Elder Braden Hutchinson's Mission: 5/5/13 The Rest of the Story

Hey! I found some more time to email. If you call at 3:00pm on the 11th (Saturday) I will receive the call at 8:00 on the 12th Sunday morning. Also it's always going to be exactly the same as it was on Christmas, but with a different number depending on my area. All my clothes are pretty much fine. I had to chuck one of the pairs of pants I bought at Kohls because they didn't hold up and it was too big to fix/didn't have time because it was the end of the transfer. My luggage is great I love it. Also I will try to remember Uncle Merril. Are things not getting better? Also *P.S. Your house is SO cute!* I don't know how I feel about this... haha

So this week was pretty good. P-day we went to a pretty neat park called Meiji Coen and bought stuff. Tuesday was district meeting and my bike's brakes not working so searching all over Nemuro for new brakes because there are no bike shops in Nemuro. We also did lots of finding. Wednesday was some other lessons and finding. We found some Chinese guys and they were some of the nicest people ever. Right upon seeing us they let us into their apartment. They hardly spoke any Japanese or English, but we invited them to church by writing the kanji for it and stuff. They said they really wanted to come. Makes me want to try to learn Chinese too! Thursday was planning session and finding. Friday was lessons and finding as well. In all of these days we decided that most of the old investigators needed to be dropped because they won't keep commitments at all. They just like talking to missionaries. Even though they feel the spirit when we talk to them, they won't change and stuff. It is hard, but the really prepared people are waiting for us. We dropped about 6 or 7 of them. Tough stuff, but I'm excited to find :) Finding really is a blast I love it. It is just like making friends. I want to keep trying it when I get home.

There is a way cool investigator named Yamagishi who is actually pretty promising. He is from Tokyo and is 24-ish years old which is pretty cool because there is no one that age in Nemuro because there are no colleges. He is really awesome though and likes a lot of the same music as me. We went out to eat with him and he asked us a lot of questions about why we are on missions and stuff and after we explained that to him he said that he really wanted to read the book of mormon and come to church if it was really able to help us so much. He even wanted to buy the book of mormon haha. He ended up not being able to come to church, but it seems like he has started on the book of mormon. He said he would pray about it too so hopefully that works out. I know he'll really get an answer if he goes for it.

Saturday was a way awesome day. We went to this area called Betsukai which is pretty much straight farms. A member who is Phillipino lives there and we did service at her farm. She also took us to ice cream and pizza at these 2 really tiny places there. Way good. I never thought that in Japan I would be cleaning out cow stalls and stuff. It was a blast though. Her family is way cool. They are not all members and she has a strong desire to bring them into the gospel as well. She really wants her kids to go on missions too. Anyway that pretty much took all day because Betsukai is so far away by bus. Sunday was good. We had a lot of people planned to come to church, but they didn't end up making it. One old investigator named Takizawa came though. He is methodist, but believes that all of our church's teachings are true. He just won't apply them so his testimony isn't deep enough for him to have a desire to be baptized. It was cool that he came to church and told us about that though. He used to have a lot of doubts, but it seems like in the long time missionaries weren't there he overcame them. Hopefully we can get him to apply the principles in his life.

After church we did some finding and visited the Ozawas. Their kids are so fun (hyper), but it's a blast. I met the baby for a little bit. We found some cool people around them.
Anyways, that was my awesome week! Sorry that I had to send it in two parts! I hope that you are doing great and find lots of opportunities to share the gospel! I know it seems probably really tough, but you just have to try getting out of your comfort zone just like working out or saving money and things like that. God will prepare a way for you to do it if you really want to enough! Loveyouloveyou

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Oh I forgot! SO this week was golden week which is apparently a big deal in Japan. No one has school and most people don't work. Everyone usually visits their hometown/parents' town. Haramai Shimai's hometown is a WAY small place nearby Nemuro, so she came and visited me on the way home!!!