4/13/14 Crazy birthday!

My birthday has already been pretty crazy so far!
I'll just tell you right away....
I got my transfer call last night...!

I became Assistant to the President!!!!
Whoa!
SO that's probably the biggest news! I spend p-day here getting packed (though I packed everything last night) and then head to the honbu by six to begin training and stuff. I'll probably be giving people transfer calls, preparing for bean training, and heading to the airport to pick the younguns up ;D

Thank you soo much for the money! That's a lot hahaha! I'll try to be thrifty with it. I love you so much! I won't forget to get cool things for you guys too.

It is for sure crazy being 21. I do kinda feel like it though. Mara looks like she's having fun! Is there a Lincoln movie out??? Hahaha I'm glad that joke is still going on. How are the soccer boys? (inside joke from when Mara was 6)

I bet the Luau was fun too! I'm glad everyone is remembering me and stuff hahah! I will not be trunky though!!!! In the honbu I'll probably spend a LOT of time doing 'not dendo' so I will have to work hard to take advantage of every chance I get to work outside ;D.

I actually was able to fit a lot of my stuff in my suitcases so I might wait a bit before sending stuff home. Stuff that I'll throw out is probably the old short sleeve shirts that got really sweaty and the thermals that are all pretty ripped up. Still usable, but a member bought me some nice new ones from Uniqlo. Anyway I'm looking forward to the b-day package! I thought the last package was the b-day package hahahaha. Conference was super great! I watched all of it on Saturday day and Sunday and only had to watch one session in Japanese ;D I'm glad you're enjoying Alma as well!

The sister missionaries and Mara's food must've been fun! I hope you find opportunities to work with them a lot! :D Thanks for the pictures! Also, guess who didn't forget the camera plug? Yeah!
Here's the summary real quick.
Monday was a way fun P-day! We went to Mt. Moiwa in Sapporo with an Eikaiwa student, then to a ski jump w/ museum, then to a buffet, then to Ebetsu where we went to an Onsen! Pretty full day! The next day I went on splits in Ebetsu after doing the workshop we did last week for the Ebetsu missionaries. Nishime E did a way cool example about spending every second in your day like it's money. I'll have to tell it to you someday because it'd take too much time. Splits in Ebetsu were fun! I went with Louis E who is a bean chan! We saw some great miracles and visited a member who is so strong I was blown away.

Wednesday we went to a small area in Iwamizawa to visit a member on her b-day then went to Takikawa to have a baptismal interview! It was a 16 year old girl that went to youth conference and felt the spirit super strong and overcame all her doubts. Way fun! We spent the night there and then headed home to have DKK and Eikaiwa. The next day was splits with the APs!!! I went with Watabe choro and we just worked hard finding all day! It felt great even though it was still cold. Saturday was of course all day conference! It was great though! Sunday was conference and lots of eating with members! Adachi showed up just in time for Pres. Monson's talk but had to leave afterwards. We also did lots of finding after church and then I got my call!!!
I love you so much! Time is running out so... Pictures!!! :D
aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

This morning's surprise from Nishime E (spells out HAPPY BIRTHDAY one letter at a time)

Birthday cake from a member!

After the interview

View from Mt. Moiwa

Museum @ski jump

famous yakitori

Nishime E and his tempura don

My crazy curries one and two

3/30/14 Lots of food and splits and stuff

Hey! Thanks for the email as always. That's tough Adam coudn't get his all done. The women's conference sounds like it must've been interesting. That's way fun for Mara too! It might be a good thing they stopped the early morning stuff. It was fun pushing my exploded car around town at four in the morning though hahaha.

I'm jealous you get to see conference next week! However, it just makes my birthday all the better. :D My birthday is also the day of transfer calls so I have been wondering what present Evans Kaicho will give me as well... By the way I got your package! So much sweets... Haha I was trying so hard to give up, but thanks for the little taste of home. I don't know if you noticed, but I took out money last week to buy new pants. They are all pretty destroyed. If you could let me know EXACTLY how much is in my account every time there is a change that would help a LOT because I completely guessed and just hoped I had money.

Have fun with Jamie's family! That's way crazy about Emily's baby too. Everything is crazy. I wish I could've heard her recital as well.
I'm glad the music fireside videos are up! I was pretty happy about Where Can I Turn for Peace as well and I hope it sounds good on the CD too.

Anyways, here's the week.
Monday was Furano which was still covered in snow so not as amazing as any of the pictures you saw, but still nice. An Eikaiwa student took us and we had some famous ice cream and pudding there, then went to Takikawa for all you can eat "jingis kan" which is ram meat. I thought I was going to die haha. After that we came home and prayed with a member before finding in her area. Tuesday we had DTM in Ebetsu about "heart, might, mind, and strength" and it was good, but we had to hurry and head home to eat lunch with a member that took us to #2 ridiculous food store. I had normal katsu curry (it was a smaller item on the menu) and it was pretty difficult to finish, but I did. Afterwards we met a non attending member and found in his area and then one more area before heading home. Wednesday morning we left really early to get to Shibetsu for splits and I went with Satou E. He is way cool and fun! We went to the place Hill Side Box to eat like we always do and because it was Komori E's b-day she gave us a bunch of sushi and chicken and stuff. That was #3. Afterwards Satou E and I did some finding and then taught their strong investigator Yuzuka. She is from a part member family and is about 12 years old. She is a typical 12 year old, but the missionaries and her family helped her to like church more and want to be baptized. I also taught Eikaiwa there that night.

Thursday we came back early in the morning and then helped a member move. We were able to meet a bunch of her friends that she wants to eventually introduce the gospel to so that was great. We used the rest of the time for DKK and English class then at night headed to Takikawa where one of their investigators took us all out to all you can eat yaki-niku. More ridiculous food. Friday I worked with Kojima E in Takikawa and it was pretty fun. We went to a nearby city called Akabira to try to visit some members and find a little bit. There are a LOT of towns in that area that used to be huge because of coal mining, but it's all shut down now, so they've gotten a lot smaller. We came back and visited some people then it started to rain! Yes! Winter is over! I officially overcame an entire winter in the snowiest area (though the piles of snow might take some time). Afterwards the Takikawa elders being so nice took us to the next horrible restaurant. It is called Marin and is actually famous for serving food that is way too big. I got a different type of curry this time. We decided to run in the morning because of all the eating and the weather getting better, but I didn't have my running shoes on me and ran in regular shoes and kinda messed up my foot. It feels a lot better now, but Saturday was mostly resting it, calling people, and organizing stuff in the apartment.

One cool miracle though is that an old investigator from 4 years ago saying that he has time now and wants to go to church! We found his teaching record and it said that he wanted to get baptized, but was busy. This Sunday was a bit busy for him, but he wants to come next week! His name is Ogasawara. It's cool that even though a lot of our investigators can:t meet until next transfer, when we focused on what we need to do, somehow we meet the people we need to meet in the time that we have.
Sunday was good too! One of the member's daughters and grandkids came from an area near Nagoya to visit! There were 7 way cute kids and it was really fun. After church we did more finding near a member and there were a lot of awesome people! One person had just moved from Kushiro and used to be one of Andrus Kaicho's students! I was really moved by that. I feel like he is still dendoing a lot on the other side :) Anyways that was the week!

I hope you have a great week as well! Prepare spiritually for conference! I'm looking forward to it a lot. In the meanwhile, we can ride bikes again!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

3/23/14 Wakkanai part 3 and other stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you so much!
Hutchinson Choro

death ramen

Saharin

chilling at institute

bear meat (it was pretty good)

3/2/14 Probably the busiest week ever

Hey! The snow keeps melting, but it's falling again. I don't think anyone can escape Hokkaido winter so easily, hahaha. It must be fun to have almost no snow already! I want to bike!!! I want to run in the morning too... I've gone up like five kilos since Nemuro. It doesn't show, but I can feel it (T-T) Too many long train rides... Time to step up morning exercise.

I am really big on getting rid of old stuff to make room/pack lighter. Would you be upset if I didn't keep every letter you sent? I'll definitely keep certain ones, but it's hard to store them all. With college and all I feel way dumb about not talking to him about it earlier, but I'm glad I at least have the picture now. Thanks for always helping so much money wise. I need to be more grateful! If there is anything you want me to get for you guys here in Japan please let me know. I almost never buy souvenirs. Dave and the gang look like they're having fun as always! I'll prepare to work hard on their house. I probably won't have many other things to do haha.

Transfer calls are tomorrow and I think next transfer is going to be pretty crazy. Actually it'll definitely be crazy. Dixon E is leaving and so is Hatch E. I have definitely grown a lot since being a bean, but there are parts of me that realize that I need to get back some of the traits that I had at the time. Especially dendo fire and being excited about the work. I am for sure still excited and wanting to dendo, but having so many things to do makes it tricky sometimes.

That's so cool Nemuro has a facebook page! They are really moving forward. I'm so excited for them! BTW the Satou family that I taught before got baptismal dates again! The facebook responsibility sounds like it fits Okuchi Shimai really well. My camera keeps dying at all the key moments lately. Particularly the music concert... Which went awesome! Here's the week.

Monday was music practice, then riding straight to Asahikawa to go with the first ward elders (Suehiro) which was fun. I went to their DTM and met a shimai who was in the MTC with me! She is Tongan, but raised in Japan and that was kinda cool. I also got to go on splits with Hatch E and dendo with him one more time. We left for Shibetsu that night and I went on splits with Komori E who came with me to Japan. He is a great guy. His comp Satou E is really fun. Thursday we came back to Iwamizawa, ran to Bibai to visit an NA and then came back to have Eikaiwa. After Eikaiwa we went to Ebetsu because I did a baptismal interview! It went great! I also went on splits with Spurling E that day one more time. Saturday morning we worked a bit and then headed to Sapporo to practice and prep for music night. It was a blast! Everyone's numbers were probably the best they've ever been (even though I dropped my pick haha). It was great. Adachi the investigator came with EIGHT friends! Whoa. Sunday was good and we decided to take some time for phone dendo and organizing member records so Dixon E could pack. I also made some way good tomato sauce.

I'm looking forward to a normal p-day today B)
Thanks for everything and love you so much!!!

Hutchinson Choro

2/16/14 Music Night Number One

Hey! Thanks for all the cool news about your trip. Sounds crazy! Dad looks crazy good. You could've photoshopped Adam's head on that picture and I probably wouldn't have noticed! Sounds like he was being a boss missionary too! That's my dad :)

I hope you didn't eat too much southern comfort food. The members gave us so much valentines candy it's frustrating, haha. They also give us lots of tomatoes and lettuce. They actually give us a lot of really good, useful food as well actually. They are great ;D Also I hope to see all the rest of your pics after I get home. The adjusting to missionary life book doesn't really have any adjustments.... It's just about tips for overcoming bad habits or stress or other little things like that you can work on. I also heard about the crazy weather in New York. Tell Joseph hi if you see him! Here's the ridiculous week.

Monday was pretty much owned by music practice. Whoa. We went to Ebetsu that night for splits the next day. I bought some stuff for the guitar. Tuesday I had splits with Spurling E who is the district leader of Ebetsu now. He is fun and a great missionary. Because we had DTM and Eikaiwa on the same day there, splits were pretty short, but we found a pretty kinjin middle aged couple that let us in and practically fed us dinner. Awesome. Tuesday his comp Brackner E and I headed to Iwamizawa and worked. It was way fun and we taught Hayashi about prayer and faith. He told us more awesome stories about his life and how he was helped by going to church when he was younger. He also prayed for 15 minutes straight. We had some more fun finding and then headed home. After that was Thursday which was some weekly planning and Eikaiwa in Iwamizawa. Friday we went to Bibai and had a really good lesson with an NA about the celestial kingdom. We also contacted this lady we met in Iwamizawa. Kinda cool story. We were pinging a small apartment building when Dixon E accidentally pings a door that has tape over the mailbox (sign that no one lives there) and right as I point out that probably no one lives there, the apartment owner comes out! She actually lives in Bibai, but was super nice and gave us her real address. When we visited her, her and her husband, both way awesome and way interested. We also visited Yamashita afterwards and had a... interesting, but good lesson. He has a lot of concerns, but pretty much decided no matter what we say he doesn't want to change. I know he will someday, but it was kinda sad because there wasn't much we could do. He has problems forgiving people and stuff, but that just takes time and love :)

Saturday was owned by the music concert. Practice in the morning and performance. The music night was way fun and I performed a song that I arranged this time with a small group. My old investigator Nakagawa from Toyohira came and that was way awesome! Hopefully from that he'll meet with the missionaries there again. Sunday was good and I was insanely tired. We had to plan more for ZTM after church and that was pretty much it! Hopefully we can get 100% prepared for it today!

Thanks for everything! I love you tons and I'm grateful for all of your support and love. It is crazy Adam transferred so much already hahaa.

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Picture that a member drew of me while giving a talk

Me and Nakagawa, investigator from Toyohira

2/9/14 Zone Conference

So I'll just start with the week. Monday was music practice at the Honbu again. Then we came back and tried to visit some old investigators. The next day I went on splits with the Japanese AP Asai E who is really cool and fun. We just did lots of finding. Even though we weren't able to teach many real lessons, I learned a lot from his style and example. We had pizza hut for dinner because it was half off day and so that was pretty good. The next day I went on splits in Ebetsu with Shoell E who is 6'7" and way cool. Super obedient good example. We did lots of finding and found some pretty cool college kids. He just barely transferred in and didn't know the area super well + it was crazy cold, but we found some good things to do. Next day was running all over. We went back to Iwamizawa, set up for Eikaiwa (some other missionaries came to teach it for us) ate dinner, and headed back to Sapporo for more music practice. Friday was Zone conference and the mental and physical health representatives came and did workshops that were pretty good. They have this new "adjusting to missionary life" book that is really great. Otherwise I was super tired, but I still got a lot out of it. That night we went to Yuki Matsuri (snow festival) and it was pretty disappointing compared to last year. There were still lots of giant snow sculptures and stuff, but maybe I'm just used to that already, haha. We stayed the night w/ Toyohira elders and that was pretty cool for me. I called up some of my old investigators there to encourage them to meet with the missionaries again, so that was neat.

Saturday we were back in Iwamizawa and we met Hayashi again! He is a boss for sure. He told us how 1 year ago in Taiwan, he met missionaries and gave them his information for his home in Hokkaido, but they never came. We taught him the rest of the restoration and about the BofM and challenged him to be baptized and he accepted! He's gonna be such a cool member. After that we headed to Bibai, but weren't able to meet anyone we wanted + it was basically too cold for us to do anything so we hung out in the eki to try to get the planning for zone training meeting done. Still lots to do. That'll be on the 18th. Sunday was pretty nice. Church went good and the stake president came. I gave a talk on the work of salvation and apparently the members got really pumped up by it so I was really happy about that. Basically what Pres. Evans wants us to focus on is not telling members "hey, we need you to do missionary work already!" or "do missionary work this way!" but to find out what kind of dendo they want to do and help them to do it. Also I'm getting a bit better at JSL (Japanese sign language) so that's been fun translating. After church we rode with Adachi Kaicho to visit some NA's and investigators of ours he has been wondering about. Nothing too special happened with any of them, but he was real happy to be able to work with us even just a little. We were too, especially because of the temperature. It's anywhere from -14c to -30c and there isn't much you can do about it clothes or hand warmer wise. You just have to do things in increments I think. It's completely different from last winter, but I'llbe able to make it through just fine :)

So anyways thanks for the pics! Where did you get the really bad pic of my face? The picture of the temple (construction) is way cool! To let you know, I don't get updated on that AT ALL. All I know is when I leave it still has like a year and a half before it gets finished. I haven't even seen the spot where it's being built. Your mini vacation is going to Sharon's wedding right? I hope that goes well. I want to live in Okinawa some day. The climate is probably similar, but I think there are a lot less dangerous storms.

Anyways. Yeah, Hokkaido needs way more missionaries. It is the smallest mission in Japan population-wise, but what I hear from other missionary friends in Japan is that basically every area in their mission has AT LEAST two elders and two sisters. Next transfer 14 missionaries go home and only 10 come in so we're going down a little bit more again. I:m sure the church has a plan for what they want to happen here, but I feel like it's pretty tough right now at least here... We did go up like 35-ish missionaries since this time last year so maybe they just have to do things more gradually. We'll see where things go by the time I leave. Thanks for your testimony about still being able to get all the important things done. I know that's true!
Mission leader council? I thought told you about it when I went w/ Hatch E, but it's just like a meeting with all the zone leaders, APs, and the 2 sister leaders. We talk about what the mission needs and then have a workshop from the APs.

I'm excited for all the great things happening and that is super cool of dad to lose weight! After new years here I have to work out more... But it's nothing really haha.

Love you tons too!!! Happy valentines day!

aishiteimasu!!!!!!
Hutchinson Choro


Some older photos taken by Elder Hatch:

I have no idea what this big thing is :)

Teaching via train window

A very large icicle!

Cool unidentified family (I hope he tells us next week)

Snow

Lots of Snow

And still higher Snow

2/2/14 Coldhot

Time doesn't feel like it's going fast, but every time I look, it's already gone...!

I'm glad everyone is finding fun stuff to do. I don't know how excited I am for chocolate cake day though... Sing along screening (of Frozen)? That's interesting. I'm glad Mara is making time to go to the temple. Do you know if Adam gets to go to the temple in his mission? I'm way excited to go. I'm also for sure proud of Mara's bargain skills. There's definitely a lot of clothes I want to try to snag here before I head home though. The zone is pretty much fine. I just wish we didn't have to go on splits so much because our poor area hardly gets any dendo time. Even if we find anyone cool it's hard to find time to meet them again :p We don't have DL responsibilities anymore, but there are more other things that make me feel like I'm even more busy than last transfer. Keep encouraging and praying for the missionaries in the ward for me! The translation means: happiness, isn't it? (Mom asked him to translate something) Makes more sense in Japanese. If I knew the context there's probably a better phrase.

I'll see what I can do about two weeks ago. Not anything too special happened before Hatch E left from what I remember. After that Dixon E and I made plans to focus on our area more (since we thought we would have less responsibilities... oh well). But because of that we headed out on Friday to find by the college and found some really cool students and stuff. It was a really fun area to dendo. We also found a guy who is a college professor named Hayashi. He's way cool and he seemed a little different, but he was way nice. On Saturday we went to Bibai and did some finding there and found a WAY cool family called the Hisatsunes. We made a weak appointment through the intercom, but as we were writing down, the dad from down the street walks up to us and asks us if we can speak Japanese. We say we do and have a pretty conversation with him and explain what we're doing. He thinks we're really awesome and is pretty interested so he introduces his son to us who is about 22 and way cool! He used to go to college in another part of Japan there and went to church at the time. Got their numbers and made an appt so that was pretty cool. Sunday was the normal translating into sign language and getting lots of food from members. We also had some ok finding. Monday was a pretty awesome p-day. We went to an onsen and a big mall with the Ebetsu elders. The onsen was WAY nice and cool because they had some out door pools as well with snow falling around.

That night we dendo'd a bit around the church and then got on the train to Asahikawa. I went on splits with Fukushima E who is awesome. He is working way hard as DL there. We did lots of finding and it was fun because he is really motivated. Wednesday morning we had a crazy adventure getting up way early, running through a blizzard, and riding a long train back to Sapporo in order to make it to mission leader council which was really awesome as usual. I felt like everything was said right to me. It basically took all day so we didn't have time to dendo when we got home. Thursday we went back to the college area and met Hayashi again. Turns out that he is from Taiwan! He married and a Nihonjin and graduated with a doctor's degree at Hokkaido university, but he's also fluent in English. We talked to him in his house. He told us his life story and we taught him a short, but really good lesson. We also showed him the Book of Mormon and he committed to read it before we could even ask him to. He is pretty kinjin so we're excited about him.

Friday was having the Takikawa Elders come on splits in Iwamizawa. I went with Kojima E who is a bit younger as a missionary, but a way cool guy. He went to Snow college for a year studying English! We did a lot of finding and had fun, but had to run for shelter in stores sometimes when the blizzards got bad. Saturday was originally planned to do a lot of dendo, but we had a stake coordination meeting that we had to go to and it took a lot of time to prepare for. We went to all of our Bibai appts, but we had to go super early so they were almost all not home. We did meet a really cool guy named Nagae though. We also found out that Yamashita didn't get his job and still can't come to church. Otherwise he's doing good. The stake meeting was actually pretty fun and went well. It helped to know more of what the Stake wants us to do as missionaries. There are a lot of wards and branches that don't have enough priesthood to have ward mission leaders or other callings like that, so it's pretty tough for some missionaries to work with the members, but I guess that's what finding new members is for, kana?

Sunday was good! It was fast Sunday and Adachi showed up randomly again! She went to Hawaii on her business trip and ended up meeting a bunch of RM's at the Polynesian cultural center! One of which (her group's guide) served here in Iwamizawa for a long time. She had been puzzled(?) about how many random meetings she had been having with the church and came with lots of really good questions. We had a great lesson with her at church about the spirit. She won't commit to a baptismal date right now, but she has a ton of promise!

That's about it! Thanks and love you!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

1/13/14 Never ending snow

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

12/31/13 akemashite omedetou gozaimasu (happy new year's)

Hey! Christmas was pretty missionary-y and Japanese-y, but still way awesome. I'm glad the call worked out. I always feel like they end up being all over the place, but I guess that's what happens when everyone is excited. Thats crazy you had to have Christmas dinner at Maverick! Sounds like Lily got some great presents and Adam's phone call was fun too. Definitely send me a pic of Dave's present when you have the chance. I'm glad the Hutchinson family is doing good. It doesn't snowstorm here every day, but there was a way crazy one last Saturday. My new shoes are definitely awesome and you don't have to worry about money. They were a present. I was only gonna get one pair of shoes, but since they were on sale she bought me 2. Way generous and awesome! I hope Mara's talk, etc. went great too!

Here's the week. (since talking to you) So Wednesday DTM went great and we ate sushi with everyone. Then went back to Iwamizawa and planned a bit for zone stuff then went out to do Merry Christmas dendo. Basically like normal housing, but we only went to houses with Christmas decorations and talked about Christmas extra. We did find one pretty cool guy we'll meet again on Friday. On Thursday we had some planning and then rode w/ Adachi B to teach Yamashita at his house. He lives in the city next door called Bibai. It went pretty good. He had a concern at church so we addressed that and then taught him about the plan of salvation which he is really interested in. He definitely has a lot of potential and I can almost say for sure he'll get baptized. We just need to be patient because he likes to talk a lot and has lots of little concerns. After that we rode from the station in Bibai to Shibetsu! We had splits there and they went awesome. It is the second smallest area after Nemuro. There is a lady there who runs a pretty classy shop and is like a Mom to the missionaries. She fed us all for free and we talked with her, a member, and a non-attending. I went on splits w/ Hirata E who is on his 3rd transfer. It was way fun and we taught some awesome people that he had found + I taught him how to street contact because his trainer never taught him. On the way home I found a way interesting shop called "Rodeo" that was just full of retro American stuff, playing oldies rockabilly music. It was way cool and I met the shop owners and they were way happy to meet a real American. It was a pretty unique chance to share the gospel because I tied his desire to show Japanese people what America is like, to us wanting to show everyone they joy we get from the gospel. He was really cool. Kinda looked like a biker with a super long goatee, but we made pretty good friends.

We rode back home and did a bit of finding on Saturday before riding w/ Adachi B and Yamashita to Sapporo to see the Messiah concert. He had a good time + we got to review and talk more about what we had talked about so far in the car. Also, I got to meet a ton of members from Eniwa and Toyohira! That was way happy. Best part is that everyone remembered me! Church went pretty great even though Yamashita had a thing come up and couldn't come. We did a bunch of finding after talking w/members and stuff a lot. I actually translated sacrament meeting into sign language for the deaf member and it was way hard, but I did it somehow. It's pretty fun, but I definitely don't know that much yet hahaha. Monday was DTM in Ebetsu that went great. We ate and came back to visit this NA family (whose daughter came up to visit for new year's-she's active). It was pretty fun and though her parents are in their 80's we had a fun and spiritual time. Yesterday was read the BofM all day day. I got way tired and fell asleep while reading several times and didn't even get half as far as I got last year, but it was still awesome and I got some good revelations for our zone. At night we ate "toshi koshi soba" which is a Japanese tradition that they do every new year's. It was pretty fun. Maybe I'll do it every year from now on :) Did you do anything for new year's?

I'm so grateful for the Christmas season and chance to think of Christ so much more. I'm also really grateful for the awesome responsibility I have to be a leader and serve the missionaries in my zone and district. I miss just focusing on investigators sometimes, but all together it's such an awesome experience. Love you tons! Happy new year's!!!!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

toshi koshi soba

in front of Rodeo

My district at Odori park after caroling

Me on Book of Mormon day

Icicles

Day after snow storm

Everyone at the shop in Shibetsu

Our Christmas dinner

Christmas cake

Christmas morning in Ebetsu

more icicles

12/22/13 Way Too Amazing Timing, Several Times

Hey! It's been fun being a zone leader, but surreal. It's really cool to work in other areas and with lots of other missionaries. I told you about the Christmas party last week, didn't I? I didn't get any pics so I'll send some from Hatch E's camera. I'm jealous you got the mission CD. We don't get it until Christmas :P That's too bad about Grandma and I hope she gets doing better. Do you think she'll be around when I get back? You work on Christmas eve? hahah That's like Japan. Won't Mara be home then? I'm looking forward to the call too! BTW I have my own phone now as a ZL so we don't have to worry about coordinating time. Therefore, if you want to call earlier than 9 (my time) feel free to do so because I'll have time. After that is district meeting etc, but yeah. I hope your Christmas lesson goes well! Not gonna lie I probably have the hardest time teaching out of manuals... Sometimes they just get too complicated. I'm WAY stoked for Michael!!!!! That's way boss! Nice!!! Also I don't have any addresses on me so I'll tell you next week (Stilson E, etc) Stilson E going home was depressing because he is one of my favorite missionaries ever. He did go a transfer early for school, but yeah.

Also, I got the package!!! The stuff is way awesome!!!! The Sufjan Stevens cd's are way amazing (though there are a bunch of random non-missionary songs on there I have to filter out... same with the singles ward [I think the rm soundtrack was a little less heavy hahaha!], but that's what SD cards are for! :)) Also please give me the track listing for the random blank cd you gave me. I was super super super happy though. Pretty much all my favorite Christmas candy and I am almost done with the last journal I was using so that new one will do great. The sweater is awesome too! I don't know if I was supposed to wait til Christmas, but I'm almost sure I wouldn't be able to wait anyways haha. Thank you tons and love you!

THE WEEK
P-day wasn't anything too special. We kinda chilled here, found, and went to Ebetsu in preparation for splits and DTM. Tuesday DTM went great and I went on splits with Brackner E who is a bean and way awesome. He has a lot of confidence so even though he is younger in Japanese and missionary stuff he does his best to participate and learn fast which is way way cool. We had Eikaiwa there that night as well. There are some pretty nice members there too. Wednesday was Mission Leader Conference which was pretty cool. I felt old. We talked a lot about what we'll do for zone conference and how all the zones are doing. Kaicho is such a boss and always answers our questions using the white handbook, PMG, or the scriptures. Anyway that was practically all day. We got to eat Costco pizza for lunch. Thursday we did some finding and then members took us out to sushi and made us eat a ton. It was good, but Kushiro/Nemuro sushi is of course still the best in the world. After that we had a makeshift DKK and then went to meet Yamashita before Eikaiwa with a member. We went over what we taught before and then made a baptismal date with him! He actually chose the date himself because he really wants to get baptized, but also know more about the church and know it's the right decision first.

English class went great and then we headed to Asahikawa. IT'S HUGE! Of course not as big as Sapporo, but I was surprised. BUT on the way there, super miracle. We were waiting for the train and this guy comes up to us and is like, hey I used to live in St George! And we're like what? Turns out he got baptized 30 years ago, but because of bad relations with other people in the church at the time he quit. However we talked to him the entire train ride and he still remembers everything about the church. He basically still has a testimony and stuff. Anyway we told him about how much the church has grown in Japan and he got pretty excited about it. He said he would consider coming to church again and we gave him a new BoM. He lives in Asahikawa so we gave his info to the elders when we got there. Also he looks almost exactly like dad, but Japanese. Even he thought so! (I showed him pics) Asahikawa splits were fun (I went with 4th transfer Strachan E who is Canadian and way strong testimony). We also did Eikaiwa there as well (3 in one week! It's all we can do with so little time to do splits because of the holidays) Asahikawa is a way awesome area though! Saturday we came home and were way tired, but we finished DKK and then headed out to this kinda far away area to contact a referral. There was no map of that area so we asked people in town and they drew us a map and were way nice and everything, but it was about a 40 minute walk a way (on top of almost pure ice, but we're used to that already hahaha) so we started to walk and it was getting dark but there was nothing else we could do. After maybe 10 mins. this car pulls over and asks "are you Mormons? We'll give you a lift!" Turns out missionaries saved their kid's life or something a long time ago. They took us to the referral (who wasn't home) and then all the way back to Iwamizawa! (a little ways away) It was a couple and the mom actually works with some people who are members in Sapporo! She actually invited us to her work party which we are probably going to tonight. It was pretty crazy timing that we met them and they were really happy to meet us.

Sunday was great too. Yamashita came to church and had a great time. After church a way awesome NA named Kazama B came. He used to be in the branch presidency, but had hard stuff at work. Sounds like he wants to try to come more actively from now on though! We got so much stinkin candy in our fruit basket I think I'm gonna pass out, but it's pretty awesome. We had some good cold dendo that night and a great time getting everyone's reports! This work is overflowing with miracles! Christmas is awesome! I feel like I'm really bad at giving material gifts, but I want to be better at giving spiritual gifts or gifts of service.

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Santa!

Weird, gross, foam candy

Japanese Christmas (KFC is THE popular thing at Christmas there)

Members want to eat us so they are fattening us up (did he mean, 'the members want us to eat?' I hope so)