December 2, 2012

Subject line: What the? Last letter?

Well, everybody, this is it. My heart is pounding with a zillion different emotions right now, because this is the last letter home I will write as a missionary. I remember hearing people say that two years went by really fast for them as they neared the end, and I would think, "Man, I don't know what they're talking about, it definitely feels like Ive been out a year, no less!" But right now, at this moment, I can say that I don't know where the time went. It's been fantastic, on the whole.

My immediate family wrote really good last letters; I don't know if i can measure up. :D I'll tell you what I'll be doing for the next few days, I guess. Oh, before that I have one thing to gloat about: Korea is ahead of the USA on time, so while all you in America have 5 days till you see me, I only have 4 days till I see you.:D Living in the future definitely has its benefits!

Today for Pday me and Elder Luker (one of the office elders here) are going to buy some sweet Korean suits for 60 bucks. Then we're going to hang out with other missionaries for the rest of Pday. Tonight we are going to dinner with a girl who we baptized yesterday and her friends from the church that referred her. By the way, the baptism went really well yestderday! Her given name is Jinhae, and she's 16 American age. She's doing really well, and she has so much support from her friends that referred her and from Elder Yoon that I'm sure she'll do great. Elder Yoon baptized her and she'll get confirmed next week; it's sad I didn't get to see that but it's ok. So we'll go to dinner with them tonight. Tomorrow we're picking up the new missionaries (who don't go home till 2015! Haha!), and the next day is transfers. So I'm going with Elder Lee Gyeomjin, my last companion, to visit some members from his favorite ward and my first ward. Then that night he has the final interview with President. The next day we'll probably do some shopping in the afternoon and I'll have my final interview with President before the final dinner and testimony. Then on Friday morning we head to the airport! Now I'm getting really excited. :D It'll be a good week. I'll try not to spend too much money. :D

As I think about my mission, there are definitely things I could have done better. I've spent too much time judging myself for my weaknesses and mistakes though, so I think today I'll just say that I think I did a dang good job. :D But seriously, I think I served a really good mission in that it wasn't perfect but that I tried to see how I could improve all the time, and I did my best to fix what I could. And I always, always tried to be obedient to the rules and the commandments, even now, I'm still doing that. John 14:15 says, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." I think that obedience is one of the best ways to show our love for God, and I really love Him. Looking back over what I've done, I can say with confidence that my actions reflect that.

Being on a mission really makes you realize what the important things are. Family. Love. Hard work. The Lord. Living what you believe.  There are things that bring you temporary happiness, like music or video games or sports or a bunch of other things. I love those things, but what will give you permanent and lasting happiness are the things I said above. I hope and pray that I won't get swallowed up in the worldly things and go right back to the way I was, becoming an entertainment zombie or a slave to study or be eaten up by materialism again. Please help me not to do that, everybody. I think that more than anything else is what I fear. But I have faith that as long as I maintain my relationship with the Lord that everything will be ok.

I feel torn in half right now, really. My heart does. But someday I'll be back here, I can just feel it. I can't see myself living here, but my future is somehow linked to Korea. I'll be back someday.

Well, enough rambling. :D I know this church is true, and more importantly than that, God and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost really live, love us, and guide us. It's our job to seek them in our lives and apply their teachings to our daily actions. And when we do, that's when we're truly happy. I really know those things and I can never deny them without some pretty serious things happening. If I ever do, somebody please punch me in the face or something. :D Just kidding, that won't happen. I love you all, and I'm excited to see you in only 4 days. :D

Love, Elder Matt Dean

Final note from Matt's Mom:
Matt comes home this Friday, the 7th, and will speak in the Chapel Hills Ward (1290 N. Church Street) at 11:00 on Sunday, December 9th. Please join us at our home (1208 E. 2350 N.) afterwards for an Open House to visit with Matt. Thank you to everyone who has supported Matt and our family while he served his mission - we love and appreciate all of you, and hope to see you on Sunday!!

November 25, 2012

Note from Matt's mom: Matt will fly home on Friday, December 7!! His homecoming will be in the Chapel Hills Ward on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 11:00. We will have an Open House at our home (1208 E. 2350 N.) after Sacrament Meeting that day.

Subject line: Wow, 2nd to last letter

Hey all,

Happy late Thanksgiving! Can't believe the time has gone so fast this last transfer, it's been unreal. There have been so many things that came up, so much busyness, that the 6 weeks have flown by. Now I'm on my last week of full proselyting and it's looking like a really good week. Last week we went to an American family's house on base, the Clarkes, and had an awesome dinner. They had 3 kids, Max (4), Riley (girl-9) and Cory (boy-12), and they were super fun to be around. We played games and talked for the afternoon and then had dinner in the evening. One of the games we played was called Stratego and it was actually super fun, I'd never heard of it before. Another one was this game where you write a funny sentence on the top of the paper and pass it to someone else, and then they draw a picture according to the sentence and fold the sentence down so you can only see the picture. Then they pass it to somebody else and they write a sentence and then fold the picture down, and so on. Every time I've ever played that game at a party it's been hilarious, and I wasn't disappointed this time. We had one go from "I like pie and ice cream" to "A guy shoots mashed potatoes with laser vision." :D and the pictures were awesome. The Clarkes were both returned missionaries from the same mission (they actually really didn't like each other on their mission), some mission in Texas. They said that from that mission, 9 couples got married, which is crazy! It'd be cool to speak the same language as each other, though, that would be way fun if I could find someone that spoke Korean. I don't have my hopes up though, not many people speak Korean in America yet. Anyway, Thanksgiving was awesome and I ate till I couldn't move.

I'm a little pressed for time today but I want to say thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement these last 2 years. I can't wait to see you all again soon. Love you!

Elder Matt Dean

November 19, 2012

Subject line: The time is at hand......

Hey everyone!

So, I heard that I have to come home soon. I refuse to do a countdown or anything like that, that would just make me trunky. But I'm busy enough here that I'm not finding it hard to focus. We have another baptism coming up this week! A member's friend's daughter has decided to join the church, so we're teaching her the lessons and hopefully she'll be baptized this Saturday. Amid all that, our ward is combining with another ward, which shouldn't be that big of a deal but some members made it that way. We're actually hoping that we can get two baptisms this weekend, one from each ward, which would be way cool. I'm really thankful to the Lord for these great blessings we're seeing.

We had the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Korea mission on Sunday. It was super crazy, lots of last-minute things going on that we had to organize, like clearing parking for VIPs, getting ushers, practicing a song as a mission that we had never practiced all together before, and lots of other stuff. But it ended up going really well! The music was fantastic. There was a violinist who is blind who did things with a violin that I didn't know were possible, and a couple opera singers, and just some really great music all around. Then in the fireside portion of the whole thing, we had a Catholic priest whom our church leaders invited come and talk for a while, and it was really good. He was very friendly. Then we had three prior mission presidents come and speak about the beginning of the Korea mission, the  middle days, and the most recent times. We also had a slideshow with some really old pictures that we were lucky to find, which was way cool. Pictures of the first buildings our churh built in Korea and the first missionaries, prophets visiting the saints there, etc. After the fireside we had some refreshments, and then we went home. The speakers went a little over, so the fireside lasted for an hour longer than planned, but it all turned out ok, luckily. I'm glad it went well and I'm glad it's over. :D

Now I'm on splits in Gangneung, one of my previous areas! I'm working with Elder Coward from Australia for a couple days. He's really cool, really easy to get along with. It's weird being back here, among the people I once lived with and went to church with. But it's also really good.

I feel like I'm closer to God and more aware of Him than ever before in my life, as I finish out this time. That's the best thing I've found here, I think. I love this work, I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

November 18, 2012

Hey all,

So here's the deal. I'm going on splits with the missionaries out in 강릉/Gangneung (two of my areas ago!) and they are taking their p-day tomorrow instead of today. So I'll email you tomorrow. I have good news, so you'll have to just bear with the suspense till then. :D

Love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

November 12, 2012

No letter today - Matt just wrote that today's P-day is crazy, and that he didn't have time to write anything more.   ~ Matt's mom

November 5, 2012

Subject line: Super cool week!!

Hey all!

So this week was really, really cool. On about Tuesday of this week, 6 days ago, we started coordinating with some people in China who wanted to come to Korea to get baptized. After a lot of calls and emails, we were able to settle on a date, and two Chinese guys named Richie and Kick (in English^^) came to Korea on Saturday! They ended up coming out of the wrong gate, so it was hard to find them, but we finally got them and came back with them on the subway. They were both like late 20s and one was married. Their story is super cool. Richie decided that he wanted to have religion, so he started searching on the internet. Then he found our church, and tried to contact a member in China. But in China religion is so restricted that it was super hard, and he'd get in contact but then it would end up not working, off and on. Then, after a really long time of no contact, someone called him, and he and his friend were able to finally come to Korea. They got all the missionary lessons on Saturday and were both baptized, and it went really well. I baptized Richie in Chinese!!! I recorded them saying the prayer in Chinese and then practiced for forever. :D It was a really cool experience. I've been praying most days this transfer for a baptism, and even though they didn't come the normal way of us finding them on a street or anything, it still happened! I'm so happy for Richie and Kick, they've spent so much time and money to get here and get baptized. That was the only reason they came, which I think is really cool. They leave tomorrow morning, but me and Elder Yoon have to give training at Zone Leader Council, so the office elders are taking them back to the airport. I was really sad to say goodbye tonight; I've only known them for three days but we're already way good friends. Richie said that after he was baptized and confirmed, he felt like a new person. Clean. And Kick said something that I thought was cool: "Even in your darkest hour, don't give up hope." He was talking about how they had to wait so long with no contact with church members before they finally got here. It was such a cool experience and such a great miracle to see. God really answers our prayers. I hope that all your prayers are answered as well; I know this church is true, more than ever before. Love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

October 29, 2012

Subject line: So busy!

Annyeonghaseyo!

Wow, this week was crazy. Transfers happened, I got a new companion (Elder Yoon), and we finally got all the new missionaries trained and off to their areas. Transfer week is always an adventure and an ordeal. :D Things are finally settling down though, and I'm having a good time with Elder Yoon. He has a great desire to go work on the street and with the members, which is what I want to do, so we get along great! 

Life is good here. I decided before this transfer started that I would just have a positive attitude and have Christlike love for my companion, unconditional love, and it's amazing how much of a difference it's making. I'm also trying to enjoy every moment here in Korea and just have a great time, and it's going well. I LOVE KOREA! It will be a part of me forever in a lot of ways. I'm excited to speak it with my dad, we're going to be saying tons of funny stuff and no one will have any idea what we're saying. :D 

Elder Yoon is from Daegu, which is kind of in the mid/lower right part of Korea. He's also ridiculously good at English, seriously. He uses words that a lot of Americans don't know! Part of it was because he grew up on an American Army base for part of his childhood, so he learned some English there. He had actually been an Office Elder for 9 months in this area,  gone to another area for 9 months, and will be finishing his mission here. :D That's a total of almost a year in the office when he's done. But he's so good at office work that I think the mission will really improve while he's here. I on the other hand tend to drop the ball with a lot of things, but I'm aware of it and trying to change. I just hope my mission president has enough aspirin to deal with me. :D

I'll end with one miracle: on the subway we met a highschooler from Japan that spoke fluent Korean and also some English, and he wanted to learn about the church, so we referred him to the elders that live near him. I've decided that the Lord preparing a person that has agency and then guiding us to them, three independently thinking and choosing people, is as much or more of a miracle than Him making the stones light up for the Jaredites so they could cross the ocean in the Book of Mormon, or Him parting the Red Sea through Moses. This is a work of miracles, and you can see them every day if you look for them. I know it's true, and I hope you have a good week!

Love, Elder Matt Dean

October 22, 2012

Subject line: Crazy week!

Hey all,

So this past week was crazy! We had the blood drive activity on Wednesday, which went ok. We had each zone of the mission come in shifts so they didn't overload the people, so there were tons of missionaries there like the whole day. Me and Elder Lee were busy doing pass-off with like 4 people too. Pass-off is a program that the mission does to help you focus your Korean studies into the church/ lesson vocabulary, which is what you actually use, and the final level is done with the APs. It's basically there to make sure you can speak Korean well enough to be a senior. And on the same day, there was a test administered by the church Institute people called the Michigan test, which is an English test that BYU Hawaii uses to screen foreign students. AND on the same day, President was doing interviews with the 강릉 zone, which is the one out east in the boonies. So it was really crazy. :D The activity went ok, but the red cross people only prepared for 30 people even though we repeatedly told them we would have from 60 to 100 coming, so only 39 people ended up being able to donate. The y had us going into a bus to do it, and they shut the door in my face right before i went in, so I was kind of bummed. But it was still fun to see everybody. 

Then the next day we had a training for the missionaries that are trainers/greenies, about finding investigators, which we didn't prepare very well for, unfortunately. But somehow it ended up being really good. I think with us training the mission, the Lord makes sure that they get something good out of it, because all this is really His work, not ours. We'll prepare better for next time, however. :D 

On Saturday we had a musical/testimony fireside which also went really well. The missionaries from two stakes that were combined gave some talks along with recent converts from each stake. Also the missionaries sang "How Firm a Foundation" and "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as choir numbers, which ended up being really cool. It was nice to sing in a choir again, i miss that a lot. 

So we were pretty busy last week to say the least. :D But it was good to have something to do. That's one good thing about the office, always having something to do. And I learned a good lesson about the gospel this week--because we were so busy, I kind of neglected my scripture study, and soon I felt really stressed and alone and just not good. But once i really started reading the scriptures in depth again, I felt better. I had the Spirit with me more. It's so easy to skip the small and simple things, but they're so important to maintaining our relationship with God. 

I know this gospel is true, and I love being a missionary! I love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

October 14, 2012

Hey everybody,

So as you all probably know, my mom's father passed away this past week. So that's why I didn't write an email last week. But we're all doing ok, thanks for your prayers on our behalf.

Things have been really busy here for us. Our mission is having a celebration because this year marks the 50th year since missionaries came to Korea! So we've been getting stuff ready for the musical fireside that we're having next month and also for the mission-wide service activity: blood donation. Kind of goes well with Halloween, huh? :D That's this Wednesday, and then all the stakes in the Seoul area and maybe all of Korea will be doing a stake-level service activity too. The hope is to get a little publicity and kind of clear up a lot of misconceptions about the Church here. The fireside is going to be awesome! There's going to be some world-class musicians there in a string orchestra, and I saw them at a fireside a couple weeks ago, and it was seriously amazing. So I'm really excited. :D

Also this week we had President interviews which was really good. It's kind of just a time for President to talk with you one-on-one about how things are going, how much you want to kill your companion, etc. :D Also a time to get encouraged and uplifted from him, 'cause he's a great man that cares a lot about us all.

Also we picked up an investigator, a middle-aged lady, who is one of the 20 Grandmaster Chefs in Korea! To give you an idea of that, there are 300 Master Chefs who are really good, and then 20 who are ridiculously good. She's a professor at a college teaching Food Science and Cooking, and she's a director at some sort of kitchen somewhere. She wants to meet us for English but hopefully we can help her have interest in the church too. Missionary work is a little slow here because of all the office work we do, but that's kind of missionary work too.

I love you all and I hope you have a good week! Thanks for your support and all you do for me and my family!

Elder Matt Dean

October 11, 2012

Note from Elder Dean's mom:

We received the following email from Matt this week after he learned that my dad / his grandpa had passed away last Wednesday, October 3. We were given permission by his mission president to call Matt so that his grandma could talk to him, which brought her (and his dad and I) great comfort.

Hey all,

So the funeral is tomorrow morning your time I guess. I don't know what's going on there or anything, but I wish I could be there to help. It's not the same, being here. But this is the way things worked out I guess.

It's interesting how the way you view the world changes when something like this happens, how some things kind of pale in comparison. Your priorities shift a little bit. For me I thought about how we have all our possessions and things, but what really matters is our families and the people we love. What I'm glad for is that though we may not be able to get our possessions back if we lose them or whatever, our family will be with us forever as long as we live right. I'm so thankful that the four of us are sealed together, and that nothing will ever separate us forever. Nothing. It's a comfortable thought. We'll see him again someday.

I have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and of the comforting power of the Holy Ghost, and of the Atonement of Christ. And even though I don't understand a lot right now, as we live and grow we can keep learning and keep getting stronger. More than anything I love Heavenly Father and the Savior, and I love the three of you. I'll be praying for you tonight. 

Love, Elder Matt Dean

October 2, 2012

Subject line:  Happy 추석!

Annyeonghaseyo!

So this weekend was Korean Thanksgiving, Chuseok! Koreans take three days off from work to have the holiday with all their family. Usually people take the first day to travel out to their hometown, spend the second, main day with their family, and the third day traveling back to where they live. They do 차래 (charae), which is kind of a ceremony to honor their ancestors,and just hang out together. It's a really good time for them, and we had a good time too. A bunch of us got together and played games, and then we went down to the big palace in Gwanghwamun Square that's in front of the Korean President's house, where they had traditional Korean games and other activities going on. That was really fun. Here's a part of my journal about when we went to visit the office senior couple on the first day of 추석: "After that we went to the Ellis’ house to give them a message card and have a meal, and President and Sister Christensen were there too. That was really fun, especially when President and Elder Ellis got talking about the old days, like having a bunch of parasites and missionaries seeing who could get the longest tapeworm and a bunch of other random stuff. It was pretty funny. :D" I'm glad we live in slightly more modern times!

Also our mission had a "change day," where we switched the locations of all the furniture in the house and cleaned under them and stuff. The space under the bunk beds in our room was pretty scary, it had some really big dust bunnies and other assorted junk. Now our bedroom feels so much bigger and cleaner! Missionary houses are often pretty scary because we're supposed to use all our time for missionary work except on Preparation day, and cleaning usually takes lower priority to most people than going out and doing fun stuff with other missionaries. :D In honor of Change Day, me and Elder Olsen (one of the office elders) went in and changed around a bunch of the chairs and President Christensen's desk in his office (we know where the spare key is),and put a little sign up that said "Happy Change Day! (We'll put it back on Monday morning)" They found it and thought it was pretty funny. Then we came back later that night and they had come in to the office and messed a bunch of stuff up. the trash cans were on the desks, the chairs were mixed around and piled on top of one another, and all the things on our desks were switched around. They even left our sign on the floor in front of the door. :D It was a fun day.

So life is good. Serving in the office is hard for a lot of reasons, but lately I'm working on finding joy in every moment and on choosing to have a good attitude. It's a better way to live than just being annoyed or frustrated all the time, even if it takes more effort. Life is never easy, but it's always good if you look for the good in it. Thanks for all you've done to help me see the good and to be a good influence in my life; hope you have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Dean

September 23, 2012

Subject line: Where did September go?

Hey everybody,

I can't believe it's the last week of this month already. That's kind of scary, because it means time is getting shorter. On the plus side my birthday is next month, and I'm finally legal to drink! Woo! Just kidding, obviously I won't do that on the mission or after. I just had to say it because I only get one 21st birthday. :D

This week was super crazy. We had a General Authority (one of the higher-up leaders in the church) come to speak to our mission on three days, one 6-hour session a day. His name is President Ringwood and he's the Area President for this area. He had served a mission in Korea back in the dawn of time, actually the same time that President Christensen, the Mission President did. Then he came back and served as President of the late Seoul West mission a while ago, and now he's the Area President for Korea, Japan, and some other countries over here. He's spent a lot of time here. :D He was a really great speaker and really spoke with a lot of fire and enthusiasm, and I learned from him and from the Spirit a lot of things that I can do better as a missionary and as a person. This is a spiritual work, and every time I go to one of these conferences, I learn better missionary skills, but more importantly how to be a better person spiritually. And since we're in the office, we got to go to not only one day but all three days! It was awesome! 

I learned something that really affected me. President Ringwood said that if a missionary works hard, giving it all he's got, and he is righteous and faithful and obedient, then that day there will be a miracle, whether he sees it or not. It's a concept that has helped me to do my hardest and not be disappointed if something cool or miraculous doesn't happen. Also, we have to make baptism our goal and our purpose as missionaries, and exercise our faith to accomplish it, but then focus on doing the things we can control. Baptism, or conversion really, is a choice that each person we meet makes, and we don't make it for them. All we choose to do is talk to people, love them, invite them to do things like reading the scriptures or praying to find out if our message is true or being baptized. And if we do our best and the Spirit is there, we've done all we can do, and it's up to them. I also learned that exercise in the morning (part of the missionary schedule) is not optional. :D As I've been exercising lately I feel a lot more healthy. 

So preparing for that and going to it took up most of our week. But it was a really good week, and now that all the typhoons are done the weather is super nice! I love Korean autumn! The temperature is just right and it's sunny, and life is good. A couple days ago I was calling contacts that previous missionaries had made on the street, and I set an appt with a guy named Lee Hae In. He took us out to dinner at a Japanese place a couple nights ago, and as we were talking he said that he wants to learn the Bible in English from us, and also learn about how to get closer to God. So we're going to meet him tonight. It was a pretty cool thing, and I feel l like the hand of the Lord was in it. 

So that's my life right now. It's fun and I'm getting a lot of happiness from missionary work. Thanks for all you do for me and for your prayers. I love you!

Elder Matt Dean

September 17, 2012

Subject: Hey from the Land of the Morning Calm

Hey, so actually Korea is still not very calm because we're going through ANOTHER typhoon. The first one, Bolaven, was pretty bad for the southern coast and parts of Japan, and it sucked Tembin out from over China right up the same path. Now Typhoon Samba is heading up the other side of Korea. There's a lot of typhoons here! Samba was actually bigger than the first one, even, when it was over Okinawa, but now it's barely even a tropical storm as it goes over Korea. Okinawa is the southernmost island of mention in Japan, by the way. They say they get like 15 typhoons a year there, along with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions too. So you're either getting rain dumped on you, being blown away, being burned up by lava, getting the stuffing shaken out of you, or maybe even being blown soaking wet into a volcano as your house gets shaken over all at the same time. :D And yet they say that the people in Okinawa have some of the longest lifespans worldwide! I think I'll skip out on the earth falling apart around me even if it means I live five years less than they do. :D

Anyway, this week was pretty good. We survived transfers and still somehow managed to get a little missionary work done on the side. It's kind of sobering to realize that I'll only be involved in transfers two more times....I try not to think about that very much so I can focus. I think picking up the new missionaries is the funnest part of being in the office, though! Here's what happens: we drive out to Incheon Intl Airport on the best road in Korea (it's the best because it's a wide open freeway with almost no cars on it, kind of like America). Then we chill in the airport till they come through the doors, and take a picture with them. They're always pretty spaced out because they got on a plane in the morning 17 hours before that and somehow it's still early afternoon. It's really weird, actually, it was literally the longest day of my life. :D Then we load all their luggage in the van and take them onto the subway. We explain how to talk to people and then we help them go at it! It's really cool to see the fire they have as they talk to people and tell them about the church even though they've only been speaking Korean for 3 months. Sometimes it's hard for them though, like one of the elders that came through this last time. He had motion sickness from the plane pretty bad, I felt sorry for him. We don't push them too much on that first subway ride, because they just got off the plane and they're pretty tired a lot of the time. But we finally make it to President's house and then we have dinner, and President usually gives a spiritual thought before we get them to bed. I remember back when I first came, my experience was easier than that because my group was so big that they didn't want to take us all on the subway, it'd be like trying to take a bunch of sheep across Seoul. :D So they just loaded us in the vans with our luggage and we slept at the temple that night instead of President's house. And then for breakfast we had Korean food, and then we went to the same restaurant for lunch too. Anyway, getting new missionaries is always awesome. :D

And also this week we took the returning missionaries to the airport so they could head back to America/the Philippines. That was really sad, seeing some of the people I've known this whole time going back. I probably won't see most of them for a really long time. Thank heavens for Facebook! :D

Something I was thinking about this week was how we face our hard things. It's important to learn how to find joy in our hard times too, because you don't ever stop having hard times sometimes. That's life. The only thing we can change is how we see them. If you can find a little happiness even in the rough times, how much happier you'll be!

So that's what went on the past week. This week we're having our mission toured by a General Authority, this area's Area President. His name is Elder Michael T. Ringwood. I'll let you know how that goes next Monday. Hope you have a good week!

Love, Elder Dean

September 10, 2012

So, today is transfer calls day! Woo! This is a fun day. For the last week, we have been spending about 3 hours a day with President talking about who needs to go where. I think that putting transfers together is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, only the pieces change shapes sometimes and if you mess up it could make someone really depressed and have a negative impact on who they are for the rest of their lives and beyond. Kinda stressful. This one has been kinda hard because there are a lot of new missionaries coming in, but we finally got it figured out for the most part. Because of that I don't have much time today to email, also it's kinda another one of those days where I have to get out of the office or I will explode. :D

But we found a way cool investigator a couple weeks ago that we met for the second time yesterday. Here's what I reported to President Christensen about him: "Speaking of which, we met a great investigator for the second time this week! I don't know if I mentioned him last Monday, but his name is 민호. He's a college student, and he's SO prepared. He's really one of the 5 truly golden people I've met on my mission; he agreed to come to stake conference on Saturday and he really understands what we are teaching him. He doesn't agree with it all yet, but when we read Moroni 10: 4-5, he said he really wants to pray with real intent and a sincere heart, but that it would be really hard. The depth of his understanding with that really impressed me at the time, and the Spirit was so strong. Then we committed him to read and pray sincerely, and he said yes. That was one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. It was really amazing how strong the Spirit was and how awesome he is, and we're planning on committing him to baptism ASAP while he feels this way. As far as total missionary work goes...I still feel like we need to be contacting more, and I'm still working on getting us out on the street instead of in the office, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes. :D I think we're on the right path there. 

My study has been really good this week. I've started the study method that Sister Bennett mentioned in her 마지막 말씀, where you choose a missionary "question of the soul" and look for all the verses in the Book of Mormon that answer that question as you read it. It's been really amazing. I feel like my study lately has been stagnating, but that this new method is breathing life into the scriptures for me again. My question is, How can I be a good servant of the Lord? I figure that if I can do that, my decisions will be based on the right stuff rather than popularity, money, or personal comfort, and I will just be a better person. I love the scriptures and I love the Lord, and I love being a missionary!" 

I included another part of my letter too for kicks. :D Every week we report to the president about our investigators, our study, and any other problems or concerns or things we have. He's here to help us be happy and successful as missionaries. 

Anyway, that's all I have time for. :D Hope you all have a good week, love you guys!

Elder Matt Dean

September 2, 2012

Note from Elder Dean's mom: Matthew put subject lines in Korean on both this letter and the personal letter he sent to just our family. On our letter, he wrote: 이걸 읽을수 있으면 천원 줄게요, which means "If you can read this, I'll give you a thousand won ($1)." On the letter below, he wrote: 아버지 빼고 아무도 이것을 읽을 수 없어요, which means "Besides Dad, nobody's going to be able to read this."

Hi everyone, 

So I survived the typhoon! It was actually pretty disappointing. We got all ready for the storm and moved stuff everywhere and had the missionaries on the west coast sleep in Seoul and got all ready--and then it was nothing worse than a particularly windy rainstorm. I've seen normal storms here that were worse than the typhoon, at least for people in Seoul. But I heard the people on the southern coast got pounded pretty hard. Actually a lot of the fruit crops got destroyed, so I guess the price of Asian pears and mandarin oranges will go up quite a bit, unfortunately. Actually, something interesting about this typhoon--there was a smaller one called Typhoon Tembin that was heading in over Taiwan and into China, but the one that hit us was so strong that it sucked Tembin back out into the Yellow Sea where it promptly dumped a bunch of rain onto us. Tembin was actually worse than the first one, I think. Anyway, it's all over now and I can finally see the sun again!

I attached some pictures of the office where I basically live now. The Korean in one of the pictures is the one who went home, but he made a really funny face so I wanted to show it to you. :D My desk is the one on the left. I like the office, it's pretty good. The missionary work here is decent too when we can get outside. I'm working on getting out and proselyting more. 

We found a really cool investigator yesterday! His name is Shin Min Ho, and he's 26 in American age. He was doing some small business stuff for a while, but he pretty much gave it to his friends and he's now working at a hospital while he studies some more. And he has a lot of religious interest along with English interest, which is what we picked him up for. He REALLY wants to know what the Plan of Salvation is and how it answers the questions of the soul that everyone has about before and after this life. He's pretty golden, and we're excited to be teaching him! Frank, our high school student investigator, will hopefully be baptized this Saturday,  so we're really excited for that too.

We're getting ramped up for Zone Leader Council, the monthly meeting with the Zone Leaders at President's house, and transfers, which happens next week. It's hard to believe transfers are already here; the time is going really fast. I think it's really fun, though. I'm learning a lot about administration and coordination with my companion. Life here is good, and it's not a bad place to finish your mission. 

Hope everybody has a good week! 

Elder Matt Dean

Elder Dean making faces

The office where Elder Dean works as an AP.

August 26, 2012

Hi everybody!

So I know I misspelled the subject line of this one, but I left it because it's funny. :D (the subject line reads: 'Hurrincane time!') But really there's a typhoon coming. For everyone who wonders what the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane is, I looked it up because I wondered too: There's basically no difference. Just that if it's in the Atlantic, it's a hurricane, and basically everywhere else is a typhoon. Why? The dictionary wouldn't tell me that. But just in case someone wonders if it'll be dangerous, don't worry, it's hyped up way more than it will be. It's not even raining here. The rain is going to be the problem here anyway. So don't worry, we'll just be getting wet, pretty much just like monsoon season a few weeks late. 

This week was really good. We had our first Zone Conference in the time that I've been in the office, on Wednesday and Thursday. It went really well! Actually other than getting 1 and a half hours of sleep the "night" before Zone Conference, the week went really well. We worked on preparing the conference from about 6 on Tuesday (that's when P-day ended) until 5:20ish  on Wednesday morning, got some sleep, and then got up at 6:30 to prepare and travel to the conference site. Yep, I'm never doing that again. :D There was a lot of stuff that I didn't think would take that long that actually took 5 times as long, like my companion having to translate the newsletter, and putting the agenda together. We're going to do things a little farther in advance next time. :D 

Then the day of the conference came. I foolishly decided to conduct the first day, and I started off the meeting by saying I was presiding and then realizing it and tripping up on my words, and everybody including me laughed. It was a funny way to start a conference, I guess. :D The rest of the conference went really well, though, except for not really having enough time for the missionaries to practice our training and having two of the speakers speak for 40 minutes each instead of the 10 we told them to do. First day: lots to improve on. Second day: almost literally perfect. We got there early enough to set everything up (like projectors, TVs, computers, etc), I didn't have to conduct (haha), we planned the training out better so we had more time for roleplay, and the Spirit was so strong, it was awesome. I like giving trainings when I'm prepared for it. :D 

That was the big event of the week for me. Now that that's done we have more time for normal missionary work. We are meeting a high school kid named Frank, and he says he wants to get baptized in September! We're working on getting him ready for the 8th. He's really, really good at English, and he's been meeting the missionaries for a long time here. He's the on in the picture I attached (he's holding Orange Julius that we made at President's house last weekend). 

That's all I know for now. Hope everyone has a good week, don't dry up out there!

Elder Matt Dean

Frank

August 20, 2012

Hey all,

So I've decided that my subject lines are really boring, but luckily they don't mean that much anyway. :D This week was markedly better than last week. The missionary ended up going home after all, his parents came to pick him up and everything (he's Korean). He said he'll come up to the office to see us sometimes before he heads off to his mandatory army service. It's kind of funny, he went home from missionary work to spend like three months at home before he has to go to the army for 2 years. I think he thought he was getting a break, but that sounds to me like going from best to just ok to awful. Hopefully everything works out with him.

So after all that jazz on Monday, we went to eat samgyetang which is like Korean chicken soup, with ginseng.  Ginseng is really bitter but they say it's really good for you, and it's kind of a Korean taste. Then we went to the public bathhouse! Woo!  I don't think anyone but my dad knows how awesome those are. Seriously, when you're having a super stressful weekend and missionaries are going home left and right and you're super cranky because you skipped lunch AGAIN, there's nothing better than the bathhouse. Then we went to a big bookstore and bought more flash drives. I remember when having like a 1 gigabyte flashdrive was super expensive, and now we get like 16 gigs for 20 bucks or less. And we have terabyte external hard drives. Craziness! What happened to dialup Internet and the blue screen of death?

I learned something about myself this week: if I skip a meal, I get really slow, tired, and unhappy. Most people can skip one jut fine, but not me. I also learned that I need to make eye contact with people more--bad habit from learning Korean and not knowing what to say for a year, though I wasn't the best at that before my mission either. It's interesting how much you learn on your mission, both practical and spiritual.

So on Friday night, we had dinner at our bishop's house. It was the first time that Elder Lee has been there since he came in February; usually you're pretty close with the bishop (the leader of the local unit of the church which consists of up to a couple hundred people), but ours here in Samcheong is pretty busy. However, he had time randomly, so we ended up getting to go to his house for dinner. During dinner his kids came home (two boys, 3 and 6), and the younger one started messing around. He's a stinker, and he knows it; he's really fun to play with, but I think I encouraged him a little much, and so his dad took him into the other room for some discipline. Oops. :D I learned my lesson there. But anyway, that's not why I'm telling you this story. After dinner, we gave a short spiritual message; it was the one with the teabag about faith. I've done this like ten times. So you put an emptied-out, straightened-out teabag (which is in tube shape) standing up on someone's hand. I did it to the bishop. You tell them that if they don't move, it won't hurt, and say "Do you have faith?" Of course they say yes. So then you light the teabag on fire! The fire goes down and down, and the person's like, "Uh oh, should I move?" It gets almost to their hand, and then the last little part flies into the air before it burns up. Its super cool. Only this time, as I watched the fire burn down towards the bishop's hand, I thought, "Hm... it usually flies by now...." and then the bishop was like, "ouch!" and jerked his hand away. I burned the bishop's hand! Just kidding, it didn't even leave a mark, but it still hurt for a second. I learned that if your activity fails, trying to tie the lesson into it really fails too. :D I had to end up by saying, "Well, my promises don't work out all the time, but God's do." :D me and Elder Lee were talking about it on the way back to the house, and he said, "Well, they might not remember who you are after you leave, but maybe the kids will be in their teens and say, 'A long time ago there was some missionary that came over to our house and burned my dad's hand...'" I thought that was pretty funny. It was a good friendship building experience with the bishop because we all laughed about it when it happened. 

Other than that we've been really busy preparing for conferences and stuff. I'm still getting the hang of all my responsibilities, but it's coming along. And I enjoy being here. Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

August 12, 2012

Subject line: Wow, crazy weekend

Yeah, so this weekend has been one of a kind. There's a missionary that is set on going home early, and he's been having a really rough time. So we've had him up here with us at the office trying to help him. what he doesn't understand is that his rough time and indecision about whether to go home or not is making a ton of people have a hard time too, having to babysit him. It's a good opportunity to serve someone, but it's sad to see someone who doesn't understand what they are missing by leaving early, and what kind of a homecoming he can expect. Missionary work is never easy, but it is always, always worth it, whether in the moment or a little later. I wish I could talk to every missionary who wanted to go home early and tell them what's on my mind right now.

So because of that, I don't have time to write a big email today. We've had so many things to do because of him, and I need a Pday really bad at the moment. So I love you all but I'm not writing a ton this week, sorry. :D have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

August 5, 2012

Dear everybody, 

This week has been a pretty crazy week, for sure. Just like last week. :D We have a big meeting tomorrow when we meet with the next tier below us of missionary leaders to discuss plans and goals for the mission for the upcoming month. It's called Zone Leader Council. We've been spending a significant amount of time every day preparing for that and just keeping the office running. Here's an example of that from my journal, which I am now typing instead of writing (which is a great perk of being in the office :D):

"We’re trying to do study this morning, but Elder Lee Gyeomjin (from now on Elder Lee) had to translate between a mission president in America and the stake president of one of his missionaries from Korea. The sister missionary has some severe mental problems and she needs permission  from her parents to get medication, so her president had to call us on Presidents’ phone and Elder Lee called the stake president and translated. It sounds like everything went really well. This is probably going to happen a lot. :D "

Here's my journal entry from last Friday:

Friday, August 03, 2012

Today we went to the embassy and the Korean driver’s license division to get my license. It was a crazy day. We finally got my license after having to go back to the office to get my passport, and the picture came out super well. I really like it because my eyes look super blue for some reason. :D but they misprinted my name on the card so it says MEAN MATTHEW TYLER. I thought it was really funny. :D I really appreciated the efforts of the ladies working at both buildings; they were really nice even among stressful situations. I want to be the same as I work here in the office.

That took the entire day and it was a headache, but I can now drive on the crazy Korean streets. :D Actually driving in Korea seems kinda scary, but  there is a method to the madness. I just have to learn it. :D 

Let it be known that from now on, you can just assume that I'm really tired every day. I just won't be typing it anymore. :D One good thing that happened today was that I got four letters from people! Woo! Now I have nine people to reply to, so that'll be an adventure. It was hard enough to find time to write letters when I WASN'T in the office... 

I gave my self-introduction talk at Sacrament Meeting at our ward (Samcheong) yesterday, and it went really well. I was up on the stand trying to think how I could get them to laugh, and then I remembered that Koreans have a great national pride for the Korean language, so I decided to mention how my Dad would always say "kapshida"and "kidohapshida" instead of "let's go" and "let's pray" as I was growing up, and sure enough, they laughed. :D I think that first day went really well, and I can tell that I'm going to have a good time with them. I just have to figure out how to get close to them so I can help them. 

The thing that's keeping me going right now is that Zone Leader Council ends tomorrow. :D There will always be another big meeting after that, but next week should be relatively normal. I think that I need to find out how to do more things in less time, like study, good planning, and my journal, on top of all the other things I do. The biggest challenge to that is having to do it all while attached to another missionary who has some similar responsibilities but some other different ones too; matching schedules isn't always the easiest thing. But I'll figure it out. 

Well, I'm off to have lunch before we do some other crazy thing at the office. Zone leader council is over tomorrow....yes..... :D Have a good week, love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

July 29, 2012

Hey everybody,

So I got a call two days ago, on Saturday morning. It was our Mission President, President Christensen. After some small talk about what we had scheduled that day, he asked me, "Elder Dean, I was wondering if you would come up and be an Assistant to the President." After a second I said yes I would. There are two APs in our mission, and one of them is going home this Wednesday, so I was called to fill the spot.

For those who don't know, AP is kind of a lot of responsibility. It's not something easy. The APs are the ones who basically help the President with everything and advise him on issues in the mission, particularly concerning missionaries' problems and how that factors into transfers--the time we decide who will serve with who and where for another six weeks. To get an idea of how much thought we have to put in that, just think about how there are 63 companionships in our mission right now. You have to have at least two missionaries in an area. Seven missionaries are going home in a week and eleven are coming in, and when you move one missionary you have to fill that space in with another one. And there are vacancies in leadership positions that have to be filled, and missionaries who don't get along, and missionaries of all ages and experience levels, and missionaries that are having a hard time and need someone to help or need to be stretched or need a break, and missionaries that have been in the same place for seven months and need a change of venue, and then sometimes missionaries that are blatantly disobedient and don't care about anything.  We have to know all of that and try to make the best combinations for the missionary work in each area, and also taking into account what will help each missionary to grow in the gospel and build a solid foundation for the rest of their lives. That's what we've spent most of my time in the office so far doing, is arranging transfers, because we have to call everyone tonight so they can start the new transfer period. There are also other miscellaneous responsibilities we have to take care of, on top of doing missionary work. So it's not a light thing. It's a responsibility that requires me to be a perfect example and to have good relationships with every missionary, regardless of how much they care about missionary work.

After I got the call, i didn't really know what to do. I was pretty torn, because I didn't want to leave Sindang and all the people there that I've grown to love, and I definitely was nervous about being AP, for a million reasons. But all the previous week I had had a weird feeling that it would be me. Of course I was like, "Wow, nice prideful thought, myself," and then thought about something else, but it actually happened! And I think it'll be good. Because I prayed about it and felt the Spirit,and I know that through the Lord I can do all things.

So on Saturday night I packed up all my stuff, and on Sunday morning before church we rode in a taxi to the church building and hid my luggage. (I have way too many things, and I have to send a package home soon. Seriously, my luggage was super heavy!) Actually on Saturday night me and Elder Jeong had a heart-to-heart about how we had both been a little prideful the previous transfer, and he gave me a lot of really good advice on being AP. Lately me and him had been pretty distant, so that was good. I'm really going to miss serving with him. On sunday evening, there was a fireside for the new mission president, and after that we took my stuff up to the office in Samcheong Ward. Usually missionaries switch areas on Wednesday, but they needed me up here early to get trained. We have a lot of office work to do too, so I can't guarantee the length of my emails from now on.

So here I am, confused and nervous and all sorts of things. But I'm excited too, I think it'll be good. If anyone has any advice on leadership, just let me know.:D I love you all, thank you for your prayers!

Elder Matt Dean