7/6/14 My last p-day!

Here's how the week went :D So on Monday we were getting ready to have a normalish p-day of shopping or planning something fun, when all of a sudden I get a call from Nakatsuka kaicho about how they are worried about driving to Kushiro by themselves because they still have jet lag. This week they met all the missionaries in the mission by doing these little firesides with all the zones. Long story short we ended up riding with them all the way to Kushiro again so p-day died, but it was WAY fun to ride and talk with them! It was also great to go to Kushiro again! Sis Nakatsuka is a great driver ww. In Kushiro at night I slept on the balcony and it was amazing. Their fireside was sooo good! The main theme was obedience/working from the heart, not just because it's a rule. The Nakatsukas' testimonies are so strong and they are so funny. It is different without the Evans, but I'm so grateful I got to have that time with them. We came back on Tuesday and that was Monday and Tuesday www. Wednesday was basically a normal day of dendo!!! We did lots of housing and streeting and I was super hot and I loved it. We weren't able to meet a lot of the people we wanted, but dendoing in Sapporo is always fun because there are tons of people. We did meet an awesome Chinese guy that was super interested though! That night we met Zen kyoudai and had a great lesson w/ him about Scripture mastery. Probably my favorite day this week :D

Thursday was another Nakatsuka fireside with the Sapporo missionaries! It was great as well. We had this Okonomiyaki that you can grill right at the table courtesy of Andersen E's recommendation. Once we got back it was lots of transfer planning. Even though President only met the missionaries for a bit, he knew so much about them! I was so surprised. It went really well, but he hadn't met Asahikawa zone yet so we only went part way. That night we ate with some really fun members called the Ides! (E-days) They are cool. A single mom and an RM daughter. They have a lot of dendo fire and are way happy people. The daughter is trying super hard to get married. I'll try not to be a menace to society as much as possible. wwwwwwww

Friday we had a bunch of dendo as well! Kinda similar to Wednesday, but once the Nakatsukas got back there was lots of planning to do w/ them for next week. We also ate dinner at their house! That was pretty delicious. Sis Nakatsuka makes lasagna with tofu instead of ricotta. It was great!

Saturday talked about transfers even more! We got through everything and almost finished, but then had a lesson w/ the cool Chinese guy. It went pretty good! Kinda tricky because his Japanese isn't perfect, but pretty well! He's about 30, but really humble. He kept saying stuff like "if everyone in your church is like you guys, I want to join". He's going home in August, but I'm planning on emailing him after I get home as well. That night we went to sports night and hung out with some members, less actives, and other investigators. There are two kids who are crazy good at basketball. One of them is at least a few inches taller than Dave, but they were so chill and humble. They're the Odori elders' investigators and it'd be cool to see them get baptized. We also had Indian curry with all you can eat naan as usual and filled up for fast Sunday which was super good. We got to church and had coordination meeting and no one remembered that it was my last Sunday which was pretty funny. Everyone was like what? I would've gotten you something! Kotoni members love the missionaries a lot. Sacrament meeting was great too! They played all hymns that I love. By the way, do you know "Beautiful Zion with Hills Surrounded"? It's a great hymn. I never sang it once in America.

For testimonies I thought that obviously I had to get up, but before the bishopric member finished, like four people got up! I had to get up fast too and after me, like 7 more people came and sat down. Everyone's testimony was awesome, but as usual I couldn't do it in 5 minutes so everybody after me only had like a minute each. I feel like my testimony went great and of course everyone there was surprised it was my last Sunday too. The lessons were great about fasting and family history. After church I took pictures and said goodbye to a bunch of people. There is one member named Sakamoto Naomi Shimai who is my age. She asked us a few weeks ago to help her with her graduate program which was doing surveys to 50 nihonjin and 50 gaijin which would work out pretty well with the missionaries right? Well I sent it to everyone and almost nobody did it, so I told her that I'd help her out by giving the survey to people back home. She was so happy she cried and then brought me fruit that night. It shouldn't be too hard. I'm glad I found ways to help people even after I go home! Once we got home we put the cap on transfer plans. There was just one little thing that took up all of our time, but at the end everyone's timing of saying things helped us to find the perfect solutions. It was super spiritual. To end the day we went to eat at the Ebisawa's with the Harada family as well. It was way good and way genki. Ebisawa S's son is not very active, but since Harada B came back from his mission, he's been coming a lot! That was our week! I'm super excited to tell everyone about transfers! :)

I love you tons and I love it here, but I'm not going to complain about things that have to happen especially when they have great consequences like being able to see my super awesome family again. :)

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

5/25/14 Finishing splits and some other stuff

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

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

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

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

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

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

guy from the bar

Olsen fam

giant parfait

5/4/14 Successful ML Kaigi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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