5/11/14 AP Adventures!

Hey! Tomita Choro has glasses. I only have one picture of him right now. (attached)
I'm glad I was able to share something that helped you out.

Evans Shimai takes pictures a lot, but they should all be on the mission facebook page.

I didn't get any pictures of the cherry blossoms... I just ran by them... Sorry :(

Asian star? hahaha Reminds me of all the wannabe American restaurants here.

Inhumanely proud? wow! hahaha

It's ok the mail was short because we got to talk on the phone.

Here's what happened this week.

On Monday we hung out here for a bit and then ate at MATSURIYA!!! It's one of my favorite sushi places from Nemuro and Kushiro, but there is one in Sapporo too! It was almost exactly the same :D
We were way tired that day and did phone dendo afterwards.
Tuesday we did some office stuff and a bunch of streeting! It was pretty neat and we met some really nice people. I'm surprised how many people listen. Everyone always made it sound so hard in the city.
Wednesday we had our first transfer talk. It was really stressful at first, but I realized that we didn't pray first. The next day we continued it, but I suggested we pray first and it went WAY better.
We had a stake coordination that night as well. Thursday we drove to Obihiro and had an interesting experience. We ran out of gas and had to have a guy come bring us gas at 10:30. The splits the next day were way awesome! I worked with Fukushima E and he told me a lot about how awesome stuff is going in Nemuro! We drove back and had the Kotoni talent show that went great! Church was also awesome because we had ward conference. Tomita E and I taught a lesson in primary and it was awesome!
I love being a missionary! I'm out of time!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Elder Tomita (with Elder & Sister Aoyagi)

at the airport pickup with President and all the new incoming missionaries

Welcome dinner for new missionaries at the honbu

recent mission leader conference

with the outgoing missionaries at the airport

2/2/14 Coldhot

Time doesn't feel like it's going fast, but every time I look, it's already gone...!

I'm glad everyone is finding fun stuff to do. I don't know how excited I am for chocolate cake day though... Sing along screening (of Frozen)? That's interesting. I'm glad Mara is making time to go to the temple. Do you know if Adam gets to go to the temple in his mission? I'm way excited to go. I'm also for sure proud of Mara's bargain skills. There's definitely a lot of clothes I want to try to snag here before I head home though. The zone is pretty much fine. I just wish we didn't have to go on splits so much because our poor area hardly gets any dendo time. Even if we find anyone cool it's hard to find time to meet them again :p We don't have DL responsibilities anymore, but there are more other things that make me feel like I'm even more busy than last transfer. Keep encouraging and praying for the missionaries in the ward for me! The translation means: happiness, isn't it? (Mom asked him to translate something) Makes more sense in Japanese. If I knew the context there's probably a better phrase.

I'll see what I can do about two weeks ago. Not anything too special happened before Hatch E left from what I remember. After that Dixon E and I made plans to focus on our area more (since we thought we would have less responsibilities... oh well). But because of that we headed out on Friday to find by the college and found some really cool students and stuff. It was a really fun area to dendo. We also found a guy who is a college professor named Hayashi. He's way cool and he seemed a little different, but he was way nice. On Saturday we went to Bibai and did some finding there and found a WAY cool family called the Hisatsunes. We made a weak appointment through the intercom, but as we were writing down, the dad from down the street walks up to us and asks us if we can speak Japanese. We say we do and have a pretty conversation with him and explain what we're doing. He thinks we're really awesome and is pretty interested so he introduces his son to us who is about 22 and way cool! He used to go to college in another part of Japan there and went to church at the time. Got their numbers and made an appt so that was pretty cool. Sunday was the normal translating into sign language and getting lots of food from members. We also had some ok finding. Monday was a pretty awesome p-day. We went to an onsen and a big mall with the Ebetsu elders. The onsen was WAY nice and cool because they had some out door pools as well with snow falling around.

That night we dendo'd a bit around the church and then got on the train to Asahikawa. I went on splits with Fukushima E who is awesome. He is working way hard as DL there. We did lots of finding and it was fun because he is really motivated. Wednesday morning we had a crazy adventure getting up way early, running through a blizzard, and riding a long train back to Sapporo in order to make it to mission leader council which was really awesome as usual. I felt like everything was said right to me. It basically took all day so we didn't have time to dendo when we got home. Thursday we went back to the college area and met Hayashi again. Turns out that he is from Taiwan! He married and a Nihonjin and graduated with a doctor's degree at Hokkaido university, but he's also fluent in English. We talked to him in his house. He told us his life story and we taught him a short, but really good lesson. We also showed him the Book of Mormon and he committed to read it before we could even ask him to. He is pretty kinjin so we're excited about him.

Friday was having the Takikawa Elders come on splits in Iwamizawa. I went with Kojima E who is a bit younger as a missionary, but a way cool guy. He went to Snow college for a year studying English! We did a lot of finding and had fun, but had to run for shelter in stores sometimes when the blizzards got bad. Saturday was originally planned to do a lot of dendo, but we had a stake coordination meeting that we had to go to and it took a lot of time to prepare for. We went to all of our Bibai appts, but we had to go super early so they were almost all not home. We did meet a really cool guy named Nagae though. We also found out that Yamashita didn't get his job and still can't come to church. Otherwise he's doing good. The stake meeting was actually pretty fun and went well. It helped to know more of what the Stake wants us to do as missionaries. There are a lot of wards and branches that don't have enough priesthood to have ward mission leaders or other callings like that, so it's pretty tough for some missionaries to work with the members, but I guess that's what finding new members is for, kana?

Sunday was good! It was fast Sunday and Adachi showed up randomly again! She went to Hawaii on her business trip and ended up meeting a bunch of RM's at the Polynesian cultural center! One of which (her group's guide) served here in Iwamizawa for a long time. She had been puzzled(?) about how many random meetings she had been having with the church and came with lots of really good questions. We had a great lesson with her at church about the spirit. She won't commit to a baptismal date right now, but she has a ton of promise!

That's about it! Thanks and love you!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

(Mom's note: We had a really great time talking to Braden Saturday. Because of the time difference we called at 6:00 am for him and he was still on the train coming back from a mission-wide meeting. We called again later and eventually he was back in Nemuro, just tired. He sounds great! He loves what he's doing and will be at this location for one or two more transfers due to his companion getting ready to go home.)

Hey! I am still a little tired, but doing great. Sorry about all the time misunderstandings and stuff. I'm really grateful that I could talk to you all as well. I'm grateful for the prayers and great example as always. Thank you thank you thank you! I hope Grandma Price is doing great! To answer your question about popcorn popping, yeah they have it. The hymn book doesn't have everything the English one does, but the primary songbook does. I can't believe how much Mya can talk - that was really surprising and neat. I'm glad your mother's day was so happy you deserve it!

I have a question about sweets actually... do you have that recipe for the microwave cake that you make in the bowls? Since we don't have an oven I was thinking about maybe trying that. Lauren is a very cool mom and it sounds like she is working hard and having a great time. I'm glad I had a chance to talk to Adam about preparation. I hope he is doing great. Taking classes and studying the scriptures is good and everything, but the most important thing is being able to apply and share what you learn with confidence. Find the reason that you are grateful for the gospel and tell everyone about it! Anyone who has applied the Savior's teachings and received a spiritual witness can do that. Thanks for saying hi to everyone in the ward again!

So I kinda let you know about what happened this week already, but for the most part it was hanging out in Kushiro for a bit, coming back, having splits that ended early, and going to Sapporo. Splits were way fun. It was my first time doing splits as the Sr. Missionary in the companionship. I went with Fukushima Choro who is way cool and we decided to go to Hanasaki port which is about 30 min away on bikes. Before that we went to visit some potential investigators and found some more Chinese guys that are way cool and nice. Then Fukushima Choro got a call finding out that he had to transfer early because his companion was becoming a trainer. We didn't know what to do so we tried to call the other companionship, but they wouldn't answer so we prayed about whether we should go home early or go to Hanasaki and take the later train. We decided to go to Hanasaki and had a really good time and met 2 really cool people on the way that we exchanged phone numbers with. The day after that Inumaki Choro and I had planning session and had really good finding that day. We made a goal to pass out more copies of the Book of Mormon because of how important it is for investigators to read it. We talked to Mochida that night and read the Book of Mormon with him and it went really well. He has a lot of interest in the Book of Mormon and promised to read and pray about it everyday while he is on his business trip.

The next day was straight traveling to Sapporo... train then bus. It was very tiring, but not too bad. We got to Sapporo and Inumaki Choro had to go to the dentist so I waited for a bit. That night we hung out with the missionaries that came early and it was way fun. The next day was music practice and pretty much everyone in the mission was there. It was way rad to meet all the new missionaries! Music practice went well and right after that we got on the train to Kushiro. Next morning woke up at 4:45 to make the train to Nemuro and got to talk to my awesome family! Church went super well. An old investigator named Takizawa came and we taught him from the gospel principles book. He doesn't disagree with any of the church's teachings. He thinks they're true and everything, he just has a hard time because he has been Methodist for such a long time. He pretty much wants to join the church, but is looking for that confirmation y'know. Kinda tough, but he is way nice. After church we had a sign language lesson from Nariyama Shimai that was pretty sweet. I:m really excited to be able to speak it! It's way fun. After church we rested and went out to find! There was one really cool guy named Fujishima that we taught a great lesson to about the plan of salvation. We got home and Inumaki Choro got to call his family. That's it!

I hope everyone is doing great and has opportunities to show Christ-like love to everyone around. Don't get too warm over there! haha
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro