and coming up next week.......!!!!
Drive!
Turns out we're going to Kushiro again today wwwwwww
I have pictures, but I think you can wait 12 days :)
Kushiro was GREAT. Driving there was tiring. I'll tell you the long story after. I'm sure I can bring copies of the slideshow and stuff back, but it's mostly just missionaries you don't know... w
We sent the Evans off Saturday afternoon. We stopped by the temple site for my first time which was cool! Evans shimai also hugged me at the airport www. I'm pretty much already dead (the tradition before is that missionaries only got to hug Evans s one time at the airport when they died) so yeah.
The Nakatsukas are pretty cool! That's interesting Evans K sent a letter to you! Was it like a personal letter written by hand? I'm glad Dad liked my letter. Sorry I never got you anything too cool for your birthday... :(
I don't want to send my bike home. There are missionaries here that want it and it will be expensive to fix + ship it. That cost alone will buy me a better bike back home.
I remember having cousins with those names, but I don't remember their faces w. I'm excited to go to the temple and stuff again. I participated as a child in sealings for the dead when I was in the MTC. I think they made it dame (not allowed) afterwards, but it was cool I got to experience it once. I wonder if it's ok for me to go to Japanese sessions... I'd like to.
Sounds like you and Mara are having fun this week! She sent me a letter telling me about how horrible her life is with me gone wwwwww.
So last week on Monday we left at about 2 (we wanted to leave earlier to do stuff in Obihiro and stuff, but Evans S made us work more on the slideshow and look for a rug that she brought with her to Sapporo that she couldn't find) and drove for about 2 1/2 hours to Obihiro, ate butadon and then headed to Kushiro for another 3 hours. It was dark, but I was SUPER happy to be in Kushiro again. I talked to Sakamura E and Nguyen E and gave them advice about dendoing in Nemuro. Sounds like everyone's genki still. We went to DTM in Kushiro and one of the sisters gave a good workshop. We then stopped by Andrus S's house because it was Jay's birthday. We sang happy birthday and looked at pictures of him for about 15 minutes (we didn't have a lot of time), but I probably cried for 10 of them. After that we ate lunch at ur-tora shokudou (ultra cafeteria!) where I used to eat all the time with Morgan E and Andersen E when we would come to Kushiro. It was great. Lee E and I dendo'd with Nielson E. We did lots of walking, but met a good amount of cool people!
That night we had a birthday party for Kanno B which was really awesome as well!!! Tomita E got to meet his old convert so he was really genki too. Tuesday we started heading home. We made a pit stop and lo and behold we got called by someone telling us that Evans S's rug was found in the Kushiro sisters' apartment!!! She really needed this rug so as you would guess... we turned around and went back to Kushiro! Upon arrival, we sent a picture of the rug to sister E for confirmation and of course........ It wasn't the rug. So we drove from there straight back to Sapporo. We took a slightly alternate route though and it was super pretty! We lost almost two whole days to driving. Once we got home we had to prepare more of the slideshow and finish the presidents video for the Evans and Nakatsukas. Evans S was pretty happy with the slideshows. They should be flying back to Utah today! On Thursday there were a lot more similar requests and things, but at night we at least go to go out to eat matsuriya with a cool member who moved to the ward nearby. Friday was more preparation and setting up new iphones for the Nakatsukas. They came Friday night right before bedtime. On Saturday they talked w/ the Evans for about 5 hours and then the Evans just left. I wasn't really sad at all coz I'll see 'em soon wwww.
After that we helped Nakatsuka K do some stuff and get meetings organized with all the missionaries. He wants to meet the entire mission this week so that's why we're going to Kushiro today too hahaha. Saturday night we ate dinner together (made by Tomita E) and he told us some super awesome stories and testimonies. Sunday was good too. Church went great and quite a few NAs came! One of them is named Ebisawa Ryouhei and since Harada E from my MTC doki came back, we have been able to make a better relationship with him. After church we ended up having to work out more things w/ Nakatsuka K, so we only got a tiny bit of dendo time this week. To top things off we ate dinner with the Baker fam (husband is American, cutest daughters) and had a pretty awesome time there. Now I am here trying to hurry and get all the things I wanted to get done done so that I'll make it in time to go to Kushiro w/ Nakatsuka K & S. I hope you have a great week! I'm excited to see you and hug you again! :)
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro
Showing posts with label Obihiro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obihiro. Show all posts
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Sunday, November 24, 2013
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
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
Sunday, October 20, 2013
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
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New rain suit just in time for the typhoon
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At church with Morgan E and Van on her baptism day
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Baptism day for Van!
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Morgan E's bean shower!
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
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Sunday, August 25, 2013
8/25/13 "There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny."
(First, a housekeeping note to mom: Yeah a bunch of people are trying to find me on facebook and I won't show up! Even if I search for them or go to one of your profiles and look in the friends. What's going on? Can you go on and accept the friend requests/turn my privacy settings down/off? Also I can't remember my pin # and am worried that it may have locked because of too many failed attempts... Please look into that because my bike's brake lines are dangerous right now and I have no money to fix them. THANKS! Maybe when you get that fixed you can contact the honbu and let them know to contact me so I can get it done ASAP. Thanks!
So yeah! The Okuchi's are doing way amazing still. Ayako Shimai said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting after I gave a 30 minute plus talk.... Yeah I got asked to give a talk on Saturday (the day before) and little did I know that I was the MAIN speaker. Yeah. A youth speaker and then me and that was all of sacrament meeting. Pretty cool experience. Everyone said it went really well afterwards and all the little kids were like NAGAAAAAAAIIIII!!!!! (long) Church was pretty awesome that day. For primary we went for a walk after a short lesson about hardships of the early church members. Yuka gave the prayer again and is getting way awesome at it! Also Ayako shimai has started practicing piano for her new calling as primary music coordinator. Way cool. They actually surprised us with dinner last night as well. They are pretty dead set on coming to America some day to visit us and also go to Disneyland. They made us promise that we would take them. I think I'll have to be really thrifty with money when I get home so it works out hahaha...
Other than them and their awesomeness I'll start from the beginning of last week. On Monday right after I finished emails, I found out that my bean had to get surgery again...... yeah right after we said goodbye to everybody for the 2nd time. It was a little stressful, but we are over it and really happy to be together for this transfer too! There is still a big chance that he will come and I will train him next transfer so I'll send his picture and info anyways. Whether he comes or not I'd still like to meet him someday, he seems way rad. Tuesday and Wednesday were really good, just lots of finding and little follow up lessons with investigators. Saying "oh hey! by the way Andersen Choro isn't actually transferring!" a few times as well. Thursday we had a kinda long DKK and headed off to Kushiro for Zone Training in Obihiro! Yay. Way tired and way rushed. I used to not be able to sleep on buses/trains at all, but it's all I can do now!
Woke up early on Friday to get to Obihiro. Practiced a song with the sisters in Kitami and played that at ZTM. It was the song we did at the baptism, but Evans shimai asked me to do it with some other missionaries. There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny. They are almost all brand new and can hardly speak Japanese at all. It's awesome though. Got to do some practice lessons/stuff with them and they have way strong testimonies and desires to serve. So do the new Elders! Made me excited to become trainer. Had a good interview with Kaicho as well and he pretty much just explained how he was sorry about the mix up and he still wants me to be trainer really bad. Cool! After that we ate some famous Obihiro butadon (pork on rice) and went back to Kushiro where we visited a family from the ward Andersen E was close with. The next morning we ate McDonalds for breakfast with the Kushiro branch Pres, Jay Andrus, who is way awesome and he saw us off to head back to Nemuro. We fixed Andersen E's bike tire and did some finding! What a week. Lots of moving around!
Sounds like your week was a blast! I'm excited for Adam's farewell and the house remodeling stuff being done! Pictures please! I'm really excited for Mara in high school too. Tell her to do her best in Boland's class. It's really easy, just don't let the slightly extremist teacher get to her. The only advice I have for Adam is that airplanes are awesome and I hope he started his Spanish study early. Still can't believe he has a girlfriend ... Crazy kid haha.
As far as candy... I don't know if I can just make a list of all the stuff they have, but I'll try: snickers, kit kats, pringles, m&ms...
Yeah, I'm stuck. Whatever you send will be fine, I'll just tell them it's from America and they'll be happy. Warheads would be awesome!
Every day here IS amazing! Love you tons! Another random experience. Last night we got approached by a group of Vietnamese girls that are living here to work (kinda like the Philipino guys at the farm) and they told us they really want to come to church! Random, but kinda cool.
Hope you see lots of miracles too! They come at the most unexpected times!
Love you!! Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson CHoro
So yeah! The Okuchi's are doing way amazing still. Ayako Shimai said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting after I gave a 30 minute plus talk.... Yeah I got asked to give a talk on Saturday (the day before) and little did I know that I was the MAIN speaker. Yeah. A youth speaker and then me and that was all of sacrament meeting. Pretty cool experience. Everyone said it went really well afterwards and all the little kids were like NAGAAAAAAAIIIII!!!!! (long) Church was pretty awesome that day. For primary we went for a walk after a short lesson about hardships of the early church members. Yuka gave the prayer again and is getting way awesome at it! Also Ayako shimai has started practicing piano for her new calling as primary music coordinator. Way cool. They actually surprised us with dinner last night as well. They are pretty dead set on coming to America some day to visit us and also go to Disneyland. They made us promise that we would take them. I think I'll have to be really thrifty with money when I get home so it works out hahaha...
Other than them and their awesomeness I'll start from the beginning of last week. On Monday right after I finished emails, I found out that my bean had to get surgery again...... yeah right after we said goodbye to everybody for the 2nd time. It was a little stressful, but we are over it and really happy to be together for this transfer too! There is still a big chance that he will come and I will train him next transfer so I'll send his picture and info anyways. Whether he comes or not I'd still like to meet him someday, he seems way rad. Tuesday and Wednesday were really good, just lots of finding and little follow up lessons with investigators. Saying "oh hey! by the way Andersen Choro isn't actually transferring!" a few times as well. Thursday we had a kinda long DKK and headed off to Kushiro for Zone Training in Obihiro! Yay. Way tired and way rushed. I used to not be able to sleep on buses/trains at all, but it's all I can do now!
Woke up early on Friday to get to Obihiro. Practiced a song with the sisters in Kitami and played that at ZTM. It was the song we did at the baptism, but Evans shimai asked me to do it with some other missionaries. There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny. They are almost all brand new and can hardly speak Japanese at all. It's awesome though. Got to do some practice lessons/stuff with them and they have way strong testimonies and desires to serve. So do the new Elders! Made me excited to become trainer. Had a good interview with Kaicho as well and he pretty much just explained how he was sorry about the mix up and he still wants me to be trainer really bad. Cool! After that we ate some famous Obihiro butadon (pork on rice) and went back to Kushiro where we visited a family from the ward Andersen E was close with. The next morning we ate McDonalds for breakfast with the Kushiro branch Pres, Jay Andrus, who is way awesome and he saw us off to head back to Nemuro. We fixed Andersen E's bike tire and did some finding! What a week. Lots of moving around!
Sounds like your week was a blast! I'm excited for Adam's farewell and the house remodeling stuff being done! Pictures please! I'm really excited for Mara in high school too. Tell her to do her best in Boland's class. It's really easy, just don't let the slightly extremist teacher get to her. The only advice I have for Adam is that airplanes are awesome and I hope he started his Spanish study early. Still can't believe he has a girlfriend ... Crazy kid haha.
As far as candy... I don't know if I can just make a list of all the stuff they have, but I'll try: snickers, kit kats, pringles, m&ms...
Yeah, I'm stuck. Whatever you send will be fine, I'll just tell them it's from America and they'll be happy. Warheads would be awesome!
Every day here IS amazing! Love you tons! Another random experience. Last night we got approached by a group of Vietnamese girls that are living here to work (kinda like the Philipino guys at the farm) and they told us they really want to come to church! Random, but kinda cool.
Hope you see lots of miracles too! They come at the most unexpected times!
Love you!! Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson CHoro
Sunday, July 21, 2013
7/21/13 A pretty awesome week here in Nemuro, and Kushiro, and Obihiro!
Hey thanks for sending everything right away! Glad the stuff in the kitchen is going well and it'll be really cool when it's all done and the rubble is cleared out. Nice to have a lot of help there too. Too bad there aren't any like, less actives in our house or something because that'd be a good thing to invite missionaries over to do! Have fun at all the farewells tomorrow and good luck with Gospel Doctrine! I went to primary yesterday. I'll tell you about that later! Glad Adam's stuff (for the mission) is getting found! You found Uniclo!?!? Where? Was it just online? That might be why they don't have short sleeves. The ones here in Japan are amazing. Ohhh randomly while I remember there is some music I want you to try to find and send to me. Sufjan Stevens has a good amount of Christmas music/hymns that he has done in his style that's really cool. Andersen Choro has some and if you couldn't find that/any other music like that I'd be way happy. Also there is a cd called Nearer: a collection of favorite hymns and it is amazing. It has a lot of local people from Utah that I really like including the old bassist from Fictionist I was friends with. Music is something I am kinda always wanting a little more variety in haha.
Glad you liked the photos! Actually Yuka's dad ran away before she was born so it's just her and her mom. Kawashima is the one who we want the husband to support her. They are all amazing though.
That's tough about Uncle Merril, but I know whatever happens I'm grateful for the plan of salvation as well. Grandpa Price is definitely someone who helped me get a strong testimony in it for myself. Sharayah is a crazy name. :) Thanks for the pictures of my nieces and nephew always. I feel like I won't be surprised at all when I get home because I see how they grow every week hahaha.
That's way awesome Zach Nordfelt and Aaron are back! It felt like they left such a long time ago haha. Glad you got to hear from Sis Gandy too! I was thinking about that time meeting them this morning and how much I want to come back here like they got to...
So this week!
We kinda moved p-day and Wednesday around because of travel stuff, so on Monday after email we did some finding and visiting of PIs that I found on splits the week before. We also stopped by *I's* to see how he was and try to schedule an appointment with him, but he was so happy to see us he let us in and made us eat a bunch of candy. We taught a bunch about coming to church and praying etc because we want to get him back into full on lesson teaching mode. In the middle of that we *accidentally* found out that he has a law of chastity problem when we asked him what movies he's been watching lately. We testified to him pretty strongly about the law of chastity and its importance in feeling the spirit etc. He seemed a little bit overwhelmed, but it was kinda spur of the moment. In the end I think he was pretty good though because he called later in the week and asked when we could come again. That night was a pretty big fireworks show out over the pier by our house. We went there to try to shizen dendo people in the big crowd and got approached/approached a lot of pretty fun people. Invited lots of people to eikaiwa. Tuesday we visited the people Andersen Choro found on splits and then did some finding which was cool. Found a guy who met missionaries 30 years ago and still remembers their names and has the old-school BofM they gave him! We also met with the Edo family again and they are so cool. The daughter Rio who is 8 put the temple pass along cards we gave her over her desk. They really love it when we visit. We also gave them a hello kitty prayer card and the mom was way happy and said that she would pray for sure! Then we went to see Ishii shimai to see if there was anything we could do to help out since her husband passed away. Her son and his wife were there(not members) so we talked to them a bunch and got fed a bunch of candy by Ishii shimai (Japanese people really like doing that!) We made pretty good friends with them and referred them to the missionaries in their area! We tried to visit Okuchi again and give her this epic Book of Mormon present that we made for them, but they were at a matsuri so we couldn't see them.
Wednesday we got up early and got on a bus to Kushiro! We met with Andrus Kaicho who is the branch president in Kushiro (He's American) and he made really good friends w/ Andersen E while he was there so we went and hung out with him for a bit. Took some purikura, ate curry, played our song for him, and got our haircut. He has a professional hair cut license! He even cut my eyebrows! Looks pretty good, no lie. After that we went to visit some old investigators of Andersen E. One named Abe who is way awesome, same age as me and plays the guitar. Had a good convo with him and encouraged him a lot about reading and praying even though he has been way busy with work. After that we met Akari and her Grandma Sugimoto (Akari got baptized yesterday! She's 13) and cheered on the grandma about getting baptized as well. She wants to, but she:s way terrified of water. She also has to quit her past religion (soukagakkai, it's pretty scary) and it takes a lot of steps and stuff to do so. They were way happy to see us though and it was way fun! Thursday we had Zone conference in Obihiro! It was WAY good! Good to see other missionaries! Kaicho gave a great workshop on faith and there were other workshops about being bold, working with members, obedience, strengthening testimony, etc. Also Andersen E and I played the song we have been working on for a while at Evans Shimai's request. It was I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go in a super cool folk version with a fun harmony I made. Reminded me of something from O brother where art thou. It went way good and even President Evans complimented us a bunch on it! After that we headed back to Kushiro after shizening some people in the Obihiro eki. I contacted someone in sign language and that was way fun! We got to Kushiro and stopped by the eikaiwa there.
Friday we had study and before we left went out to eat Chinese with Andrus Kaicho again. He gave us a bunch of candy to eat on the bus back to Nemuro. We got back to Nemuro and taught our Eikaiwa which went pretty decent as well. We were pretty tired though. Saturday Andersen E's ear hurt way bad so we went to the hospital and he got some medicine for it. After that we just did DKK and then finally went over to Okuchi's to give her the Book of Mormon! We put it in a stitch (from lilo and stitch) case and marked a bunch of scriptures in there, wrote our testimonies, and put a picture of us all together that we took before. I also made a paper of all the scriptures and Andersen E put an awesome picture he drew of Stitch to help them remember to read! They loved it a ton! The scripture paper had 24 scriptures to read one a day and Yuka read them all in 2 days! After hanging out with them and teaching them about the BofM we went to eat Reimen again with an investigator named Yamagishi from a while back. It was way fun, but kinda loud in the restaurant that day so it was hard to talk gospel, but he really wants to come to eikaiwa now that he knows about it.
The next day Okuchi and Yuka came to church and were there for primary this time! They couldn't come the first hour so I taught young mens again that time. Yuka is still a bit shy in church, but she sat very still and listened the whole lesson! She even tried a bit when we sang songs. She is the cutest. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Pres Monson's talk about obedience. After church we walked them back to a park by their house and found out how much she loved reading the BofM and how since then her mom has gotten more into it as well. We also found out her story about having Yuka with the guy running away and how it was hard to raise her alone, but since we have come it has helped her a lot. They are way awesome and special. We got home and my back started to hurt way bad so I actually laid down the rest of the day while Andersen E work on cards for the members. I feel a lot better today though! Thanks so so much for everything as always and I'm grateful that I was able to be raised in the gospel environment. I'm super excited to help Yuka have that chance as well!
Aishitemasu!
Hutchinson Choro
Glad you liked the photos! Actually Yuka's dad ran away before she was born so it's just her and her mom. Kawashima is the one who we want the husband to support her. They are all amazing though.
That's tough about Uncle Merril, but I know whatever happens I'm grateful for the plan of salvation as well. Grandpa Price is definitely someone who helped me get a strong testimony in it for myself. Sharayah is a crazy name. :) Thanks for the pictures of my nieces and nephew always. I feel like I won't be surprised at all when I get home because I see how they grow every week hahaha.
That's way awesome Zach Nordfelt and Aaron are back! It felt like they left such a long time ago haha. Glad you got to hear from Sis Gandy too! I was thinking about that time meeting them this morning and how much I want to come back here like they got to...
So this week!
We kinda moved p-day and Wednesday around because of travel stuff, so on Monday after email we did some finding and visiting of PIs that I found on splits the week before. We also stopped by *I's* to see how he was and try to schedule an appointment with him, but he was so happy to see us he let us in and made us eat a bunch of candy. We taught a bunch about coming to church and praying etc because we want to get him back into full on lesson teaching mode. In the middle of that we *accidentally* found out that he has a law of chastity problem when we asked him what movies he's been watching lately. We testified to him pretty strongly about the law of chastity and its importance in feeling the spirit etc. He seemed a little bit overwhelmed, but it was kinda spur of the moment. In the end I think he was pretty good though because he called later in the week and asked when we could come again. That night was a pretty big fireworks show out over the pier by our house. We went there to try to shizen dendo people in the big crowd and got approached/approached a lot of pretty fun people. Invited lots of people to eikaiwa. Tuesday we visited the people Andersen Choro found on splits and then did some finding which was cool. Found a guy who met missionaries 30 years ago and still remembers their names and has the old-school BofM they gave him! We also met with the Edo family again and they are so cool. The daughter Rio who is 8 put the temple pass along cards we gave her over her desk. They really love it when we visit. We also gave them a hello kitty prayer card and the mom was way happy and said that she would pray for sure! Then we went to see Ishii shimai to see if there was anything we could do to help out since her husband passed away. Her son and his wife were there(not members) so we talked to them a bunch and got fed a bunch of candy by Ishii shimai (Japanese people really like doing that!) We made pretty good friends with them and referred them to the missionaries in their area! We tried to visit Okuchi again and give her this epic Book of Mormon present that we made for them, but they were at a matsuri so we couldn't see them.
Wednesday we got up early and got on a bus to Kushiro! We met with Andrus Kaicho who is the branch president in Kushiro (He's American) and he made really good friends w/ Andersen E while he was there so we went and hung out with him for a bit. Took some purikura, ate curry, played our song for him, and got our haircut. He has a professional hair cut license! He even cut my eyebrows! Looks pretty good, no lie. After that we went to visit some old investigators of Andersen E. One named Abe who is way awesome, same age as me and plays the guitar. Had a good convo with him and encouraged him a lot about reading and praying even though he has been way busy with work. After that we met Akari and her Grandma Sugimoto (Akari got baptized yesterday! She's 13) and cheered on the grandma about getting baptized as well. She wants to, but she:s way terrified of water. She also has to quit her past religion (soukagakkai, it's pretty scary) and it takes a lot of steps and stuff to do so. They were way happy to see us though and it was way fun! Thursday we had Zone conference in Obihiro! It was WAY good! Good to see other missionaries! Kaicho gave a great workshop on faith and there were other workshops about being bold, working with members, obedience, strengthening testimony, etc. Also Andersen E and I played the song we have been working on for a while at Evans Shimai's request. It was I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go in a super cool folk version with a fun harmony I made. Reminded me of something from O brother where art thou. It went way good and even President Evans complimented us a bunch on it! After that we headed back to Kushiro after shizening some people in the Obihiro eki. I contacted someone in sign language and that was way fun! We got to Kushiro and stopped by the eikaiwa there.
Friday we had study and before we left went out to eat Chinese with Andrus Kaicho again. He gave us a bunch of candy to eat on the bus back to Nemuro. We got back to Nemuro and taught our Eikaiwa which went pretty decent as well. We were pretty tired though. Saturday Andersen E's ear hurt way bad so we went to the hospital and he got some medicine for it. After that we just did DKK and then finally went over to Okuchi's to give her the Book of Mormon! We put it in a stitch (from lilo and stitch) case and marked a bunch of scriptures in there, wrote our testimonies, and put a picture of us all together that we took before. I also made a paper of all the scriptures and Andersen E put an awesome picture he drew of Stitch to help them remember to read! They loved it a ton! The scripture paper had 24 scriptures to read one a day and Yuka read them all in 2 days! After hanging out with them and teaching them about the BofM we went to eat Reimen again with an investigator named Yamagishi from a while back. It was way fun, but kinda loud in the restaurant that day so it was hard to talk gospel, but he really wants to come to eikaiwa now that he knows about it.
The next day Okuchi and Yuka came to church and were there for primary this time! They couldn't come the first hour so I taught young mens again that time. Yuka is still a bit shy in church, but she sat very still and listened the whole lesson! She even tried a bit when we sang songs. She is the cutest. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on Pres Monson's talk about obedience. After church we walked them back to a park by their house and found out how much she loved reading the BofM and how since then her mom has gotten more into it as well. We also found out her story about having Yuka with the guy running away and how it was hard to raise her alone, but since we have come it has helped her a lot. They are way awesome and special. We got home and my back started to hurt way bad so I actually laid down the rest of the day while Andersen E work on cards for the members. I feel a lot better today though! Thanks so so much for everything as always and I'm grateful that I was able to be raised in the gospel environment. I'm super excited to help Yuka have that chance as well!
Aishitemasu!
Hutchinson Choro
Sunday, April 28, 2013
4/28/13 Obihiro, Kushiro, Kitami, Aoyagi Choro, and LOTS of riding in cars and trains
Hey! I'm glad that you have been having a good week as well! Sounds like there is lots of playing with little kids as usual. Say congratulations to Adam for me and take some videos of him if he goes under (getting his wisdom teeth out). Ask the New Zealand missionary if he knows any Browns or Hakaraias. I don't know why Kuruma Ishi looks like that. There was an explanation board and I read it a bit, but it was in hard scientific Japanese plus I forgot. I bet you could find it on wikipedia or something.
Comcast internet sounds fun too. I remember wanting it so bad, but now I think when I get home I want to use the internet as little as possible. Sounds like it'll be perfect for work at home though! Maybe I can use it to upload music I record and stuff. haha
Thanks for the notes and stuff from other missionaries! I am glad to hear even though there are hard things they are seeing miracles and pushing through! That's way cool that Taylor and Marquie are heading out soon. It's cool that I'm not the only missionary from the ward anymore.
As far as the lots of people who investigated here in Nemuro for a long time, it seems like a lot of them are just like what you said. That and they just like missionaries, but have strange reasons for not getting baptized and obeying all the commandments. The main thing is thinking about what is most effective and where you need to focus.
So this week was pretty awesome! Monday was a way good day. We didn't have a lot of time on P-day because there are lots of things to buy for the apt still, but had great dendo time. We got spoked (stood up) for a lesson so we had a practice lesson with the branch president who was going to team up with us. Then that night we went to meet with a kid and his family that we met on the street who are way cool, but it ended up being bad timing. We made another plan to go again and decided to house nearby. There were not a lot of people home and the people who were said no really fast. It happens sometimes, but for some reason I felt especially tested by it. It teaches us in PMG about always asking for referrals wherever we go and when we asked one guy he said "no one here is interested!" kinda loud. I've had other crazy stuff said, but when I heard that I felt really strong that he was wrong and we kept housing. We finished the whole first section of the block and were thinking of going home, but decided to house the next building. First door was a crazy prepared awesome family named the Sekiyas, a mom with two sons. They were the most polite and nice kids I've ever met plus the mom was really happy to see us and very responsive. Really happy about that.
The next day we tried to visit our Philipino investigator and got there right as she was leaving so we couldn't meet, but we dendo'd the area. We met this way awesome lady named Uke who is really interested and remembers seeing missionaries a lot as a kid. We had a lesson with this guy named Suzuki who is an old investigator as well, but not nearly as old as the others. He still has problems keeping commitments which is tough. Before we visited him we tried to visit a PI (potential investigator) that we found last time and he wasn't home, but his mom was and surprisingly she was really interested as well!! After Suzuki's lesson we had some yakitori bentou which is a chicken on a stick kinda thing. Anyway it's really good and is only in Hakodate and Nemuro. After that we were going to visit these non-attending members, but I remembered I had to copy something to send to the Honbu so we stopped at a 7/11 to do that. After we left, we ran into a cool guy who is an English teacher at the high school. We taught him a lesson right there and got his phone number. Cool stuff like this happens all the time, I just usually don't remember it to write in the emails. (sorry) Wednesday was another good day meeting with investigators and finding other cool people on the street as we went places. We also taught the Sekiyas, but the mom was sick so we just taught the sons. We used a cool example with soap and pepper in water to teach baptism and they really want to receive it. The older kid Souto is the most obedient kid I've ever seen wow. We asked him to pray at the end of the lesson and he was like "Really? Can I?" :D That was great.
Thursday was way busy. Had planning session in the morning, got some business done for Inumaki choro's return flight arrangements, and got on the train to Obihiro for zone training meeting. Only about y'know... 5 hours. We did stop in Kushiro halfway to eat a little, but didn't get to Obihiro til almost 9. We crashed there with a ton of other missionaries and had a great ZTM the next day. It is funny to have my trainer as the Assistant to the President. We learned a lot about working with the ward and showing love to those you contact by being friendly and not just all business when you talk to them. It is however really important to always make sure you testify and teach them though. After that we ate and dendo'd for a tiny bit in Obihiro. Then we took the train back to Kushiro and dendo'd there a little bit. Had another fun night with the missionaries and zone leaders there. The next day we dendo'd a tiny bit and tried to visit Inumaki Choro's converts from when he was there. Then we ate sushi at Matsuriya which pretty much everyone in Japan says is the best sushi in the world. It was great. I ate too much. I also had whale. It was all right. Then we met the Kushiro branch pres and his wife (he is an American, but his wife is Japanese) and rode with them to Kitami where the first half of district conference was. That was a 2 1/2 hour drive, but way fun. We got there and I went on splits with the missionaries there and found a WAY awesome guy in the mall there. He is 25 and coaches basketball at a high school. I taught him all of lesson 1 and the restoration and he was way interested. Did all that, made good friends with him, all from a conversation started while looking at hats. He used to work at a YMCA and said that he really liked prayer and wanted to become a Christian, but didn't feel like that church was right. Unfortunately he lives in Obihiro, but he let me give his phone number to the missionaries there.
That night we slept in Kitami and the next morning headed back to Kushiro in the Nemuro branch presidents rent-a-car. I just have to say I'm the worst at sleeping in cars/trains/planes etc. It makes for a very tired self especially if I do fall asleep. District conference was so good it was crazy. Ozawa kaicho spoke on faith and how he has faith about the success of the church in Nemuro. That is a very hard thing considering no baptisms for 6+ years, but I know it is going to change. A new convert in kushiro spoke and so did Evans Kaicho (the mission pres.). He gave a great talk on things we can do as just members to dendo. So did Aoyagi Choro of the 70. His talk was so powerful it was crazy. Some things they talked about were 1. Making sure the people around you know that you're LDS and have the standards you do 2. Not doing it because you want them to be converted, but because you want them to get the blessings 3. Showing the love of Christ through compliments, praise, service. I wish you could've heard it. Of course, it was in Japanese, but still. After that we hung out there for a bit and rode back to Nemuro. We were insanely tired, but still went out to dendo. We visited this guy named Mochida who we found last week in the crazy blizzard. We taught him a way good lesson. It was way tight. When we asked him if he had any questions he brought the flier we gave him and he was just like, "yeah, teach me about the Book of Mormon." Long story short, it went awesome and we made a baptismal date with him. He is way smart, cool, and thinks hard about what we say so he understands it pretty good. We also passed out a few copies of the Book of Mormon in his apartment building and went home after meeting another "eternal investigator." Hopefully he'll make the right decisions that he needs to like the other eternal investigators. Anyways we are planning to go to this cool park today called Meiji Koen. I'll take some pics.
Thanks for everything and thank you for always being supportive and praying for me! I'm stoked for the letter! Please see lots of miracles there and try sharing the gospel with everyone! I know in Utah a lot of the people you run into at stores and on the street etc. are probably already members, but they need to feel the Savior's love too. Try saying hi, smiling, complimenting, everyone you can! LOVE YOU!
Aishiteimasu! Hutchinson Choro
Our house in Nemuro
With the Kushiro elders
Comcast internet sounds fun too. I remember wanting it so bad, but now I think when I get home I want to use the internet as little as possible. Sounds like it'll be perfect for work at home though! Maybe I can use it to upload music I record and stuff. haha
Thanks for the notes and stuff from other missionaries! I am glad to hear even though there are hard things they are seeing miracles and pushing through! That's way cool that Taylor and Marquie are heading out soon. It's cool that I'm not the only missionary from the ward anymore.
As far as the lots of people who investigated here in Nemuro for a long time, it seems like a lot of them are just like what you said. That and they just like missionaries, but have strange reasons for not getting baptized and obeying all the commandments. The main thing is thinking about what is most effective and where you need to focus.
So this week was pretty awesome! Monday was a way good day. We didn't have a lot of time on P-day because there are lots of things to buy for the apt still, but had great dendo time. We got spoked (stood up) for a lesson so we had a practice lesson with the branch president who was going to team up with us. Then that night we went to meet with a kid and his family that we met on the street who are way cool, but it ended up being bad timing. We made another plan to go again and decided to house nearby. There were not a lot of people home and the people who were said no really fast. It happens sometimes, but for some reason I felt especially tested by it. It teaches us in PMG about always asking for referrals wherever we go and when we asked one guy he said "no one here is interested!" kinda loud. I've had other crazy stuff said, but when I heard that I felt really strong that he was wrong and we kept housing. We finished the whole first section of the block and were thinking of going home, but decided to house the next building. First door was a crazy prepared awesome family named the Sekiyas, a mom with two sons. They were the most polite and nice kids I've ever met plus the mom was really happy to see us and very responsive. Really happy about that.
The next day we tried to visit our Philipino investigator and got there right as she was leaving so we couldn't meet, but we dendo'd the area. We met this way awesome lady named Uke who is really interested and remembers seeing missionaries a lot as a kid. We had a lesson with this guy named Suzuki who is an old investigator as well, but not nearly as old as the others. He still has problems keeping commitments which is tough. Before we visited him we tried to visit a PI (potential investigator) that we found last time and he wasn't home, but his mom was and surprisingly she was really interested as well!! After Suzuki's lesson we had some yakitori bentou which is a chicken on a stick kinda thing. Anyway it's really good and is only in Hakodate and Nemuro. After that we were going to visit these non-attending members, but I remembered I had to copy something to send to the Honbu so we stopped at a 7/11 to do that. After we left, we ran into a cool guy who is an English teacher at the high school. We taught him a lesson right there and got his phone number. Cool stuff like this happens all the time, I just usually don't remember it to write in the emails. (sorry) Wednesday was another good day meeting with investigators and finding other cool people on the street as we went places. We also taught the Sekiyas, but the mom was sick so we just taught the sons. We used a cool example with soap and pepper in water to teach baptism and they really want to receive it. The older kid Souto is the most obedient kid I've ever seen wow. We asked him to pray at the end of the lesson and he was like "Really? Can I?" :D That was great.
Thursday was way busy. Had planning session in the morning, got some business done for Inumaki choro's return flight arrangements, and got on the train to Obihiro for zone training meeting. Only about y'know... 5 hours. We did stop in Kushiro halfway to eat a little, but didn't get to Obihiro til almost 9. We crashed there with a ton of other missionaries and had a great ZTM the next day. It is funny to have my trainer as the Assistant to the President. We learned a lot about working with the ward and showing love to those you contact by being friendly and not just all business when you talk to them. It is however really important to always make sure you testify and teach them though. After that we ate and dendo'd for a tiny bit in Obihiro. Then we took the train back to Kushiro and dendo'd there a little bit. Had another fun night with the missionaries and zone leaders there. The next day we dendo'd a tiny bit and tried to visit Inumaki Choro's converts from when he was there. Then we ate sushi at Matsuriya which pretty much everyone in Japan says is the best sushi in the world. It was great. I ate too much. I also had whale. It was all right. Then we met the Kushiro branch pres and his wife (he is an American, but his wife is Japanese) and rode with them to Kitami where the first half of district conference was. That was a 2 1/2 hour drive, but way fun. We got there and I went on splits with the missionaries there and found a WAY awesome guy in the mall there. He is 25 and coaches basketball at a high school. I taught him all of lesson 1 and the restoration and he was way interested. Did all that, made good friends with him, all from a conversation started while looking at hats. He used to work at a YMCA and said that he really liked prayer and wanted to become a Christian, but didn't feel like that church was right. Unfortunately he lives in Obihiro, but he let me give his phone number to the missionaries there.
That night we slept in Kitami and the next morning headed back to Kushiro in the Nemuro branch presidents rent-a-car. I just have to say I'm the worst at sleeping in cars/trains/planes etc. It makes for a very tired self especially if I do fall asleep. District conference was so good it was crazy. Ozawa kaicho spoke on faith and how he has faith about the success of the church in Nemuro. That is a very hard thing considering no baptisms for 6+ years, but I know it is going to change. A new convert in kushiro spoke and so did Evans Kaicho (the mission pres.). He gave a great talk on things we can do as just members to dendo. So did Aoyagi Choro of the 70. His talk was so powerful it was crazy. Some things they talked about were 1. Making sure the people around you know that you're LDS and have the standards you do 2. Not doing it because you want them to be converted, but because you want them to get the blessings 3. Showing the love of Christ through compliments, praise, service. I wish you could've heard it. Of course, it was in Japanese, but still. After that we hung out there for a bit and rode back to Nemuro. We were insanely tired, but still went out to dendo. We visited this guy named Mochida who we found last week in the crazy blizzard. We taught him a way good lesson. It was way tight. When we asked him if he had any questions he brought the flier we gave him and he was just like, "yeah, teach me about the Book of Mormon." Long story short, it went awesome and we made a baptismal date with him. He is way smart, cool, and thinks hard about what we say so he understands it pretty good. We also passed out a few copies of the Book of Mormon in his apartment building and went home after meeting another "eternal investigator." Hopefully he'll make the right decisions that he needs to like the other eternal investigators. Anyways we are planning to go to this cool park today called Meiji Koen. I'll take some pics.
Thanks for everything and thank you for always being supportive and praying for me! I'm stoked for the letter! Please see lots of miracles there and try sharing the gospel with everyone! I know in Utah a lot of the people you run into at stores and on the street etc. are probably already members, but they need to feel the Savior's love too. Try saying hi, smiling, complimenting, everyone you can! LOVE YOU!
Aishiteimasu! Hutchinson Choro
Our house in Nemuro
With the Kushiro elders
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