June 24, 2012

Hey everybody, 

So, I'll tell you the story of my life last Monday night Korea time. We finished our P-day of eating pancakes and writing letters with other missionaries, and then went out to proselyte. We knocked on doors basically the whole night, which in Korea is not the most productive thing to do, but we had no appointments and it's better than wandering around. We didn't end up getting anywhere with door knocking, but we did have a 20-minute conversation with a guy that runs a Family Mart on the corner over there. (when I say conversation I mean that the guy stood there and talked to me about everything from Korean school system to economics. I hardly got a word in edgewise, but he was nice:D) Throughout the whole day I was getting progressively more excited. I might have said this before, but transfer call night is one of my favorite things ever! you go through the p-day wondering, "Will I get transferred? Will I stay? What will happen to my companion???" Then 9:00 comes, and both you and your companion know that you won't put tons of energy into planning tonight but you'll try anyway because it's the right thing to do. Me and Elder Larson finished at 9:20. Then...the wait. This is the best part of transfer call night. I sit there and my hands start shaking, and the butterflies start flying around in my stomach, and I watch the clock, and just sit there getting really excited. It's the best. :D So anyway, Elder Larson had told the assistants to the president to call us first if we were staying, because he's friends with one of them. 9:30 came....and went. Aaah! We were like, "Maybe they forgot." We were both figuring we'd stay so I can "kill" him next transfer. 9"40....9:50.... By this time we were freaking out! We played a game of Egyptian Rat Screw to kill time (which I won, haha!). Then finally at like 10:15, the call came....and it was President Lee. "Dean changno! (that's Elder in Korean) You will go to Sindang. Your companion will be Elder Jeong Hoyong." I couldn't believe it. I only got to Gangneung like 12 weeks before and everything was stacked for me to stay there and have the best last transfer for Elder Larson, but.... I got transferred. Wow. That took forever to type.

I find it funny that the romanization of 신당 turns out to be a word made up of "sin" and "dang." :D It's actually pronounced "sheen-long." Languages are never ever translated perfectly unless they are Spanish and English. This area is literally in the heart of Seoul. It's district name means "center district." It's pretty near the old downtown of Gwangwhamun, and it's definitely the most metro place I've been in so far (which, with only four areas, is not saying much). comparing it to Gangneung is like comparing night to day almost. The ward has like a hundred people. My companion is Korean obviously, and we were in the MTC together. So needless to say we are tearing it up right now! It was hard to adjust again so soon after I transferred last time; it's been really weird but really fun. I'm sad that I don't get to see Elder Larson off, and that I had to leave Gangneung, but there are so many great things about this place. The ward has fed us like three times since Wednesday, which is remarkable considering that they all knew that the missionary I replaced would be going home. last transfer was his last. And even though that missionary that they knew so well is gone, they were still willing to invite us over for meals. This is one of the strongest wards in the mission, and I'm really happy to be here. Actually the headquarters of the Church in Korea is the second and third floors of our church building, which is pretty cool. They have a lot of translators for the church that work here. Our missionary apartment is super nice too. So all in all I think it is a good change; the one thing I don't like is that the people in Seoul are definitely not as nice on the street as the people in Gangneung. They're all super-busy and they've been attacked by other churches' missionaries before; sometimes those missionaries can be pretty vicious. But I've talked to some super nice people so far. There's definitely tons more people here.

My new comp is so funny. He speaks pretty good English, and he knows funny words like "goober" and "lerpy" from serving around Americans for his whole mission. He's a really hard worker, and I'm glad to be here working with him. He's from down south in Korea, but not that far south. We have a fun time; he's one of the funniest people I've ever served with. Hopefully it rubs off on me. :D

We spend a lot of time with the youth of this ward. We figure that they are the ones that can benefit most from our strength and who can refer the most out of their friends. There's one named Hyeonchang who is so funny. he's like 13, and he's super chubby and just a funny kid. He was baptized a couple years ago, and still comes to church even though his friend who introduced him to it doesn't come anymore. We play basketball a lot with him and a couple other youth. We call him King Kong, which he hates, and one time I said it and he started punching me and accidentally got me below the belt, so I was out for a couple minutes. He felt really bad. :D We're constantly working to keep them coming out. I had a swordfight with another of the youth--I used a baseball bat and he used a mop. He cut off my leg first,and then I got his arm, and after a couple minutes of fierce battle I finally ended up getting cut in half across the chest. It was super fun. :D 

I have more I could tell about but not tons of time. I'll be sure to put more info about the new ward in next week's email. Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Matt Dean

June 17, 2012

Hey all,

So I spent most of the time that I have to email today writing a letter to my Dad for Fathers' Day and another one to my Mom for Mothers' Day, since I'm such a devoted son that I waited a month to write to her. :D So, this email won't be that long. Luckily not much happened this week. We picked up a really cool new investigator named Lee Hae Min; she's 17 and is really good at English considering she's only studied in Korea, and she seems to have some church interest too. I'll keep you posted on her. Also transfer calls are tonight, but it's looking like both me and Elder Larson will stay for another six weeks. I'll let you know about that one too. Anyway, time's just about up, so I hope you all have a good week!

If you look really closely, you'll see a Lego Chewbacca in the upper left hand corner of his sign - funny!

Elder Matt Dean

June 10, 2012

Hey everybody,

So this week I'm doing some computer work to transfer files onto a memory card to send to my parents, so this email might not be very long. Sorry in advance. :D

Last week was pretty crazy. On Monday we went to another area called Wonju for a baptismal interview and then slept the night there, because we had to go to Seoul the next day and Wonju is on the way. That day was pday, so we emailed and shopped and then I worked out with another elder named Elder Rife. He is ridiculously big and strong, but it was cool because he was patient with me and didn't make fun of me because I can only lift a third of the weight that he can. When he had all his weight on the bar was bending slightly. :D I always thought weightlifting would be pretty boring, but it's actually really fun. It's a good stress reliever too--like Elder Rife said, "you can't think about anything else with 200 pounds over your head." (I only lifted 120 pounds^^)

Then on Tuesday we went into Seoul for our Zone Leader Council, the last one with President Lee Yong Hwan before he goes home. That was pretty sad, we will miss him a lot. He leaves on the 30th and President Christiansen comes in the same day. I heard they aren't allowed to talk at all, which is interesting.

Thursday was pretty crazy. We went to a youth activity with our branch, and they originally planned to go fishing, but nothing was prepared so we just played basketball instead. That was fun. Then we went home to clean up, and as Elder Larson was making rice the sink exploded! Water was shooting in a jet horizontally out of the wall, and getting everywhere. I stood blocking the jet with my hand while he looked for the water shutoff, but stupidly it was not under the sink. I found the piece that blew out and tried to screw it back in, but it didn't work and just sprayed more water everywhere. Finally Elder Larson went next door to the neighboring apartment and asked, and it turns out it was in a panel in our bathroom. That is a dumb place to put a water shutoff; they should at least have an individual one for the sink. I got soaking wet, but it was kind of nice because it was hot that day. :D A piece had just slowly come unscrewed, and it happened to pop off while we were there, which was definitely a blessing. If we had been out when that happened it would have been bad.

Yesterday we met with two people who were not Korean, a Chinese kid named Lee Seong Mun and a guy from Pakistan named Shafqut Ullah. It was interesting to teach them because we could barely communicate with Lee Seong Mun, but he was so sincere, and we gave him the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet in Chinese, and he said he would read them. Also we talked with Shafqut for a while, and it was really interesting to learn about Pakistan from the point of view of somebody who came from there, and also from someone who isn't Christian or Buddhist, the two dominant religions of Korea. I feel like it widened my horizons a little bit. He said he wants to have a barbeque with us, so if that ever happens I'll let you know. :D

That's about all. Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

June 3, 2012

Hey all,

So this has been a crazy week! We ended up going to Seoul twice, once for a conference and once because me and Elder Larson have to go to Zone Leader Council. And then on the weekend we had our Branch Conference/ 30 year anniversary of the missionaries entering Gangneung Party. So from the morning on Saturday to the evening we were cleaning or practicing the chior number or listening to talks; we didn't proselyte at all on Saturday. :D Definitely not a normal week at all.

Funny moment: We were visiting an old, old member of our ward who is about to pass on, and he said he needed adult diapers that day. So we went to the nearest store that would have them and ended up having to ask somebody. That was pretty embarrassing, but it was worse when she told us they didn't have them, so we trundled on over to Emart on our bikes and had to carry a package of Depends through throngs of people (Emart is a multi-story shopping center, like Walmart on steriods).

They all probably think the missionaries in Gangneung are incontinent.

:D hen I had to ride on my bike on a road between rice fields with the sun glinting off the water, illuminating the bag of adult diapers I was holding in the air. If you had shown me a list of things I thought I would do on my mission before I left, that wouldn't have been one I would have checked off. :D

Also on Monday we were waiting for some high school kids to show up so we could play basketball with them, and these four girls that were like 11 walked by on the street. They ran over and were like "We want to play too!" So we started "playing" with them, which really just consisted of them throwing the ball up in the general direction of the hoop. Then more kids walked by, and more, and soon we were in the midst of like 20 little kids, and we realized they were from the orphanage next to the church. :D We played with them for probably 20 minutes, and it was madness. There was one little girl that would scream for me to pass the ball, and then she would tuck it under and just run, not even dribbling. half the time she would just end up giving it back. :D Elder Larson said that at one point I had got the ball and was holding it straight up high in the air, and there were about 50 little hands reaching up all around me. It was so fun! Then later the kids came and it was real basketball, which I'm not good at, so it was not so fun. :D

Thse pictures I sent were from me going to the beach the first time and from our baptism. That's probably 2/3 of the branch here. I would send more today but the computer is being dumb and I don't have lots of time. Instead I'll send a memory card home soon, and my parents can upload some onto my blog for all y'all.

On the way home from Seoul on the bus, I had a cool realization. If you look hard enough, you can find the answer to almost any question in the scriprtures! How to be a good son, how to have fire for missionary work, how to lead by example, becoming more like the Savior, being a good brother or father, focusing on the work, more love for fellow man, balancing spiritual life with temporal, self-improvment, more self-confidence, raising children, everything!

It's really cool. I love the scriptures and how they help us out if we approach it with an open mind and some effort. I knew with my head that they had all the answers before, but I felt it for the first time on the bus that day. I heard a Korean proverb that said, "The longest journey in the world is from the head to the heart, and then the heart to the feet." Very deep, huh?

Well, that's about all. :D I love you all, and I want to send a shoutout to my brother Austin who just graduated high school. Hope you have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean



Elder Dean at the beach on P-Day (they didn't go swimming).



Elder Larson, Hwang Gi Seok, and Elder Dean on Hwang Gi Seok's baptism day.



Members of the branch Elder Dean and Elder Larson are currently serving in - they are standing on the back row.