10/6/13 Working hard w/ Morgan E and more Vietnamese adventures!

Whoa! Your letter this week had a lot of pretty eventful things! Lots of awesome things and a few really tough sounding things, but I'm always happy to hear about what's going on. Uncle Merril (Braden's uncle who passed away this week) is definitely in my prayers along with his family. I'm grateful I got to spend a bit of time with him before I left giving him blessings w/ dad etc. He and his awesome example to everyone in the family and all the scouts that he helped out will never be forgotten. Tell everyone on dad's side hi for me. I'm way excited for Adam to get into the field and I'm glad that he's going to go out to see tons of real miracles! We were watching "the district" the other day and I realized that the mission they have in there is one in Texas so I wondered if it'd be really similar to Adam's. The district is a missionary training video, btw. (Note: The one Adam watched was set in San Diego?)

Dad looks good with his old mission pres! Is he growing out his beard again? Haha maybe it's because he isn't wearing his glasses, but he looks a little tired. Probably just working super hard huh? That's cool you got to spend time with missionaries! All the time here I think about how I hardly ever got to meet missionaries more than maybe a couple times a year at most and I'm so excited that you get to see/hear from them often! I'm especially excited that there was another baptism for the people that live behind us! Wow!!! I can't believe so much missionary work is happening around West Valley. I feel like I never really got to experience it except for maybe Sheriann, etc. I'm excited to participate a lot when I get home! Of course I don't know how long I'll be in WVC with school and everything haha.

SO here's the week!
First off, yesterday the Zone leaders came to give Van her baptismal interview and she passed!!! She actually had a meeting on Sunday morning and said she'd be late to church so we waited the whole time and she never came! I was really really nervous and was praying hard the whole time she'd be able to come. Evans Kaicho actually visited as well to do some business and stuff, and he said that as long as we could meet her that day it was the priority. So we just waited after church and tried to get in contact with her. Finally around 2pm I found out her meeting just got over and she would come to the church right away after getting some errands done. Her errands ending up taking longer than we thought so there was more waiting, more praying, and more being nervous. She showed up around 4:30 and the interview went great! I was looking forward to going on splits with the ZL Watanabe E who is way cool, but it ended up being waiting, having her baptismal interview, and going home. She introduced us to 2 new friends and we walked them back to their dorm. She introduces us to lots of friends and we have a stockpile of Vietnamese BofM's, pamphlets, etc. now so we are excited to do missionary work with her too!

I kinda put that first because it's the biggest news I think. Her baptism will be either next week after conference or the Sunday after that!
So last Monday was a decent P-day. I was really tired for some reason and it was really rainy. We did a "heart attack" to the Ozawa family and Okuchi S as a challenge from the zone leaders to do something nice for ward members that help you out a lot. We also had a lesson with this cool guy named Kantou who is from Fukuoka and teaches high school. We actually got into a really deep conversation about God's commandments etc. and he asked really hard questions! Hopefully I was able to get inspiration from the spirit and end with a pretty good feeling. I think he has a lot of potential. One of the questions he asked is "Are you trying to be like Jesus?" which isn't a deep question really, but I was really surprised when it came out of nowhere and I had only talked about Jesus a little bit before. I feel like he's researching the church on his own or something... Tuesday was great and DTM was good too! I was able to get everyone to participate more which can be pretty tough when everyone is on the other side of the phone. We had a lot of good follow-up lessons and we did a lot to help our not-so-strong (yet) investigators to remember to read the BofM! We taught the plan of salvation to Okuchi S as her AB lesson and as a practice lesson for Morgan E. Her understanding is getting better and better! Funny story. That morning we watched some videos about using family history for dendo. We discussed afterwards about how hard it is in Japan because not THAT many people in Japan are interested in it/it's really hard to search your ancestors in Japan because most records aren't public. BUT when we taught the plan of salvation to Okuchi S we felt prompted to tell her about it and she got really excited! She's especially really excited to find names and take them to the temple someday! I kinda feel like Heavenly Father came up and said "yeah huh you can use family history in your dendo!!!" Haha I thought it was pretty cool.
Wednesday we met this guy from before named Tominaga and passed him a BofM. We had to get through a lot of just talking to him to get him to open up even a little though. He is lonely and likes talking a lot. I really hope he reads though! Same with all our other investigators! We had DKK the next day and it was crazy because of how many investigators we have. We have to choose who to focus on and it is tough because I just want to help everyone. Who woulda thought in this little area, hahaha.

That night it was really rainy, but we met with Van to have her practice baptism interview underneath the eave of a post office because there were no places we could go nearby protected from the rain. She did super amazing and her testimony is way strong. I feel like it just came out of nowhere, but that's what happens when you actually follow all the commandments I guess! Friday was lots of finding and lots of cool people! Oh yeah Thursday night we tried going to this matsuri in a far offish area and it was alright. Not very big at all, but I should've expected that from such a small outskirt town. We did a little shizen and actually met a guy who was an old investigator. When we left he chased us down to give us hotdogs because he thought we looked hungry. Saturday we had a lot of finding and a lot of follow up type lessons. I want them to read and pray soooo bad!!!! AhhhhH!!!!! I know when they do it's going to bless them, but everyone has such a hard time making the choice and making the time... They definitely will someday though!
Anyway I'm in Kushiro right now. We have a district activity today and then tomorrow we get to have DTM in person!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! :) I'll make sure to get some good pics.

I love you tons and the gospel is 100000% true!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

These are pictures of us with the ZLs, and Watanabe E and me with Van and her friends:

9/22/13 Somehow I knew that Morgan E's parents were going to find you hahaha!

Yeah! So it wasn't Sizilio E (referring to the bean he was supposed to train last time)! He did get to make it to Sapporo though, which is something that is really cool. I still got to meet him and tell him the whole story. When we went to meet our beans I saw him in the room and got mentally ready to not be surprised when they told me he would be my bean, but then all of the sudden I heard Evans Kaicho say my name (as Elder Morgan's trainer)! I was a little shocked at first, but I felt the spirit really strongly that Morgan E is the missionary who I need to work with for the next 2 transfers here. So not only did I become trainer, but District Leader! Also, they brought Sisters to Kushiro so the district is now 8 people. I'll get to go to Kushiro for splits quite a bit! I'm really excited though.

ANYWAYS I'll start from the beginning of the week. Last week on Monday... HUGE typhoon!!!! It started during email and we just thought it was a bit of rain and so we decided to wait and write letters until it died down so we could go shop, but it didn't! We eventually manned it out and barely made it to the apartment soaking wet. We called the assistants and told them and they said they actually heard about it too. They told us to not go outside for dendo that day. Crazy! There was a little part where it died down a bit and we went to have a birthday/bye bye party for Okuchi S since we knew one of us would transfer. She made us some Okonomiyaki (look it up) and we sang her and Yuka the song we sang at her baptism again. Super cool and she totally cried. We headed back to the apt and magically it wasn't too bad at all until we got back. We tried to do phone dendo and organize the area book. The wind and rain were so crazy, a big tree across the street fell down and the fire dept. came to clean it up!

Well, that night we got our transfer calls! Andersen E went to Hakodate as planned, and I got the trainer/DL news. That night/next day was lots of packing! We were planning on going on a 11:00 train to Kushiro, but got a call from Ozawa kaicho saying the trains weren't running because the tracks were flooded! Buses couldn't go either because the roads were bad too... We were way stumped, but then Ozawa Kaicho (he goes to Sapporo for business trips pretty often) offered to take us! We had a little bit of time, so a few members came to see Andersen E off. Then we got in the car with Ozawa K for a 9 hour ride to Sapporo! Yay!!! He had to take a bunch of mountain/back roads to get around the closed off places which took a little time. We stopped at a few cool places to rest. We also stopped in Kushiro to talk with Andrus Kaicho for a bit too.

When we drove through Chitose it was pretty late at night and I noticed an airplane coming in. First thing I thought was "airplanes! that means my bean area is coming up!" but Andersen E pointed out it was probably the beans' plane! Turns out it was, hahaha. We got to Sapporo and stayed with the Odori Elders. One of the Elders there, Mecham E, really likes a lot of the local Provo music I'm into and I felt like he was my long lost brother. He's also way good at the piano. Maybe I found a band mate for after the mission...? Anyway the next morning had a little bit of study with Andersen E and then we headed to the Honbu! We mingled with a bunch of the missionaries there and then went in to meet the beans! Really nostalgic and cool presentation for Evans Kaicho. We also had some more training and way good food. We also got to have our first 1 1/2 hour of dendo in Sapporo around the Honbu! I remembered being impressed by Hansen E (his trainer) then and not knowing what was going on. We were able to get 2 phone numbers and pass a Book of Mormon to a way awesome guy! Morgan E was doing awesome at calling out to people and introducing himself. We'll have lots of work to do on learning Japanese, but he definitely is ready to work towards it! We slept in the honbu and the next morning had a great breakfast then got ready to go to the transfer spot! My first time in 4 transfers. It was way fun to say hi to so many missionaries and get pics with them etc. They were a little slow in bringing the luggage back, so we missed the bus we were originally supposed to go on. Because of that we had more time to hang out w/everyone and shizen dendo a tiny bit in the Eki (train station). Got to eat lunch with Andersen E and talk about stuff a lot. He's definitely one of my best friends I think. I'm way excited for him to be Sr. comp in Hakodate!

We got to ride a train to Kushiro and we were both pretty tired. Showed Morgan E lots of pics and told him a bit about when I went to my bean area. I'm so excited to be able to teach so many awesome things! We ended up sleeping over in Kushiro apt that night after attending their Eikaiwa. The next morning we caught a train at 8 am and arrived in Nemuro! Morgan E was super excited, but still so tired. We had a good planning session telling him about all the investigators etc. here. Then we went to get his bank card and teach Eikaiwa! I had him teach the advanced class and he did great from what I heard! He introduced himself to the members that came and it went great. I don't know how much you heard about him from his parents, but he is from Beaufort, SC. It's a pretty small town on an island! He was valedictorian and student body pres. He also played tennis and did lots of other awesome stuff. Not to mention there are 10 people in his family! He's great though. For real. Saturday was our first real day of dendo! Other than the fact we had no bikes. Haha. We were still able to get a decent amount of housing in and it was fun to introduce him to that. There was also a decent sized matsuri that day, sanma matsuri(refers to a type of famous fish here)and it was way cool. We got some decent shizen done there and got to get on a coast guard boat! I've been wanting to do that since I got here hahaha.

Sunday went awesome too. Morgan E's bike came the night before so that was a very happy thing! Van came to church and we finished teaching her the plan of salvation (almost). She was pretty blown away by people in the spirit world having another chance to receive the gospel/3 degrees of glory. It was a tiny bit tense and she said "that's not what it says in the bible..." but I was able to answer with a testimony about the restoration plus scripture in the bible that talks about 3 degrees of glory. It ended really strong and spiritual and Morgan E tied it up with his way awesome testimony!!! I was way proud of him jumping in on his own right there. I also gave a medium talk on the Atonement. After church Morgan E met with all the members and then we ate lunch before meeting up with Van again. Funny story. Since her job's only day off is Sunday, that's the only day she can shop. We taught her about keeping the sabbath day holy (which she understood in a sec cause it's in the 10 commandments) but it can't really be helped if there's nothing she can do right? She might actually be trying to have one of her friends go to the store for her though. That's how awesome she is. After that, we stopped at this little tiny park by the church to follow up on the Word of Wisdom we mentioned last week because we saw her drink green tea again. We had kind of a deep conversation about it, but I was able to answer her questions with scriptures (mostly Nephi being asked to get the plates from Laban) and it went really well. She pinky promised to keep the word of wisdom and we worked out a deal of buying her a present of the mugi tea that we are ok to drink. After that we went this other investigator named Hebikawa (snake river) who Andersen E and I found a while ago. We were worried since we didn't meet her last week, but I went with Morgan E and it turns out she read like 20 pages in the Book of Mormon! Way awesome. Afterwards we met Ayako S (Okuchi Shimai) and Morgan E shared a scripture he liked. We were both impressed by his good Japanese. Guess what!?!? She is speaking at District conference next week! It'll be just like when Haramai S spoke when I was in Toyohira. I'm way happy and excited and feel super blessed that I get to see it. She is seriously getting stronger and stronger everyday, it's so cool!

Anywho that's pretty much the week! I felt like not a lot happened because there really was SOOO much traveling time. There are a bunch of new little things to do, like having to hear everyone's numbers/other stuff so I have gotten a bit more busy, but I'm excited for the new responsibilities. I feel more and more how real it is that this is the Lord's work. Morgan E is a huge example to me of all the little things I forgot since I haven't been a bean for so long. Looking forward to lots of miracles and I know they're there!

Glad Mara's party went well and sorry I wasn't able to get any good recipes or messages in time for the missionary mom thing. It will probably be a little bit harder than that to get me to go!!! (Mom told him we think we'll have to drag him home physically when it's time to leave Japan) Hahaha but I know that the Lord knows when my time will be done and there are other important things afterwards as well... I hope they don't come too soon though!!!!!! Also I'm super glad that Lily is feeling better :) Have an awesome week and here are some great pics! Thanks for the Pics you sent. Mara is definitely looking like a high schooler. Crazy!


Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Coast guard boat with Morgan Choro

Ringing the bell on the boat

First meeting with Morgan Choro, w/Pres. & Sister Evans

Akkeshi on the way to Kushiro

Me and the (still alive) up til now comps (Ishiga E went home!!!)

Russia

8/11/13 O-Matsuri!!!! And lots of other surprising stuff.

Hey!!! So guess what? I'm becoming TRAINER!!!!

BUT
not yet...

My bean apparently had to get surgery and is delayed 2 weeks!
I was kinda sad at first because I was really excited to train and go to the cool meeting at the honbu where they do orientation and everyone gets to meet the beans, but also really happy that I get to work here with Andersen Choro for a bit longer!
Actually kind of a miracle I think because it will be JUST in time for both of us to see the Okuchi's get baptized!
We got the transfer calls on Monday because trainers get them early and spent the whole day saying goodbye and packing. Okuchi even threw a big goodbye party/fireworks show for Andersen E. When we were about to leave from saying goodbye to them all of the sudden I get a call from the Assistant to the president (Hansen Choro, my trainer who died this week too....) letting us know about the transfer being extended. Okuchi's were so happy and it was awesome. We met them everyday this week again and have taught them all the lessons. We even did a practice baptismal interview and they are set to go! The new district leader here is actually Ishiga Choro which is neat. He will be coming on Wednesday to do the real interview and they will get baptized on Sunday after church. It'll be the first convert baptisms in Nemuro in 8 years I think! They only had one jumpsuit here for Okuchi to wear, so we were going to have someone from Kushiro bring us more, but Okuchi is pretty good at sewing and is going to try to make Yuka's baptismal dress! She even wants to pass it down to the Ozawa's so that their daughters can use it when they turn 8 as well. She is so cool.

Other than that this week was going to another far-outish area called Attoko (that is way small, but we met a bunch of really nice old people) and the third biggest matsuri in Hokkaido which was so crazy. We couldn't really do regular dendo so we just tried to start up conversations with people normally while they watched the parades/went back and forth to the bazillion food/game stands they always have set up for matsuris. It was really fun because so many people try to speak English to us/get WAY surprised when we can speak Japanese. We were able to do a lot of easy Eikaiwa advertising through that as well. All in all it was pretty cool and very Japanese culture-ish. Andersen E took so many pictures it's crazy. We didn't do Eikaiwa because of the Matsuri, but hopefully tons more new people will come next week!

But sounds like stuff has been awesome there with mission prep, babysitting, and church activities etc. That's so sweet that Adam is going to the temple soon! What do you mean there is supposed to be a new movie? Hah? Have fun with all the farewells too! I'm super excited for Megan and new baby Brooklyn.

It definitely has been super awesome here. I feel like the email this week is really condensed, but it was just a bunch of little things and interesting people we met at the matsuri. Also being all over the place with the transfer mix up and not being able to do normal dendo because of the matsuri. It was definitely a full week though! I am excited to see what happens this week and I expect there to still be a lot of tricky things up until the baptism, because that is how the adversary works, but we'll make sure to follow the spirit til the end and not give up! Love you tons and am grateful for your support!!!!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro