6/22/14 Shinoro, Eniwa, Stake Conference

I think I finished the Book of Mormon sometime last week or Sunday, but I didn't say anything about it! Keep up the good reading. I've been focusing on the new testament lately, but I feel like it'll be tough to finish before I get back. Well, maybe. I'm in James.

I wonder how Bishop picked that theme! I'm really excited for that. It's been one of my bigger mission goals I guess. That's cool you met a bunch of people at Lydia's thing! Everyone is back from missions and stuff already - it's just weird to think about. As far as my homecoming goes as long as you just put it up on facebook then things should be fine. :D I don't really care who comes! I'm embarrassed enough to have to give a talk in English anyways! I did find a cool Chinese guy yesterday, but he mostly just speaks Japanese too w. Is the ward really that big? If you can't remember everyone's names yet, then I am done for w. I can only remember Japanese names. We had an all Japan Stake conference yesterday and we had to watch it in English... It just felt so weird...

The house sounds like it'll be fun. I feel like everything is going to be different when it get home. I don't think my room needs any improving as far as I know.
I am definitely proud of you being an awesome family though! I think I might have said last week, but I'm really excited to see you all again! I'm just not excited to go back to America... I hope I became good enough of a person to get moving in some way when I get back. I have no idea where I'll work or if I'll have to go back to Utah State or whatever... I don't want to leave all my Japanese friends.

I only have two pairs of shoes right now. (not including running or p-day shoes) The reason it seems like I'm getting so many is because they are all dying. When I was home, I got a bunch because they are cool and I like to match colors.

So this week we had a bunch of people come to the honbu to email as usual. After that I bought some cool stuff with Andersen e at the mall. A jinbei, hokkaido shirt, and some craft tape I thought you'd like. I can't find any washi tape so far. After that we met this guy we found streeting at the matsuri (which was way tiny compared to Nemuro's) and he seems pretty prepared. When we made the apt w/ him he looked up basically everything about the church online. His name's Kobayashi. Hopefully we'll meet him again soon. Tuesday I went on splits in Shinoro with Romney e and Notsu e. It was 3 man splits. We went to DTM that was pretty fun and then headed to Shinoro to do some housing and teach some cool lessons. The guy that Romney e and I found on our last split was a super kinjin. He wants to get baptized way bad! We also taught eikaiwa which was the first in a long time for me. Then we taught one of the students afterwards. It was pretty cool. I learned a ton from them. Wednesday was an interesting day. We prepared a lot for stake DCS and then did some transfer planning on our own because this transfer kaicho doesn't do any. We did it as preparation for Nakatsuka k coming. We also had DCS that night. Wednesday we had to work on this slideshow for Evans s that she wants to do for mission reunions. We also worked on our videos that we are making in secret to give as presents to the Evans and Nakatsukas. We're putting in introductions and testimonies from everyone in the mission. That night we went to Chitose again! I went on splits with Kent e and we had a way good day. We found some way cool people streeting and taught some great lessons with investigators there. We also ate lunch with Kurashige s, visited Fujita s, and Sugiura s came to an activity at the end of the day! I also got to meet a lot of the youth at that activity as well. It was super! I'll send another email afterwards w/ pics! I even got to ride my favorite bike path in all of Hokkaido :D Saturday was another busy day of slideshow and video stuff. After which, we went to the Saturday sessions of stake conference which was just announced by the area presidency that missionaries are supposed to go to from now on. It was pretty good! The Sunday session was broadcast from Tokyo and Walker e from the 70, Oscarson s, Stevenson bishop, and Christofferson e spoke! Walker e and Stevenson b are fluent in Japanese. After church we did a bunch of finding that was way fun and then ate dinner with the Takahashi family. We also saw a cool snake.
And yeah!
I'm going to KUSHIRO tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you tons!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

6/15/14 Happy Father's Day!

Hey! Being in a 3 some is mostly for the mission president transition because I go home like a week and a half after Nakatsuka Kaicho and Shimai get here. I'm really lucky I get to meet them! It would've been fun to extend, but I think that was just me wanting to end my mission in the way I wanted to end it. What's more important is ending it how the Lord wants me to which is obviously the Honbu! I did talk to President Evans about it for like half a minute and he kinda said the same thing. I'm not bummed about it at all. I'm glad you are so trusting in the Lord and would've been okay with it if it were to happen! You are the best family. I'm so excited to spend time with you again. I'm definitely not excited to leave this wonderful place, but it will be wonderful to give everyone big hugs and play with Lily again.

I'm glad they sent the itinerary! Hopefully Haramai Shimai and maybe some other Chitose/Eniwa members can come see me off. :)

I have no idea where I will apply or even try applying at this point so there will probably be some time. I also don't really want to go back to USU unless there is nothing else to do.
The melon flavored melon pan is the best. In Nemuro they had a cantaloupe one that rules.
Sounds like you had an awesome Saturday! It's Father's day now right? I wrote dad a letter and I'll send it today. The house sounds like it will be crazy! Condie pool parties are definitely natsukashii... (nostalgic) I am kind of nervous to go to church in America hahaha. Thankfully Tomita E and Chiba E took the shimai clothes away to a recycle shop! It was great. :D

I'll try as far as pictures go! I feel like anything that happens here, Evans S gets pictures and puts them on facebook anyways w.

Here's the weeeeek
Monday was the Sapporo activity! We had a barbecue (I cooked) and then hiked Maruyama (round mountain) and it was fun. It reminded me of a YSA activity or something so I had to do my best to not get trunky wwww. We did some great streeting after that around Odori Park. Tuesday was an Asahikawa adventure! In the morning, kaicho was getting his visa renewed so we went to Andersen E's DTM that was pretty fun! It's always nice to be able to go to DTM. After that Chiba E needed someone to go with him to Asahikawa to sign off for a new sister's apartment and since we are a 3 man AP and the recorder is busy doing the job that normally 3 people do, I went with him! We mostly just rode the bus, I wrote note cards, and in Asahikawa said hi to Nishime E, Spurling E, and ate ramen that was amazing. Wednesday was ML kaigi. It went pretty good and we had a workshop on teaching people without a Christian background from PMG and it was mostly discussions on how we can teach our missionaries to do it better. Thursday was a long day in the office. I think... I can't really remember what happened on this day. We did do a lot of streeting at night around the honbu and Odori park. Friday was similar, but we did a lot of cleaning and preparation too because Ringwood Kaicho from the Asia North presidency came to give Kaicho his returning interview. He is a cool guy, but didn't remember meeting me when I was a bean w. Other than that, Lee E and I are owning microsoft excel. The spreadsheet I made from hearing reports got way more convenient. It was tiring to be in the office. We would've left, but someone had to stay with Denison E. That night we went to Moiwa because I had splits with Andersen E the next day! (He is a ZL now) I see him a ton lately, but it was really fun to talk and stuff again. We had decent splits the day after. It is so great to have a normal schedule! We did a bunch of streeting in these rich mountain neighborhoods. We found an older lady with great English who heard the Mormon Tabernacle choir before. We also saw a Rolls Royce. We stopped by a Matsuri that was nothing compared to the Nemuro one, before dendoing around Odori park. Matsuhashi E (Andersen E's comp) broke his bike so they had to stay at the honbu that night. Sunday was great! I was really tired, but the talks were super good and we had lessons on the sacrament and the oath and covenant of the priesthood. This cool inactive member who's about 19 came coz we invited him and I didn't think he was going to stay, but he did! He then came to the Pres Evans Fireside that we had after church! I sang with 3 other missionaries at that. Their talks were really awesome. Because of that though we didn't have a lot of time to do anything else! I am still a little sleepy, but am looking forward to doing something fun today! (probably shop or something0 btw! I had to buy new shoes(because I only had soft leather ones) and I found these really good ones that are waterproof that were on sale from 7000yen to 2000yen! wooo). :)
I love you tons and tons! Have a great week!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

12/15/13 "I am in Iwamizawa. I am a zone leader. I am buried in snow."

(Note: when Braden's mom looked up the name of this city, she was surprised to see that while Nemuro has 14" average precip in December, Iwamizawa has 87")

Hey!!!! That's cool you got to see the transfer list again. I'm in a place called Iwamizawa. It means "boulder overlooking swamp." It's a branch as well, but the church is way nice and huge. My companion is named Elder Hatch and he's a boss. He's a few transfers older than me (he actually went into the MTC with Gandy E) but since we are zone leaders we are both SR companion haha. I'm ZL over Asahikawa zone which goes all the way up to Wakkanai which is the very top of Hokkaido. I really hope I can go because it is a recently opened area with a tiny branch just like Nemuro! I'm also excited to go on lots of splits all over the zone, but it is tough not having a lot of time to focus on your own area. The members here are way legit especially the branch president Adachi B. He is way strong and has tons of dendo fire. We actually haven't done any finding since we got here since he has taken us everywhere (which is nice because the snow was INSANE! Iwamizawa is known for being the snowiest part of Hokkaido). He has taken us to visit a lot of less active members and he also has been doing a lot of planning with us to help out our investigators. Since this area has been a ZL area for a while, there are not very many investigators, but the ones we have seem pretty cool. I'll tell you about how everything went since last week though.

On Monday in Nemuro I honestly spent a pretty good amount of time packing because of how sure I was about transferring. That day of dendo was visiting a few investigators and also doing some finding to give Morgan E more potential investigators to work with. On Tuesday we got our transfer calls. We found out that the next Nemuro missionary is Kina E, the former AP so I'm way stoked about that. We had a good DTM with testimonies and headed to an appt with Kunii. We ate sushi and he promised to read the BoM over his Christmas break! I ate a lot of sushi because it might be the last time I get to eat eastern Hokkaido sushi... T-T After that we tried to do finding, but it RAINED way hard. It wasn't effective/no one was home so we went home and got a call from Ozawa B and Okuchi S and went over to Ozawa family for a final party. It was way awesome. Kinda random, but Okuchi S pulled out her tablet and we skyped with Ishiga E! He is doing pretty great hahaha. Wednesday was eating my favorite food in the world (the chocolate covered cream filled melon bread from this store that's only in Nemuro) and then all day travel to Sapporo. We left at about 12 and got there at about 8:30. There was about an hour in Kushiro (where I said bye to my awesome, grown up bean, Morgan E) but yeah. Crazy. A bunch of members came to see me off. A bunch of other people were going to as well, but the train was too early. At the Honbu I practiced my song with Mecham E (Where can I turn for peace, yeah it should be on Youtube eventually. I don't remember when the performance is). I also found out that Andersen E became a trainer! Way happy for him. He is such a brother to me. I stayed up talking to him for a bit. The next day we had a way long music practice and met all the other missionaries. Stilson E went home which is way depressing. He is also like a brother. It was way awesome to see everyone though. We came back to Iwamizawa that night in time for Eikaiwa which was pretty good. Just like in Nemuro I teach the crazy kids class. Me and Hatch E are also district leaders. We just take turns doing district meeting. Friday we had DKK which is way different as a ZL because it was mostly planning splits and not as much planning for Iwamizawa. We also met a pretty cool non-attending member named N who is pretty nice, but has WoW problems :(

Then we tried to visit a member who sometimes comes to invite him to the Christmas party. It was the craziest blizzard ever :) But we made it there and back w/out any problems. When I first got here there was almost no snow. I send you a picture of outside the church. Saturday was the sweet Christmas party. We did a song with the Eikaiwa students and I played guitar (Silent Night) and a decent amount of people came (I was also Samuel the Lamanite in the play). There is also a deaf member here so I got to use my sign language again! Everyone was way impressed and they want me to translate for her in sacrament meeting... I'll see what I can do! Sorry the space bar on this keyboard isn't very good. This guy named Y came as well. He actually met missionaries 30 years ago and then some stuff happened in his life prompting them that he needed to meet again so he called the Honbu and met up with us. After the party we had a pretty good lesson with him. He really wants to believe and mostly does believe our teachings, he just also wants to believe buddhism at the same time. I think he really has a ton of potential though. We invited him to baptism and he seems like he wants to when he knows everything more fully.

After that we rode w/ Adachi B to another non-attending and it went pretty well. We introduced her to the RS pres so that we will be able to hand her off to the RS soon. Way good thing. Way too many non-attendings for just the missionaries. Sunday went good too! I gave a talk and I wasn't used to only having to give a 10 minute talk, hahaha. The members here are so so awesome. After church we visited another NA w/ Adachi B in a far off area who is 16 years old. He and his brothers got baptized and were way active, but since they moved it became hard to go to church. We talked to him and his mom and she really supports him going to church and worked out a way for him to come up to Iwamizawa more often for church! Pretty stoked for him. His name is Suzuki Kouta B. And that's about it!

I'm excited for all the cool things you are doing for Christmas! I hope everyone gets feeling 100% soon. I haven't written Adam yet, but I'll work on it. I'm glad Mya and them are doing great. That's cool how polite she is! haha Thank you for your testimony and love and support. You are so awesome!!! I love you so much!

Aishitemasu!!
Hutchinson Choro

Farewells at the train station

This time, see if you can find Yuka

FHE with Ozawa and Okuchi families

With Kanno Yuji

Hatch Choro, Braden's new comp and fellow ZL

Snow at the church in Iwamizawa

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

9/15/13 Too Many Splits

Hey! So I did get the package! We went to Kushiro on Monday morning for a district activity. And it actually came right after I left! I had to call the post office to get it redelivered, but it was all fine. It was pretty great! I still haven't used any of the deodorant or toothpaste from the last packages you gave me though. I will be fine on that for a pretty long time I think. Maybe even till the end of my mission! Yikes! Also the card is fine. I got the SS# and called the place again. After I put the number in, they asked for my pin and I was like HUH? I don't know it so that's why I'm calling! But before giving up I guessed one more time and it ended up being the right pin... hahaha. Guess it didn't get reset. I'm glad I remembered it though. I used the money to buy bike stuff and the best suit pants ever from uniclo ($20) Other than that we did bowling, ate some all you can eat naan at this sweet Indian curry place, and window shopped. Meh p-day I think, but we made the best of it.

That night I got to go on splits with Yoshikawa E who is on his first transfer... He should be on his 8th or something, holy cow he is such a good missionary!!! I had a WAY good time and learned a ton from him. It also made me really excited to maybe get a bean next transfer. Don't know for sure if I will still, but transfer calls are tonight! I sure would like to stay in Nemuro too... I feel like it's my home a lot of times. Especially since I practically put the house together hahaha. Also that morning in Kushiro the branch pres of Kushiro, Andrus Kaicho, picked us up from the bus stop and gave us breakfast and a tour of his new house!!! He's way cool. Make sure to keep checking my facebook every now and then if it's not too much trouble. I apparently get a bit of friend requests lately. The next day we had district meeting in person!!!! That is something I haven't done for a long time. It was pretty good. I then went on splits with Ishiga E. It was pretty interesting. We went to this far away area in Kushiro called Akan to visit an active member family and find a bit. It was a lot of time on a bus, but I learned a bit about working with members. When we did find though, I was able to be myself so much more than when I actually was with Ishiga E which was cool. He was really surprised at how much I've grown, I think.

The next morning, we had a normal schedule and went to Andrus Kaicho's house again to make breakfast (fajitas... first Mexican food in a long time!) and then ride to the bus. We got back to Nemuro really tired, but were still able to teach 2 way good lessons! One to the guy Nakagawa who we met last week. We made a baptismal date with him and he is looking forward to learning a ton! After that we had to go pick up the zone leaders for splits again and walk home with them from the Eki (train station). I went with Jones E who is from Arizona and a pretty good guy. I am really grateful to be working with Andersen E though. We match up pretty good I think. We did get some really good stuff done though. Our investigator Tatsuya actually listened really seriously to our lesson this time around! We taught L3 and he even asked some really good questions. He has changed and grown so much over time, it's awesome! Still a 22 year old kinda punk guy, but he's the best. He prayed for us out loud at the end of the lesson and also gave us a lot of tips on Japanese etiquette! He said that he wants us to be successful and give people a good image because we're his good friends. That was cool. Also Andersen E and the other ZL Stout E went to Igarashi Shimai who is the non-attending non-speaking/hearing member we went to eat ramen with one time. Stout E got really good at sign language in one of his other areas so it was perfect! According to Andersen E they had a great time and she came to church on Sunday for the first time in almost 10 years! Cool stuff.

Friday and Saturday we were very tired. I think I got a fever, but I worked through it until Sunday night where I fell asleep right when we got home. I feel great now! Friday we got our DKK cranked out somehow and then had Eikaiwa. Nakagawa came to that as well. Some of our students taught me some Hokkaido-only slang which was pretty funny. Saturday we went to Betsukai for the first time in a long time. We couldn't go to the farm, so we did lots of finding, but it was good. We met Kawashima again and she was glad to see us. She said she wants to pray and read the BoM etc again, but her husband is so against it he won't let her. Otherwise she is doing well and hoping for a day that she can hear the gospel again. We are too. On Sunday Van came to church again and it was really good. Instead of teaching gospel principles to a small class like usual, the branch pres wasn't there so Ozawa Kaicho had me teach everyone from the gospel principles book. I didn't prepare for that at all, but it went really good! After church Igarashi Shimai showed up and I tried really hard to remember/learn sign language. At the same time on the second floor the members threw a welcome party for the Okuchi's which was pretty awesome too! Van had to leave right when church got out, but we met her again at 3 and she brought 3 of her friends to talk with us! It was fun and nice to meet them, but kinda hard to keep the conversation focused on the gospel/our purpose etc. I guess that's what you deal with when you meet a group of girls in their 20's, but we:ll prepare more in advance next time... If only we had Vietnamese materials... Their Japanese isn't good enough for the Japanese stuff we have. We were able to teach Van the word of wisdom while walking which was really good though!

After that we met these two WAY awesome guys in their 20s that we found last week. Even though my head really hurt and it was way hot we taught some great lessons on prayer to both of them. I'm really excited to see them more because strong priesthood leaders are the most important thing to get Nemuro branch going!

Anyways, we don't have any big plans for today other than cleaning the apt. and maybe doing something little as an early birthday present to Okuchi Shimai.

Thanks for the snickerdoodle recipe!!! I'd definitely like to send it to Haramai Shimai too :) From what I hear she is doing way awesome! Haven't gotten a reply to the last letter I sent yet, but yeah! PS the candy you gave was well liked! The zone leaders nabbed a bunch while they were here.... but what I was able to save got passed out to a lot of Japanese people that are surprised about how strong the taste is in our candy! hahaha Thanks so much for the CD too! I love it! I'm really excited for the other music if you have a way to send it :) Maybe the best way would be to get the CD's/download online and then put it on an SD card and send that! Just an idea to save you money on postage. It'd also be convenient to me because our dvd players read SD cards, and CDs are tough to move around when transfers come. Whatever you can do will make me happy though!

Love you tons! Even though we've been tired lately with all the moving around, God puts us where we need to be to see the miracles that he is preparing. Remember and apply that in your lives too! Oooh also I was reading the Liahona this morning (probably last month or 2 month ago... We get the magazines way late coz we're missionaries....) a really good article about asking good questions in class that I thought you might like as a Sunday school teacher! I'm grateful to hear about the family and all the awesome stuff that's going on. Cool to see Adam's letters too! Love you and excited to hear from ya next week too!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Pres Evans, Van, the Okuchis

Raw fish (sanma, famous fish in Nemuro) that Okuchi shimai gave us as a present that we ate like that. Way good.

How DTM normally is here in Nemuro

Tatsuya and his kid

Vietnamese friends

Okuchi's party

9/8/13 Snickerdoodles and Vietnamese people

Hey! Good to hear from you and good to hear from Adam as well. He's gonna be a boss. Things have gotten better here and I hope the Dendo fire is helping you all to find ways that you can open your hearts and mouths up to the people around us that need you!
I haven't gotten my SSN from elder Hansen yet... He said he'd call right when he got it, but I guess he never did. I'll ring him now. Thanks for sending the package! Speaking of American candy we have a way awesome investigator named Tatsuya. I think I told you about him before, but he is probably more excited about that package than anyone else! Speaking of which I have more music requests.
Enoch Train - Jazzyish instrumental hymns. Way awesome. Hansen Choro had it
Lamb of God - Like an opera of Christ's life, but way epic. Hansen Choro had it too
RM and Singles ward soundtracks - maybe SOME of the songs are a bit rowdy for missionary life, but I remember there being some WAY good songs that I have been itching to hear ;)
Hope you can find them though! Hope it's not too much trouble as well ;)

Hope Mara has fun at the dance! Did not think she was already going to be 16! whoa! Her birthday is early though huh. Lily looks way sad!!!!!!!!! AH!!! Take good care of her. That sounds tough.

Did you take any pics of the Takara's?!? That's SOO awesome!!! Whoa! Their name means treasure, which is a way cool kanji. I am so excited about missionary work happening in the ward!!!! Be way good to them and strengthen them lots please!!!!!!!!

So the summary of this week issssss
On Monday we had yet again another day of catch-up on journals and letters (AND I ACTUALLY GOT CAUGHT UP!!! YEAH!!!) and we went finding for a bit. Found a really nice mom who got way excited about Eikaiwa. Tuesday we had a great DTM on prayer that opened our eyes a lot on what we need to improve on in helping our investigators understand the importance of prayer! We had a ton of appointments today, but only a few worked out. One was with an awesome guy with a HUGE house. He met missionaries when he was in high school and is 46 now. His family is in Sapporo, but his dad died so he came back to watch the business and house. We weren't able to teach him a lot, but we found out that his b-day was the next day. His family is all away and it seems like he doesn't have a lot of friends in Nemuro, so we brought him a card and some candy and he was WAY happy about it. I think it was a cool way to show him Christlike love. Andersen E's idea actually. We also tried to teach a Jehovah's witness lady who was nice, but they have a way of being really unopen to anything but their own teachings. However it was a neat experience to meet one nice enough to listen to what we had to say! That night it got insanely rainy. We had to miss a few of the appointments we had and stopped at our investigators house (Edo) and were able to play with the kids and teach a bit about the restoration and book of Mormon again. The husband is warming up to us a lot more. It was raining so bad still so the Edo's let us borrow an umbrella to walk home with our bikes. Wednesday was a good day of appointments as well. We visited Tatsuya in the hospital because he had been having stomach issues. Andersen E gave him a picture that he drew of him and his wife and kid that he requested and he was way happy about it.

While there he told us about this amazing cookie he got from a friend who went to America one time... Cinnamon taste... thin... soft. I had no idea what he was talking about. We also shared some scriptures with him and talked to him a lot about prayer. He is kind of a tough guy. He was a sailor, but in an accident got all the fingers but one on his left hand chopped off so he can't work anymore (though he gets TONS of money because of it). But anywho he wasn't very open to gospel stuff at first. This day was different though. He asked questions about the scripture and we also told him about how through trials we become stronger/even though we have trials, when we count our blessings we know we don't really have it that bad. It seemed like his countenance changed and he promised he'd try praying. After that we went to this other area to house and found a way funny cool old guy who somehow convinced Andersen E to teach him golf swing technique. We then taught a short lesson and he was really into it. When we set the next appointment he went over to his calendar and circled the day we wanted to come. We also taught a way cute little family across the street with 3 WAY cute little boys. The mom was really intent on listening and the kids just wanted to tell us about their toys and sunglasses etc.

We met with Van again that night at a nearby elementary school. She has been trying way hard to read the BoM in Japanese and is really thinking about what we are teaching. We also told her about baptism. She was baptized in her church before, but she said when she knows the BoM is true she will get baptized. She gave us a bunch of apples and pocky. Thursday was DKK and then running all over the place to appointments that didn't quite work out. We taught the Okuchi's a ton about the temple and Ayako is really interested in it! Her favorite temple is the Bountiful temple and it's her new phone wallpaper. We also gave them a picture of the Sapporo temple to put up. We gave her a gospel principles book and she has been studying it like crazy. Friday was lots and lots of finding. We were kinda hyper the night before and stayed up late talking so I was really tired, but we repented and I was able to make it through the day just fine! And oh yeah. The cake mix you sent me on my birthday? It has been sitting in the cupboard since then, BUT since I got my journal caught up I actually have time to do things! So I made snickerdoodles using the cake mix (we don't have any cake making supplies and I decided that the microwave cake wasn't my fav) We decided to give them to a bunch of people. Everyone was happy, but especially Tatsuya! Lo and behold they are his favorite cookies that are impossible to find in Japan and even if you find them they are hard and crusty like every other Japanese cookie. He was way happy. Therefore I want the recipe to make them from scratch ;D

Eikaiwa that night went pretty well. Not quite as many people as usual, but still lots of fun. Saturday was a bunch of finding and more being tired because I was trying to get over my staying up hangover... We found a way huge Japanese garden with a giant amazing pond and everything! Also another really cool dollar store. I don't know what I'll do when I get back to America and the dollar stores aren't any good. They are amazing here! We taught a lesson to our 80 year old investigator couple Abe about the doctrine of Christ. He is still having a bit of trouble with actually believing, but is trying hard. Or at least he says that wants to, but that's where it starts! We made a baptismal date with the both of them so that's exciting. Sunday was way cool. Van came to church and we gave her the Vietnamese BoM we ordered and she was SUPER happy to get it. She is getting better at understanding the gospel in Japanese. In gospel principles class I taught about our heavenly family and tied it into the doctrine of Christ. We made a baptismal date with her there too! Woooo! After church we went to meet the other friends, but they were asleep so we talked at the park for a bit. She gave me this cool Vietnamese game. It's like hacky sack, but with a feather on it and this plastic stuff that makes it springy. I forgot to take a good picture, but I'll send one next week! We tried playing with it and all these kids gathered around wanting to play too. They instantly became our best friends and wanting to drag us around everywhere and introduce us to their families etc. We headed home for lunch and Van gave us a ton of apples and juice again. People are too nice! We found some way cool 20ish year old guys (way rare in Nemuro) and one of them plays the guitar! We had a mini jam session. I am so rusty.... Maybe I'll use my new found time to get some practice in for once as long as it doesn't distract me from what's most important!!!

This work is the most important! There are so many miracles! Honestly so many very hard and mindblowing things, but there is always a way for us to get to where we need to be and feel the light of his love. Love you all tons!

Aishiteimasu

Hutchinson Choro

9/1/13 Surprise visits from kaicho and surprise vietnamese girls coming to church

Glad everything went well with Adam at the airport! I sent him a quick note. As far as my card goes I meant to call the bank about it earlier, but I think I'll be good as far as getting it fixed from here. I remember having to call when I bought my bike because my draw limit was low and they were cool with it. The only thing I'm worried about is that I don't remember my social at all... :s We'll get it figured out though.

Glad the food for Adam's farewell was good too! OH MAN the kitchen looks SICK!!!! Do you have a before picture or two? I'm trying to explain to Andersen E the awesomeness.

Proud of Mara continuing to do awesome being involved in school. Glad the girls are still super cute. I heard from Lauren about Max being awesome on his belly as well. Fun stuff! In the meantime... Japanese kids make me melt. When housing, a lot of times kids come to the door with their parents and they are just the best.

The week was crazy awesome though. Monday we got an email from one of the Vietnamese girls we met saying that she really wanted to go to church even though we weren't able to invite her to church when she first talked to us. P-day was lots of catching up on journals/cleaning etc. We also went out to Sushi with the Okuchis. It's funny because they are picky eaters and won't eat raw fish so it was like reverse! The gaijins were eating all the Japanesey stuff and the Japanese people were eating all the American stuff. Oh man they want to come visit us in America so bad it's crazy. They are getting ok at English and way serious about saving up money to go to Disneyland while paying their tithing. After Sushi we had FHE at the Ozawas and played a fun game kinda like mad libs. Tuesday was a great DTM from Ishiga E and then we headed out to do a bunch of finding.

There is this one mom we met with 3 cute little boys and she is the smiliest person ever. She was really happy about learning about families and prayer and said we can come over anytime we want. The husband was really cool with us the first time we came, but he wasn't home the second time. We end up teaching a lot of people standing in their doorways because of that, but still fun. We got started on Okuchis AB lessons on the temple and told them we want them to have a goal there too (and to prioritize it over Disneyland haha) but they are pretty excited for the temple too. Wednesday was lots and lots of finding and some really good appointments! We actually broke our record for appointments in a week! We made 22. Sweeeet. All week there has been "senkyo" it is like advertisement for elections. Basically the people running for office drive around in vans speaking on microphones REALLY loud telling people to vote for them... It was ridiculous. Thursday we had a good DKK and more great finding. We made lots of plans to have more "Dendo Fire" Basically drive or morale or whatever you want to call it, but it makes everything we do feel more rewarding even if we're not seeing lots of results. Friday was good finding and organizing our records a bit because of the rain. We also had an awesome eikaiwa! Another new lady came with her son. She used to live in Pennsylvania and is pretty fluent. A lot of people didn't come, but I think we'd have well over 20 if everyone did! Saturday was another great day of finding and a great AB lesson with the Okuchis about missionary work! We are excited to have them team up with us in lessons/make friends with our investigators. Sunday the Vietnamese girl actually did come to church! So did Evans Kaicho! (The Mission President) It was a surprise, but a good one. A family from the Kitami branch came (3 people) and sacrament meeting was 28 people!!! Way awesome. The Vietnamese girl is Christian and has a way strong testimony of God and Jesus Christ. She said she felt so peaceful and separated from her problems when she came to our church though. It was tricky to teach everything to her in super simple Japanese, but she was super responsive. Her name is Van. After church she took us to her dorm where she lives and brought out some other friends that are interested in coming to church too!!! Also we found that night and it was crazy how many miracles you see while finding on an empty stomach.

This is such a great work and I LOVE it! I love you guys too and everybody loves seeing your pictures in my book. You are such a great example and light to me! Thanks always!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

8/25/13 "There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny."

(First, a housekeeping note to mom: Yeah a bunch of people are trying to find me on facebook and I won't show up! Even if I search for them or go to one of your profiles and look in the friends. What's going on? Can you go on and accept the friend requests/turn my privacy settings down/off? Also I can't remember my pin # and am worried that it may have locked because of too many failed attempts... Please look into that because my bike's brake lines are dangerous right now and I have no money to fix them. THANKS! Maybe when you get that fixed you can contact the honbu and let them know to contact me so I can get it done ASAP. Thanks!

So yeah! The Okuchi's are doing way amazing still. Ayako Shimai said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting after I gave a 30 minute plus talk.... Yeah I got asked to give a talk on Saturday (the day before) and little did I know that I was the MAIN speaker. Yeah. A youth speaker and then me and that was all of sacrament meeting. Pretty cool experience. Everyone said it went really well afterwards and all the little kids were like NAGAAAAAAAIIIII!!!!! (long) Church was pretty awesome that day. For primary we went for a walk after a short lesson about hardships of the early church members. Yuka gave the prayer again and is getting way awesome at it! Also Ayako shimai has started practicing piano for her new calling as primary music coordinator. Way cool. They actually surprised us with dinner last night as well. They are pretty dead set on coming to America some day to visit us and also go to Disneyland. They made us promise that we would take them. I think I'll have to be really thrifty with money when I get home so it works out hahaha...

Other than them and their awesomeness I'll start from the beginning of last week. On Monday right after I finished emails, I found out that my bean had to get surgery again...... yeah right after we said goodbye to everybody for the 2nd time. It was a little stressful, but we are over it and really happy to be together for this transfer too! There is still a big chance that he will come and I will train him next transfer so I'll send his picture and info anyways. Whether he comes or not I'd still like to meet him someday, he seems way rad. Tuesday and Wednesday were really good, just lots of finding and little follow up lessons with investigators. Saying "oh hey! by the way Andersen Choro isn't actually transferring!" a few times as well. Thursday we had a kinda long DKK and headed off to Kushiro for Zone Training in Obihiro! Yay. Way tired and way rushed. I used to not be able to sleep on buses/trains at all, but it's all I can do now!

Woke up early on Friday to get to Obihiro. Practiced a song with the sisters in Kitami and played that at ZTM. It was the song we did at the baptism, but Evans shimai asked me to do it with some other missionaries. There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny. They are almost all brand new and can hardly speak Japanese at all. It's awesome though. Got to do some practice lessons/stuff with them and they have way strong testimonies and desires to serve. So do the new Elders! Made me excited to become trainer. Had a good interview with Kaicho as well and he pretty much just explained how he was sorry about the mix up and he still wants me to be trainer really bad. Cool! After that we ate some famous Obihiro butadon (pork on rice) and went back to Kushiro where we visited a family from the ward Andersen E was close with. The next morning we ate McDonalds for breakfast with the Kushiro branch Pres, Jay Andrus, who is way awesome and he saw us off to head back to Nemuro. We fixed Andersen E's bike tire and did some finding! What a week. Lots of moving around!

Sounds like your week was a blast! I'm excited for Adam's farewell and the house remodeling stuff being done! Pictures please! I'm really excited for Mara in high school too. Tell her to do her best in Boland's class. It's really easy, just don't let the slightly extremist teacher get to her. The only advice I have for Adam is that airplanes are awesome and I hope he started his Spanish study early. Still can't believe he has a girlfriend ... Crazy kid haha.

As far as candy... I don't know if I can just make a list of all the stuff they have, but I'll try: snickers, kit kats, pringles, m&ms...
Yeah, I'm stuck. Whatever you send will be fine, I'll just tell them it's from America and they'll be happy. Warheads would be awesome!

Every day here IS amazing! Love you tons! Another random experience. Last night we got approached by a group of Vietnamese girls that are living here to work (kinda like the Philipino guys at the farm) and they told us they really want to come to church! Random, but kinda cool.
Hope you see lots of miracles too! They come at the most unexpected times!

Love you!! Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson CHoro

8/19/13 First convert baptisms in Nemuro in 8 years!

HEY!
Awesome weekend. A little crazy, but way awesome! The Okuchis got baptized on Sunday! I don't know where to start, but oh man. Awesome week!

I'll just go from the beginning. We made hamburgers with our investigator and his wife because he is really interested in American stuff. It was really fun and afterwards we were able to talk a lot about what got us to come on missions/how the gospel has helped us/how his life might change if he were to join. Really cool. We taught the Okuchis tithing that night and it went really well ;) Yuka is especially looking forward to it with her allowance.

Tuesday was a good DTM with Ishiga E as the district leader! It was a blast from the past, but a really good DTM on showing love etc. We went and taught some lessons to people that we had found previously that are really nice, but might be slow to progress. We also did a practice baptismal interview with the Okuchis again and it went well, but they get really shy when they get called on to explain things in their own words so it was a little stressful for them at first. The next day I went on splits with French E who is on his third transfer. We found all day and found some way nice people! Then that night we had the baptismal interview and it went really well! Thursday we had DKK and music practice for the baptism. We played the Teach Me to Walk in the Light/Love One Another arrangement that I made. Friday we went to the place Tomoshiri that is a little separated from the city part of Nemuro. Way pretty beach. Some very nice country people. Eikaiwa that night also went decent. Not as many people as last week, but we can blame that on the weather. Saturday was a way awesome day. We did some set up of the baptismal font and then headed out to see lots of investigators to invite them to the baptism. We ended up having 6 good lessons that day. None of the investigators were actually able to come which was too bad, but anyways the baptism itself went super well! We had to wake up way early to go fill up the font with warm water. Church went super well too! Most people that have been there since I have been in Nemuro! Around 25-27! At the baptism there were some way awesome talks from two of the members then we did the service. Andersen E being awesome didn't make any mistakes and they were way happy. Ayako (mom) cried when Yuka went down like a champion not afraid of the water at all! After I gave them both the gift of the Holy Ghost and there was a lot more crying and strong spirit being felt there. To finish everything off, there was a big gathering with lots of food on the second floor. They have been able to make such great friends with the ward and I'm so excited to be able to stay here to see them grow. Emailing today is kinda late because we decided to go to Nosappu misaki this morning to move time around. After that we had a BBQ with the same investigator we met on Monday. He even introduced us to a friend that we might be able to meet and teach as well! Lots of fun.
Lots of details I couldn't quite fit in because we are kinda tight on time today, but yeah!

Also I found out a bit about my bean! I'll attach the pictures of what I know... :) (NOTE: this picture didn't come through)
(notice that the country is not America OR Japan!)
I will most likely be leaving early tomorrow to meet him in Sapporo, but we will see!!
I'm way happy and excited for Adam!!! I'm really happy our family has that connection of the temple as well. I'm grateful for your love and I do feel it often! I don't know if you've sent your package yet, but this time I will actually be pretty happy if there is candy because there are a few investigators/kids that really want to try some!

Love you and am always happy to hear from you and love this gospel and how it changes our lives!!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

At baptism interview with Okuchis, Andersen, Ishiga and comp

Getting the font ready

Baptism day for the Okuchis!!

Visit to Nosappu Misaki

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

8/4/13 Stressed about transfers

Hey! It was another good and crazy week! I feel like we had to run around so much and didn't get a lot of the things we wanted to get done done, but at the same time I feel like we still did so much. On p-day after email we took some dry cleaning to this lady named Endo whose son used to be in the branch, but moved. She is way nice and does it for free. After that we shopped and looked at clothes for a bit, but I had an inner battle and ended up not buying any. It is really easy to find clothes that I like here, but with not being able to wear them, they just become another thing to pack so I will probably wait til closer to when I go back to America. We dendo'd by Okuchis for a bit and then met them to teach them about Joseph Smith more in depth. They are getting more and more into it and involved when we teach.

Tuesday we had DTM and right after I went to get on my bike and the tire was way flat. It also rained really hard all of a sudden. I had to push my bike across town to the only bike shop in Nemuro and it wasn't even open. So I left it there with a guy and we walked in the rain. Kinda tough, but we still got some good dendo in. We tried to shizen dendo in some stores too and that went ok. At night we went out to eat with the Okuchis and it was pretty fun. We followed up with them quite a bit then. Did I tell you before that Yuka had asthma before they met us, but ever since the day we visited it went away? Pretty crazy miracle. They have seen lots of others in their lives as well.

Wednesday was a day of lots of finding. We met some really fun and nice people though. Made some decent appointments and stuff as well. Then we stopped by the Okuchis for a sec to follow up on Joseph Smith and prayer again. We met them everyday this week actually.

Thursday we had DKK which went a little long. Andersen E and I just get along too well and talk too much hahah. Afterwards I called Kawashima and she was happy to hear from me. She has been reading and studying a bunch and has lots of interest. She is starting to have weird concerns about ghosts and the universe and stuff, but I shared Jacob 4:8 and it helped a lot. Hopefully we can just get her to the next step of coming to church somehow... We went to this awesome area called Tomoshiri which is a little ways away, but it was way pretty. It has a huge (freezing cold) beach and islands out in the distance and stuff. There were some nice people there too. Some even gave us frozen shrimp. We headed back to see Okuchi because she made curry for us. We taught about modern day prophets/revelation and then taught the word of wisdom. It went so well I was surprised. They love coffee and tea, but were not hesitant at all to commit to giving it up. It was the part I was most worried about.

Friday was interesting. We went to Nishihama and the ocean was really windy and wavy. We tried to visit some people who weren't home and then we visited the Sekiyas. The son was there and he was just about to leave. He said, "I'm going to make slime, want to come?" and it sounded interesting and we want to keep a good relationship with him so we went to the kids center there and watched a bunch of little kids make slime. It was fun to play with the little kids and leave a good impression on them and the teachers. We then went to pick up our dry cleaning and visit some other people in the area. One of them being Tatsuya who is the 23 year old guy we met the week before. He is way cool for real. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and told how it helped us and he promised to read it. He also came to eikaiwa that night! We had 11 people this time which is still a way good turn out! Him and another new lady came so our numbers just keep on growing ;) Throughout the whole week we have been worried about transfers... Neither of us want to leave because this is the best area ever. There is a high chance I could become a trainer next transfer because 9 new elders are coming to the mission. All the eikaiwa students/investigators were pretty bummed when they heard that we have a chance of leaving and stuff... Especially Okuchi's daughter Yuka.

Saturday we went to Betsukai and did some finding. A lot of the people we met last week were happy to see us again. We also taught the plan of salvation to Kawashima and she told us how she is changing a lot as far as feeling peace, attitude, smoking less etc. She is starting to get a testimony and it's so cool. Afterwards we helped at the farm again and gave some Tagalog copies of the Book of Mormon. We then played with the kids a bit and gave our scripture reading challenge to them too. After getting home we went to the park with the Okuchis for a bit and followed up and they have been keeping the word of wisdom!

Sunday was a great day too. The Okuchis love church especially primary! They went to play with the Ozawa kids last week twice and we didn't have to set anything up at all! Yuka shared a scripture and Ayako gave the opening prayer. It was so boss. Testimony meeting went way great too. I even got Karebu kyoudai to get up and bear his testimony too. Proud of him! We played a bunch after church then went home to eat. We dendo'd a bit nearby Endo (dry cleaning lady) and then went over to her house to eat for the first time in a long time. She made us cook (she likes doing that) and we made WAY too much food (she also likes doing that) including fried venison katsu. It was really good, but after like 15 minutes of eating I thought I was going to pass out (I think she likes that the best). We left to do missionary coordination meeting with Nakazawa kyoudai and called it a day.

I'm glad your week was great too! Lauren sent me an email with tons of pictures of Max. He has swagger I think. That's way cool the kitchen is just about done. Nice you had the missionaries over! I'm glad they were serious with the message and didn't just play the whole time. Cool that they shared advice with Adam too. I wish I could send him the shirts I find here. Not only are they way awesome, but they're only $10. I will probably end up with some too... I'm jealous you get to hear from so many of the other missionaries! A few people email me now and then, but that's about it. I'm glad the ward is doing awesome and let everyone know what I'm up to.

If I end up being a trainer I will probably find out sometime today. If not, regular transfer calls are tomorrow. I have always wanted to be a trainer, but I have gotten pretty close with Andersen E. Whatever happens I know it revelation from the Lord and what is best for the area! I love you a ton and for helping me to grow up and be ready for change and things that need to happen. Especially for helping me be able to handle the responsibilities that I am given whatever they may be.

Love you tons!!!!!!!!
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

7/28/13 I Love Nemuro!

Nope! Didn't remember pioneer day at all! Wow haha. Glad you had fun! We actually did a bit of sparklers with Okuchi and Yuka as well. We got some pretty sweet shapes! Nice job with my name haha!

I'm really excited for everyone back home though. Max growing up fast, etc. Make sure Adam reads that packet a lot! Sounds like he has a good mission president! Definitely read the bike safety stuff carefully. Yeah I don't know if there's a specific album from Sufjan, but Andersen E(lder... we usually write it like this to save time. It's at the end because that's usually where choro goes. The ne I put at the end is Japanese that is getting into my English. it means like, right? or something like that) had a track called Holy, holy which was cool too. Other than that What Child Is This was way awesome. I did get the letter from dad! I actually have gotten a decent amount of mail lately. That's way tough about Adam (and the windshield), but I'm glad he was okay. Probably surprised ne. I hope nothing else breaks soon. Super exciting for him to go to the temple too. Do you have the preparing to enter the temple pamphlet? I tried to do a bit to prepare for going, but I wish I would've read that.
Yuka and Ayako (the Okuchi's) are doing way awesome! They came to church all 3 hours yesterday and are loving it more and more each time. I'm also enjoying primary myself.
Miracles are too many to count! But I'll summarize some up for you here in a second. DKK is weekly planning session (douryou keikaku kai) and a matsuri is a Japanese festival.

THE KITCHEN IS AWESOME!!!! :D
So is missing apricot season ;)

The Okuchi's have a really strong baptismal date on the 17th of next month! We'd do it the week before, but there's a big matsuri that weekend. Yuka is really good at praying it's crazy. Way better than I was at 8. Ayako is getting better too. They have been reading together every night as well and we are trying to help them out to understand what they read more. A lot of times we end up playing with them for maybe more than half the time then getting into lesson mode, but Ayako has talked to Yuka a lot about paying attention in lessons etc and she has gotten way better! That's made Ayako really happy too. They also came to eikaiwa last Friday! Oh man, 13 people came and it was way cool. I had 8 people in my beginner class. Can't believe that we started this from scratch. So cool.

Kawashima was a little bit sick last time we went to Betsukai, but she still made some time to talk with us about her concerns and also the word of wisdom which she looked up online. We did a lot of encouraging her. After the lesson I prayed and she just started talking about how when she looks at us, she knows that we are pure for following God. We promised her that through Jesus Christ she could be too. I just hope that she can feel it strong enough! We have had some ideas about doing sacrament meeting for the members out there since it is so far. There are a lot of non-attendings plus the Itou family that it'd probably be a big help to! Here are the highlights of the week! Monday Andersen E and I did purikura again (see photo) and taught Okuchi's about baptism. Tuesday we went out to lunch with a deaf non-attending! She was way funny and made us eat a lot. I am getting better at Japanese sign language little by little. Later we had a lesson with the guy who met missionaries 40 years ago we are starting to see that the reason he might not have progressed is praying about the Book of Mormon so hopefully we:ll be able to strengthen him and help him to do so! We also found the coolest guy ever named Tatsuya. He looked really mean, and kinda gangsterish (but in the Japanese sense) at first, but then he started asking us lots of questions and was really friendly! He even let us barbecue with him in front of his house! He isn't super interested in God in particular, but he is very willing to listen and wants to hang out more. It was cool to see him transform in just a few minutes. He is about 23 and has a wife and newborn baby boy. So awesome.

Wednesday was a day of lots of finding and doing fireworks/lesson with Okuchi. Thursday DKK and going to a kinda far-out place called Horomoshiri and met some way nice people there. One lady had an interesting thing in her doorway and I complimented it and she practically forced me to take it! It's decorating our apartment now ;) Friday was a little bit spread out. We met a way cool lady who went to eikaiwa 15 years ago when she was 7 and still remembers us! She was way happy to see us haha we also met with this nice old couple Inumaki E and I found earlier and they talked a bunch. We also had epic-eikaiwa that day! Saturday we went to Betsukai and it turns out the Itou family's phone broke so we couldn't go to the farm. We just did lots of finding and WOW Betsukai people are way nice/really happy to see Americans/impressed. Made lots of good potential investigators/eikaiwa students. I can see a branch there someday not too far away. Sunday was awesome church with the Okuchis and finding in a far-ish area. Way great week. I love this work and I love Nemuro! I want to stay here for 2 more transfers... I hope kaicho lets me!
I love you tons and am excited for all the great stuff that you're going to do!

Work hard!
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Doing sparklers

The shell boat decoration I got

Purikura - a Japanese-style photo booth

7/21/13 A pretty awesome week here in Nemuro, and Kushiro, and Obihiro!

Hey thanks for sending everything right away! Glad the stuff in the kitchen is going well and it'll be really cool when it's all done and the rubble is cleared out. Nice to have a lot of help there too. Too bad there aren't any like, less actives in our house or something because that'd be a good thing to invite missionaries over to do! Have fun at all the farewells tomorrow and good luck with Gospel Doctrine! I went to primary yesterday. I'll tell you about that later! Glad Adam's stuff (for the mission) is getting found! You found Uniclo!?!? Where? Was it just online? That might be why they don't have short sleeves. The ones here in Japan are amazing. Ohhh randomly while I remember there is some music I want you to try to find and send to me. Sufjan Stevens has a good amount of Christmas music/hymns that he has done in his style that's really cool. Andersen Choro has some and if you couldn't find that/any other music like that I'd be way happy. Also there is a cd called Nearer: a collection of favorite hymns and it is amazing. It has a lot of local people from Utah that I really like including the old bassist from Fictionist I was friends with. Music is something I am kinda always wanting a little more variety in haha.

Glad you liked the photos! Actually Yuka's dad ran away before she was born so it's just her and her mom. Kawashima is the one who we want the husband to support her. They are all amazing though.

That's tough about Uncle Merril, but I know whatever happens I'm grateful for the plan of salvation as well. Grandpa Price is definitely someone who helped me get a strong testimony in it for myself. Sharayah is a crazy name. :) Thanks for the pictures of my nieces and nephew always. I feel like I won't be surprised at all when I get home because I see how they grow every week hahaha.

That's way awesome Zach Nordfelt and Aaron are back! It felt like they left such a long time ago haha. Glad you got to hear from Sis Gandy too! I was thinking about that time meeting them this morning and how much I want to come back here like they got to...

So this week!
We kinda moved p-day and Wednesday around because of travel stuff, so on Monday after email we did some finding and visiting of PIs that I found on splits the week before. We also stopped by *I's* to see how he was and try to schedule an appointment with him, but he was so happy to see us he let us in and made us eat a bunch of candy. We taught a bunch about coming to church and praying etc because we want to get him back into full on lesson teaching mode. In the middle of that we *accidentally* found out that he has a law of chastity problem when we asked him what movies he's been watching lately. We testified to him pretty strongly about the law of chastity and its importance in feeling the spirit etc. He seemed a little bit overwhelmed, but it was kinda spur of the moment. In the end I think he was pretty good though because he called later in the week and asked when we could come again. That night was a pretty big fireworks show out over the pier by our house. We went there to try to shizen dendo people in the big crowd and got approached/approached a lot of pretty fun people. Invited lots of people to eikaiwa. Tuesday we visited the people Andersen Choro found on splits and then did some finding which was cool. Found a guy who met missionaries 30 years ago and still remembers their names and has the old-school BofM they gave him! We also met with the Edo family again and they are so cool. The daughter Rio who is 8 put the temple pass along cards we gave her over her desk. They really love it when we visit. We also gave them a hello kitty prayer card and the mom was way happy and said that she would pray for sure! Then we went to see Ishii shimai to see if there was anything we could do to help out since her husband passed away. Her son and his wife were there(not members) so we talked to them a bunch and got fed a bunch of candy by Ishii shimai (Japanese people really like doing that!) We made pretty good friends with them and referred them to the missionaries in their area! We tried to visit Okuchi again and give her this epic Book of Mormon present that we made for them, but they were at a matsuri so we couldn't see them.

Wednesday we got up early and got on a bus to Kushiro! We met with Andrus Kaicho who is the branch president in Kushiro (He's American) and he made really good friends w/ Andersen E while he was there so we went and hung out with him for a bit. Took some purikura, ate curry, played our song for him, and got our haircut. He has a professional hair cut license! He even cut my eyebrows! Looks pretty good, no lie. After that we went to visit some old investigators of Andersen E. One named Abe who is way awesome, same age as me and plays the guitar. Had a good convo with him and encouraged him a lot about reading and praying even though he has been way busy with work. After that we met Akari and her Grandma Sugimoto (Akari got baptized yesterday! She's 13) and cheered on the grandma about getting baptized as well. She wants to, but she:s way terrified of water. She also has to quit her past religion (soukagakkai, it's pretty scary) and it takes a lot of steps and stuff to do so. They were way happy to see us though and it was way fun! Thursday we had Zone conference in Obihiro! It was WAY good! Good to see other missionaries! Kaicho gave a great workshop on faith and there were other workshops about being bold, working with members, obedience, strengthening testimony, etc. Also Andersen E and I played the song we have been working on for a while at Evans Shimai's request. It was I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go in a super cool folk version with a fun harmony I made. Reminded me of something from O brother where art thou. It went way good and even President Evans complimented us a bunch on it! After that we headed back to Kushiro after shizening some people in the Obihiro eki. I contacted someone in sign language and that was way fun! We got to Kushiro and stopped by the eikaiwa there.

Friday we had study and before we left went out to eat Chinese with Andrus Kaicho again. He gave us a bunch of candy to eat on the bus back to Nemuro. We got back to Nemuro and taught our Eikaiwa which went pretty decent as well. We were pretty tired though. Saturday Andersen E's ear hurt way bad so we went to the hospital and he got some medicine for it. After that we just did DKK and then finally went over to Okuchi's to give her the Book of Mormon! We put it in a stitch (from lilo and stitch) case and marked a bunch of scriptures in there, wrote our testimonies, and put a picture of us all together that we took before. I also made a paper of all the scriptures and Andersen E put an awesome picture he drew of Stitch to help them remember to read! They loved it a ton! The scripture paper had 24 scriptures to read one a day and Yuka read them all in 2 days! After hanging out with them and teaching them about the BofM we went to eat Reimen again with an investigator named Yamagishi from a while back. It was way fun, but kinda loud in the restaurant that day so it was hard to talk gospel, but he really wants to come to eikaiwa now that he knows about it.

The next day Okuchi and Yuka came to church and were there for primary this time! They couldn't come the first hour so I taught young mens again that time. Yuka is still a bit shy in church, but she sat very still and listened the whole lesson! She even tried a bit when we sang songs. She is the cutest. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Pres Monson's talk about obedience. After church we walked them back to a park by their house and found out how much she loved reading the BofM and how since then her mom has gotten more into it as well. We also found out her story about having Yuka with the guy running away and how it was hard to raise her alone, but since we have come it has helped her a lot. They are way awesome and special. We got home and my back started to hurt way bad so I actually laid down the rest of the day while Andersen E work on cards for the members. I feel a lot better today though! Thanks so so much for everything as always and I'm grateful that I was able to be raised in the gospel environment. I'm super excited to help Yuka have that chance as well!
Aishitemasu!
Hutchinson Choro

7/14/13 Busy week in Nemuro - lots of photos!

The kitchen looks way sick!!!! I'm really glad you got to get all that stuff done and I bet it was way busy, but putting the effort in pays off, no? That sounds like a full and fun week! This week was insane. So cool though. I'm glad you had some fun eating German food, but I'll have to admit.. I've never liked it much. Sausage and stuff... It's all about the fish B)

I'm grateful for all the great influence I have had from you as a family. We have been doing more and more here to help open up the hearts of the people, but there is still so much we need to improve on to make sure that we can tell the message in the right way so that they understand.

I'm excited for Adam to get out there though. It'll be crazy to see him after 3+ years. There is a store here and I think it's my new favorite (well there isn't one in Nemuro... too small) but it's called uniclo and it's the best store ever. I don't know if it has a website or if there are any in America, but I recommend it. It's way reasonable as well.

So this week flows a bit like this:
Monday was a good p-day, woke up early, ran to the Jinja (shrine) by our house and took pictures, got everything else done and went to Kuruma Ishi again. This time took tons of cool pictures on top of the rock. It was pretty foggy so we couldn't see out that far, but it looked amazing. Afterwards we dendo'd that town and called it a night. Next day was DTM and dendoing an area I hadn't done before. Met some cool people. One really nice lady who owned a bar, but was really interested! I also had a conversation with a non-attending member in sign language and we set up an appointment to go eat lunch together some time. Pretty intense. Japanese sign language is awesome. That night we randomly got a call from Okuchi's daughter asking if we would come by and play for a bit so we went back and talked with them and turns out because of the hello kitty prayer card we made for her she's been praying every day! That was really cool.

Next day was splits with Inoue Choro! He is a few transfers younger than me and way awesome. Lived in Ireland and went to BYUID so is fluent in English, but we still spoke Japanese the whole time. Found some WAY cool people actually. Inoue Choro is really enthusiastic about dendo and I learned a ton from him. Oh yeah, and that morning I got a call from Nakazawa Kyoudai saying that Ishii Kyoudai died. Kinda crazy. I didn't how to react at first. Since we went on splits that day Andersen and Ogata Choro went to visit them. The sunset that night was way incredible. We ate this cold pasta called reimen at a yakiniku place for only 350 yen! Yeah boy. It was way good. Next day we stopped by the Ishii's to see Ishii Kyoudai's... self. Kinda sad, but their family was all there and it was chill. We went home and had planning after that and then I got called to give the prayer at his funeral that night. Because of that we didn't get to do the finding we planned on, but it was a great experience. The whole funeral was like a big testimony of the plan of salvation and great stuff Ishii Kyoudai did as a member. The Ozawa family sang Families Can Be Together Forever. There were a lot of non-members and a few non-attendings came too. It ended up being a great dendo method i think. I would like my funeral to be like that. Far off thought, but yeah!

The next day was Friday and it was way cool. The high school was having its festival so we decided to go because we promised pretty much every high school kid I ever contacted that we would go. It was way cool! It started off with just this parade of high school kids in different costumes. We high fived almost the entire high school as they walked by. They were all very excited to see gaijins and a lot of them even remembered my name! After that we went and watched their little dance/play things that they did and were really funny. We tried to shizen dendo (finding people through starting normal conversations) but it was really hard because no one was getting into it even though it was way hilarious. A big difference between America and Japan, no one cheers; not even for their own kids. But we still had a lot of fun and hopefully through that a lot of the high school kids and their families were able to get a good impression of us. After that we helped out at a part member:s dry cleaner. It was really hot! We folded and dried a bunch of pillow cases! After that we left a note at Okuchi's asking them if they'd come to Eikaiwa. Eikaiwa was pretty fun as usual. One new guy came who is really good! It's always fun to have new students and see class grow.

Saturday was another day in Bekkai. We went and met the mom of a member in another ward who we got as a referral. She was super nice and cool! Hopefully we'll be able to teach her more next time we come back :) We did some finding there and taught Kawashima again! She has been praying everyday AND reading the Book of Mormon! We didn't even ask her to! She even bought a cover for the Book of Mormon because she wants to take good care of it. She also looked up the church website and has been studying a lot! She wants to come to church really bad as well. We taught her lesson 3 and committed her to be baptized. She wants to when she feels ready. She has some concerns about what happens after getting baptized (responsibilities and stuff) but we explained to her the importance of coming to church and hearing all the lessons so she can know all that. Her husband isn't protesting to her meeting with us, but is a little worried about her joining as well so hopefully we'll be able to talk with him too and help those worries clear up so they can all come to church as a family! After that we high fived a bunch and went to Itou farm to MILK COWS! Way awesome. Cool experience. Back in Nemuro we stopped by Okuchi's one more time to invite them to church and they promised they would! Actually when we first came Yuka (the daughter) was crying because she didn't get to go to Eikaiwa the day before and thought that we weren't going to visit. Since we came though, she calmed down and was happy again! Before we left that night I asked her if she'd pray for us and she did, primary style!(Me whispering in her ear what to say, way way cute) Then we went home and high fived a bunch again. Sunday was a little stressful at first. We had coordination meeting and found out that only 5 people could come to the first 2 hours of church. Okuchi promised pretty sure that she'd come that time so we were worried it would just be us, a few members, and her. Priesthood was only me, Andersen Choro, and Nakazawa kyoudai and right as we starting we saw Okuchi and Yuka walking by! Found out that they had to go to a practice for a parade they were doing that night, but said they would come back! We were just antsy the whole time wondering when they would come back, but they eventually did for sacrament! Actually a family from Kitami ward came and so did a few other members which was great and made sure there were more people. After sacrament Yuka wanted to play a lotttt. Got really tired, but she had a blast and so did her mom. Went home, ate lunch, and brought the sacrament to Ozawa shimai because she was busy with the baby. Had some fun there with the kids and her parents plus Ishii kyoudais grandkids that were sleeping over there.

Then we went to an appointment we made before with a way cool lady who used to live by missionaries. To top everything off we went to the parade Okuchi and Yuka were in. It was call the senninodori (1000 people dance) and i thought it was a different meaning so when I got there and there were 1000 people in different colored kimonos I was pretty surprised! We went and tried to shizen the people watching and afterwards high fived with Yuka and took a few pictures. They did way great. We have developed a good relationship with them and hopefully it will make it easier to talk about the gospel and teach in a way that Yuka will understand. Reminds me of Haramai and Nodoka sometimes. Anyways it was an awesome week in a billion different ways!

I love you tons and am grateful for the miracles that we get to see everyday! Good luck at home and love you!!!!
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Cool sunset over a shrine that's on a little island

Pictures at kuruma ishi

Creapy powder

Us with the Okuchis

Reimen

High fiving highschoolers @ parade

More high school kids (Monsters Inc. costumes)

Milking cows

At the parade with Andersen Choro

Us with Yuka