Sunday, March 17, 2013

3/17/13 "The blessings are literally too many to handle"

Hey! This week was pretty fun as well. A bit hectic though. We are having so much success it's overwhelming haha. We have 7 people with baptismal dates. I want to tell you about 'em all, but it'll be long! I'll try to say a little about each of them.
We have Arai who is an 80+ years old man, but one of the most energetic and happy people ever. Elder Stilson found him housing and he has a huge desire to follow God and go to a good place after he dies. He said that when we meet with him he knows we're from God. He reads the Book of Mormon every day until his eyes hurt and he has to stop (which is usually just 2 or 3 pages, but still!). He is a boss.

Next is Akimoto who is a girl in her 30s that a previous missionary found on Christmas by saying Merry Christmas!! when they found her housing. She wants to get religion to help bless her family and do know how to be a better person. She is way funny and nice and really interested in what we have to say.

Aoyama is a guy around 45 that the last missionary found housing who has read the Book of Mormon 3 times. He has a problem with the word of wisdom, but he wants to do all the things God commands. He is trying hard to overcome alcohol and tobacco and in the past kept it for 2 weeks.

Aida is amazing. He 22 and is a self referral which means that he came to Church on his own because he has a friend at work who is a member he looks up to. He is really interested in God and being a better person and loves playing basketball with us on Friday.

Ueda is awesome and I think he is an old investigator that we revived. He really looks up to Jesus Christ and reads the bible and prays everyday. He is in his 30s as well and is really chill, but way nice. We are working on getting him to read the Book of Mormon on his own and understand the importance of the restoration.

Kunii is a way nice 19 yr old girl that we found housing an apartment. She has a 4 month old baby and loves her like crazy. She is really interested in strengthening her family as it grows and having a relationship with God.

Last is Tsuruya who is an older lady who is really nice and thinks what we are doing as missionaries is really impressive. She has really strong faith that people need to trust in God to become better people and she wants to help her family know it as well.

We have quite a bit of other really strong investigators as well! The only thing that is kinda tough with just about everybody right now is that it's hard to meet consistently with them, but otherwise they are all amazing. If we could just meet and get good lessons with them I am pretty sure they would have baptismal dates too. We want to make Eikaiwa stronger and get better relationships with the members too, but our hands are super full! I'm way sure Toyohira will become a 4 man area next transfer.
It's kinda hard to write everything in just the time we have, but there are TONS of miracles it's not even funny!

Sunday school sounds like you did a great job! Was it fun? I think it seems like a WAY fun calling. Make sure to have fun and that's when it will become easy I think :) You have been doing lots with work and chores and all that great stuff! There is a phrase in Japanese called Otsukaresamadesu and it means "you are a hard worker". I wish there was a phrase like it in English hahaha. Sounds like a fun baby shower and Lauren looks like a mom already :D In a good way of course. I can't believe David's birthday is coming up so soon already! That's awesome. Doing anything fun? Glad that the car is getting fixed. I'm just worried that one of the other parts would break as well because it's just getting old in general. I want to hear about the missionary activity that Mara had!

I did hear about being able to email friends, but I honestly have no time. I don't even have time to write any letters. A couple people emailed me already. The recorder has no possible way to connect to computer. I still don't know if I should send it back. I can deal with not having one I just think it'd make it more efficient to tell you all the things you want to hear about the week plus make it easier for me to keep a journal which I am not very good at.

Mike Connelly and Marquie are out this week??? NICE! I'm way stoked. I'm glad people are thinking about me and I'm really happy for them as well. The missionaries are coming over? Feed them something really healthy. Stuff with grease doesn't give you that much dendo energy. You need like really wheaty stuff and vegetables and lean meat. Yeah.

So this week was Monday; shoveled snow for a non-attending for 2 hours! Made piles and piles higher than my head. He was way cool and we are going out to eat ramen another day. Before that we cleaned the apartment and I tried to organize stuff. Tuesday was a DTM where the AP's came so I got to practice with Hansen Choro a bunch which was pretty nostalgic. It was a great workshop about using the Book of Mormon. After that we got home and had a lesson with Aoyama. Then we did a bit of dendo, actually a lot. Wednesday we met with Arai in the morning and after him we had to run to the church to make it on time to Aida's lesson at the church. After that we went to eat all that you can eat Indian food with an Eikaiwa student who is a boss. After that we had a lesson with Aoyama scheduled, but he ended up not being able to come so we chilled with the soon to be missionary who was going to team up with us. Then we had Eikaiwa which was pretty fun, but not as energetic as usual. A new person came who found the Eikaiwa online. From a member we found out that Toyohira's Eikaiwa used to be 40+ people! I wish we could make it like that again. Thursday we had DKK and lots of calling investigators to try to make appointments. Then we went out to dendo for a bit. Friday we had a lesson with a member referral named Nakagawa who is way cool. About 30. Has really good taste in music and clothes. He really loves how the church is like a big family. He actually has a bit of a social illness where he is not good at making connections with people, but we have done pretty well with him so far. We also met with the Shimai in the area for a bit and exchanged some investigators we thought would be better being taught by them. After that we ate and went to the sports activity where I ripped on of my pairs of pants way bad, but it's all right because no one noticed :) That night I went back to the apartment with Elder Stout on splits. His bean area was Eniwa and his 2nd companion was Hansen Choro so we had a ton to talk about hahaha. We had a blast teaching Tsuruya and doing a bunch of finding. I also found out that next weekend I get to go to Hakodate on extra long splits! It's the southernmost part of Hokkaido and way famous for being fun, pretty, and delicious. I'm crazy stoked. Yesterday was Stake conference and it was AWESOME!! Guess who spoke??? Haramai Shimai!!! She did way good and talked on her conversion and I was way moved. She is crazy powerful. It was also mega fun to see all the people from Eniwa again. After that we visited Ueda in the hospital and then went and had two meals in a row with members. The Tanjis and the Oouchis. So good. So stuffed. Oh man. Great though! Today we have music practice and not tons of time ;( Should still be an awesome day though!

I love you tons and know this gospel and work is God's! Nothing can stop it from progressing quickly and filling the whole Earth. I used to think that prepared people were impossible to find, but as we believe it happens and the blessings are literally too many to handle! :D

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

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