New place, new companion and English class

We're leaving the MTC!

안 녕 하 새 요 ! 

Whats up!

Korea is amazing. The whole place is like one giant city. Everywhere you go you are surrounded by huge buildings with lights, colorful signs, and Korean words covering them. It puts New York to shame. It's my sixth day here but it feels like I've been here for six months.

My companion is named Elder Oh. He's a native but he speaks really good English and I have never met anyone who wants to work non-stop like him. All we do is street contacting 24/7. The second day I was here we did it for like ten hours and I say the same thing every time. Once my head hits the pillow at night I instantly pass out.

The Korean people are really nice though. I am serving in a place called Chang Wan. The Ward members are awesome. Twice a week we hold an English class for anyone at the chapel. The person in charge of it is named Ee Ho Jong. His son served in Hawaii and he said he knows who Kingston is but I think he changed his last name to Lee in English. There's also a Filipino guy named Robert who comes to help out. He's so funny because he's just a F.O.B.

I live in a four-man apartment, and the other two elders are awesome. Their names are Elder Royce and Elder Jenkins. I still don't really know any Korean so it's really hard to talk to people in the street, even though that's all we do. Hopefully I can somehow pick up this language.

I hope you guys are doing good at home.


Love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua

Inside our apartment

One side of our apartment

Meeting President and Sister Barrow for the first time

Meeting my new companion, Elder Oh

Practicing before we head out

First day - we got our companions, our assignment, a Book of
Mormon. Then we were told to go out and proselyte

Elder Bednar came and spoke to us last Friday. He did
a Q&A session with us

At the market they gave us two whole, deep fried chickens
to eat. An old Korean lady broke it up for us and gave us
gloves to eat them with

This is her. She thinks she's going to be famous in America

Us eating in our apartment

Eating Korean Musubi on the bus

At a baptism with the guys

Ran into Bishop Raass

Hey fam,

I only have two minutes to tell you I'm alive. We got here late last night. Its such an amazing place. Our mission president is awesome and we have great trainers. We are about to start.

Love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua

Dear Parents of Missionaries,
Your son or daughter arrived safely here in Busan, South Korea this evening at 9:30pm. The missionaries are excited, and at the same time, very tired! The Elders and Sisters were greeted at the airport by President Barrow and Sister Barrow, the Assistants to the President, and the Office Assistants, as well as the Busan Stake President, and a few other drivers from the various wards in the Stake. Tonight they will sleep at the Mission Home (Sisters) and at the AP’s apartment (Elders). In the morning they will start right out with interviews and training. During the training time period, each missionary will have the opportunity to email his or her parents to let you know that they are fine and well! They are safely here in Korea! We are looking forward to getting to know them tomorrow. They will have a very busy, full day, and will leave with a new companion-trainer to go out to their areas tomorrow evening.

Our prayers are with you, and your sons and daughters, as you make this sacrifice. They will have a great experience and will accomplish wonderful things.

Sincerely,
Sister George
Korea-Busan Mission

Almost time, language struggles and Elder Bednar

Sculpting? We're bored

We are almost there. We have like 4 or 5 more days till we fly out. It was so good to see chase on friday. Some elders from my district wanted to meet him so they came to the lobby with me. It was funny because we had class at 6:30 and thats the time me and chase were supposed to meet. So the elders that came with me were planning to come say whats up at 6:30 and then leave for class. We waited there for a bit and at 6:40 he still hadn't showed up so I walked over to the front desk to see if they could call you guys. As I walked to the front desk one of the elders yelled Matua, and i looked at the front doors and chase walked in. It was so cool to see him here at the MTC. He was so serious about the gospel and was a great example to all of us. It was funny because had just watched the Two Brothers documentry and it felt just like when they meet in the MTC and the older id giving him all these tips for a mission. It was cool to see pictures of you guys together at top golf. I just hope you guys realize that i would destroy all of you if I was there.

Utah Lions teammate
Elder Colton Swapp (Japan)

As the days count down we are all getting so excited to leave but also very nervous. The language is probably the biggest stress here. We have been practicing street contacting a lot with other missionaries which is always funny because we can only say a few lines. Our teacher told us that street contacting actually turns into a stress reliever. He said when he was stressed he would walk outside and find an old Korean lady to talk to.

Last night we got a devotional from Elder Bednar. He gave a great talk in an interesting way. he brought his wife up to the mic and they both stood up there the entire talk switching off back and forth. He talked about going back and studying general conference talks. He told us how he studies GC talks. He gets a piece of paper and writes the name of the speaker and under that he writes: droctine or principal, Invitation, and promised blessings. He then fills those out for every talk he studies. He then played clips of general conference and had us practice. It was funny when he played Elder Cooks talk because he said,"hey this is my seat mate, in quorum of the twelve meetings." He then bore witness that any time a servant of the lord gives an invitation and promises a blessing that it will always come true.

I love you guys and I hope you guys can keep this place running while I'm gone.


Love you all

Elder Mica Matua

Utah Cannibals teammate, Elder Jaeron Masina (Trinidad)

Welcome home Elder Chase Matua

His brothers were anxious to
welcome him home!

We were so happy to welcome our son Elder Chase Matua home from serving an honorable full-time mission to Taiwan this past Friday. He's found it hard to adjust to the open spaces, the mountains, sky and family but he's happy all the same to be surrounded by all those who loved and supported him over the past two years.

On our way home from the Salt Lake City International Airport we made a detour in Provo at the Missionary Training Center where Chase was able to spend a brief moment with his brother Elder Mica Matua who will soon be leaving for South Korea to serve the people of Busan. It was a tender mercy and another testimony to us that God hears and answers our prayers.

Now its back to work to earn a bit of cash before enrolling next semester at BYU-Provo where he hopes to play alongside his brother Kingston on the BYU Rugby men's team, learn new things and make new friends while he catches up with old friends here in Lehi.

We enjoyed his testimony this past Sunday in our Lehi 41st Ward Sacrament meeting and look forward to hearing more from him in the coming months and years.

Congratulations on a job well done Chase!

The family welcomes home our Chase

Brothers have a brief moment to chat and
catch up before Mica leaves for Korea

Some of the Matua family welcoming Chase home

General Conference, Vocal Point and horrible Korean

Hey fam,

Crazy in the dorms

This had been an awesome General Conference week. I actually stayed awake for most of the talks. It was cool to listen to the prophets after teaching people about them everyday. My favorite talk was probably Uchtdorf probably because he is the easiest one to pay attention to. It was different sitting in uncomfortable bleachers with a suit on when i'm usually in PJ's laying on the couch, but it did help me to stay awake. I'm glad that Tai got to sing in the choir it was pretty cool seeing him up there.

After general conference on Sunday we got a devotional from Vocal Point. They were good and it was cool because they would sing and then one of them would get up and share a story and his testimony. They asked not to clap when they were done because it was Sunday and they wanted to keep the spirit. Their last song was the best. If you get a chance you should look up 'Nearer my God to thee' by Vocal Point. Then after that we watched "Meet the Mormons part two," for the second time.

Thank you for the packages and Elder Davis also says thank you for the book. We had like twenty people storm into our room once I opened the chips and dip. And can you send me the Soifua's email? They sent me a package yesterday.

'Bout to start WWIII

My Korean is still horrible, I'm getting nervous to go to Korea because I feel like I don't know anything and we leave in less than two weeks. We met a sister here who is strait from Korea and barely speaks any English. We always try to practice our Korean with her but when we do we just realize how bad we are at it. Yesterday our district was talking to her and asking her what part of Korea she was from, and then she started to guess where we are from. She went down the line pointing at us saying America, America, America, and then she paused when she got to me and said Mexico? Everyone started busting up, and now everyone in my district calls me Mexican.

Yesterday we got a devotional from Sister Burton, the Relief Society something. It was funny because her granddaughter is in the MTC right now and Brother Burton brought her up during his talk.

Its crazy that Chase is coming home on Friday. I got a slip from the Information Desk that told me a

This food disappeared in 2 mins
Thanks Soifua's!

brother/sister will be coming to see me on Friday so I/m guessing that's Chase? When he comes you should tell him to bring his camera and switch me because I think his is a lot better. I'll send you my pant size and I'll also try to get that package to you this week. can you tell me how to send it one more time.


Love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua

Last email home, farewell Songshan, farewell Taiwan

Yet another awesome week.

Things are going smoothly here in Songshan. The brothers that moved here from Gaoxiong last week are making some quick steps towards Christ. They're so happy all the time, and it's been fun growing with them.

It has been a huge honor wearing the name of Christ over my heart, and inviting others to come unto Him daily. Matthew 16:24-26. I'm grateful Heavenly Father has blessed me with the opportunity to choose to follow my Savior. I have found that on the pathway of discipleship, much sacrifice is required, but much joys is found.

I know that my Redeemer lives.


I love you all,
Elder Chase Matua

Choir, McDonald's and making the most of the MTC

The crew (district) back at the temple

안녕하세요 
First off I'm not in the GC choir. Actually only two out of the eight people in our district made it but its all good. The way they did it, since there were 1,400 people in the choir and only 300 could go, was they handed out surveys to everyone to fill out. The surveys just asked how much experience you have had singing, and if you put a lot then you made the choir. My district and I put 0 experience so they probably just threw our papers in the trash.

On Monday 30 missionaries from the senior districts flew out to Korea which now makes us the oldest district. We have seen two generations of missionaries leave and by the time we leave there will be three generations under us. We all just can't wait to get to Korea but we are also nervous since we know basically no Korean. Our branch president told us that on friday they are having a huge celebration at UVU for the 60th year of the korean mission. So everyone who has ever served a mission, or as a mission president, in Korea will be at UVU this weekend. He said they are expecting about 5,000 people.

Ready for Korean food

I haven't received any packages since I have been here. I don't know if they have been lost or what. haha j/k! I'm pretty sure I have gotten all of them. The last one was really funny with the McDonalds in it because I shared it with everyone on my floor. It was funny because everyone called me Cheese Burger Eddie, from the longest yard, because its like we are in prison and I got the McDonalds hook ups. I ran into the hall and yelled," Its not easy, bein CHEEESAY!" Oh, thanks for the extra clothes.

It was so cool to see Kingston and Sia playing against Braden. It made me want to play sooo bad, but I know it will be there when I get back. I'll probly just send those blue pants back because the blue ones that I have are like the only ones that actually fit. I am planning on sending them back once I have the temple names done. Its taking a while to get them all done because a lot of people have their own names. And we also don't always do endowment sessions. Last time we did initiatories and today we did sealings, which was really cool.

Yesterday we heard from Elder Schwitzer from the Seventy. And its funny that you said that about Kingston because he actually spoke about that last night. One thing he said was that "the mission is going to be very hard but the real trails start once you get home." Right when he said that you just see all the missionaries look down and start shaking their heads. I guess I better take advantage of the mission then. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning and I think 6:30 is so early. I just say to myself, at least im not waking up at 6:30 to go install fences until 7pm. Keep an eye on john and any of my other friends if you see them around.

With the cuzzie Elder Tautai Matua

I probly won't need anything warm. I think I can last until I get to Korea and then Ill just buy a cheap jacket over there. Stay awake during general conference and have a good week.


Love you guys,
Elder Mica Matua