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