3/23/14 Wakkanai part 3 and other stuff

Hey! Thanks for the mail! First off, Ueda B (who was baptized recently) was this guy I taught like three times in Toyohira before I transferred. He ended up getting baptized and being really strong after I left. He looks like Spock from Star Trek :) That's interesting you got a letter about picking me up! I've known about the date being July 11 for a long time.

I'm doing my best to balance stuff with resting and riding trains, but the hardest trip is already done so it should be chill from here. Adam said in his letter he just finished his first transfer...? What? I've had almost five transfers since he left. Do they count them different there? He's already had multiple companions too right?

Sounds like you're getting stuff done at Dave's way fast! My help might be unnecessary haha. That's cool Brother Woodbury is still doing well! He's great. Sounds like Mara will probably be in Madrigals too then haha. Hope she has fun!

SO this week was a slow p-day where afterwards we found with a member after praying with her. We shared a message with her about praying together for missionary opportunities or just opportunities to help others. We have been trying to do that a lot because up til now I felt like we didn't get to do much with the members here. March is especially busy for Japan for some reason...

Tuesday was crazy. We ran to Ebetsu for DTM and left early to make a train to Wakkanai. We left at 11:56 and got there at 6:10. Not as long as Nemuro was, but still tiring. Your knees get really sore for some reason. Maybe it's the height of Japanese seats. Upon arrival we did some housing and then gave a b-day present to the recent convert Shibuya B. He's so fun. The next day was yet another split with Yoshikawa E. The weather was so nice and I could see Saharin! (Russia) I got a picture completing my Russia collection. We just found a lot and visited PIs (previous investigators?). Then we went to institute which was fun as usual. Shibuya B sang a hymn in his crazy opera voice. It was great.

The next morning we headed home and had a clean check from the Hansens. After that we had DKK and found out that almost all of our investigators are busy until the middle of April. We made lots of plans to find and also plans to show love to our zone! We are going to make a zone shepherd! (the magazine like thing we get every transfer from the mission, but just for our zone!) It's hard to help out when all the other missionaries are so far away and we can only go on splits once... Then we had Eikaiwa and ate yakiniku with some students.

Friday was a finding day! We went all over finding and did some more praying with members. It was really cold, but went well and I slept great. Saturday we went by Bibai to visit an NA and check up on the PIs there. Turns out we might not be going again for a while, but I think it's a nice place. It's small like Nemuro. One of the PIs was really into space, history, and aliens. Kinda fun. At night we came back to Iwamizawa and went out to eat ramen with an old investigator. He is just a guy who was friends with the missionaries. He wasn't super interested in the message at first, but there are 2 missionaries that I know that are serving here now that used to be investigators like that (Ishiga E and Chiba E) I don't know if we'll focus on him, but we can keep that friendship up. We ate ramen not fit for human consumption. I barely got through the bean sprouts. Here is a picture.

Sunday was great! Adachi showed up for sacrament meeting out of nowhere! I had called her and she said she was busy, but Hatch E had been mailing her on facebook so she felt like she should come. She told us about this friend she has been worrying about and wants us to meet! She really wants to change herself and I feel like she is going to be so happy when she's able to learn the gospel more. Tochizaki S (deaf) also told me more about her daughter moving in with her and wanting to come to church! Another member has a niece moving to Iwamizawa as well who used to come to Eikaiwa and hear the lessons! I felt so blessed after working hard on finding. Even though we weren't able to find a particularly strong person on our own, the Lord is bringing great people to us :D After church we visited some PIs and taught some quick lessons then headed out with Adachi B to visit a non-attending ym to invite him to youth conference. He lives far away, otherwise he'd probably come every week. He's excited to go to youth conference even though he can only go one day! I'm jealous he gets to go. Youth conference was the best!

Today I am going to a place called Furano! It is pretty famous in Hokkaido. I bet you'll find cool pictures if you look it up. Because it's winter still, I don't know how many flowers there will be, but it's still supposedly really awesome. An Eikaiwa student is taking us.

Love you so much!
Hutchinson Choro

death ramen

Saharin

chilling at institute

bear meat (it was pretty good)

2/23/14 ZTM and Wakkanai again (also Yuubari)

Hey! Japan is good yo. It's getting warmer and the snow is melting a lot. Slush. I'm sorry you weren't feeling well, but I'm glad things are better! I am always really tired now because riding on trains all the time makes your schedule all crazy so it's hard for your body to get used to it I think. That's fun Mya and Olivia are going to Disneyland! Everyone is going fun places lately, haha. I got your valentine btw. Thanks! Yes there is another music concert on Saturday. Today's p-day is once again stolen by practice for it. Hayashi is still doing ok. He is just really worried about finding a job to hold him over for the month until his other job starts in April. I think he has a lot of faith though. I'm excited for Michael and know he'll do lots of awesome stuff! He's a great guy. I hope Dave's new house (renovation) isn't too hard to take care of, but if there is still stuff to help out with I'd be happy to help when I get back. Did I tell you about college stuff? I talked to Pres Evans and I already missed the deadline to get into BYU this year because I didn't get on it soon enough... However it might be good because I won't have any money when I get back anyways. I could always go back to USU, but..... We'll see. Sometimes I get Emails from Thomas who was on the guitar program with me at USU and he said it's changed a lot and Mike retired. My scholarship there is still "waiting" technically. Anyways, maybe I should start job searching as early as possible. Don't worry about Okinawa. It'd take a long time to get there even if I had a good enough reason to go besides sightseeing and visiting mission buddies. Plus, going to the Sapporo Temple when it gets finished takes priority.

So this week was pretty tiring. P-day was walking around to shop for a bunch of different things we have needed to buy way bad, but couldn't because we never had time. We also finished preparing for Zone training meeting which was about being a leader (which we did the next day in Asahikawa). There are 14 missionaries going home and 10 coming in. Next transfer there are 6 going home and 12 coming in. It makes me nervous and I also wonder if I'll go trainer again. It might be a good thing, but I'm WAY happy that more missionaries are coming here. I just wish more Nihonjin would come. That's why we gotta go find 'em! ;D

After ZTM we rode a train, then bus (the train had to stop halfway because of snow) for the rest of the day to Wakkanai. It was a little over five hours. I sat next to Yoshikawa E (was in Kushiro the whole time I was in Nemuro, now Wakkanai) and talked the whole time then had splits the next day. It was pretty neat! A lot colder than it was last time, but I had a blast. The next morning was a long train home and a little bit of rest before going to Hayashi then Eikaiwa. The day after was our adventure day. I had really been wanting to go to this part of our area called Yuubari so we did. There isn't a direct train that goes there so we did a bunch of transfers, but got there eventually. It was a lot smaller than I thought, but reminded me of Park City because it's just sitting right in the middle of the mountains. We had some fun exploring and finding a bit. The day after was in Bibai. We first had lunch with Adachi and a few of her friends then went with them to this art museum type place for this guy who is apparently pretty famous for doing abstract sculptures. Turns out that day he himself was doing a little seminar thing (he came all the way from Italy) and the museum was closed.... BUT because we came "all the way from America" they decided to let us in anyway! It was a bit interesting, but the best part was that while we were there Adachi was introducing everyone to us and telling them about what we do and recommending they come to Eikaiwa and stuff! We also got to take a peek in the guy's seminar (his name is Kan Yasuda) right when he was giving a speech so that was kinda neat. We did some finding and put up Eikaiwa fliers in Bibai before coming home. Sunday was pretty normal. Lots of sign language! We did some phone calls and ate a member's house. She's trying to learn sign language (for when I leave) so Dixon E and I taught her a little. I wonder if I'll ever have a chance to use Japanese sign language after I go home haha. Other than that not much is going on! Dixon E is trunky, but he has less than 2 weeks left so it's understandable. He's really fun. I am trying to find more stability in an always changing schedule so if you have any tips on that, please :) I love you!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

1/19/13 Japanese Will Ferrell

Hey! I'll see if I can get some pictures (of snow) this time. I forgot my camera again though. I am actually pretty sure that today is a normal p-day :) Yeah, everything was pretty good this week. Just tons of train time. We only went to Asahikawa (2nd area called Suehiro) and Wakkanai. (Plus Ebetsu for DTM but we go there every week.)

Silly mom! You know that if you have Japanese you want translated you don't ask google when you have a Japanese missionary right here haha. Akira Tsunoka is the branch president from Nemuro. Keep doing your best on the clean house!

Sounds like there were a lot of cool miracles as far as being helped by relatives and friends. That's so nice :D

SO I guess here's the week! Monday we got home late from the Honbu because of the forever music practice + having to do email there so all we could do here was a little planning. Tuesday we went to Ebetsu and had a good DTM on teaching to people, not just teaching lessons, done by me. It went good and we ended it early so we could make our train to Wakkanai. It was pretty long. We went to Asahikawa and transferred there to a smaller train. For some reason it was crazy packed and we had to stand for like four hours, but we met a really nice high school student. He's from Kagoshima (south Japan) and he came up here for this high school in this WAY middle of nowhere place (1000 people maybe) called Otoineppu. He didn't seem like he wanted to talk at first, but when his stop came up he came back up to us and started to ask us what we were doing here and seemed pretty interested. I hope he meets missionaries again someday. We got to Wakkanai at about 6:45 ish and I worked with Sakihara E for a bit that night. He is super strong and diligent. He is almost on his last transfer and just got finished done being AP before leaving to open Wakkanai. We worked way hard the next day and even though all we had to do was housing, we made a ton of appts and got lots of lessons in the doorway. Way fun because it's been a while since I got to work with another companion like that! We also had Institute there that night. Wakkanai's branch is pretty small (smaller than Nemuro) but they have institute classes every Wednesday. There we got to meet the members and recent convert Shibuya B who looks like Will Ferrell! He is way funny and cool and has a super strong testimony. He also rides his bike everywhere even in the snow. He named his bike Milk Cocoa express (it used to be called Milk Coffee express, but then he learned the WofW!)

Next morning we took a faster train home, got some study and planning + Eikaiwa done and then headed to Asahikawa! Friday was splits with Goddard E who is way cool. He used to be in a pretty rough situation (he lived in LA and was a pretty big stoner/partier) but he came back to the church and completely changed and gave up all the bad things right away! He is super cool and has such an incredible testimony he pretty much shares nonstop. We got along pretty good. Also his Grandfather is the explorer John Goddard. I don't know if you've heard of him. I hadn't. haha We had a pretty fun day! First we taught a Baptist minister from Wisconsin! He is pretty nice and was really open. He's reading the BoM quite a bit as well as other church books. He had lots of questions and we were able to answer them with the scriptures pretty well, but he set on his beliefs (and unfortunately, employment) so even when we showed him proof in the BofM and Bible about the need for baptism he was pretty steadfast. Super nice guy though! I also helped teach Eikaiwa there and that was pretty fun too! Not to mention I finally got to eat Naan and Indian curry again :)

Next morning we came home and went to visit a really nice NA and then head to Bibai to do some finding and meet Yamashita. He is doing way good faith wise, but is in really dire straits money wise. He had his heater on the lowest setting and had to cut off his phone bill. We worked with the branch pres to get him some rice and an electric blanket so hopefully that'll help him out. He is 59 and is having a really hard time searching for a job despite being really smart and fluent in English. Otherwise in his lessons he almost seems like he is already a member sometimes. He says he hasn't been able to read the BofM much, but sometimes in the middle of our talks he'll bring up random BofM stories! (i.e. we were talking about how so many people deny the existence of God and he said "I wonder if they'll end up like Korihor?")

Sunday was pretty all right. Church went good, but none of our investigators were able to make it. After church we also weren't able to meet our other investigators we usually meet on Sunday so we had some decent finding. I feel so bad for our poor area. Because they are only ZLs here most of the time it's not getting dendo'd at all! We had dinner with the Oota couple and Kaneko B and it was pretty fun. They are way cool and down to earth. The couple was recently married last year so that's cool.

That's pretty much the week though. Thanks for all your faith, prayers, love, and support! Love you times a million!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

1/13/14 Never ending snow

So it snowed. A lot. I knew Iwamizawa was the snowiest area in Hokkaido... but i didn't think it was THAT much more. It's above my head. Church was canceled except for sacrament, but that was kinda neat because we got to do lots of service and shoveling to help people make it to sacrament.

All the birthdays and mini get togethers sound great. I am probably not even going to recognize half of the ward when I get back ne, hahaha. I hope you have fun practicing for the relief society meeting! Today p-day was nothing but music practice...... I love music, but I would like a p-day sometimes haha. I'm glad you got Hatch E's mail. I felt bad for running out of time. The meetings that Heavenly Father guides us to blow me away all the time. Thanks for telling everyone back home how I'm doing and thanks for receiving and showing a bunch of gratitude for the blessings you receive.

So Zone Conference went WAY good. We rode with the AP's to Asahikawa and got everyone together. I thought I was going to be nervous, but everything went way smooth. We talked about goals and basically just went through PMG about goal setting and having faith in the goals. We encouraged everybody to have faith and bore testimony a ton because we know how much success they can see here because it is an area that God has prepared and opened through church leaders. We had everyone report numbers etc yesterday and almost all the missionaries improved like CRAZY! They all said they were way inspired by the workshop to make high goals and work hard. Anyways after getting back I went on splits with the AP Jones E and we had a lot of fun streeting and stuff. I still don't know the area very well at all because we are always gone, but we made stuff happen.

The next day we went to Ebetsu and had splits and I went w/ Sakamura E. He is so awesome. He has so much dendo fire and is way funny. We went all over the area finding old investigators and giving feedback on each-others' finding skills. The next day we had DKK and headed to Takikawa. In Takikawa I went on splits with Yanada E who also has lots of dendo fire. Next transfer is his last and he wants to make sure he ends strong. Yoshikawa E who was in Kushiro is his comp so it was good to see him again. We taught this way cool guy who has been an investigator since he was little and is like 37 now. However he had a big change of heart and wants to get baptized way bad now. We made a baptismal date with him and that was super exciting for them.

We came back from Takikawa on Saturday and headed to this part of our area called Bibai (it means beautiful song) to see Yamashita. We met another really nice NA there before we went and taught him a lesson. He is way awesome. We taught him mostly the rest of the commandments and he accepted them all right away except for wine... He feels like since it's in the bible that it should be an exception. We explained to him about how it's restored truth and he understands that, but just needs to get the confirmation for himself. Then I pretty much told you what Sunday was like so yeah!

The gospel is so incredibly true and I love being a missionary. I've gotta head back to Iwamizawa though so I'll catch ya later! Love you tons!!! Aishiteimasu! BTW tomorrow we have DTM then go to Wakkanai which basically takes all day. It's the northest! I'm way excited.

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro