a year of being around another person 24/7, a year of learning more about myself and about this gospel, a year of miracles, a year of missing my family, a year of receiving so much love from the Korean members of the church, a year of growth, a year of service, a year of hard work. In short, it's been the year of a missionary.

This week was pretty normal, actually, in that there wasn't very many exciting or awesome things that went on. Just a normal week. It's good to have those every once in a while, though, becuase it makes you appreciate the awesome things a little more when they do happen. Actually one awesome thing happened--one of our investigators came to church finally! We were so excited! I think he liked it fairly well. His name in English is Kwon Jeong, and he's about 28 or so. He's learning English from us as well as about our church, and he's a way funny guy. I'm excited to be able to work with him.

Other news...we are also teaching a guy named Lee Jun Jae, who is about 60 or so and works as a taxi driver. He has been working on Sunday, so he hasn't ben able to come to Church, but recently he said he can change his work schedule so he has Sunday as his day off! I think he is the farthest along of all our investigators, and as soon as he comes to church everything will really pick up. In our mission we have the rule that you can be baptized only if you've come to church 3 times, so as soon as that happens everything will be awesome. He agreed to work towards being baptized on the 28th of this month, so we're really excited about that, and we'll do our best to help him get out to church.

That's about all I know. :D I got lots of presents and things from my immediate family and grandparents, so I have lots of food and all, and life is really good. I'm working on being more positive and not complaining, and I think it's a really good change to make. Oh, the ward gave us lots of food too. :D One of the older members who i'm friends with said that she's glad me and one of the sister missionaries that's serving in this ward were able to stay for Christmas, and it meant a lot to me. I worry that I'm one of those missionaries that everyone forgets two weks after they leave, so I was really glad when she said that.

Ah, one more thing--transfer calls are tonight, but I'm pretty sure I'll be staying because I'm only halfway done with training Elder Greer, my companion. I'll let you know what happens there though. I don't have a "you know you're in Korea when..." list this week, sorry. Things were busy with the year ending and everything. I'll work on it for next week, though. :D I love you all, thanks for being such good influences in my life. And for anyone who isn't family who is reading this on my blog, the same goes for you. :D happy new year!

Elder Matt Dean