4/27/14 Cool zone conferences

Yeah it's busy. I got my charger, but I didn't have any chances to take pictures yet. Unless you want pictures of my apartment again. I haven't taken them yet, but yeah. I am running in and out of the apartment on the second floor. We wear shoes in the office, but not in the apartment. I couldn't tell you what a normal day is like anymore because it is different new assignments everyday and based on those we are either in all day or out all day.

Almost everything is different from previous missionary life, but I still feel like I'm working hard and am not bummed about it or anything. I will still have chances to split with the ZLs and stuff so that will be a great chance to have normal dendo days.
Why are you working extra hours? Emily's baby sounds fun. Ariel's husband sounds fun too. I bet he knew a lot of my friends from the MTC.

That's cool that the MP's wife spoke at stake conference! Is there still a Salt Lake West mission with just WVC? Pres. Brumble sounds like he's doing great as a stake pres. Why in the world did they change the ward boundaries? Did a bunch of people stop coming or are they just trying to make super giant crazy wards? I don't get it. I'm not worried about speaking at all, but you might need to find a translator for me.

So this week was...
Monday-Had music practice at the honbu so lots of people came. We had a little bit of time to shop and stuff. A member brought his friend to the honbu and he was chill so we taught him. He seems to have good potential. We also met one of Tomita E's old inv's at night and made a date with him. His name is Yuusuke. The next day was mostly cleaning the honbu to get ready for Aoyagi E to come. Also finishing stuff up on the power points and going to this place to get my license translated so I can get going on upgrading my license. Wednesday was more prep and cleaning. Aoyagi E & S came and had interviews with Tomita E and me. It was such a spiritual awesome experience. He asked me if I had any stories I wanted to share from my mission so I told him about Nemuro and he was really moved. He gave me the assignment to share it in zone conference the next two days. He also gave me a lot of advice on showing love as a leader and the importance of training as a leader. Tomita E and I got the same advice in a lot of ways.

Thursday we had the first zone conference in Atsubetsu and it went pretty good. It was 3 zones in one so there were a ton of people. I'm sure you'll see pics on facebook soon. I had a lot of chances to help the Aoyagi's get stuff ready for their presentation as well. We also found out that on the 28th of next month D. Todd Christofferson E is coming so we might have a mission conference. Almost for sure, hahaha. Aoyagi E/S, Evans K/S gave way good workshops on a lot of different things. Afterwards we had a leader meeting that went great and talked about our impressions/asked him questions. The next day we went to Moiwa and had the other 2 zones meet. It went great as well. Moiwa church is nicer than any church I've seen in America so far.

It was so awesome to hear the workshops twice because they were almost totally different. I learned so much. It gave us lots of ideas to prepare for mission leader meeting this Wednesday. We did get in some good streeting time that night, so that felt really good. Saturday we did lots of planning for ml kaigi (mission leader conf) and taught Tadano Zen B an AB lesson on the plan of salvation w/ a member. We also went to his daughter's baptism! The cool thing is that he performed it. Great experience. Before hand we only had a few minutes, but I wanted to dendo way bad so we just ran up and down the streets inviting people to the baptism. No one we invited came, but it was way fun. Sunday was a great meeting as well. After church we got paired up with members to pass out Eikaiwa fliers. We went home and prepped more for ml kaigi (we're still not done) and then ate at a member's house (Tandou S).

I'm having a great time though! Tomita E is so spiritual it's amazing. Even when things are hectic here we help each other a lot. Sometimes it's tough to get down on yourself here because you think "maybe if I used time better I would've been able to dendo more" but the great thing about the atonement is that we can repent and try to do better next time. Instead of getting down, I try to be thankful that God pointed out how I can improve and gave me a chance to repent.

I love you! I hope you had a great Easter as well!!!
Aishteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

with Nishime choro before transfers

with Elder Aoyagi of the 70 and his wife

Me and Hayashi

4/20/14 Busiest week of my mission so far hahaha

Hey thanks! I'm pretty thrilled as well. I hope I can do all of the things that the Lord needs me to do while I am here. My goal in one part is to do everything to make this mission a better place. I actually just got a mail from Hansen E and read Adam's email. hahaha I told my bean the same thing because I am a third generation AP. Powell, Hansen, me. Morgan E just became a trainer over a cool Australian Elder Named Karaka E so I just became a grandpa!!! hahaha

So far the office has been great. Monday I got the money out and had a uniclo shopping spree. A member brought me a really sweet birthday cake. I bought some fun shirts and some new dress shirts, plus one pair of new slacks and a few other things. I have only used half the money, but might buy some new slip on dress shoes today. In the honbu there is lots of running around and changing shoes, so those would help haha. Anyways Nishime E and I ate sushi and then headed home to finish packing, said bye to some members and investigators by phone, then headed to the station where Hayashi met us to say goodbye. He is pretty great.

Unfortunately that picture killed my camera battery and I think I forgot my charger in Iwamizawa. Until then I can't take pictures so I didn't get any of this crazy week. After we rode back to Sapporo I met Elder Watabe and he gave me a bunch of AP training. Mostly computer stuff and a talk about what we do. After that we did transfer calls for the trainers! I got to tell Morgan E so that was cool. I was a little bit nervous at first, but the next day I got a lot more used to it and they went great. :D The next day was transfer calls and the rest of training. We also picked up the beans from the airport at night. There is a Vietnamese kid and he is going to Nemuro! I hope he can work with Van S a lot. They were super awesome. There are 9 nihonjin and 3 gaijin this time. Polynesian, Australian, and Viet. Pretty cool.

The next day was their training and all that great stuff. Thursday was transfers and all of the returning missionary stuff. Dinner, testimony meeting, etc. I'll actually spend my last time w/ Nakatsuka K so I'm glad I get to experience that once. Also this guy came to the honbu that one of the beans found with his trainer on his first hour of dendo. Pretty cool guy. Friday we sent the missionaries to the airport. We talked a lot in the car. My new comp Tomita E is sooo spiritual. I love the heck out of him. I feel more like a missionary with him than any other comp. He's way funny too. Friday night we got in some dendo time and found 2 WAY cool guys on the street and had pretty strong lessons w/ them. Sunday was great too. Kotoni ward is WAY bigger than anywhere I've been so far, but I've made a good relationship with most of the members so far. A lot of them had heard about me from other missionaries. After church we taught the recent convert Tadano Zen and that went great. Then we drove to some NAs before heading to a member's house for dinner. I will have to get my license renewed to drive here sooner or later!!! Anyway the member we visited used to dendo here and was in the same zone as me when I was a bean! The food was great. We got back and had baptismal reports and it was super busy but so fun!!!

I'm out of time, but I love you! I have been feeling the push and power of the spirit so much here!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

2/23/14 ZTM and Wakkanai again (also Yuubari)

Hey! Japan is good yo. It's getting warmer and the snow is melting a lot. Slush. I'm sorry you weren't feeling well, but I'm glad things are better! I am always really tired now because riding on trains all the time makes your schedule all crazy so it's hard for your body to get used to it I think. That's fun Mya and Olivia are going to Disneyland! Everyone is going fun places lately, haha. I got your valentine btw. Thanks! Yes there is another music concert on Saturday. Today's p-day is once again stolen by practice for it. Hayashi is still doing ok. He is just really worried about finding a job to hold him over for the month until his other job starts in April. I think he has a lot of faith though. I'm excited for Michael and know he'll do lots of awesome stuff! He's a great guy. I hope Dave's new house (renovation) isn't too hard to take care of, but if there is still stuff to help out with I'd be happy to help when I get back. Did I tell you about college stuff? I talked to Pres Evans and I already missed the deadline to get into BYU this year because I didn't get on it soon enough... However it might be good because I won't have any money when I get back anyways. I could always go back to USU, but..... We'll see. Sometimes I get Emails from Thomas who was on the guitar program with me at USU and he said it's changed a lot and Mike retired. My scholarship there is still "waiting" technically. Anyways, maybe I should start job searching as early as possible. Don't worry about Okinawa. It'd take a long time to get there even if I had a good enough reason to go besides sightseeing and visiting mission buddies. Plus, going to the Sapporo Temple when it gets finished takes priority.

So this week was pretty tiring. P-day was walking around to shop for a bunch of different things we have needed to buy way bad, but couldn't because we never had time. We also finished preparing for Zone training meeting which was about being a leader (which we did the next day in Asahikawa). There are 14 missionaries going home and 10 coming in. Next transfer there are 6 going home and 12 coming in. It makes me nervous and I also wonder if I'll go trainer again. It might be a good thing, but I'm WAY happy that more missionaries are coming here. I just wish more Nihonjin would come. That's why we gotta go find 'em! ;D

After ZTM we rode a train, then bus (the train had to stop halfway because of snow) for the rest of the day to Wakkanai. It was a little over five hours. I sat next to Yoshikawa E (was in Kushiro the whole time I was in Nemuro, now Wakkanai) and talked the whole time then had splits the next day. It was pretty neat! A lot colder than it was last time, but I had a blast. The next morning was a long train home and a little bit of rest before going to Hayashi then Eikaiwa. The day after was our adventure day. I had really been wanting to go to this part of our area called Yuubari so we did. There isn't a direct train that goes there so we did a bunch of transfers, but got there eventually. It was a lot smaller than I thought, but reminded me of Park City because it's just sitting right in the middle of the mountains. We had some fun exploring and finding a bit. The day after was in Bibai. We first had lunch with Adachi and a few of her friends then went with them to this art museum type place for this guy who is apparently pretty famous for doing abstract sculptures. Turns out that day he himself was doing a little seminar thing (he came all the way from Italy) and the museum was closed.... BUT because we came "all the way from America" they decided to let us in anyway! It was a bit interesting, but the best part was that while we were there Adachi was introducing everyone to us and telling them about what we do and recommending they come to Eikaiwa and stuff! We also got to take a peek in the guy's seminar (his name is Kan Yasuda) right when he was giving a speech so that was kinda neat. We did some finding and put up Eikaiwa fliers in Bibai before coming home. Sunday was pretty normal. Lots of sign language! We did some phone calls and ate a member's house. She's trying to learn sign language (for when I leave) so Dixon E and I taught her a little. I wonder if I'll ever have a chance to use Japanese sign language after I go home haha. Other than that not much is going on! Dixon E is trunky, but he has less than 2 weeks left so it's understandable. He's really fun. I am trying to find more stability in an always changing schedule so if you have any tips on that, please :) I love you!

Aishiteimasu!
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