6/22/14 Shinoro, Eniwa, Stake Conference

I think I finished the Book of Mormon sometime last week or Sunday, but I didn't say anything about it! Keep up the good reading. I've been focusing on the new testament lately, but I feel like it'll be tough to finish before I get back. Well, maybe. I'm in James.

I wonder how Bishop picked that theme! I'm really excited for that. It's been one of my bigger mission goals I guess. That's cool you met a bunch of people at Lydia's thing! Everyone is back from missions and stuff already - it's just weird to think about. As far as my homecoming goes as long as you just put it up on facebook then things should be fine. :D I don't really care who comes! I'm embarrassed enough to have to give a talk in English anyways! I did find a cool Chinese guy yesterday, but he mostly just speaks Japanese too w. Is the ward really that big? If you can't remember everyone's names yet, then I am done for w. I can only remember Japanese names. We had an all Japan Stake conference yesterday and we had to watch it in English... It just felt so weird...

The house sounds like it'll be fun. I feel like everything is going to be different when it get home. I don't think my room needs any improving as far as I know.
I am definitely proud of you being an awesome family though! I think I might have said last week, but I'm really excited to see you all again! I'm just not excited to go back to America... I hope I became good enough of a person to get moving in some way when I get back. I have no idea where I'll work or if I'll have to go back to Utah State or whatever... I don't want to leave all my Japanese friends.

I only have two pairs of shoes right now. (not including running or p-day shoes) The reason it seems like I'm getting so many is because they are all dying. When I was home, I got a bunch because they are cool and I like to match colors.

So this week we had a bunch of people come to the honbu to email as usual. After that I bought some cool stuff with Andersen e at the mall. A jinbei, hokkaido shirt, and some craft tape I thought you'd like. I can't find any washi tape so far. After that we met this guy we found streeting at the matsuri (which was way tiny compared to Nemuro's) and he seems pretty prepared. When we made the apt w/ him he looked up basically everything about the church online. His name's Kobayashi. Hopefully we'll meet him again soon. Tuesday I went on splits in Shinoro with Romney e and Notsu e. It was 3 man splits. We went to DTM that was pretty fun and then headed to Shinoro to do some housing and teach some cool lessons. The guy that Romney e and I found on our last split was a super kinjin. He wants to get baptized way bad! We also taught eikaiwa which was the first in a long time for me. Then we taught one of the students afterwards. It was pretty cool. I learned a ton from them. Wednesday was an interesting day. We prepared a lot for stake DCS and then did some transfer planning on our own because this transfer kaicho doesn't do any. We did it as preparation for Nakatsuka k coming. We also had DCS that night. Wednesday we had to work on this slideshow for Evans s that she wants to do for mission reunions. We also worked on our videos that we are making in secret to give as presents to the Evans and Nakatsukas. We're putting in introductions and testimonies from everyone in the mission. That night we went to Chitose again! I went on splits with Kent e and we had a way good day. We found some way cool people streeting and taught some great lessons with investigators there. We also ate lunch with Kurashige s, visited Fujita s, and Sugiura s came to an activity at the end of the day! I also got to meet a lot of the youth at that activity as well. It was super! I'll send another email afterwards w/ pics! I even got to ride my favorite bike path in all of Hokkaido :D Saturday was another busy day of slideshow and video stuff. After which, we went to the Saturday sessions of stake conference which was just announced by the area presidency that missionaries are supposed to go to from now on. It was pretty good! The Sunday session was broadcast from Tokyo and Walker e from the 70, Oscarson s, Stevenson bishop, and Christofferson e spoke! Walker e and Stevenson b are fluent in Japanese. After church we did a bunch of finding that was way fun and then ate dinner with the Takahashi family. We also saw a cool snake.
And yeah!
I'm going to KUSHIRO tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you tons!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

5/25/14 Finishing splits and some other stuff

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

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

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

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

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

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

guy from the bar

Olsen fam

giant parfait