April 10, 2011

Dear Family,
This week was pretty good. General Conference was probably the best part, though. It was amazing! The priesthood session in particular was really great. It was probably the best one I can remember; or rather, the one that touched me the most. I still treasure the times I went to the Conference Center with Dad, though, those were as good as watching it in Korea. We gathered in a little room in our ward building and watched the DVDs in English; I'm impressed that the Church could translate all five sessions into Korean, burn them on DVDs, and ship them out to Korea in a week. Some of the ward members who speak English watched with us too, which was cool. I really like this one family, the Ha family.I'll talk about them later. :D I really liked all of the First Presidency's talks, and Elder Bednar. Each one of those had something in them that applied to me, or answered a question I had, or touched me in some way. It was a great Conference, and I can't wait for the Liahona to come out next month.
It's cool they had the special on the MTC! That showed you ten weeks of my life that I couldn't really express through email. You didn't get it all, though, there were still crazy things we did and secret stuff that won't ever make it to a documentary. We were a bunch of 19-year-olds, what did you expect? :D
Congrats on your anniversary! 27 years...That's kind of a long time. I was about to say that that's longer than I've been alive, and then I was like, "Oh, duh. Of course it is." I may be a valedictorian, but I'm not that smart. :D But really, having two amazing parents back home is such a blessing to me. I don't have to do this alone, because I have you and Austin. Thanks for sacrificing your lives to raise us in the Gospel and provide for our needs; I can never pay you back enough.
I'm glad Emmy {our cat} is doing ok. And that she still attacks you at night. :D
You sent another package?! That's awesome! I wasn't expecting another one for a long time. Candy and toys...In a couple weeks, life will be real good. :D감사합니다!/Kamsahamnida!
We've been to McDonalds a few times since being here. We get ice cream there fairly often; it's exactly like America, except the meals are smaller. Asians don't like to eat huge amounts of greasy food, for some silly reason. :D Costco is really awesome too, except everything is really expensive because it's imported. A one pound-bag of MnM's? Fifteen bucks, right there. Ouch.
What were your favorite parts of conference? Also, what are the principles of making a budget? We have to manage our own money here, and it can be hard sometimes. Lastly, could you send me my record number? I think I need it to be able to baptize/confirm people.
I'm going to send you a new testimony someday, better than the two-liner I sent for Camp Helaman. That one is way too short!
The Bishop sent me an email, which was pretty cool. I miss him, he was an amazing Bishop and member of the ward.
The work is going pretty well. We found two new investigators who speak english: Andy and Florence. They are maybe mid-twenties, really young for a Koren married couple, and they are really nice! they are moving to Canada sometime this year, and they wanted to come to an English-speaking church. our church is in Korean, but they still came and watched General Conference with us in English! They said they can come to church next week, and I have high hopes for them.  contacting on the street is still pretty tough. I can't do conversation beyond, "hi, how are you, where are you from, do you work around here," etc. but that's all you need to transition to the gospel. I can talk about that. :D For language study, I do fifteen minutes vocaburlary, fifteen grammar, fifteen reading out loud or side-by-side with english (for reading comprehension) and fifteen minutes of memorizing scriptures or phrases in Korean. It's working pretty well, I think! I love memorizing scriptures in Korean. I did James 1:5 a couple weeks ago, and I really felt the Spirit confirm to me that the Lord really does give to those who ask Him. And it wasn't even in English. :D We actually teach an English class, but I agree with Dad that it's hard to find things that will be beneficial for them. But we have fun anyway. :D
I forgot that I told Kimee to wait till I could write her...oops. I didn't write that down, and if I don't write it down, it doesn't happen. Tell her I'm really sorry, if you can, and that I'm awaiting her next letter.
Well, I'd better email Grandma and Grandpa. I love you all; I hope austin feels better soon, and that he keeps on owning those Grunts {on the '[Call of Duty' x-Box game} for me; and I'll talk to you next week!
Love, Elder Matt Dean