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