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

October 22, 2012

Subject line: Crazy week!

Hey all,

So this past week was crazy! We had the blood drive activity on Wednesday, which went ok. We had each zone of the mission come in shifts so they didn't overload the people, so there were tons of missionaries there like the whole day. Me and Elder Lee were busy doing pass-off with like 4 people too. Pass-off is a program that the mission does to help you focus your Korean studies into the church/ lesson vocabulary, which is what you actually use, and the final level is done with the APs. It's basically there to make sure you can speak Korean well enough to be a senior. And on the same day, there was a test administered by the church Institute people called the Michigan test, which is an English test that BYU Hawaii uses to screen foreign students. AND on the same day, President was doing interviews with the 강릉 zone, which is the one out east in the boonies. So it was really crazy. :D The activity went ok, but the red cross people only prepared for 30 people even though we repeatedly told them we would have from 60 to 100 coming, so only 39 people ended up being able to donate. The y had us going into a bus to do it, and they shut the door in my face right before i went in, so I was kind of bummed. But it was still fun to see everybody. 

Then the next day we had a training for the missionaries that are trainers/greenies, about finding investigators, which we didn't prepare very well for, unfortunately. But somehow it ended up being really good. I think with us training the mission, the Lord makes sure that they get something good out of it, because all this is really His work, not ours. We'll prepare better for next time, however. :D 

On Saturday we had a musical/testimony fireside which also went really well. The missionaries from two stakes that were combined gave some talks along with recent converts from each stake. Also the missionaries sang "How Firm a Foundation" and "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as choir numbers, which ended up being really cool. It was nice to sing in a choir again, i miss that a lot. 

So we were pretty busy last week to say the least. :D But it was good to have something to do. That's one good thing about the office, always having something to do. And I learned a good lesson about the gospel this week--because we were so busy, I kind of neglected my scripture study, and soon I felt really stressed and alone and just not good. But once i really started reading the scriptures in depth again, I felt better. I had the Spirit with me more. It's so easy to skip the small and simple things, but they're so important to maintaining our relationship with God. 

I know this gospel is true, and I love being a missionary! I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

October 14, 2012

Hey everybody,

So as you all probably know, my mom's father passed away this past week. So that's why I didn't write an email last week. But we're all doing ok, thanks for your prayers on our behalf.

Things have been really busy here for us. Our mission is having a celebration because this year marks the 50th year since missionaries came to Korea! So we've been getting stuff ready for the musical fireside that we're having next month and also for the mission-wide service activity: blood donation. Kind of goes well with Halloween, huh? :D That's this Wednesday, and then all the stakes in the Seoul area and maybe all of Korea will be doing a stake-level service activity too. The hope is to get a little publicity and kind of clear up a lot of misconceptions about the Church here. The fireside is going to be awesome! There's going to be some world-class musicians there in a string orchestra, and I saw them at a fireside a couple weeks ago, and it was seriously amazing. So I'm really excited. :D

Also this week we had President interviews which was really good. It's kind of just a time for President to talk with you one-on-one about how things are going, how much you want to kill your companion, etc. :D Also a time to get encouraged and uplifted from him, 'cause he's a great man that cares a lot about us all.

Also we picked up an investigator, a middle-aged lady, who is one of the 20 Grandmaster Chefs in Korea! To give you an idea of that, there are 300 Master Chefs who are really good, and then 20 who are ridiculously good. She's a professor at a college teaching Food Science and Cooking, and she's a director at some sort of kitchen somewhere. She wants to meet us for English but hopefully we can help her have interest in the church too. Missionary work is a little slow here because of all the office work we do, but that's kind of missionary work too.

I love you all and I hope you have a good week! Thanks for your support and all you do for me and my family!

Elder Matt Dean

October 11, 2012

Note from Elder Dean's mom:

We received the following email from Matt this week after he learned that my dad / his grandpa had passed away last Wednesday, October 3. We were given permission by his mission president to call Matt so that his grandma could talk to him, which brought her (and his dad and I) great comfort.

Hey all,

So the funeral is tomorrow morning your time I guess. I don't know what's going on there or anything, but I wish I could be there to help. It's not the same, being here. But this is the way things worked out I guess.

It's interesting how the way you view the world changes when something like this happens, how some things kind of pale in comparison. Your priorities shift a little bit. For me I thought about how we have all our possessions and things, but what really matters is our families and the people we love. What I'm glad for is that though we may not be able to get our possessions back if we lose them or whatever, our family will be with us forever as long as we live right. I'm so thankful that the four of us are sealed together, and that nothing will ever separate us forever. Nothing. It's a comfortable thought. We'll see him again someday.

I have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and of the comforting power of the Holy Ghost, and of the Atonement of Christ. And even though I don't understand a lot right now, as we live and grow we can keep learning and keep getting stronger. More than anything I love Heavenly Father and the Savior, and I love the three of you. I'll be praying for you tonight. 

Love, Elder Matt Dean

October 2, 2012

Subject line:  Happy 추석!

Annyeonghaseyo!

So this weekend was Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok! Koreans take three days off from work to have the holiday with all their family. Usually people take the first day to travel out to their hometown, spend the second, main day with their family, and the third day traveling back to where they live. They do 차래 (charae), which is kind of a ceremony to honor their ancestors,and just hang out together. It's a really good time for them, and we had a good time too. A bunch of us got together and played games, and then we went down to the big palace in Gwanghwamun Square that's in front of the Korean President's house, where they had traditional Korean games and other activities going on. That was really fun. Here's a part of my journal about when we went to visit the office senior couple on the first day of 추석: "After that we went to the Ellis’ house to give them a message card and have a meal, and President and Sister Christensen were there too. That was really fun, especially when President and Elder Ellis got talking about the old days, like having a bunch of parasites and missionaries seeing who could get the longest tapeworm and a bunch of other random stuff. It was pretty funny. :D" I'm glad we live in slightly more modern times!

Also our mission had a "change day," where we switched the locations of all the furniture in the house and cleaned under them and stuff. The space under the bunk beds in our room was pretty scary, it had some really big dust bunnies and other assorted junk. Now our bedroom feels so much bigger and cleaner! Missionary houses are often pretty scary because we're supposed to use all our time for missionary work except on Preparation day, and cleaning usually takes lower priority to most people than going out and doing fun stuff with other missionaries. :D In honor of Change Day, me and Elder Olsen (one of the office elders) went in and changed around a bunch of the chairs and President Christensen's desk in his office (we know where the spare key is),and put a little sign up that said "Happy Change Day! (We'll put it back on Monday morning)" They found it and thought it was pretty funny. Then we came back later that night and they had come in to the office and messed a bunch of stuff up. the trash cans were on the desks, the chairs were mixed around and piled on top of one another, and all the things on our desks were switched around. They even left our sign on the floor in front of the door. :D It was a fun day.

So life is good. Serving in the office is hard for a lot of reasons, but lately I'm working on finding joy in every moment and on choosing to have a good attitude. It's a better way to live than just being annoyed or frustrated all the time, even if it takes more effort. Life is never easy, but it's always good if you look for the good in it. Thanks for all you've done to help me see the good and to be a good influence in my life; hope you have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Dean

September 23, 2012

Subject line: Where did September go?

Hey everybody,

I can't believe it's the last week of this month already. That's kind of scary, because it means time is getting shorter. On the plus side my birthday is next month, and I'm finally legal to drink! Woo! Just kidding, obviously I won't do that on the mission or after. I just had to say it because I only get one 21st birthday. :D

This week was super crazy. We had a General Authority (one of the higher-up leaders in the church) come to speak to our mission on three days, one 6-hour session a day. His name is President Ringwood and he's the Area President for this area. He had served a mission in Korea back in the dawn of time, actually the same time that President Christensen, the Mission President did. Then he came back and served as President of the late Seoul West mission a while ago, and now he's the Area President for Korea, Japan, and some other countries over here. He's spent a lot of time here. :D He was a really great speaker and really spoke with a lot of fire and enthusiasm, and I learned from him and from the Spirit a lot of things that I can do better as a missionary and as a person. This is a spiritual work, and every time I go to one of these conferences, I learn better missionary skills, but more importantly how to be a better person spiritually. And since we're in the office, we got to go to not only one day but all three days! It was awesome! 

I learned something that really affected me. President Ringwood said that if a missionary works hard, giving it all he's got, and he is righteous and faithful and obedient, then that day there will be a miracle, whether he sees it or not. It's a concept that has helped me to do my hardest and not be disappointed if something cool or miraculous doesn't happen. Also, we have to make baptism our goal and our purpose as missionaries, and exercise our faith to accomplish it, but then focus on doing the things we can control. Baptism, or conversion really, is a choice that each person we meet makes, and we don't make it for them. All we choose to do is talk to people, love them, invite them to do things like reading the scriptures or praying to find out if our message is true or being baptized. And if we do our best and the Spirit is there, we've done all we can do, and it's up to them. I also learned that exercise in the morning (part of the missionary schedule) is not optional. :D As I've been exercising lately I feel a lot more healthy. 

So preparing for that and going to it took up most of our week. But it was a really good week, and now that all the typhoons are done the weather is super nice! I love Korean autumn! The temperature is just right and it's sunny, and life is good. A couple days ago I was calling contacts that previous missionaries had made on the street, and I set an appt with a guy named Lee Hae In. He took us out to dinner at a Japanese place a couple nights ago, and as we were talking he said that he wants to learn the Bible in English from us, and also learn about how to get closer to God. So we're going to meet him tonight. It was a pretty cool thing, and I feel l like the hand of the Lord was in it. 

So that's my life right now. It's fun and I'm getting a lot of happiness from missionary work. Thanks for all you do for me and for your prayers. I love you!

Elder Matt Dean