February 5, 2012

Hey all,

This week was arguably the most eventful week of my mission life so far. First, on Monday, me and Elder Greer went to a public bathhouse for P-day, which was really awesome. I love those places. Then on Tuesday, we visited a mother in our ward named Kang Yu almost on a whim, and she gave us some really good nut drink, the name of which i can't remember right now, and jjinbbang, which is a doughy circular pastry with sweet red bean paste in it. We chatted for a while about her past with the church and things, and her family and such. Then  me and Elder Greer shared a scripture about prayer, and how if we pray in faith we will recieve answers from our Heavenly Father. She got a little teary-eyed, and explained that she had been depressed for about a month for a lot of reasons, but because she read that scripture she realized that she hadn't been praying very much. She thought that was the reason it hadn't been getting better. We promised her that things would get better somehow if she prayed for it, and asked if there was anything we could do for her. She said, "You have already done enough for me, because you helped me find the answer I needed." That was a really powerful moment for me. She is one of the best people I know, and she always seemed so happy; I had no idea that she had felt depressed when I decided that we would visit her. Only the Lord knew that, and it was amazing to realize that we had acted as tools in His hands.

That afternoon, it started snowing, and it snowed for like six hours. It was the heaviest snow I've seen in Korea so far; we probably got about three inches in one night. Me and Elder Greer were loving it. :D Our church is on a hill that's fairly steep, so we finished our things at the churhc and then ran and slid and ran and slid all the way down the sidewalk on the hill to the subway station where we were meeting one of our investigators named Seo Jin Man. We would slide for probably 10 or 15 feet at a time, since the decline was so steep. It was awesome. :D Seo Jin Man left on a two-year world travel trip yesterday, but we were seeing him for the last time last Tuesday night. We had dinner with him and then headed to Starbucks to grab some hot chocolate. He had dyed his hair super bright yellow/orange (If any of you know what Dragonball Z is, that's about how he looked^^). We talked for a while about where he would go and such, and then Elder Greer and I were able to give him a Book of Mormon, which he gladly took. I hope he reads it. He's about 28 or so, and he introduced us to a lot of Korean food in restaraunts. I will really miss him.

On wednesday, a miracle happened. We were meeting Yun Hi Guk for about the 4th time; he had come to church on Sunday, so we were expecting great things. But he told us that he came to give the Book of Mormon back to us because he didn't want to learn about the church anymore. After telling him that we respect his decisions and beliefs, we asked why he felt that way. He said it was because he didn't believe that God could really appear to Joseph Smith, and he didn't think that God answers prayers. So I did all I could do and testified that I had gotten an answer about the church, and Joseph Smith, and that if he learned about it it would make him happier and give him more peace from knowing the purpose of life and where we will go after death. Then I felt prompted to tell him that if he prayed one more time, sincerely, about Joseph Smith, he would get an answer. after thinking about it in silence for a long time, I said that maybe if he thought about it tonight and texted us later, that would be good. He agreed to that. We all prayed very hard that night. The next night he texted us and said that he didn't want to end our friendship, and that he still wanted to learn about the Church. Me and Elder Greer were really happy. :D English class on Wednesday nightwas really fun too; I learned about Korean tonguetwisters, which are actually easier for me than English tonguetwisters. It was a blast. :D

On Thursday we met a new investigator, Lee Jin Hyeop, and it was really awesome. he is 30, recently married, used to be Catholic; he seemed pretty open to learning about the Church, but at the end of the meeting when we asked him to pray about it, he declined and said, "I want to find out about Joseph Smith and all, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on it until you tell me why only believing in Jesus Christ, and not Joseph Smith, is not good enough. Until we get that resolved, then I think I won't have much motivation." Or something to that extent. I realized that I'd never really deeply thought about that viewpoint before; I figured it was a fair enough statement. Now I'm studying to find that out. It's interesting to have new paradigms and viewpoints to look through as a missionary.

On Friday, me and Elder Greer visited Sister Han Lee Im (Lee Im is her given name), who is a mother of about 50 or 60, along with her husband, Kang Jong Tae. We talked a lot about things; she is really fun to talk to. Really energetic. Then at one point, Elder Greer asked about her mother, whom we knew had had surgery on her hip recently. her mother is probably about 86. She started crying a little and said her mother is not doing well. She talked about how wonderful of an example her mother is, how devotedly she served other people all her life. After she regained her composure a little, she told us a story called the Boulder Face. This is actually an American story that she read in a book in school, but me and Elder Greer didn't know it, which she got a kick out of. :D Here is how it goes:

"Once upon a time in a mountain village, there was a huge boulder in the likeness of a face. The villagers all thought it looked like a great, powerful, majestic leader; and they all hoped that someday a leader bearing that face would come to lead their village in wisdom and strength. One boy among them wanted this more than anyone else, and he could often be seen staring up at the Boulder Face; you could see in his eyes that he was thinking, "Please, great leader, come and lead our village to glory."

"The years passed, and a man came to their village. He showed forth wisdom in the councils of the elders, and had a fair likeness of the Boulder Face. Everyone thought he was their leader. But then in an attack from a neighboring village, he was killed because he lacked the strength to fight. Everyone sorrowed, and waited anew for the leader with the Boulder Face to come. The boy prayed and hoped and looked at the Boulder Face, but the leader didn't come.

"A while later another man came to the village, just in time to save a man whose quarry cart had fallen and nearly crushed him. It was easily seen that he had great strength and valor. But it was just as easily seen that he did not have the brains to back up his brawn, and the people still waited for the leader with the Boulder Face to come. But the boy didn't give up hope.

"The boy grew in strength and maturity, until one day the villagers were damming a river to make a reservoir. The dam started to burst, and some people were in danger of drowning, but the boy devised a plan to save them and the dam, and he was instrumental in carrying it out. He led with power and authority, and as he was straining to hold a log to be propped against the dam, another villager looked up and saw the young man's face profiled against the Face on the mountainside. 'It's him! It's the Great Leader!' he cried. After the dam was patched, the young man was carried on their shoulders to the village, where he reigned in wisdom and power all his days."

I added a lot of content there to make it interesting. :D but the moral of the story she told us was, as we watch the great examples in our lives and try to emulate them, someday, gradually, we become like them. She said her mother was a great example in her life, and we promised to pray for them all.

Then, Saturday was proabably a classic missionary day in Seoul Korea. Me and Elder Greer got up at 6:30, exercised till 7, started study ant 8, had lunch at 12, and left the house at 1 just like every other day. We walked/slid in the snow up to the church to get the signs required to go "streetboarding," which is a classic proselyting activity where we go to a place with stoplights and crosswalks and talk to people and introduce the Church to them using signs that we have on eisels(sp?). We did that for about an hour and a half and froze our hands off and talked to a bunch of people, and ended up getting the number of one interested person. We grabbed some hot chocolate at the nearby GS25 mart, and then headed back up to the church for our appointment, where we found a new investigator, Bryan, who has English interest but also interest in the Church. That appointment went late, so we ran to dinner, where we found another guy that spoke English and had interest in the Church a little. Then we booked it back to the church building to meet Lee Jun Jae, who is getting baptized this Saturday! It was a good meeting. Then we booked it to a government building where we had said we would meet another new investigator, but he didn't show. he lied ( in missionary jargon that's "being punked"). So we ran back to the churhc for our final appt that night with Yun Hi Guk, and we helped him realize that it was the Spirit that had changed his thoughts, and I knew that I had acted under the Spirit to promise him that. Then we ran home because we were late. Such a classic, packed, crazy, amazing day. :D

Then yesterday we had a dinner at our Bishop's house where we played a dice game called Bluff, which also goes by Pirates' Dice (as seen in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie), and we had to run back to the church to meet Bryan again, and it went really well. So that was my amazing week. My studies were all good, and I learned a lot about the gospel.This took a long time to type, so I hope you enjoy it. Maybe I'll add more details to the Boulder Face story sometime later. :D

The food of the week is rice. Everyone likes it. The End. (I'm out of time^^) I love you all, I hope you have a good week!

January 29, 2012

Hey all,

The Korean Lunar New Year went really well here. We had a huge missionary conference with half the mission, and we got training on recieving revelation to do missionary work. After that we just hung out and played games with other missionaries. Around the new year here, you see tons of people walking around with gift sets of food or whatever, to give to their families. A large percentage of people leave Seoul to go to their family's ancestral home or just their parent's home to be with each other, so on the New Year the streets are kind of dead. Koreans play Yunnori on Lunar New Year, a traditional Korean game that resembles Sorry, only you throw dowels into the air and see how they land instead of dice. Yunnori is definitely better than Sorry. :D Some ward members wore their Hanbok to church, which is traditional Korean clothing. The New Year is celebrated from the day before the actual New Years Day till the day after, and the dates of the three days change from year to year. This is because the Lunar calendar has only 29 to 30 days per month, while the Solar calendar has 30 to 31. I don't know how the Lunar new year ends up being around the same time every solar year if that is the case, but whatever. :D It was a good week this week, but it already feels like it was forever ago because a lot has happened since then.

I think the best things that  happened this week were our investigators being awesome and my studies going really well. Firstly, our two best investigators, Lee Jun Jae and Yun Hi Guk, both came to church! Woo! that's the most investigators I've ever had at church at a time. It was awesome! They both liked it, they said. I might not have mentioned Yun Hi Guk before, but he is a college kid of 22 years in American age, and he's studying to be an environmental engineer. We met him on the street, which involved a miracle all by itself. Me and Elder Greer were going streetboarding, which involves putting up a sign about the Church and trying to get people to talk to you and look at it, and we couldn't find a spot. So we wandered around in the cold for half an hour looking for a spot, getting slightly discouraged. we finally settled on one by the exit of a subway, which we assumed would give us a few people to talk to. but as soon as we got set up, these two drunk old guys across the sidewalk from us started yelling at us, because they were selling random junk and baked potatoes to people and they thought we'd mess up their business. So we fought back the frustration and anger that comes from people treating you like dirt and moved to another spot. By this time we were pretty discouraged, but we kept on trying. And it was lucky we did, because I ended up talking to Yun Hi Guk! We set an appointment, he took it all in really well, and he now has a date to be baptized. It was a real testimony builder to me that the Lord can and will use tough situations to lead us to the people who are prepared to hear the message. We are followers of Christ; we have to be able to deal with getting rejected, because who else got rejected? He did. If you're not willing to get rejected, you're not really following in His path. That's what one of our leaders told us in a training. Hard truth, but it's true. And when we do sacrifice and try to be like Christ and work really hard to do what we know is right, that's when the blessings really flow. God doesn't leave us alone if we truly try our best. I was humbled by that experience, and I'm glad the Lord gave me a chance to come here and serve Him and my fellow man, and become a little more like Christ.

My fingers kind of hurt now because that was a lot of typing really fast. :D It's the fifth week of my fourth transfer/six week period here, and usually the average staying time in one area is three transfers, so it's unlikely that I'll stay for another one. However, I'll go where the Lord wants me to go. I'll have to live up the time that I still have left with the awesome members here, and try to serve them as best as I can.

By the way, I sent out a bunch of pictures to everyone, but some people's servers wouldn't accept the messages because the file size was too large. But my mom's email recieved them, I think, and you can view them on my blog if she ends up putting them on there. (Note from Matt's mom: see below for the pictures).

Because lunar new year was this week, the food of the week is ddeokguk, which is a soup made from dok that Koreans eat on this holiday. Ddeok is a really chewy, firm, soft rice cake made from ground rice and other things. It's basically bread made from rice without yeast, actually--the Korean analogue of bread. It's pretty good, there are lots of ways to eat it. Ddeokguk is a cream color, and it usually has miyeok (seaweed) and eggs in it. Very delicious soup.

:D

So, in short, this is about the happiest I've ever been on my mission.

me and Elder Greer get along great, we have awesome people to teach that actually are willing to experiment on the message and try praying about it, the weather is not as brutally cold as it was last year, and I can speak Korean fairly well. I've got to make sure to glory in this good time in case some hard times are coming up. :D I love you all, thank you for your prayers and your emails. Have a great week!

Elder Matt Dean


Note from Matt's mom: I found out that the side-ways 'Peace' sign means 'Love you' - that's why Elder Dean and Elder Greer are always making that sign in their pictures.

Matt's companion, Elder Greer. "He doesn't usually dress like that."




Elder Dean and his recent convert, Choi Heyon Chang. "He's doing awesome!"





Elder Dean in the trunk of a member's car. "There wasn't enough room to ride in the seats
because there were too many people."



"This sister lived in our ward, but then she went on a mission. Her visa was delayed, so she is serving in Seoul right now, but she will go to Temple Square eventually. She is wearing Hanbok, traditional Korean clothing."

Elder Greer, their Mission President, Lee Yong Hwan, and Elder Dean

Elder Greer and Elder Dean in front of the King Saejong Statue in Gwanghawamun Square.
"King Saejong invented the written Korean language. He's pretty much like George Washington or the
Founding Fathers here in Korea."



"A typical street in Korea. This one had a market on it."





Matt said he and Elder Greer were waiting for an appointment and chatting with
the sister missionaries (who were making something). "Random, but we thought it was
funny." Looks to me like they were being weird more than anything!



Elder Greer - in missionary clothes this time!



January 24, 2012

Note from Matt's mom: So it was the Lunar New Year, not the Chinese New Year.

Hey all,

I'm sorry I didn't email on monday, all the stores were closed because of the Lunar New Year. Life is good here, though, in almost all respects.

So it turns out that my email time got cut very, very short this week, so I have basically no time to write again, sorry. :D

However, I had a great Lunar New Year over here, and things are going really well right now. We found an investigator who is our age, and he already said he would be baptized if he found out this is all true! He has great real intent. I love meeting people like that. We're meeting him again tonight, and we're planning on extending a date to him for next month sometime. Please pray for him, his name is Kim Hee Guk.

I didn't get to go to the palace last week, because it turns out that Tuesday is the only day of the week that it's closed. Grr. But we will probably go in the next couple weeks. Guess what? It snowed today! We have like an inch. I think that makes 5 inches total that I've seen in Korea in 12 months. I did get a decent camera too, and I'm really glad I did. It's got nothing on the one Grandpa gave me, though.

The food of the week is called samgyeopsal, which is like really big, thick bacon that you fry right on the table and eat with lettuce and other things. It's super good, we had it this afternoon. Contrast that with the other stuff I've told you about, and this seems amazing. :D

That's about all I know. I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

January 24, 2012

Note from Elder Dean's mom: We did not receive a letter from Matthew yesterday because (we are assuming) all of Asia is celebrating the Chinese New Year, and he did not have access to a computer. Just think, about a year ago today, he was just arriving in Korea!

January 15, 2012

Hey all,

So, I'm here at the Gwanak City Office, which has four public computers with the rule that you can only use them for 10 minutes at a time before you have to switch off, because there are a lot of people that want to use them. So, this one will be fairly short, sorry. :D

This week was ok. Our investigator with a baptismal date, Lee Jun Jae, wasn't able to make it to church this last Sunday, so we have to move his date back to the 11th of February. I really hope I will be here to see him get baptized, because that's right around transfers....but in any case, the important thing is him getting baptized, not me seeing it.

Other than that...tomorrow we are going to the Gyeongbokgung, which is the palace right by the Blue House, Korea's version of the White house. It should be pretty awesome. I'll take lots of pictures and send them to my parents ASAP. We also have the temple visit tomorrow, which should be amazing too. I love the feeling of closeness to God that we can recieve in the temple. I have a feeling I'll grow to love it even more when I can go more often, but for now the amount that I can do is enough. As I heard a missionary in Utah once say, "We're here to do work for the living right now, not the dead." Kind of strange, but true.

Laziness is always a struggle. We all know how easy it is to only do 80% of what we know we can do, instead of 100%. Or how easy it is to keep almost all the commandments. But I've found that even though it's really hard, the blessings that come from obedience are worth it. The trick is finding a balance between concentrating too much on the rules and forgetting to have fun, and letting the rules go to the wind in favor of having a good time. That's one of the fundamental things I've been working on for a while, but the older I get, the closer I come to finding the answer.

Well, time is running out. I know that God lives, more than everything else, and with from that fact we build our lives and our faith. Thanks for all you've done for me, and for all you continue to do.

The food of the week is mook, which is acorn jelly about the consistency of jello. When you have it with soy sauce as a side dish with rice, it's really awesome. :D

I love you all, and I hope you have a good week. Anyeonghikaeseyo!

Elder Matt Dean

January 8, 2012

Dear Everybody,

Things are going so good here right now! One of our investigators with a baptismal date, Lee Jun Jae, came to church for the first time yesterday. Someone tapped me on the back of the shoulder as the Sacrament was ending, and I looked back and saw him in the back, and I was so happy. :D I went and sat by him, and i could just feel that he was really happy or content or something, some positive feeling coming from him. It was way good. And then after the meeting, a bunch of our members came up to him and introduced themselves, and generally showed interest in him, which is so important to someone new to the church. One of our members who I know fairly well, Sister Jang Mi Sook, even invited Lee Jun Jae and me and my companion to dinner on Wednesday! We are really looking forward to that. That whole day was just one big success story, and I'm really happy right now.

By the way, I'm staying in Bong Cheon for another six weeks, in case you couldn't already tell. :D For those who don't know, it's a residential area near downtown Seoul that's right near Seoul National University. It's pretty metro, lots of people, lots of cars, lots of civilization and all. Unfortunately, it'll probably be my last six weeks here, because I've been here for a long time and they generally don't leave us in an area for super long. I will really miss this ward, as much as my greenie ward. They are all so nice and generous, and I can feel their love almost every time I talk to them. I will be sure to live these last weeks up as much as I can before I have to head out.

The weather is getting pretty cold now, but things are good. I have lots of warm clothes, and the gospel, and an amazing family and lots of friends here in Korea and in America. It's always good to look at the positives if you can, because there really are so many. The Lord has helped me so much to learn Korean and gain charity and work hard, and most of all, to repent. I'm so glad I have this gospel in my life, because through the gospel I have the assurance that my life has a purpose, that I can live with my family forever, and I can be peaceful and happy in this life. And that's why I'm a missionary right now, so I can tell everybody about it and help them see the happiness and the good things I have. The great thing about the gospel is, it applies to everybody and it will help everybody that will open their heart to it. I don't blame anyone who doesn't, though, because we can all make our choices and live our lives the way we want. That freedom means a lot to me, and I'm learning more and more not to infringe upon it while still making my message clear. I love this missionary work, I love the Lord, and I love all of you!

So, lately, it's been hard to come up with "You Know You're In Korea When..." moments, so I'm going to change to "Food of the Week" for a while. This week, it's soondae. To make soondae, you basically take cow intestine and stuff it full of stuffing or something, and then fry it or eat it with sauce or just eat it with saltiness on it. I had two of the three this week, and I had the third method a long time ago in my greenie area. It takes a little getting used to, but if I were really hungry it'd be awesome. :D The end.

Thank you to everyone for all you've done for me. I can't take the time to thank you individually, but just know that I appreciate all of you so much. Have a good week!

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




Elder Dean with his current companion, Elder Greer

 




Attending a Lantern Festival

 


Who's grumpier?! Olympic Park east of Seoul that was built for the Olympics in the 80's.

 

Sitting on an Anti-Aircraft Cannon at the Korean War Memorial







Elder Dean on the street