12/01/13 Baptism next week!

I'm glad my last letter was well received! I'll definitely check my patriarchal blessing out again soon!! There weren't as many kept appointments as I would've liked, but we definitely still had some way amazing lessons. I'm excited to hear more about your missionary work there as always! Grandma's b-day sounds like it was great! I meet so many grandmas here and sometimes wonder what it's going to be like to meet American grandmas again hahaha. There really are soo many older people in Japan. I wish I could've seen all the cousins! I feel so bad forgetting most of their faces already. I don't recognize anyone in the pic with Mara besides her. Keep having fun with the little girls and Sharon Merrill!

Mara's letter was so funny... She is such a high schooler haha. I'll prob write her back today. I only have a few minutes left! Yikes! Monday we had another English lesson with Kunii that went great! We gave him a BoM and he seemed really excited about it! He remembered everything we taught him perfectly. Tuesday was DTM and lots of finding and meeting new people and teaching little lessons and making appointments. It's getting colder. We also picked up Uenami E and Dobashi E who came from Obihiro for splits. Wednesday I went with Uenami E and we had some finding adventures and tried to communicate with Chinese people. Glad we had a Chinese pamphlet. The other Elders taught a lesson to Hayato with Okuchi S and Karebu B and we took pics together after. At night we taught Van S an AB lesson about temple marriage and family history and she really wants her family to all be sealed together. Thursday we went to those appts that didn't work out then had DKK and it snowed. Morgan E was so happy. I was not. We called Van S on the phone and Morgan E did a practice lesson to pass off for his training.

Friday we visited some old investigators I found w/ Inumaki E to see them one last time just in case I transfer. Then before Eikaiwa we taught all the rest of the lessons to Hayato. He also brought his friend Yuuta who he basically taught about the BoM and now has interest. What a boss! We taught him about the law of chastity and modesty and Karebu B read out of the strength of youth about how boys aren't supposed to have earrings and he took his earring out without a question. His faith is so awesome. Because of that we moved his baptismal date to next Sunday after church! Eikaiwa also went well and the lady we met on the street, Haruna, came and told us she was transferring to Tokyo the same day as transfers. Hopefully she'll keep going to Eikaiwa there! Saturday we met this lady named Muranishi who we had met a bazillion times before randomly. She came to the church and we finally had a real lesson with her! She may have some good potential. She also gave us these way cool Christmas cards she drew. She is fluent in English, but when she heard how good my Japanese was, she was embarrassed to speak English so we spoke all Japanese. She's going to India on vacation next week. We also had some great lessons while finding.

Sunday was awesome. Hayato and all the new members plus a few non-attendings came! It wasn't even a special event and if the Kobayashi family came there would've been almost 28 people. Nemuro is so awesome. We had Hayato's practice interview and he passed. We also had a quick AB lesson with Van S. I took some time to work on an arrangement that Evans S is having me do for the next musical thing so that took a little time hahaha. Otherwise I'm looking forward to this week! Heavenly Father is sure hastening this work!!!!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Yuka and Hayato

Vietnamese girls + phillipino member

group w/ Okuchis and Hayato (gets baptized on Sunday!!!)

Their Christmas tree - bigger than last year :) perhaps sent by Morgan's family?

First pair of shoes to go down! Luckily, I think this was the backup pair

The bike, still going strong

The next few are from the Nemuro house - just a few of the ones he sent:

11/23/13 ZTM, Splits and Splits!

Hey! I'm glad my letters and everything are well received there. :) I:m so grateful to have a family that supports me so much and has so much faith.

You were talking about clothes and I actually used some of the money you sent to me to get a new medium coat. The coat that you sent with me is really warm and I wanted to get something for when it's still not that cold yet. It's pretty cool and conservative too. Your Sunday school lesson sounds awesome! I taught Elders quorum/relief society on the talk by Elder Ballard about trusting the Lord that was about missionary work. Mara's play looks like it went well! I like the light blue colors in the costume. I don't recognize anyone in the pictures/know anything about West Side Story except that there are sharks and jets. It did look like Dr. Pearce in the picture though.

I have seen the (talk on the) character of Christ! They played it in the MTC every week. Thanks for your fasting! Here's my story this week.

So in Kushiro we stayed the night for ZTM the next day. I wanted to go with the Kushiro Elders to this really good Indian curry place (because there is none in Nemuro) but they had to clean the apartment a ton so we borrowed their bikes and I can pretty much navigate Kushiro because I've been there so many times on splits, etc. We ended up getting to the restaurant exactly when it was closed so we didn't get to eat :( I got to go on splits that night with a cool missionary named Brown E (not the one from New Zealand) and we had a way fun time. I taught him a lot and kinda felt like a old guy missionary... hahaha

Tuesday was pretty awesome. We had ZTM and the APs gave a great workshop on Faith, Diligence, and Obedience and how they are all together necessary to succeed as a missionary. I also had my interview w/ Pres Evans and we talked a little bit about what kind of missionary will be good to come to Nemuro next. IF I leave that is... I do love it here.... But I do kinda want to transfer. It's been a while haaha. We missed our train back to Kushiro so we stayed in Obihiro for a few more hours and tried dendoing a little bit. We got back to Nemuro late at night with Harper E and Yoshikawa E and Okuchi S gave us a ride back to the apartment. Wednesday I went on splits with Yoshikawa E and we met this guy that Inumaki E and I found who is from Osaka and really interested in religion. He is just really doubtful. We wouldn't have met with him, but he called and asked if we could meet again so we did. He talked so much. I'm glad Yoshikawa E was there because my gift of tongues wasn't quite as strong that time hahaha. I still pretty much understood, it was just a lot. We ended up teaching him practically everything because of all his questions, but he is mostly looking for proof. Hopefully he will eventually get humble enough to pray and read. He is searching a lot for sure. After that we met this Chinese guy named Kou who Inumaki E and I found as well. We hadn't visited for a while so his Japanese has gotten a bit better. We were able to share a bit more than before so that was good. He gave us lots of peanuts. We also did some finding and met a lady who said she was just reading this biography about someone and in part of their life they became Christian. She said just as she started reading the part about how they joined we came to the door. Pretty cool. Talked to her for a bit. We also went to the CHurch and taught the Satous the plan of salvation with Okuchi S and it went great! They understand really well, but just need to act more so that they can get real faith.

Thursday we took my bike to the shop and then visited Hayasaka. Lo and behold even though she finally has free time she still hasn't read the BofM. We helped her clean her hair salon a bit to end things on a good note. We might not go by for a while, but she is definitely an awesome person who was really interested in us for some reason that we couldn't find. Anyway before DKK and picking up the ZLs we just had a tiny bit of time to find and actually only got 3 doors. However, those three doors ALL lead to sweet short lessons and appointments! How bout that! We picked up my bike (yay!) and then got the ZLs at the train station. We took them to sushi. Cool thing. During sushi I got a text from this way kinjin J-tai (japanese army) guy who me and Inumaki E met saying he was sorry he never replied to us before because he moved to a different base, but he's back now and wants to meet! Nice. Friday I went on splits with Stout E. He dies this transfer. Anyways he's way good at sign language so we practiced in the morning and went to see Igarashi S and she was so so so happy to see us and gave us a million things/took us out to ramen. I was actually able to say a lot more in sign language than I thought I could. It's really fun! We tried to visit some other people and then had a lesson with the Satous again before Eikaiwa. It was the doctrine of Christ and like the plan of salvation they understand pretty well but are still having a hard time praying sincerely. However, Hayato seems to be getting a hang of it. He is 15 years old and way awesome.

Saturday we went to Betsukai for the first time in a really long time! We helped with home teaching and helped on the farm as well. We found out that Emille (the Filipino guy we taught before) had something happen w/ his family back home so he has to go back. Maria S was kinda upset about it and had us try to talk to him to see if there was anything to do. Oh! Okuchi S and Yuka came with us to the farm as well and had a pretty fun time. Hayato came to church the next day! At church my lesson went pretty decent and the members thought of lots of ideas they can use to do missionary work on their own. Maybe as a family you can think of all the things you can do to do missionary work! There are so many activities there that I feel like it'd be a lot easier ;) We went to primary with Hayato and Karebu because there was no young mens prepared, but it was fun. Van S came late and actually it was her birthday! She made Vietnamese food for the entire branch!!! She also brought four friends. Wow. It was really good. After that I had a meeting with all the branch presidencies in Kushiro district over skype. Crazy. We talked about member missionary work. Also Igarashi S showed up at the church to give us more treats which is way awesome! There might just be a little bit more to do to help her get back to church. After church we saw a few investigators and came back to do some phone dendo.

Anyways that's how things are going! Today is kind of a relaxing p-day with letter writing and guitar playing time. I've come up with a new study strategy to just write how I feel about what I studied rather than just kinda repeat the material. It really helped and was a lot more spiritual! I hope your study is going great! I hope everything is going great! I love you!!!!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

11/17/13 Pulling things together!

Hey! Thanks for the money update! (Note: he answers some questions from Mom, esp about last week's photos) Did you get those pictures from facebook? Why are you so interested in the picture of the fridge...? It's about 90% bread. On the bottom there is meat. Thanks for the update roster! Though I was able to get the new newsletter. In our mission you have to have two lessons with a return appointment to count them as a new investigator and in PMG it says only one. I'm glad you are having fun with your new phone! Sounds cool. I'm glad church stuff has been going so great and hope that you can put what you are learning to practice! Sounds like there were a lot of other fun things too! I'll give you the update plus the stuff I wasn't able to talk about last time.

So Van S didn't have an accident, it was one of her friends in Vietnam. She was really worried about it and came to church really early the Sunday before to pray for the friend. Ozawa B even sent his name into the Tokyo temple. Anyways, after a few days the friend had recovered quite a bit and she was way blown away about how fast her prayers had been answered. The picture of the kids is the Satou kids that followed us dendoing.

So I only got to last Friday in my last mail so I'll start from there. That day was just some regular appointment visiting, finishing DKK, and teaching Eikaiwa. The Satou kids came and were a ball of energy as usual. They are really learning a lot about the gospel from Okuchi S though! Saturday was a crazy cool day. We went to Nakashibetsu and met up with this friend/investigator named Keisuke who is Tatsuya's friend. He said he would hang out if we ever went to Nakashibetsu so we told him we were there and he ended up driving us around everywhere the whole day! He first showed us this big mall they have there and we randomly met a bunch of Phillipino girls that work on farms in the area. One of them was a member of the church! They all knew at least a bit about the church. Too bad they live so far away! (that's the picture w/the girls) Then Keisuke took us to Uniclo and bought us sweaters. He said since we went to the trouble of coming to see him he wanted to get us presents. He's 23 and is way cool. A lot of his friends moved all over Japan so he was pretty happy to have someone to hang with.

He also took us to this big lookout place called Kaiyoudai where the world looks round. It felt like Pday almost, but we were able to talk about what we do as missionaries and explain the restoration to him by the end. He also took us to all the non-attending members' houses which saved us a lot of time! We were still able to visit them and get some good finding done. He also took us out to eat noodles with duck meat soup that was really good. The bike with the quote was from a random little kids bike there. Sunday was branch conference so lots of people came from all over. The mission presidency came too and so I was in meetings with them and it felt pretty crazy. Evans shimai gave a cool lesson to the youth (that we attended w/ Van S) about missionary work. Van S talked a lot about how she wants to go on a mission which is way cool! We also had a feast thing after ward which was fun. For dendo time we got two good lessons with Hebikawa and Kantou. Hebikawa has been reading the Book of Mormon quite a lot, but won't commit to anything else. She is searching for something, but won't tell us! Kantou is a science teacher and we talked to him a lot about the purpose of life. Sometimes I am really glad that I know lots of out-there vocabulary in order to have deep Japanese discussions. We were able to tie his way of thinking into the spirit and passed him a Book of Mormon. I think more than anything the most important thing will be to be his friend.

Next P-day was lots of cleaning and going to Kushiro! Tuesday we had DTM all together on being more committed to the work and trying to make sacrifices to be better. I went on splits with Harper Choro and we went to this little area called Shibecha. I actually got to visit the referral that I gave to the Kushiro elders! On the train there we met a Russian guy who was fluent in English and talked to him the whole time. He wasn't interested in the gospel, but was really interested in us. He kept saying "I'm a sinner. I can't do things as great as the things you do" and we really impressed him with our standards. We housed for a bit in Shibecha and maybe the 3rd door... BOOM kinjin family. The dad lets us in right away and we teach him and his daughter Lesson 1, baptism invite, Book of Mormon, prayer, awesome. The daughter even bought us bread at a nearby shop afterwards! On the train ride back a bunch of high school kids gathered around because they were so surprised at my Japanese (plus the fact that I'm from the place where High School Musical was filmed). We were able to teach them about God and why we chose to serve. The next day we went back to Nemuro and did DKK early because of how early it gets dark here. We also met Van S at night and started teaching her L5 about church organization and missionary work etc. The week before this little part on my bike broke so we had to walk everywhere on Thursday. Everyone was also not home for some reason. We ran into the Satou's randomly and played with them. Before we played, Hayato gathered everyone together to say a prayer! We also met his mom (he's the Satou's cousin, 15 years old, kinda gangster, but probably the most interested) and she totally gave permission for him to be baptized! That night we met Van S again to teach a bit more and borrow her bike since she offered til my bike's new part gets here.

Friday we had some great finding and little lessons before Eikaiwa (where you got the picture). The Satou's came again and we had a blast. Satou mom is pretty much committing herself to quit smoking. I gave them a DVD to borrow (finding faith in Christ) since the had a relative die and can:t meet for lessons for a tiny bit. They really wanted to come to church but had to go to the funeral. Saturday we had lots of finding which felt like we hadn't been able to in a long time. Morgan E is getting way good at teaching lessons on the fly even if they're simple. I'm really glad he's getting so boss. We also taught a lesson w/ Karebu B to a different Satou who is having a hard time quitting smoking. He kinda gave up, but hopefully someday we'll be able to help him again. Sunday was really great! Van S brought her friend Cham to church. The Hansens from the Honbu came to do a clean check and they attended as well. Gospel principles was taught in Japanese, English, and Vietnamese... I was tired. I also gave a long talk in Sacrament but it went alright. Then I had a long meeting after church and was very tired. I had to sleep for our lunch and dinner time. Anyways Cham had a good time and we taught her about prayer and passed her a Book of Mormon! (sach mac mon in Vietnamese) Today we came to Kushiro (we got 100% on my house's clean check btw) and Okuchi S has been telling us about the gospel study sessions she has with the Satou family. Tomorrow we have zone training meeting in Obihiro!
Sorry I forgot to get pictures of my house/bike. I will make sure to do so when I get back. I have been riding a regular (not mtn) bike lately and it's fun.

Gospel study is such an important thing and I feel like I really need to do so much better. Even as a missionary there are so many distractions. It's definitely a time to reevaluate and rely on the Lord to be back to 100%, but I know that through the power of the Atonement we can overcome any little things that hold us down.
I love you love you loveyouuu
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Here is the picture from teaching Eikaiwa that is mentioned above - thank you Okuchi Shimai!!

11/10/13 Amazing miracles thanks to amazing members!

Hey! So I feel way better. No worries there. It isn't much different to be in the branch presidency, but last Sunday was branch conference so I was in a lot of meetings with the district and Hokkaido mission presidency which was cool! I am definitely learning a lot of stuff. I get to learn to use MLS in Japanese! hahaha. I'm glad I get to be here with Morgan E his full 2 transfers and also with the amazing members and investigators here! I have some cool stories for ya! That's funny that Evans S has me as DL still! I still have no idea who is where because we didn't get our "shepherd" yet. It's this magazine type thing that the mission makes each transfer.

Morgan E is doing awesome and growing lots as usual! Sometimes I need to be more patient with him because I like going fast in more ways than 1, but he is doing great. We actually got 8 new investigators this week which is a new record for me! We count investigators a little different than some missions probably so it makes it a bit harder, but more worth it and helps you focus on the people who are most prepared. We can't get to the northern territories as far as I know, BUT they are in our area! So if there was a way, we'd be allowed to go ;) I'll work on pictures of the house. We have a bit of cleaning to do for clean checks this weekend.

Thanks for the pic of Lily and I'm glad she's doing better! Glad the little kids are doing great too! Looks really fun! What made you want to get an iphone?

I'm glad Sunday School and church are going great too! People are probably not as interested in family history as some other people, but I've seen times where it helped. I still haven't used one tube of the lotion so I am fine. The humidity is the best. I'm looking forward to Mara's letter too!
I honestly have no idea what I should do about college. I always thought that the mission would eventually come and tell me to do stuff, but I don't know.

Anyways this Monday was probably the coolest day! We met this guy a while before on the street and it was a pretty weak contact, but he called us on Sunday night and invited us to lunch! We met him and it turns out that he's fluent in English. He had a lot of really good questions about Jesus Christ that we were able to answer ALL in English! Pretty crazy. He is in the Japanese army so he never knows his days off, but he was pretty interested and a really nice guy about 23 yrs old. After that we were wondering what we should do for the rest of P-day because the museum we wanted to visit was closed when all of a sudden Okuchi S calls us and invites us over to her friend's house to teach a lesson! WHAT! Way cool! Every missionary's dream! We meet the family (who has been coming to Eikaiwa stuff) and they are all way interested because of how much Okuchi S has changed since she got baptized and almost all of them are pretty excited about getting baptized themselves! They are the Satou family (one of the most common names ever... we have 3 other Satou investigators) We taught a great lesson and made baptismal dates with all of them! Whoa! After that we met Van S who fed us some Vietnamese chicken she made. Then we went to the Ozawa's for FHE with all three of the recent converts! Way too fun! Way too good.

Tuesday we had DTM with Harper E over the phone which was very different, but good. It is a little weird to not be DL anymore. After that we got our haircut because P-day had so many surprise lessons, we didn't have time. We got it cut by an investigator actually! After that we met Okuchi S and finished up their 3rd AB lesson which we only got halfway done before. It was great to have a lesson like that with her and Yuka again! Wednesday we went to this area that's closer by the apartment and met some investigators that we dropped because they weren't progressing and they were mostly not home, but we tried stopping by this lady who was really nice, but not interested before and she tried to invite us in to have a meal right there! She was the only one home so we couldn't get in, but we were once again surprised at the niceness of nihonjin. We did a bit of finding and then headed over to this investigator (also Satou) who is really nice and came to Eikaiwa before. He has a little bit of a mental disability, but he is really interested. He also has a big smoking problem. We had a good lesson/discussion with him, but because of his mental state aren't 100% sure how to help him out. It's not too bad of a problem, just a little weak. If he can take the steps to change than that's what will be best! We also met a non-attending member nearby for the first time in a while which was great! Thursday we went finding by the Satou family and the kids saw us and followed us the whole time! We actually met a way nice lady from a different religion that thought we were really cool and gave us (in tears) a lot of food and a referral for her old neighbor! She called us after and said she found more food to give to us. We also had DKK and a short meeting with Van S who had an accident a while back so she was worried, but we taught her about how God can provide comfort in those times. I want to tell you more, but time is up! Remind me next week and I'll fit it in! :)

These pics are from going to Nakashibetsu on Saturday!

11/3/13 Russian Islands and Halloween parties plus a surprise calling!

Hey! It was a way crazy, but good week! On Monday we went to Nosappu Misaki and the weather was finally good enough to see the northern territories! I was way happy. I also had my favorite yakitori bento and chocolate covered melon bread from the local convenient store here + at night we got invited to the Ozawa's FHE! I felt like I got to do all the things I wanted to do in Nemuro before transferring... However I am not! I mostly expected it, but I'll be doing 6 transfers here in Nemuro. I feel really lucky, but sometimes am a little tired hahaha. Let's just say I'm excited to see some new parts of Hokkaido. It probably means that by the end of this transfer I'll have at least knocked on every door in the main city area.

Anyways, I also had my last DTM as district leader because I got 'demoted' to just being a normal trainer which is totally ok. Harper E my MTC comp transferred to Kushiro and is the new DL. I probably won't be going to Kushiro very much this transfer, but I guess that's ok. I think part of the reason I am no longer DL is that on Sunday I was surprise called to be 2nd counselor in the branch presidency. I was way shocked. I'm looking forward to working a lot more to help the members though. After church we had branch council meeting and assigned everyone's HT and visiting teaching. It reminded me of when I was in Elders quorum presidency at USU. Otherwise, Tuesday was a lot of finding plus a good lesson with this lady Satou who we passed a Book of Mormon and taught the restoration to. She said that since she is so busy she wouldn't be able to read the BofM, but Morgan E bore his testimony and she decided to accept it. Wednesday was pretty interesting. We were going to go to lunch with this Eikaiwa student, but it didn't work out and we decided to go on our own anyways. Morgan E crashed his bike and we had to go buy new lights, so we got stalled a little bit. Anyways, the timing worked out perfectly that we were able to meet her on the street in the end and share the gospel with her a bit. We also found in that area a ton and taught this really young mom about prayer.

Thursday was DKK and lots of finding plus a bit of Halloween party preparation. We also were introduced to another friend of Van named Thuy and taught her a mini lesson with Van! She is Catholic, but pretty interested in why our church is different! We actually have more than half Nemuro's Catholic congregation as investigators or possible investigators hahaha. Friday we were able to get in 2 really good lessons with this lady Ishiyama who is way nice and prepared, but busy watching after her mom who is really ill. We also taught this really cool older guy that Morgan E found on splits last night. His name is Minakatsu which means 'everybody wins' hahaha I think it's a way awesome name. We did party prep a little bit early and then had the party! We had a bunch of games and a TON of people came! We counted around 50 which is a pretty big deal. We left a bunch of pass along cards and a BofM out on a table and one girl who came just sat in the corner and read the BofM the whole time! It's a member's friend and she committed to passing it to her :) It was cool to finally have an activity here. Okuchi Shimai and Van Shimai brought a lot of friends as well. We have been wanting to meet with Okuchi Shimai more, but she has been a bit busy and it's been hard to meet. Saturday was pretty much straight finding all day... Way tired. We were able to find a few nice people, but no one particularly strong. We were able to make some good appointments over the phone and actually randomly got a call from a weak street contact that we got a while back who wants to go to lunch! We'll meet him today.

Anyways my time is about up, but your Halloween sounds like it was fun! We don't have daylight savings here... kinda tough. ***** would love that present! I'm excited to see the photos of Adam's plaque. I have no idea what to do about college apps. That's really unfortunate to hear about Brother Hardy too... I'm really grateful for the gospel as well! I have been really tired lately, but I hope I'll be able to get back on my feet 100%.

Love you love you!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

ps
nice phone hahaha

Russia!

View from big tower

Me and a bear

Ozawa S, Meg, Van S, Okuchi S

Vietnamese friends

Okuchi S and Ozawa kids

My costume wasn't anything in particular, hahahaha

10/27/13 Splits and lots of cold wind

Hey! It has been a good solid week of being in Nemuro. I used my district leader powers to bring the other companionship of Elders from Kushiro over here this time. Also thanks for doing stuff with my facebook profile! Please accept pretty much any friend request unless they are suspicious looking Americans (haha). Van also sent that message to my phone probably about the same time. That's cool you guys saw it too! She said she took 30 minutes trying to figure out the English for it. To answer your question, I used the same pants that Andersen E borrowed from Nakazawa B.

I'm grateful I've been able to see Heavenly Father perform so many miracles here as well! Okuchi Shimai is doing pretty good and we actually spent some good time with her last week. She actually taught primary yesterday! Way cool. Glad Mara's dance went well! I had a hard time imagining how her date's last name might be pronounced. That's cool what Margaret said! Did bishop ever get my postcard? Halloween stuff sounds like it's going good. We are having a party for Eikaiwa. Hopefully lots of people will come! It's gonna be a little simple probably, so we'll so how it goes. I didn't hear/feel anything relating to an earthquake, but if it happened to transfer into the air in wind form, I did. I'm good though! Just had to bust the scarf and undershirts out.

Starting from last Monday, it was kinda lame weather so we just chilled inside and I practiced guitar a bunch. We did some decent finding that day. Tuesday my DTM went really well! We went to this area called Nishihama and did lots of finding there and met some nice people who could have some potential. Afterwards we had some plans to visit people that didn't work out and we were a little stuck because of how early it gets dark here lately. We did find some people to contact on the street plus people to call at home before the Kushiro Elders arrived. I went on splits with Yoshikawa E who is on his second transfer. We walked all day and weren't able to meet a lot of the people we wanted to, but the people we did meet we were able to teach awesome lessons to! It was fun to dendo with a nihonjin again and I learned a lot of things I could apply to helping Morgan E out. We also visited Okuchi S and she is still doing awesome and studying a ton. She is always really happy to meet new missionaries and is collecting signatures and stuff like that. Afterwords we stopped by Van's work and she introduced a lot of her Vietnamese friends! They might not be super interested in the gospel at first like Van, but with her help we have been able to share the gospel with them a bit! She gave us some interesting Vietnamese food and we gave her friends lesson pamphlets in Vietnamese. My Vietnamese has been getting better too hahaha. The next day I went on splits with Inoue E who is 8th transfer and is awesome. He gave me a lot of advice for being a trainer and we had lots of fun finding and walking! In town we ran into an old investigator who was with his friend. He introduced him to us and told us to invite him to church and Eikaiwa so we did! He was really nice and pretty good at English. We also met Tatsuya again for the first time in a while and gave him more snickerdoodles I made (which are my new secret weapon. I've been giving them to lots of people). We taught him the first part of the plan of salvation and he was interested, but it got a little deep and hard for him to follow so we took a break. He seems to have pretty good potential to progress, but his wife isn't interested so he is a little embarrassed to read the BoM or pray at home. He's also really busy with his son. Anyways after that, we all went out to Sushi w/ Okuchis and it was way fun! Next day (Friday) I hadn't been able to sleep very well, but felt good enough in the afternoon to have our planning session and then go to Eikaiwa. The guy we met on the street came and it turns out that he is Catholic and had a lot of questions about church too! It went pretty well. Maybe he'll become a good investigator.

Saturday it was really bad weather, but we took a bit of time to plan for our Halloween party. We also went out to do a bunch of finding and there was a lady who was busy working so couldn't talk much, but gave us an umbrella since we were out in the rain! That's Japanese people for ya! Sunday was really windy! Church was good though! Like I said Okuchi S taught primary and was a little tired afterwards, but did pretty well! I got asked to speak in sacrament meeting... IN sacrament meeting! I spoke about agency since it was what I had planned to teach in gospel principles but didn't get to teach because Van S was late. I didn't ever think I'd be able to give a 20 min talk on the spot let alone in Japanese. It went good though. After church we worked with the members a bit to get ready for the Halloween party. Then we met Van and reviewed a bit of the first lesson on the restoration with her, but it was so windy we gave up halfway. We stopped by the dorm of some of her Vietnamese friends and they were happy to see us again/gave us chocolate/were impressed by the 5 Vietnamese words I know. We went home and got into warmer clothes, then went to see Hebikawa who has been reading the BoM. She gave us potatoes and onions because she liked the snickerdoodles I made for her. We taught her a bunch about families and temples, etc and she was pretty impressed that we do so much for our ancestors since Buddhism is all about ancestors. She also randomly asked about crosses and the sabbath day, since she had learned about them when she was younger. We were able to show her a lot of the cool and unique things about our church and hopefully it'll get her to want to come! She also prayed for us at the end which was pretty cool ;)

That was pretty much it though! Thanks for all your support and love and little favors. As for a package I just still want that RM/singles ward soundtrack and Sufjan Stevens. I'll be happy with that I think :)
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

10/20/13 More typhoons and more miracles!

Hey! It has been another pretty great/crazy week again! We spent a lot of time not-in-Nemuro again, but it was good! On Monday we went to Kushiro again. I bought my rain suit/back pack cover that's way sweet. I also walked around a bunch. I went on mini splits w/ Yoshikawa E again that night and met this guy we taught last time I went with him. Tuesday we got up way early and rode the train to Obihiro for zone conference. There were some way good workshops on the spirit, comp relationships, and helping all the young missionaries with Japanese hahaha. It really was awesome though and a lot of it really answered my prayers. I love being in Nemuro, but because of how separated it is, it's so crazy how fun it is to meet other missionaries again. We also had Morgan E's bean shower. Very different from how mine was. No Japanese and no singing as sisters in Zion in Japanese, but whateva. It's probably better that way ;) It is really great that so many new missionaries are coming, but sad when other missionaries die... Especially Japanese ones. I feel like I get along with them the best/like the diversity. We went back to Kushiro and I streeted there a bit w/ Morgan E. Wednesday I went on splits w/ French E and it was the craziest typhoon of my life. Luckily I had my new rain suit and it protected me pretty well. We walked through it pretty much all day and even though we made it to a few of the people we wanted to visit everyone was like "you're crazy! go home! we can talk when the weather is better!" hahahaha Thankfully the member we visited let us come in to dry off, and gave us dinner out of nowhere. He is way awesome btw. He kept showing us stuff on facebook. If you ever get a chance will you put up a new profile pic for me? Maybe even change my current location to Nemuro or something. That'd be fun.

Thursday we went back to Nemuro and then had weekly planning session. Friday was a pretty good/awesome day of dendo! Cool miracle too. This girl randomly runs up to us and asks us why we are in Japan. I explain who we are and she gets really excited and starts speaking to us in fluent English about how she just moved to Nemuro for work and really wants to practice her English. We invited her to Eikaiwa and she came! She even turned down a drinking party haha. But anyways after class she was really curious about what made us decide to be missionaries and it was a great opportunity to bear my testimony to her. Maybe she'll become an investigator soon! :o

Saturday was nice too. Lots of housing and trying to visit non-attendings/investigators to invite them to the baptism which went WAY good! Okuchi Shimai hasn't been feeling well lately and wasn't able to come to church which was sad, but Van came in this traditional Vietnamese dress and enjoyed the lessons really well! The baptism happened after church and there were some great talks and a song from the primary. Then I did the baptism and confirmation and it was really awesome and spiritual. The best was her testimony afterwards. She is such a boss. I can't wait to do lots of missionary work with her! I also want to make sure that I keep working with Okuchi Shimai enough as well to keep her strong! So after church we had a little potluck and Van brought some pretty good Vietnamese food. We headed out to dendo and this investigator that we haven't been able to visit for 3 weeks (Hebikawa) has been reading the BoM the whole time! Little by little, but she's through 1st Nephi! We had a good short lesson with her and then saw Van again because she wanted to give us more Vietnamese food. She also introduced us to her Mom and little sister over skype! It was way cool/funny. I realized that moms are the same no matter where in the world they are. That's it though!

Glad stuff is great at home too. I'm definitely good here on medicine and stuff. You made sure of that before I left ;) It has been cold here though and the typhoons blow all the leaves off the trees. I bet Mya's primary program is gonna be sweet!!! That's also way tough with Lily and all... :( Let me know how she is. I'm still definitely thinking about the future and nothing is decided, but if you could maybe ask Bro. Proctor if he has any advice for possibly going into auto to eventually work with a Japanese company that would be cool. I still really want to study music and all, but I think having options will be a good thing. Thanks for leaving the note on Andrus Kaicho's stuff.

Glad to hear about how well Mara and church lessons are going! I really wanted to mail Adam as well, but I'm out of time ;( Let him know that I think his attitude about the work is way awesome. Also that I'm glad he isn't in a car mission because biking is real work B)

I love you tons and am grateful for all your prayers and love! Tell the young Baird family congrats! crazy.
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

New rain suit just in time for the typhoon

At church with Morgan E and Van on her baptism day

Baptism day for Van!

Morgan E's bean shower!

10/13/13 Splits, bad news, good news, conference in 5 languages!

Hey! What's up? Adam's girlfriend is going on a mission? Where? That's lame they didn't let Adam even contact from the airport! I wonder how he is doing. I'll shoot him a mail afterwards.

So I'm in Kushiro again! We have zone conference tomorrow in Obihiro so we decided to have P-day here again because it's more effective time wise. Let's see what's happened since then....
So we had our in person DTM last Tuesday which was pretty fun! I am still not used to doing DL workshops and usually take up too much time, but I guess that's better than not using it, right? Afterwards we headed to sushi with everyone and on the way I got a mail from Ozawa Kaicho saying that... Jay Andrus Kaicho (the Kushiro branch president) passed away. I was already pretty bummed about Uncle Merril dying and this made me double sad... He was such a good friend and like a second dad to Andersen E and I... He went to America to go to his own dad's funeral and while he was there he fainted and had a brain aneurysm or something like that.... I hope his family is doing okay. He has 3 sons (1 on a mission) and he was a big influence on everyone here in the Kushiro District (stake). All the stuff that happened made me rethink my future plans a little bit. Not 100%, but I thought of how cool it would be to be like him and live in Japan and help the church here. I could maybe get a job for Toyota or Honda kinda like Bro. Proctor always suggested when I was in Auto shop. Just an idea still, but it might be more sturdy for supporting a family as well. Anyways. It was lots of thinking about different things time.

We ate sushi for Morgan E's first time and he wasn't a big fan unfortunately hahaha. I then went on splits with Miyaki E which was pretty interesting. We met this guy they met on the street before who is Ainu. They are like the Indians of Hokkaido and they're really rare. He of course was raised in Japan his whole life, but whoa.... He was a crazy. He was telling us about how he's been abducted by aliens and he even used telepathy on me. hahaha! He was really nice though and has interest, but might be one of those people that you let God take care of...? He also wouldn't really let us talk. I never thought I'd meet anyone like that though! Before we left he told me that I had a really high midiclorean count. Not those exact words, but a Japanese equivalent. ANYWAYS I was feeling pretty down so it was hard to do my best dendo-ing with Miyaki E, but we did some service for a member, some good finding, and a good less active lesson. Wednesday Morgan E and I headed home and it was raining pretty hard/way tired from the train so we had DKK that day instead which took up the remaining day time. The next day (Thursday) went pretty well. We got a lot of finding done and met with Hayasaka and read some of the Book of Mormon with her. We were able to get some good stuff out of it the she can apply to herself and raising her son so hopefully she'll read on her own too. We also taught the Abes and they are starting to progress a bit! They've been praying regularly and we helped them to make a Book of Mormon reading plan. He has also been thinking about the word of wisdom even though we hadn't taught it to him fully yet. He also talked about how he wants his funeral to be in our church (because he's old, and Buddhist funerals cost TONS of money). It went pretty alright though. The main thing we taught him is about coming to church. He still has some worries, but hopefully with our explanation and talking to him about them he will be able to come and feel comfortable :)

Friday I woke up with a fever, so I slept all day and Morgan E studied. I felt really bad, but after sleeping for a few hours I was good again and ready to go out to dendo. However it was raining really hard again so we stayed in until Eikaiwa and went to teach that. It went pretty decent! Okuchi Shimai brought another friend:s kid! Saturday was conference ALL day! It was great though. I had to watch the first session in Japanese like last time because the comp only had one headphone jack. I went and bought an adapter after though and was able to watch the others in English :) I can still pretty understand almost all of it in Japanese, I just have to concentrate way more.

Sunday we also had conference and Van came to watch the first session too! She watched it in Vietnamese, which was awesome. I had to watch the first session in Japanese again because of that, but it was still good! The crazy thing is that in all, there was English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and sign language all going at the same time at one point!!! Whoa! I was pretty moved. In between sessions we filled out Van's baptism paperwork, but she was having a little bit of worries about disappointing her father back home. I was worried and didn't know what to do at first so we prayed together right there. After we were done praying I asked her "how about your other father? Your Heavenly Father?" and we talked a bit and she firmly committed to everything for next Sunday! After conference we spent some time with everyone and then Van introduced us to a friend she works with! We actually taught her a lesson about God and prayer and Van was like our member team up! She's gonna be an awesome member!

I'm not 100% sure what we'll do today, but I really need to buy a new rain jacket. The one I brought with is pretty torn up. The pants are still in way good shape though ;) I don't know how much money is in my regular account right now, but I'll check on it. It might be something I can only get in Kushiro. Anyways, thanks so much and I love you tons. I'm so grateful for families and the plan of salvation! I'm also grateful to be a child of God and priesthood holder and know that I have a great responsibility to follow Him in all that I do.

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

These pictures are mostly from our district activity where we went with members to the famous Kushiro marsh

District shoes & nametags

The marsh

Sushi with Morgan E

10/6/13 Working hard w/ Morgan E and more Vietnamese adventures!

Whoa! Your letter this week had a lot of pretty eventful things! Lots of awesome things and a few really tough sounding things, but I'm always happy to hear about what's going on. Uncle Merril (Braden's uncle who passed away this week) is definitely in my prayers along with his family. I'm grateful I got to spend a bit of time with him before I left giving him blessings w/ dad etc. He and his awesome example to everyone in the family and all the scouts that he helped out will never be forgotten. Tell everyone on dad's side hi for me. I'm way excited for Adam to get into the field and I'm glad that he's going to go out to see tons of real miracles! We were watching "the district" the other day and I realized that the mission they have in there is one in Texas so I wondered if it'd be really similar to Adam's. The district is a missionary training video, btw. (Note: The one Adam watched was set in San Diego?)

Dad looks good with his old mission pres! Is he growing out his beard again? Haha maybe it's because he isn't wearing his glasses, but he looks a little tired. Probably just working super hard huh? That's cool you got to spend time with missionaries! All the time here I think about how I hardly ever got to meet missionaries more than maybe a couple times a year at most and I'm so excited that you get to see/hear from them often! I'm especially excited that there was another baptism for the people that live behind us! Wow!!! I can't believe so much missionary work is happening around West Valley. I feel like I never really got to experience it except for maybe Sheriann, etc. I'm excited to participate a lot when I get home! Of course I don't know how long I'll be in WVC with school and everything haha.

SO here's the week!
First off, yesterday the Zone leaders came to give Van her baptismal interview and she passed!!! She actually had a meeting on Sunday morning and said she'd be late to church so we waited the whole time and she never came! I was really really nervous and was praying hard the whole time she'd be able to come. Evans Kaicho actually visited as well to do some business and stuff, and he said that as long as we could meet her that day it was the priority. So we just waited after church and tried to get in contact with her. Finally around 2pm I found out her meeting just got over and she would come to the church right away after getting some errands done. Her errands ending up taking longer than we thought so there was more waiting, more praying, and more being nervous. She showed up around 4:30 and the interview went great! I was looking forward to going on splits with the ZL Watanabe E who is way cool, but it ended up being waiting, having her baptismal interview, and going home. She introduced us to 2 new friends and we walked them back to their dorm. She introduces us to lots of friends and we have a stockpile of Vietnamese BofM's, pamphlets, etc. now so we are excited to do missionary work with her too!

I kinda put that first because it's the biggest news I think. Her baptism will be either next week after conference or the Sunday after that!
So last Monday was a decent P-day. I was really tired for some reason and it was really rainy. We did a "heart attack" to the Ozawa family and Okuchi S as a challenge from the zone leaders to do something nice for ward members that help you out a lot. We also had a lesson with this cool guy named Kantou who is from Fukuoka and teaches high school. We actually got into a really deep conversation about God's commandments etc. and he asked really hard questions! Hopefully I was able to get inspiration from the spirit and end with a pretty good feeling. I think he has a lot of potential. One of the questions he asked is "Are you trying to be like Jesus?" which isn't a deep question really, but I was really surprised when it came out of nowhere and I had only talked about Jesus a little bit before. I feel like he's researching the church on his own or something... Tuesday was great and DTM was good too! I was able to get everyone to participate more which can be pretty tough when everyone is on the other side of the phone. We had a lot of good follow-up lessons and we did a lot to help our not-so-strong (yet) investigators to remember to read the BofM! We taught the plan of salvation to Okuchi S as her AB lesson and as a practice lesson for Morgan E. Her understanding is getting better and better! Funny story. That morning we watched some videos about using family history for dendo. We discussed afterwards about how hard it is in Japan because not THAT many people in Japan are interested in it/it's really hard to search your ancestors in Japan because most records aren't public. BUT when we taught the plan of salvation to Okuchi S we felt prompted to tell her about it and she got really excited! She's especially really excited to find names and take them to the temple someday! I kinda feel like Heavenly Father came up and said "yeah huh you can use family history in your dendo!!!" Haha I thought it was pretty cool.
Wednesday we met this guy from before named Tominaga and passed him a BofM. We had to get through a lot of just talking to him to get him to open up even a little though. He is lonely and likes talking a lot. I really hope he reads though! Same with all our other investigators! We had DKK the next day and it was crazy because of how many investigators we have. We have to choose who to focus on and it is tough because I just want to help everyone. Who woulda thought in this little area, hahaha.

That night it was really rainy, but we met with Van to have her practice baptism interview underneath the eave of a post office because there were no places we could go nearby protected from the rain. She did super amazing and her testimony is way strong. I feel like it just came out of nowhere, but that's what happens when you actually follow all the commandments I guess! Friday was lots of finding and lots of cool people! Oh yeah Thursday night we tried going to this matsuri in a far offish area and it was alright. Not very big at all, but I should've expected that from such a small outskirt town. We did a little shizen and actually met a guy who was an old investigator. When we left he chased us down to give us hotdogs because he thought we looked hungry. Saturday we had a lot of finding and a lot of follow up type lessons. I want them to read and pray soooo bad!!!! AhhhhH!!!!! I know when they do it's going to bless them, but everyone has such a hard time making the choice and making the time... They definitely will someday though!
Anyway I'm in Kushiro right now. We have a district activity today and then tomorrow we get to have DTM in person!!!!!!!!!!! Yay! :) I'll make sure to get some good pics.

I love you tons and the gospel is 100000% true!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

These are pictures of us with the ZLs, and Watanabe E and me with Van and her friends:

9/29/13 District conference and other awesome stuff

Hey! Thanks for the mail as always! Conference won't be until the weekend after next for me. What do you mean about Priesthood being live streamed? Is it not always like that? Mara looks pretty good! Starting to look like Lauren a lot I think :) Sounds like that date was pretty fun though! Glad Hunter is doing well in football again. Also I bet Granger is huge!

The district is Me and Morgan E and then 6 missionaries in Kushiro. Inoue E and Yoshikawa E (his bean on his 2nd transfer), Miyaki E and French E, then Sugihara S (half Japanese, but raised in America) and Baker S. They are all way awesome. It's crazy though that I'm the oldest (missionary wise) out of everybody. I have to be a big example and stuff. Not to mention prepare all the DTMs/go on splits with everyone, but it'll be way cool. Me and Morgan E get along great, but I think we are pretty different. I think partially he is still getting adjusted to Japan and stuff.

So for this week last P-day was a lot of fixing my bike and going shopping for stuff with Morgan E. Also we had FHE at the Ozawa's and it was way fun. They had Morgan E do the lesson and it was a bit tough for him so I helped him, but it went great. We played some fun games and had a great time. I had to call lots of missionaries on the phone, copy music, etc in order to get ready for the mini music fireside after the district conference on Sunday. Tuesday I had my first DTM and I feel like it went really well. Of course there are still lots of ways to improve, but I definitely was able to take up all the time with no problem. We met Hayasaka who is an investigator who has a hair salon and lived in Europe for a while. She is super nice and really interested in us, but not so much the gospel quite yet. Because of that we do our best to get the gospel into regular conversations with her. This time around we ended up teaching her half the plan of salvation so hopefully it sticks! We have committed her to pray as well so we'll keep doing our best w/her. We ran around to some appointments and ended up doing a bit of finding. I also introduced Morgan E to Tatsuya since we were nearby and he is doing great still. We taught a lesson to Abe and his wife (plan of salvation) and it went pretty good. Abe still has a lot of doubts especially about his own ability to believe, but we encouraged and praised him a lot and I think it is starting to make a change in him. We also swung by Van's company to give her juice that we bought to help her keep the word of wisdom.

Wednesday was pretty great too. Until it got all typhoon-y again. But before then we were able to have a really good morning study and meet with a guy named Tominaga. It was a little tricky to get into a lesson with him, but we were able to talk about a lot of our beliefs and remind him of the stuff he had heard from missionaries in the past particularly Joseph Smith. Then it got really rainy and we were trapped in the house... we still used time to get other important things done though! Thursday was a good/longish day in the apartment with DKK. It went pretty smooth and Morgan E is great at thinking of the needs of investigators and helping to plan for them. We stopped by Okuchi S to talk to her about working together to help Van get to baptism. She actually volunteered to help us out! She has been doing WAY good lately and her testimony is ridiculously strong. We also talked about other ways she can dendo and she is bringing her friends kids w/her to Eikaiwa! The sunset was crazy pretty that day. Morgan E got some nice pics I think. All the people we wanted to visit that night were either sick or busy so we streeted around the "mall" for a while and got some good contacts. Then we went by Van's to actually give her a bicycle... haha! A member had an extra bike and she had been talking about how she wanted one so we delivered it to her. She was way happy and forced us to let her buy us food at a convenience store. We stopped on the side of the road to follow up on her reading etc. and she has been reading consistently everyday. She basically bore her testimony about how her life has gotten so much better since she started reading and coming to church. She still has somethings she didn't understand about the priesthood and Joseph Smith, but we were able to address those concerns for the most part. She prayed in Japanese for the first time and it was really good.

Friday we tried finding in a different part of town and it went alright. We were able to teach some decent doorway lessons too. We got ready for and taught Eikaiwa which was awesome as usual. Did however find out that one of our really good students is moving to Tokyo which was sad, but he wants to keep going to Eikaiwa there as well! Also I found out the Pres. Andrus (who went to America because his dad died) fainted and got life flighted to the emergency room! He is at university hospital and apparently in way bad shape. I have been praying for him lots. Saturday morning we got a call from Hayasaka because she needed help building a chest of drawers. We helped her out and were actually able to get a better lesson in and pass her the Book of Mormon. She seemed pretty excited about trying it out. We also met this lady again named Minato who Andersen E and I found. She let us in and gave us this really good peach flavored water and we taught her a short lesson. Her family was there and all of a sudden a friend came over and it got all crazy so we had to end the lesson short, but we gave her a pamphlet and she said to come again anytime! We had some really good finding then as well. We followed up with a few other investigators Itou and Itakura and then went to teach Nakagawa. Nakazawa B teamed up and it went pretty well. He is kinda old and forgot parts of the first lesson, but we reviewed them and then taught L2 plan of salvation. He really wants to be purified by baptism and go to the celestial kingdom! When Nakazawa B was bearing his testimony about how baptism changed him he brought up the word of wisdom which we didn't plan on teaching right off. Nakagawa was a bit surprised, but we explained it to him pretty well. It seems like he won't have a problem with anything besides coffee. He seems to like it a lot. We'll have to work with him lots to help him overcome it! Otherwise he seems pretty resolute on doing his best. We had some decent phone dendo that night and when we ran out we decided to street around the house for a while.

Sunday was awesome. Woke up early to meet Van and go to the church to ride in the branch pres's car to Kushiro! In the car I was able to follow up a lot/teach her all the remaining commandments/lessons. It doesn't seem like anything will be a problem! She is starting to get more sure about wanting to be baptized and she has even talked to her parents/family about it and they are so happy about how much happier she:s become. She said they want me to go to Vietnam to meet them. District conference itself was WAY awesome! Almost everyone had been fasting or praying for Andrus Kaicho to get well. It was super great to see everybody again and also to hear all the awesome talks! Okuchi S gave a WAY awesome testimony and blew pretty much everyone away. The other talks were a youth speaker who had a big change of heart and decided to serve a mission+an awesome sister from Kushiro who is leaving to Sendai mission in 2 weeks! Then Pres. and Sister Evans spoke and Sister Evans had the coolest experience with her brother who had left the church coming back! He had gone off on a crazy path and had lots of money trouble, but her other brother decided to show him a talk about tithing. It changed his heart and he did everything he could to pay all the tithing he owed since he had gone astray. However in order to do so he had to get rebaptized. Anyways way awesome story and it focused on tithing a lot so it made it that much easier to help Van understand! Evans Kaicho's talk had a focus on tithing and also on becoming more Christlike. Afterwards we had a big picnic with everyone. A member from Obihiro (not even in the Kushiro district) who has a farm brought a TON of vegetables for everyone to take home! Literally probably a ton. We then started the music fireside and it went awesome. Van felt the spirit super strong. We headed back to Nemuro and tried to meet some investigators. One wasn't home, but her son was so we talked to him and he said he heard about us from his school teacher who is another one of our investigators! He even knew that I studied guitar and stuff...!? I feel like almost everyone in Nemuro knows me. Not only that, but another investigator invited us over to eat because there was a family she invited over that she wanted us to meet. I was all excited about getting a referral and then we arrive at her house. The family she wanted to introduce was also already an investigator!!! Hahaha way funny. It was a great opportunity to build a relationship with both of them though.

So many cool and fun/super spiritual things happen every week. I will probably be able to talk about/remember it for the rest of my life and still have stuff to talk about! It's the best though and I wish everyone could experience it.
I love you tons and hope that I can be a better son/brother/uncle for everyone.
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

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