March 25, 2012

Hey everybody,

So transfer calls are tonight, we'll see how everything pans out. I'm hoping for one more here in Bong Cheon, but the probability is that I have to leave. However, you never know until that call comes at 9:30!

I love transfer calls, it's way exciting. My heart gets pounding every time. I'll let all 'yall know where I am next week.

So sad news, Seong Su Hyeon texted us and said that he doesn't want to be religious anymore. We were pretty devastated, because he seemed so sure and so ready to change when we met him last. I think the problem was, we didn't keep enough contact with him, so when he went back into the world the next couple days, he saw a lot of differences between religious life and his own life, and it made him have second thoughts.

But we didn't really call him or anything, so he didn't get any spiritual strength from us, so he went back to the way he was before.

We were really, really sad. Obviously it wasn't our fault that he made the decision, but I feel like we could have done more. I guess I'll just have to learn from it and move on.

On Saturday night we watched the old Joseph Smith movie as an activity with the ward, and it was way good. I forgot how inspiring it is. It definitely made me see how much of an obligation we missionaries have to  carry the torch that has been passed to us; generations before us have endured a ridulous amount of trials, persecution, misunderstanding, and hate to get the Church to the point where it is today. And we have to do our part to work to build a better future for those who will come after us too. It's a grand work that we're a part of as missionaries, and I'm glad to be here doing what I can to help it along!

The weather is warming up, finally, and there's a lot more activity going on around the places we go. There are teams of city workers that trim trees in a cherry picker with chainsaws, sweep up the branches, bind them with plastic strips, and stack them neatly in the backs of trucks, all very efficiently. If anyone tells you that Koreans are lazy, they are misinformed! Also there are a lot of renovations and movings of the little restaraunts or printing businesses that line the main streets. I feel like small Korean restaraunts move around/go out of business a lot more frequently than in America. The streets of Korea are lined with these little one-room restaraunts that are usually really good, and all the buildings have bright signs all over.

I love the energy and vibrancy of Korea; it's made so much progress in the last few decades. Korea is definitely the most awesome place in the world. :D

The food of the week is bibimbap. I might have already done this one, sorry if I have.  Basically, it's just rice mixed with an egg, vegetables and gochujang, which is red pepper powder mixed with fermented soybean paste that's in almost everything. Bibimbap is definitely one of my favorites; you can order it in a dolsot, which is a large stone bowl that they heat scorching-hot over flame. The rice fries a little along with the vegetables and egg. It's super-good. :D

Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Elder Matt Dean

March 18, 2012

Hey all,

So we are meeting a guy named Seong Su Hyeon, who is 26 and college, and he wants to be baptized in April! Woo! The operative word there is wants. I feel like for two months or so, I've been teaching people who don't really want to change or accept anything we're talking about; most of the people we teach are only in it for the English. But the second time we met this guy, he said he didn't know if he could quit alcohol because he really likes going to the bars to see all the regulars there when no one is home at his dorm. He said when he drinks he is happy and it's way fun, but afterwards he feels empty and cold, so he wants to stop. He told us all that voluntarily. So we taught him the reason behind us not drinking alcohol, namely that it's a commandment from God that we got through Joseph Smith, and he really liked what he read in the scriptures about it. He said he would try to quit. Then he was like, "I want to know more of what I can't do." :D That was in English because he is fluent, so it would have been more of a natural thing to say in Korean. So instead of teaching him about what we can't do, we taught him about what we can do: baptism. And he loved it. He said he wants to be filled, and enlightened, and he wants the Holy Ghost in his life. He committed himself to read the Book of Mormon and pray for the spiritual witness from God that we emphasize so much, because it's worth so much more than our words.  it was just a formality when we committed him to baptism on April 28,  because you could tell he wanted it. It won't be easy for him, but we promised him it'd be worth it totally. Relying on God is something that doesn't leave you empy and cold; it provides a love that stays with you through any trial, any hard time. That's something I've really gained a surety of here on  my mission.

That was definitely  the highlight of the week. :D Unfortunately, transfer calls are next Monday, which means that in a week and a half I might have to move to another area of the mission permanently. I'd say it's likely, actually, because our Mission President hardly ever leaves anyone in one area for more than 5 transfers, which is how long I've been here. I've been really blessed to only have two areas on my mission: I pulled 5 transfers in Il San, my first area, and 5 transfers here. I'm planning on enjoying as long as I can the fact that I can say that I only have two areas even though I've been in Korea over a year. :D

I'm really going to miss the ward a lot. They are so generous and kind, and I love being around them. When you've been in one place for 5 transfers, it almost feels like a family. You rejoice when they are happy and grieve when they are sad. In this way we can fulfill the promises we make when we are baptized: to mourn with those that mourn, and to comfort those that stand in need of comfort, If we do our best to love people and show them that we care, we can do those things for them, and for me that has come as I've been in my areas for a long time.

For example, one of the families I'm closest to here is the Kang family. Kang Jong Tae's wife is the one who told me the Boulder Face story that I wrote here a while ago; she's in her 50's right now. But her mom is really sick. She called us this morning to tell us that her mom had undergone another surgery down where she lives in Busan, which is three hours away. Her mom is in the intensive care unit. From what she's told us, her mom is the most amazing example in her life of a faithful church member and follower of Christ. She was born in December of 1927, so long before Korea was what it is now. She lived through the war and had a family, and she converted to the Church when it first came to Korea. Now she said that nobody knows what's going to happen to her. Because I was here a long time, they trust me enough to tell us that kind of thing, and I'm worried about her. Obviously what is happening is not happy, but I draw a tiny amount of satisfaction from knowing that the members trust me. I think some of the best times on my mission have been with the members. If you could remember this great woman and her family in your prayers, it would really be good. Her name is Kang Kwui Nyeo. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

Life is good for me in general, however. Today we are going hiking on Gwanaksan, the foothills of which we live on. I've been here for seven months and I've still never set foot on it... until today. :D I'll take a lot of pictures.

The food of the week shall be...naengmyeon! I love naengmyeon. It's a noodle soup, thin and clear, that has ice in it. In Korean, naeng is a root that means cold, and myeon is noodle. It's tangy and often spicy, and it's way good with wasabi. It always comes with an egg on top because it helps you digest better. Way good summer food.

That's about all. I hope you all have a good week, love you all!

Elder Matt Dean

March 11, 2012

Hey everybody,

So it was pretty nice weather here last week, but yesterday and today were pretty cold relatively. I think it's usually warmer here by now, so it's a little unusual, but I'm enjoying it before the summer heat and humidity hits. It only really rained once so far this year, which was nice. Last summer in Il San we had rains basically all of June and July, sometimes torrential rains that covered the road in three inches of water. Crazy times, for sure. :D

This week was normal in that sometimes it was really good, and sometimes it was not so good. We finally found some investigators with real interest in the Church instead of just English! Their names are Kwon Yong Won and Seon Su Hyeong. The first one is a retired Army general who's about 61 who met us because of english, and the second one is a college kid who's 26. Actually, he met us for English too, but they both have a lot of curiosity about the Church, and they both accepted invitations to keep learning and to work toward recieving a confirmation from God that the Church is true. And they said they would be baptized if they found that confirmation, which is awesome!

We will teach them at their pace from now on; I think we kind of slammed them both with a lot of doctrine last week, but they both said they liked it at least. I'll keep y'all posted on what goes down with them in the upcoming days.

This week we had dinner with an old guy I contacted on the street last September named Lee Geon Ho. Since he is old, he likes jeonggukjang, which is a soup made of fermented beans and other things. I don't think I want to know about the other things. :D It has a way bitter and strong taste, and it makes your breath smell bad. This is another food that even some Koreans say they can't eat. But he treated us to a free dinner, so we couldn't not eat it. I am more used to Korean food than Elder Greer, so I got mine down, but he only made it 5 or 6 bites before he "hit a wall." Guess who ended up finishing his? :D But I survived with no adverse side effects (yet). I think after some of the things I've eaten in Korea, my stomach could probably handle anything.

However, Korean food is not as bad in general as the average food i put on here as my "food of the week" is, I promise! :D I just have been putting the interesting things on.

This week I'm focusing on develping the attribute of virtue in myself, though I don't have a problem with it obviously. :D I had to clear that up with Elder Greer too; he tends to assume/pretend to assume the funniest or most ironic viewpoints. Side note on Elder Greer: He really has been teaching me how to be relaxed and happy and laughing during missionary work. That is a great skill that I've been trying to develop my whole mission, and he's helped me get a lot closer. We always laugh at things, and we basically just have a great time.

Anyway, I've found that a higher standard of purity and cleanliness in thought and action leads to more self-control and discipline. Through making right choices in general we maintain our freedom of choice, but through making wrong choices we make our happiness dependant on things that don't actually make us happy in the long run. So that's what I'm thinking about this week in case you wanted to know. :D

That's about all I know. The food of the week will be kimchijeon, which is basically kimchi and other vegetables mixed into a flour-based batter and fried like a pancake. Koreans usually refer to it proudly as "Korean Pizza" or "Korean Pancakes." It's pretty good.

The reason I'm mentioning it now is because Elder Greer tried to make some this past week, but he didn't put enough water in it, so it kind of turned out to be deep-fried kimchi cookies. :D But next time it will be way better!

Thank you all for all you have done for me in my life thus far. You all have made a big difference to me, and I'm excited to be able to do what I can for you when I come back in a few months. I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

March 4, 2012

Annyeonghaseyo!

This week was pretty good. We saw some success in our missionary district this week (that means the 4 companionships of missionaries that I'm assigned to lead as District Leader). The missionaries in the next area over baptized three people of a family of five! The dad was already a member, and the last kid was too young. They were all super happy, I hear. It's always good to see success anywhere, even if it's not in our area.

What else happened... we found some new people to teach this week that were pretty cool. They have read a lot of philosophy and debates on the existence of God, though, which gives them some ideas that are a lot different than everything we believe. For example, one guy who's in college and meeting us for English said that he believes that God can exist and not exist at the same time. Something to do with quantum theory or something like that. It doesn't make sense to me at all, but I have to remember that it makes sense to him, and of course we respect that. I just don't know how atheists would rather believe that after death our souls disappear and turn into nothingness or whatever. Believing in religion is harder than not believing anything, because religion gives you a lot more responsibility and it's not based on scientifically provable facts, but it gives you so much more purpose and meaning and fulfillment out of life. I can't prove religion logically, but I can testify to people that I have felt evidence for myself that God is real and that religion is true, and that our lives mean something, and hope that they feel the Holy Ghost in their lives. My words don't convince anybody, only the Spirit.

The food of the week is kimchi jjigae, which means kimchi stew. It's a really basic dish that probably everyone likes. You put kimchi, meat, and assorted vegetables in what's called a ddukbaegi (a small earthenware bowl), and then you heat it to like 4000 degrees or something. I don't know, but it's definitely boiling when it comes out. :D It's so good in the restaraunts, but me and Elder Greer haven't been able to duplicate it at home yet. Maybe less water would help, ours generally turns out as soup rather than stew.

Well, that's about all I know for this week, Just enduring to the end out here. :D I love you all, thanks for everything, and have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean

February 26, 2012

Hey all,

So this week was one of the saddest weeks of my mission so far. Yun Hi Guk, the college kid we've been meeting with, decided to stop investigating the church. He said he didn't feel like he was ready for religious life yet, and that the members of our ward didn't accept him because he doesn't believe in God all the way yet. That was because of a discussion that surfaced in Priesthood meeting two sundays ago about investigators in general, not just him, but he kind of took things the wrong way, maybe. I might not have fully understood everything he said for why he didn't want to come anymore, but he did say he thinks Joseph Smith could be a prophet. There's a sentence in Preach My Gospel, the missionary handbook, that reads, "Some may not accept what you teach even after they have recieved a spiritual witness of its truth." Or something like that. That was fulfilled in my life this week. It's just not his time right now, I suppose. We went to dinner with him one last time, and he bought us stir-fry chicken because he is awesome like that. He is still coming to English class, and one of our church members he was particularly close to is still going to try to talk to him and be friends. We are going to keep in touch too; he wants to come to Utah to do school in five years or so, so maybe I'll see him then.

It's during these times that I ask myself, "What went wrong? What more could we be doing?" And there are things we could do better. But I think we are doing pretty close to our best, and trying really hard.

As long as I get to the point where I can say I'm doing my best, everything else that happens is the will of the Lord. He knows what I can do,and He sent me here for a reason. I don't know what His reasons are, but I trust that they are there. All I can do is look at what I can improve, work on it, do my best, and be patient. President Uchtdorf, a leader in our church, gave an address on patience in May 2010, and there was a quote in there that I thought was really applicable to my circumstances: "Sometimes it is in the waiting rather than the recieving that we grow the most." From my missionary work these past weeks, I definitely believe that that's true. I have much more of a fire to do the work now that we have no more "golden"

investigators, because I know that if I do my best, the Lord will take care of the rest. And now that I'm trying to really do my best, I feel so much better than I did when I was just doing kind of my best. That confidence lasts as long as I work to my limits, and it's not dependant on whether or not somebody chooses to be baptized or not. So though I'm really sad that Yun Hi Guk didn't end up getting baptized, I feel like I've gained a true appreciation for doing my best. I feel like I can do my best for the rest of my mission, because I feel really good with it. So my emotions are mixed right now. But I try to focus on the positives like usual, and to just do my best!

So, now we only have about 6 investigators or so, which is not actually that bad. Some are better to meet than others, but in general life is ok. It's certainly not bad right now. I have 4 more weeks of freedom before I'm in danger of being Zone Leader; we'll see how that goes when the time comes. Until then I'm working on following my dad's counsel for this part of my mission: "Focus on doing your best today and let tomorrow take care of itself."

The food of the week is....Kimbap! How it works is, you take a sheet of seaweed, put rice on it, then put long slices...no, slices isn't a good word. Like segments of carrot, radish, and other vegetables that are about 6 inches long and a third of an inch wide, along with tuna or beef or whatever. Then you roll it up. It looks like sushi, but it has no fish. It's basically the classic Korean fast food, that you get when you don't have time to sit down and eat, because it's really portable. Mmmmm!

The end. :D You are all amazing, have a good week!

February 19, 2012

Subject line: Still in Bong Cheon! Woo!

Yep, so as you can tell from the subject line, I'll be in Bong Cheon for another six weeks. :D I'm really happy about that, because we've been teaching some people that are really going somewhere in the gospel. The ward is happy that I'm staying there too, that's always a good sign. I feel like I want to work really hard and make the ward as good as I can in these last few weeks I have here...wow, there's only five left already. Weird.

This week was kind of a rough week in general, at least till the weekend. Not many people listened to us on the street, and some of our investigators are just plain frustrating. But we pushed through it, and now we are seeing the fruits of that effort. It just goes to show that if you trust in the Lord and work through the hard times, He will give you miracles. I can testify of that now. I think the biggest miracle this week was teaching a man named Kim Ji Yuk, whom we have been teaching for about five weeks now. We teach his son English and then talk about the Church with him. Anyway, these past five or six weeks, he hadn't really gotten anywhere in the gospel. We invited him to pray several times, but he just didn't do it because he had a lot of doubts about whether God was there or not. We were afraid that he was just meeting us because we teach his kid English. But then we met him yesterday, and we got on the subject of baptism. He wondered why we baptize at age eight in our church, and the Baptist church baptizes in infancy; I explained that Joseph Smith had gotten that revelation from God, and since we believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, that's what we do. He started getting teary-eyed, to my surprise, and said, in effect, "I think I believe that God is there now. But there are so many forms of belief in Him. How can I choose?" So we explained about Joseph Smith, and how he too figured that there is one way to get to God because of Ephesians 5:4 in the Bible, but he didn't know either. So he prayed, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him and called him as a prophet to restore their church on the Earth.

We told Kim Ji Yuk that he could get an answer about what church was right too, just like Joseph Smith did, and that he could know that answer for sure if he prayed about it, and he agreed wholeheartedly. A man who, a couple weeks before, had had serious doubts and very little desire to meet, changed in the matter of one week to someone who believed in God and wanted to find the truth. That is a miracle. We read in the Bible of prophets parting the sea or healing the sick, but how much more of a miracle are those events than a person changing, a person responding to the influence of the Spirit and deciding that they want to find the truth? I feel priveleged to have seen that in somebody, and to have helped in some small way for it to come about.

So that was an awesome thing that happened this week for me. :D I also have tried and failed to make my dad's lemon chicken the way he did; it was edible, but not very delicious. Next time. :D I survived another transfer, making 5 in Bong Cheon now. I have an awesome companion who works hard and has fun. I am among probably the nicest people on earth, who will help you out with anything you ask for. I ride the bus and the subway with my T-money card all the time. I spend a significant portion of my life calling people or talking to them on the street, asking them if they want to learn about the Church. I teach with the Spirit, sometimes more so than other times. I learn deeply about the gospel of Christ and joy in the peace and happiness that comes from it. I am learning so much here in the service of God.

I wear suits basically 24/7. I am a missionary in Seoul, Korea. And it's awesome!

That's about all for this week. The food of the week is jaeyukdeopbap, which is pork and vegetables in a really spicy red sauce over rice.

It's so, so good, probably one of my favorite Korean foods. It's a little painful to eat and digest, though, not gonna lie. :D I hope you all have a good week, bye!

Elder Matt Dean

February 12, 2012

Annyeonghaseyo, everybody!

So, this may end up being my last real day here in Bong Cheon. It's been a pretty awesome 4 transfers/24 weeks. Hard to believe I've been here for half a year...

Transfer calls are tonight. That's when the Mission President or his assistants call everyone in the mission and tell them if they are going to stay or go to another area for the next six weeks. If you end up moving, you pack up all your stuff on Tuesday morning and send it through the postal service, and then you meet at a central subway station called Dongdaemun Yeoksa Munhwa Kongwon Yeok (Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station), and you find your new companion in the crowd of missionaries, and then you go to your new area and unpack. The mail system here is awesome, it gets things across Seoul in one day usually. I'm hoping that all four of us missionaries here in Bong Cheon stay for another transfer period, though, because we all have a blast. It's me, Elder Greer, Sister Seipel, and Sister Choi Jin Ju. Me and Sister Seipel were in the same class in the MTC, and she came to Bong Cheon 3 transfers ago (I've been here 4). She is an amazing missionary, and it's been great to learn from her example. The sisters live in a house up by the church, which is nice for them, but me and Elder Greer live closer to the subway station. I will really, really miss Bong Cheon and the missionaries here if I have to transfer. It's never a 100% thing, but chances are leaning toward me having to leave. We get the  call tonight, so I'll let you know.

One sad thing happened. I called Lee Jun Jae to confirm something about the baptism last Tuesday, and he had left his phone at home, so his wife answered. She started talking to me, and it turns out that Lee Jun Jae's family has opposed him meeting with us from the start.

She didn't even know he was going to be baptized because he hadn't told her, which is not surprising because he is a stubborn old man of

60 years or so, so he had the attitude of "I'm going to get baptized no matter what anyone says." She said that there had been arguments in the family over him even studying the Church with us, and she basically told me to go away, stop contacting Lee Jun Jae, and to keep our noses out of their family.

Needless to say, me and Elder Greer were pretty devastated. Obviously we won't baptize anyone without their spouse's consent, so it's looking like it'll be a while before Lee Jun Jae can get baptized. He was so close. He knew the Book of Mormon was true, and he was changing his life in order to come to church, but it looks like things just won't be that easy. And now I probably have to leave.  We're going to try to meet him with our bishop and talk about how he can pray for his wife to have a change of heart, and he can talk about his feelings and why he wants to come here with her. But it's looking like this will be a long-term thing, over multiple sets of missionaries.

Obviously it doesn't matter if I am here when he is baptized. I've been with him since October, seeing him change and progress. He was ready to be baptized, and even if his wife keeps him from doing it in this life, he'll probably accept everything whole-heartedly in the next life. I've done all I can for him, and all I  can do now is pray that things will turn out for him sometime in the future. Success is not measured by number of baptisms as a missionary; they're nice, of course, but not vital to my happiness. That's one lesson I've learned recently. All I can do is my best, and the rest is up to the will of the Lord.

On a lighter note, Yun Hi Guk said that he was walking home from our appointment two Saturdays ago, and he felt the Holy Ghost. I might have already told you that, but I'm just still really excited about it. :D He said he still needs more time to find that surety of the heart that baptism is right for him, but I think he'll probably choose it eventually.

We were eating dinner at a member's house and me and Elder Greer downed like 40 raw clams or so. Korea has definitely helped remove any pickiness about food that I had. :D

Also, this week I learned a valuable new skill: I can now roll my tongue and whistle through it. For the unbelievers who think it's not possible, it took me five weeks of off-and-on effort, but I finally learned how to do it. Elder Greer has been doing it for 12 weeks now, and I decided to put my effort in and figure it out. Sister Seipel figured it out in like 2 days, I'm not sure how that worked out. :D Just another of the many valuable things you learn as a missionary. :D

Today for P-day we are playing soccer with half the mission. It'll be really fun. I play defense because my feet are not fancy enough, but I can do positioning decently. Last time we played, we had like 3 injuries, and one of the Koreans ended up deciding to get $400 worth of cosmetic surgery because his glasses got jammed into his face, leaving a very Harry Potter-ish scar. At the time I said that I would have kept the scar. :D I'll play safe today though, don't worry.

Well, that's about all for now. The food of the week is called 해장국 (haejangguk), which is a soup. Basically they take about 2 or 3 vertebrae from the back of a cow and boil it in a spicy soup. some of the meat comes off, but half the fun of haejangguk is having to pull the remainder of the meat off the bone. They serve it with wasabi, and it is both delicious and affordable. Good combination. :D One unique thing about korean cuisine is the 뚝배기 (ddukbaegi), which is a black stone bowl about 6 inches across that soup usually comes in in a restaurant. They heat it up super hot as they cook the soup and put in on a tray, so when it comes out it's boiling and about as hot as the surface of the sun for the next half hour. Koreans like their food intense. :D Also the only individual serving you usually get is a bowl of rice; everyone eats straight out of the serving dishes for everything else. To give you an idea of a Korean meal, you have your little bowl of rice in front of you, and then the table is covered with maybe 15 small 4-inch bowls or dishes with 반찬 (banchan, or "side dishes"), along with maybe a pot of soup or whatever the main course is. Actually I guess you also get soup individually too, usually. I like Korean style better than American, it takes less dishes. :D We were at another member's house last night and they served American style, and I felt really weird. Maybe I'll just live in Korea after my mission..... :D

Thank you all for all you have done and continue to do for me. Life is good right now, and I'll let you know if I transfer or not. Have a good week!

Elder Matt Dean