5/25/14 Finishing splits and some other stuff

Hey! Real man dendo is great. The important thing is that we don't worry about people thinking we're weird. Also we only do it while housing so no one usually sees us anyways. Japanese people do run, but probably not as much as Americans. By the way, where did you learn the word chorotachi from? I was impressed!

Sounds like you got to get a lot done because of Memorial day! David's house must be pretty sweet. I'm rooting for Kaitlin and her continued education!

Don't worry about my homecoming too much haha. Thanks so much for praying for the Haramais and everyone else! Mikami is a guy we met once and made a baptismal date, but he hasn't been able to meet recently. I'm proud of your visiting teaching goals! And while I'm not really that excited for my farewell (I think he means homecoming?), I'm excited that it can become a missionary opportunity! I think rather than having nice food and stuff, I want it to be a missionary experience for everyone. How is your PMG study? We can study it in the morning before you go to work or something when I get home.

This week will be mostly prep for Elder Christofferson!
So on Monday we had a surprise. Elder Olsen visited with his dad! We reminisced a lot and went out to eat sushi. Then this recent convert named Akiba took me and 8 other missionaries out for ice cream. By Taxi. And the ice cream cost $129. We couldn't finish it all. Also at night the Hansens fed us at their apartment and we had lasagna made in a crock pot. Needless to say I've been working out extra hard in the morning. Tuesday we had some special stuff for a missionary who had to go home early. Went on splits with him and stuff. We also had a little farewell party for the Hansens. Wednesday we were busy with transfer planning, ordering flowers for the fireside, and other preparations. We went to Shinoro that night for splits the next day and I went with Romney E! It was super fun! We saw a ton of miracles! We met this old investigator whose record probably got lost and still wanted to meet. We also met a few families that Romney E has been focusing on but couldn't meet because they were busy. This investigator also took us out to eat at his bar. Despite being a bar, he doesn't drink alcohol and the people who worked there were pretty nice and interested. On Friday and Saturday we found a decent amount of time to find and work in Kotoni. A lot of other jobs came up, but we did our best :D Sunday we had a great lesson from the Hansens on baptism that I translated. We also got a lot of dendo done after wards and met an NA family by accident housing. They were really nice and welcoming! We also got some good appointments. To finish it off we had a PMG study sesh after eating with a member! Awesome!

We finally got the conference Ensign so that has been great too! The gospel is great! Thank you so much for all your love and support. PS expect letters from RS sisters in Kotoni, hahaha.

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

guy from the bar

Olsen fam

giant parfait

5/18/14 Going back!

Hey! Thanks for the mail! It was kinda helpful that you wrote it in a more condensed way. It made it easier to read hahaha. This week was way cool! First I'll answer your questions.

We taught about prophets in primary! Because of the fireside, transfers got moved to June 5th! Preparations for Elder Christofferson are going good I think. We got most everything done pretty early. I'm pretty sure he'll just be in Hokkaidou that one day. They are crazy busy.

Sounds like a pretty busy week! Too many weddings. That's a good thing though. The picture of Mara and Sam is hilarious. Mara looks exactly the same. Sam looks completely different. You're getting new carpet too?? That's exciting!

Bishop wants me to sing too? Is he sure my music will be ok at sacrament meeting? hahaha
It's hard to remember what church was like in America. I feel like Kotoni ward probably isn't THAT different, but still...

Thanks for your thoughts about Alma as well!!! How is your hastening the Work of salvation goal???

My week!
On Monday we went to a onsen-town part of Sapporo called Jozankei. I think it's pretty famous. We went to an Onsen there for another missionary's b-day. It was kinda expensive, but we were the only ones there!!! It was great. It was like having 10 private Jacuzzis of all different varieties! After that we ate sushi at Hanamaru which is a copy of the one in Nemuro! It was pretty good :D We did lots of phone dendo that night. Tuesday we went on splits in Iwamizawa!! First we went to their DTM (my first dtm this transfer! AP's don't usually get to go) They had one of the missionaries in the district do the workshop and he used an example that made me laugh SO hard. Then we went to Iwamizawa and I got to work with Nishime E again!!! It was way fun. We get along really good. We work together really well too. He is working really hard there with Harper E. I have made a goal to do "real man dendo" on all of my ZL splits for the rest of my mission. It's just regular dendo, but you RUN everywhere :) I did real man dendo with Nishime E and found some way chill guys in their 20's who were really interested. I couldn't meet any of my old investigators, but I talked to Adachi on the phone and it sounds like she's thinking about baptism~! I also found a cool American guy there who actually lives by the honbu. His name is Jo and he plays the drums at his church, but he was pretty interested!

Wednesday we came back, got reports, had a lesson with this guy we made an apt w/ by phone named Mikami and made a baptismal date with him. He's pretty nice. We also had some other follow up to do then we went to..... ENIWA!!!!! (Braden's first area)
Thursday we went on splits in Eniwa-Chitose! The Elder's apartment actually got moved to Chitose so I didn't get to see my old apartment, but I went on splits w/ Sasaki E from my douki! (he came to Hokkaidou with me)

We rode our bikes to Eniwa and visited Haramai S!! She is doing pretty great. Her daughter has been stressed out because the bishop changed and missionaries change all the time. Thankfully we found that out, so the missionaries can make a better relationship with her! Her younger sister Kazune is 7 and will be 8 soon, but since Nodoka hasn't been going to church she hasn't been either! Please pray for them :D Please also pray for Haramai S's husband to accept the gospel someday too!
After that we went to see Matsuo S! She is the first Japanese member I met on my mission. She fed me on my first day. We did some service in her yard and she fed us her famous sushi, udon, and corny jokes. It was so cool to be able to understand her old lady Japanese perfectly :D She was pretty happy about it too. We called her mom and she loved it. I also got to see a lot of the members when we stopped by the church to get dressed. A lot of them remembered me! Even the recent convert knew who I was even though I never met her!

Friday was a busy office day with lots of phone dendo. Saturday was kinda similar. We also had an AB lesson with Zen B. He is way cool. Sunday was fun too! Church went well and we actually had a lot of dendo time after church. I will send you some of the pictures!
Thank you for everything!!!! Love you :D
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Haramai S and Nodoka (converts from his first area)

Tomita Choro

Cool hotel in the middle of nowhere on the way to Obihiro

Splits with Fukushima E

Most recent mission leader conference

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

5/4/14 Successful ML Kaigi

Hey!!!! I'm trying to remember what happened this week.
Thanks for your email!!! I'm way stoked for the Takaras! That sounds way cool about the ward getting bigger. I hope lots of people are able to go on missions! The senior couple here is leaving this month and there will almost be a whole transfer that we have no senior couple because there aren't enough sr. missionaries. I probably won't recognize half the people in the ward though, huh hahah.

Speaking of Vietnamese and Japanese, Nguyen E and Sakamura E (in Nemuro) are teaching so many it's ridiculous. Van S is going crazy with dendo.

It is still hard to find dendo time, but we are doing our best and I'm feeling more satisfied with what I can do. I am definitely learning a ton. I have to learn to be better and finding things to do when I get other things done.
Anyways...

I still haven't been taking any pictures, but we saw some amazing sakura by the giant shrine this morning when we went running. I got the shorts at uniqlo and no I wasn't freezing because it was inside, plus it's way warm now. I bought short sleeves at uniqlo the other day as well.

Thank you for the prayers!!! Thanks to all the prayers, this transfer there have been 6 baptisms so far. Based on the reports we have, there are a ton of baptismal dates, but at least 8 more will probably be baptized this transfer! It might literally be an all time record for the mission.

This week on Monday we hung out, went to the eki with a few other missionaries and I bought shirts. I think we prepared for a stake meeting or something that night. Tuesday we met to have a preparation meeting for Elder Christofferson coming. We also prepared a ton for mission leader kaigi (conference) the next day. A bunch of missionaries slept over. It actually went really good and a lot of people said it was their favorite ml kaigi so far. That night we had the stake meeting over skype for Asahikawa stake. Thursday we followed up with beans and got a lot of stuff done in advance for Elder Christofferson. Then we did some phone dendo. Friday I went on splits in Moiwa with Elder Inoue and it was pretty fun! Moiwa is probably the most metropolitan area in the whole mission. The funny thing is that all of their investigators and recent converts are grandmas hahaha. I biked all over and it felt great. Inoue E is way fun too.

Saturday was Elder Tomita's b-day. We sang to him and gave him cake etc. Randomly, a bunch of RM's showed up so that was pretty fun! We did lots of computer stuff and made some time for phone dendo. Sunday at church was good. It's way different to be at a church with other missionaries. There are 8 missionaries in Kotoni. Crazy. It's pretty big though. We had a way good AB lesson with Tadano B and a member actually taught him this time! His name is Kumagai B and we had dinner with him that night! It was super fun and spiritual. He used to be bishop.

Anyways I'm out of time, but love you so much!!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro