6/1/14 Mission Conference!

Hey! So first off, how many other missionaries' moms are you friends with? That's crazy hahaha. The big scroll has been going around to all the zones so that everyone gets to sign before the Evans leave. I don't know when I'll sign it, but I'm sure I will by where my trainer signed. Well, probably. It's probably covered with everyone else's signatures so I might be lucky to get a spot!

I don't know when my flight is. Apparently they can't tell me yet??? You'll find out before me though. Let me know ASAP because I want to let at least some people from Eniwa know because they want to see me off.

Penny is Alysha's mom right? She's close so you'll definitely still be able to talk to her a lot!
There were actually 2 baptisms in Nemuro! They were both referrals that Okuchi S gave. We got 21 baptisms this transfer which is actually a pretty HUGE accomplishment. :) You can write whatever you want back to Tando Shimai. I don't know what she wrote, so yeah. We ate dinner at her house again last week!

I'm glad your busy week went well! My week went great as well!
Monday a lot of letter writing! We also got a bunch of stuff ready to take over to the conference. At night, we drove the Evans to the airport for their conference in Tokyo! Yeah, we did mission conference without them! Tuesday, we took stuff over to the conference! A lot of missionaries (all the missionaries) had to come to Sapporo so we had to get ready for people to come to the honbu and other things. We also had a DKK to make sure that everything was set up straight.

WEDNESDAY was the fireside! It went so perfectly well! Everyone was so obedient I couldn't believe it. First Elder and Sister Aoyagi spoke, then Sister Christofferson. After that Elder Christofferson spoke and started with a question/answer session and then he shared a message about... haha. Marriage. Well, kind of. It was a lot about the importance of preparing for that and the fact that the two most important things we need to do in this life are to be born, and be spiritually reborn. Thanks for helping me do both!!! Afterwards we took a huge group picture and at the last second he decided he wanted to be in it! The next day we drove back and got things cleaned up. We also found a bit and then went to Tando S's house. After that we picked up the Evans. They had met Elders Christofferson and Cook in Tokyo and they had some good things to say about us!

On Friday night, we had a baptismal interview! It was to a family of four that got baptized the next day! They were so amazing and so prepared. I'm always so happy to see people accept the gospel as families! Other than that, it was some transfer planning and driving around delivering things. Saturday was kind of the same! Kaicho is so cool with transfer planning. Sometimes we'll be sitting in his office discussing where people should go, end with a prayer, and then next time BOOM he has all the right answers and they make perfect sense. Sunday was a great fast Sunday. We did a lot of transfer planning with all the honbu people then made some phone calls and other preparations! It's a busy time!
Thanks for all your love and support!! You're the best!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

5/4/14 Successful ML Kaigi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4/27/14 Cool zone conferences

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with Nishime choro before transfers

with Elder Aoyagi of the 70 and his wife

Me and Hayashi

12/8/13 Baptism and Bye Byes

Hey! So I don't know if I transfer yet... But I kinda hope I do hahaha. I do love it here so so sooo much, but I feel like I know it too well. It stresses me out sometimes and I think it will be best for everyone here as well because I don't want them to get too attached to me. I definitely hope that we can come to Japan and meet everyone again as well!!! Nemuro might be a little tough because of how separated it is, but we could figure it out :) The snow picture you have is crazy. I'm grateful for the lack of snow here, but we'll see how it is in my new area. I haven't found out if I'm leaving yet, but I have been getting assignments from Evans S (president's wife) to arrange music for the Sapporo music thing and she did mention (maybe accidentally) that this time around they weren't going to be able to bring missionaries from far away areas because of how much the mission has grown. Not only that but I've been here for 6 transfers which is really rare (at least for Pres. Evans).

I hope everyone back home is feeling better! All the pictures of the nieces are great. I hope we'll be able to have a good Christmas party here too. Tell Mya happy birthday for me! Wow. I'm the worst son/brother etc about birthdays hahaha. Lights? Oh boy... hahaha Thanks! The Christmas call will probably be somethin' like that! I think it would be really hard to talk with Adam on the line too. No one would have any personal phone time. I'll leave it up to you though! They said they'd send the mail next week because of transfers.

Lets see what I can get from this week in the next five minutes!!!!
Monday was a cool P-day of music practice and teaching a lesson to a group of four 15 year olds who have a band. One had an experience of getting an evil spirit cast out so he was really interested in getting closer to God. We gave 'em all BoM's and invited them to baptism. We also had FHE with Hayato and the Okuchis!
Tuesday Was DTM and visiting Van S and a few less actives. She made us so much Vietnamese food again. Oh boy!
Wednesday was visiting some old invs to show Morgan E more of the area. We also had the baptism interview and it went great! Harper E came from Kushiro. We ate ramen together afterwards.
Thursday was LOTS of old investigators. Also DKK.
Friday was finding in an area around a lot of other investigators who mostly weren't home plus a great Eikaiwa. Some students knew it'd prob be my last day so they gave me way cool ties.
Saturday we had lunch with our army friend Kunii again and he brought a friend. It was harder to teach a lesson, but the friend is way cool. We also got the baptismal font ready and had another lesson w/ Hayato where Okuchi S surprised with those cards you saw. Way nice. We also had dinner with another old Inv. She gave us the number of her son who lives in the Sendai mission.
Sunday was, oh you know. Sunday. Hayato's baptism went way awesome! His hand came up the first time so Morgan E did it twice. Gift of the HG went great too! The Ozawas had a funeral, but we started early and they were able to come to the whole thing! Yay. At night we visited a bunch of NA's and met Hayato's family. It is him and four sisters plus his mom. His mom is divorced so he's the only boy. They are way nice though!
Great week!
Time's up! Love you!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Getting Hayato's font ready

Yuka helping

Eikaiwa student

Eikaiwa students

Eikaiwa students

Some sweet katsu curry that I made

Hayato's baptism day!

Branch members at the baptism!

A great day!

Nemuro's newest member

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:

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!

8/19/13 First convert baptisms in Nemuro in 8 years!

HEY!
Awesome weekend. A little crazy, but way awesome! The Okuchis got baptized on Sunday! I don't know where to start, but oh man. Awesome week!

I'll just go from the beginning. We made hamburgers with our investigator and his wife because he is really interested in American stuff. It was really fun and afterwards we were able to talk a lot about what got us to come on missions/how the gospel has helped us/how his life might change if he were to join. Really cool. We taught the Okuchis tithing that night and it went really well ;) Yuka is especially looking forward to it with her allowance.

Tuesday was a good DTM with Ishiga E as the district leader! It was a blast from the past, but a really good DTM on showing love etc. We went and taught some lessons to people that we had found previously that are really nice, but might be slow to progress. We also did a practice baptismal interview with the Okuchis again and it went well, but they get really shy when they get called on to explain things in their own words so it was a little stressful for them at first. The next day I went on splits with French E who is on his third transfer. We found all day and found some way nice people! Then that night we had the baptismal interview and it went really well! Thursday we had DKK and music practice for the baptism. We played the Teach Me to Walk in the Light/Love One Another arrangement that I made. Friday we went to the place Tomoshiri that is a little separated from the city part of Nemuro. Way pretty beach. Some very nice country people. Eikaiwa that night also went decent. Not as many people as last week, but we can blame that on the weather. Saturday was a way awesome day. We did some set up of the baptismal font and then headed out to see lots of investigators to invite them to the baptism. We ended up having 6 good lessons that day. None of the investigators were actually able to come which was too bad, but anyways the baptism itself went super well! We had to wake up way early to go fill up the font with warm water. Church went super well too! Most people that have been there since I have been in Nemuro! Around 25-27! At the baptism there were some way awesome talks from two of the members then we did the service. Andersen E being awesome didn't make any mistakes and they were way happy. Ayako (mom) cried when Yuka went down like a champion not afraid of the water at all! After I gave them both the gift of the Holy Ghost and there was a lot more crying and strong spirit being felt there. To finish everything off, there was a big gathering with lots of food on the second floor. They have been able to make such great friends with the ward and I'm so excited to be able to stay here to see them grow. Emailing today is kinda late because we decided to go to Nosappu misaki this morning to move time around. After that we had a BBQ with the same investigator we met on Monday. He even introduced us to a friend that we might be able to meet and teach as well! Lots of fun.
Lots of details I couldn't quite fit in because we are kinda tight on time today, but yeah!

Also I found out a bit about my bean! I'll attach the pictures of what I know... :) (NOTE: this picture didn't come through)
(notice that the country is not America OR Japan!)
I will most likely be leaving early tomorrow to meet him in Sapporo, but we will see!!
I'm way happy and excited for Adam!!! I'm really happy our family has that connection of the temple as well. I'm grateful for your love and I do feel it often! I don't know if you've sent your package yet, but this time I will actually be pretty happy if there is candy because there are a few investigators/kids that really want to try some!

Love you and am always happy to hear from you and love this gospel and how it changes our lives!!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

At baptism interview with Okuchis, Andersen, Ishiga and comp

Getting the font ready

Baptism day for the Okuchis!!

Visit to Nosappu Misaki

3/10/13 Teaching people about BAPTISM! :D

So this week was a blast! By the way we made and ate the pizza yesterday and it was crazy good. (Elder Stilson used to work at a pizza place and loves it a ton) It didn't bring me into a craze to want to eat more American food or anything, but it was really fun to make and eat. I wish you could taste the food here. I have been eating this one food called natto for breakfast almost everyday. Raw fish are also some of the most delicious things ever. The other food was great too especially the candy eggs. I'm usually pretty loaded with candy by the people here though so don't go too crazy if you want to send candy again ;)

I didn't even realize that it was time change time. The snow here is just getting taller and taller :D What do you mean you want extra hours? (Mom wished for more hours in the day) If that's the case I'm way happy you're liking your job! Sounds like stuff is way busy over there. I didn't know both plays were going on. Glad everyone did well though! Also I'm probably forgetting English or something, but "He was supposed to be a doofus windbag and the play was a farce" didn't make any sense to me... :s Not really, but that sentence made me laugh! Congrats to Alyssa! I'm looking forward to the photos. What shower invites were you getting ready? Max? I'm glad you were able to make it through all that busy-ness though! That's exciting for Lauren's new car and I don't know what to say about Mr. Miyagi (his old car) still... haha. I wish I could've seen how your first lesson went! I bet it was way good! I'm learning about teaching so much it's crazy. My advice is to get the class involved as much as possible and do discussions and stuff. Your missionary experience sounds so cool too even though it's small! I'm way happy and have been praying for you to be able to find little things like that. I read in True to the Faith this morning under missionary work and it describes our duty as members way simply and good I thought.

Kurashige Shimai who made the calligraphy is a member in Eniwa. I felt like she was my grandma while I was there; she is way awesome and strong. That's insane that the Gandy's are visiting! Whoa!!! I'll be excited for that package if things work out. Thanks for all the cool missionary news too! 8 missionaries? Championship! That's all I have to say haha :D

This weeks dendo was super great. Monday was a lot of busy people that couldn't meet, but we got a referral from a member that's way strong who we are going to teach on Tuesday. We met him at an activity and since we're both kinda new we didn't know whether he was a member or not, but afterwards he told his friend he wanted to learn about the church from us. Tuesday we had district meeting and then taught some awesome lessons. We also visited some way cool members and just had a great time. There is a family in the ward called the Oouchis and they are way fun. 3 little boys with lots of energy. This ward is so cool I can't get over it. Wednesday was Eikaiwa and visiting a bunch of cool appointments and making new investigators. Thursday we got a little sick, but it was ok because we had weekly planning so we stayed in and did that and dendo'd for just a little bit outside, but took it pretty easy. The next day we felt a lot better and dendo'd a bunch. We met some way funny little kids that talked to us a bunch and were way funny. Saturday was back to Kiyota that was pretty fun. We also helped some members shovel snow, ate lots of food with them, and then repeated with some other members. Sunday was a lot of fun too. At church we had some way good lessons and then after church put lunch and dinner into 2 hours right after church in order to have more time to visit some investigators that night. That's also the only way we would've been able to make pizza too.

Anyways in all of that we got 4 investigators to commit to prepare for baptism and I'm pretty excited for all of them! I'm so happy about this work and how full of miracles and amazingness that it is. The coolest thing is that it's all about what we do. We decide to be happy and we decide to be successful. It's really that simple also long as we have the Lord on our side holding us up. You are the best!

Aishitemasu!
Hutchinson Choro
Here we have mordor tower (in Atsubetsu)

SNOW

Pizza

Stilson Choro

Yukio san, the cool kinjin who moved to Kobe

3/3/13 Having fun in blizzards...

Having fun in blizzards, splits again, and kinjins moving to Kobe

So that's my title for this email I guess. Livy looks like she had the most spoiled party ever hahaha. That picture of the table? I thought it was someone's wedding at first! Crazy haha. For some reason I thought she was 2 but that's awesome she is 1! I feel like time goes by faster where you are than here. Thanks for the pictures and speaking of which the package came right as I got to the honbu! The picture chain you made is awesome! It is kinda funky and really big so I don't know if I'll be able to hang it up. Great pictures though! If you have any others you can just send them over email please. Thanks! Also the recorder you got me seems really spiffy, but I don't think it can connect to the computer... :( The food looks really great too especially the pizza and cake stuff that will be a blast! There is tons of hot cocoa here and more handwarmers than 30 missionaries could ever use so if you want to send a package again we're probably good on those. :) You are so awesome and eventually I will figure out how to send packages to you. Kurashige shimai back in Eniwa made you a "eternal families" Japanese calligraphy thing that I need to send eventually. I still haven't even gotten my American money changed to yen haha.

That is way crazy about Lily! I can't imagine that at all, but I'll pray for her to be all right. I'm way glad for Brian Koji. That sounds awesome. Lots of other parties sound fun. Doesn't anybody study around there? hahaha just kidding. Adam's play sounds interesting and not going to lie, but the pictures are a little funny. Glad he's doing great though. Super exciting for Lauren. Every time I think of Max I think of how he's probably going to steal my birthday... Haha.

So this week! Yeah! Monday was just music practice at the honbu. That day dendo was just walking through lots and lots of snow and not being able to meet with anyone. Snow here is crazy, but it is not that cold. Really. Tuesday was Zone Training meeting where we learned about study in the morning and how to make it more effective. It was pretty good actually. I got to see the Eniwa Elders again and it was pretty fun. Afterwards we ate at a Chinese buffet and I talked with the new Eniwa people and heard about some people that I found there that are starting to make progress which is way awesome. That day I went on splits with one of the zone leaders Olsen Choro and we had a pretty good time getting lost because I still don't know the area at all hahaha. We talked lots and shared lots of advice. We also taught this kinda crazy old lady who actually came to church yesterday. Wednesday was visiting some non-attendings, finding, and teaching this awesome family we have named the Matsumotos. The mom is way awesome and way interested and wants to be baptized, but only if she can together with her family. The husband really likes us, but isn't really interested in the gospel at the time, but we know his heart will soften as we keep going and don't push too hard. They have a 7 year old daughter named Haruka who is also really interested and loves hearing about God and praying. Then we had Eikaiwa and it was awesome. Then I met up with the district leader and his companion and went on splits with him. He is Finnish and named Palomaki Choro. It felt like I was dendoing with Andrew hahaha. That was way fun and I got to sleep in Atsubetsu's apartment which is way huge. I also taught their Eikaiwa which was interesting teaching two days in a row haha.

Thursday was an interesting day. Taught some non-attendings and found a new investigator, but Stilson Choro was having a bit of a hard time so we came home a bit early. That night we went to sports night in Atsubetsu and played ping pong with a cool investigator named Aida. Did I not tell you about Stilson Choro? He is a boss convert who is 22 I think. His parents are divorced and he has various step parents who aren't very supportive. He is awesome though. It's hard to just talk about him, but he's insanely funny and dendo has become a lot more fun since becoming his comp :D Saturday was great. Also insane blizzard. We taught a new investigator, did lots of finding, and walked through the crazy blizzard to eat sushi with our kinjin Matsushita. Unfortunately last week his son died and stuff was way crazy so he has to move to Kobe, but he is still super interested and we had a really good talk over sushi. The missionaries in Kobe will continue to teach him. He is the guy who is fluent in English and lived in America. He is great and we miss him a ton. Yesterday was a baptism for the sister missionaries here and it was way awesome. The super old lady also came to church and had a blast. The lady who got baptized was super nice and had a crazy strong testimony. It was a great meeting and the spirit was really strong. 10 missionaries plus Evans Shimai came to visit as well so that was cool. I bore my testimony about why I came on my mission and the power of the priesthood in priesthood meeting and it was awesome. The rest of Sunday was our weekly planning that we usually do earlier in the week, but it ended up getting moved to that day. So that's my week! Way fun.

I love you and there are miracles happening here faster than I can count! It's all because of hard work so I know the same can happen for you at home! Don't forget it! See ya next week!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

2/3/13 My comp baptizes a kid in the ward and two in a row splits

Hey! You can call this message... My comp baptizes a kid in the ward and two in a row splits...

P-day was a chill p-day for once, which I actually really love. We just sat around and played guitar a lot. Rodenberg Choro is actually looking into the media music program when he gets back and we talk about making music together a bunch after we get home. We just had another good jam session just barely haha. Speaking of which I really want a voice recorder. He always records his letters and sends them and it is way faster and you can put so much more in! Plus he sends back songs he records too. Tuesday was splits with him and it was way fun to just talk with him, hear his advice, and just see a new dendo style. We also found an Adele CD attached to a tree... hahah we decided to keep it and it's just sitting on Rodenberg Choro's desk right now since we can't listen to it. I also taught a pretty cool lesson to this lady in her doorway all by myself and I was pretty proud of it haha. Eikaiwa that night was pretty crazy. Two new people came, one of them being Haramai Shimai's husband which is way sweet. We separated into two classes which is something we have been talking about doing for a long time so more people can come.

On Wednesday we went to this way far out area on a bus and it was WAY covered in snow because the snow removal doesn't really go out there. It was fun though. Thursday was splits with Fukuyama Choro and it was way bomb. He is from Okinawa and is going home in four weeks. We talked a ton and he gave me a bunch of advice. Okinawa sounds like an amazing place and I want to go wayy bad haha. It is the warmest part of Japan in the very south. We also taught a pretty awesome lesson that day as well to a lady I found the time I went on splits with Davis Choro. Friday was planning and visited some prospective investigators in Megumino.

Saturday was the day that Ishiga Choro baptized the kid in the ward who turned 8 named Kei kun. We went to his birthday party and played some games with the kids and ate a ton of food. Then at the baptism we had one investigator come, but Ishiga Choro didn't tell him that it was a baptism, just an activity so we had to explain everything to him as it was going. Haha oh well. He is still pretty cool and we went out to eat afterwards. Sunday was way fun too. It was fast Sunday and the lesson in gospel doctrines was on the creation. I love gospel doctrines by the way. Do you have the book? You should read it. I really love the Lorenzo Snow book too. He is a way cool guy. Also two gaijins from Russia (from USA living in Russia) came to church because they were on vacation. We also got Yuuta kun (Hatanaka Shimai's kid) to come to church too. At testimony meeting Haramai Shimai bore her testimony and it blew me away. She is so strong it is crazy. I felt the spirit a toooon. I'm so excited for her and her family as always haha. Have you found any recipes for her? This is probably my 2nd to last p-day in Eniwa. Crazy. Also that night we had a party at one of the member's houses for this Japanese tradition called mamemaki where you throw beans at people with ogre masks on to bring fortune into your house. I won the rock paper scissors tournament, so I got to throw the beans. It is a pretty cool thing hahaha. Also I decided to give "taking my camera around anywhere just because" a try, and took a ton of pictures.

So things sound awesome back home. The girls are cute as usual. Have I told you about the bishop's family? Way cute kids. The littlest one finally talks! haha Sounds like Adam and Mara are having a good time too. So crazy Jameson is out already and Mara is doing the talent show too. Caitlin is going to Romania I think - haha I dunno. That's way scary about Jacob's accident, but I'm glad he didn't get hurt. Definitely protected. Speaking of which I've been reading this book called Our Heritage about the early saints, and it has a ton of stories about people being protected.

We are actually singing a bunch of stuff today at the honbu for this party for a previous missionary. Ahhhh.... I don't want to get transferred, but at the same time I do because I love this ward and area so much, but I want to see what the rest of the mission is like. We will see what happens next week on the 14th! So it is way icy here. It was super warm for a few days and then just all frozen again. That sounds way tough the lights are frozen though hahaha. The Snow Festival is starting today, but we are going to see it on Thursday after zone conference! I love you tons and am grateful for this work and for the testimony and strength I am receiving!!!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

The Eniwa Choros with Kei kun

Our apartment building - we're on the first floor

Snow

More Snow!

YM from the ward at Kei's party

Two of the bishop's kids

11/18/12 "There is lots to be grateful for"

Hey! There is lots to be grateful for. So much that I had no idea that Thanksgiving was this week until you said something! So there is a lot of amazing stuff that happened this week. So last Monday night we met Haramai san again to talk with her and encourage her to keep pressing forward kind of thing and we talked to her a bit longer than we planned too, so Elder Hansen had to call and tell the other Elders we were going to be late for an appointment and as he was I was talking to her about her recent scripture reading and she said she had been reading about the brother of Jared in Ether 3. After Elder H was done on the phone Haramai had to get something for one of her daughters so I showed him Ether 3 and all the sudden he just got crazy inspiration and looked at me and was like, "I know exactly what to do." Then she came back and he just started relating the story to her situation and how she has made it so far (investigator for more than 7 months, read the whole BoM and D&C, etc) and how the "stones" are in her hands and she just has to present them to God for the miracle to happen kind of thing. Then I testified to back him up and we promised blessings then set the baptismal interview day for that Wednesday. The next morning she gave us a mail saying "Good morning! It's nice weather! By the way, Papa said Ok!" and I jumped for joy and banged on the shower door to the Elder H about it. Way awesome!

That night we had a good Eikaiwa as well and got up early the next morning for Zone training meeting on bike safety and getting referrals/helping members invite friends to stuff. Then we got back and tried to do our planning, but had to leave right away for the baptismal interview which took quite a bit of time, but they both passed great! Whooo! While we were waiting we had to try to keep the two kids entertained while the relief society was setting up an activity. After that we went to eat at the ward missionaries house (bottom picture) and had some way good meat/potato/awesome stuff. They are the bomb btw. If you still have my facebook password, get on once in a while and accept the friend requests from any Japanese people :) Then we shared a way good message with them on the atonement and had to run home.

Thursday was the real weekly planning. We had to go over everything extra in depth in the very likely chance that I'll be left here when transfers happen this Thursday.(Ahhh! scary) It was a way great experience to go over all the amazingness that has happened in these last two transfers though. That night we went to eat at Kurashige shimais house who is way cool and always feeds us a ton. Flatfish, sashimi, oyster miso soup, TONS of hamburg, etc. And we had a good talk with her and she gave us even more food for the apartment. Basically this week we had so much stuff going on that we needed do that we couldn't fit much normal finding in. Still so great though! Friday was a good amount of it actually. Also finding new brakes for Elder H's bike. That day we had another good AB lesson with Nakamura shimai with two sisters from the RS which is way good because we need to make sure we can pass her to the ward well. Then we met Haramai again that night for a bit and the other RC Hatanaka shimai who got baptized in Elder H's first transfer here. She is awesome, but has been super busy with school. We let her and her son know about church though and they came! Yay! Then in Dendo Chousei Shuukai (meeting with the ward missionaries) we talked a bunch about the baptism and that they talked with Haramai about me doing her baptism! I felt way way honored and a little bit nervous!
The next day we went to this big outdoor mall to do something called *shizen dendo* which means natural dendo. It's where you just try to start normal conversations. The mall was kinda dead though. Even on a Saturday! It was really nice too, but everyone there was on a date or with kids etc. So we left to Chitose to do some housing and it went pretty well. Then we came home to eat and go to this choir concert that some youth in the stake put on with Nakamura shimai and the Oofuji couple from the ward. It was surprisingly good considering how young and small the choir was.

The best day of the week was yesterday though. We got up early because the baptism was going to be before church (from 9-10) and I got dressed in my white stuff and borrowed Elder H's white pants and we took pictures. Everyone was pretty excited especially Nodoka. Then the meeting started and I sat up front next to the bishop who baptized Nodoka. She was a little bit nervous about going into the water and bishop was comforting her and stuff. Then they sang the song before the baptism and we came down from the stand. Nodoka was still a little nervous, but when she walked by her dad she ran and jumped on his lap and gave him a big hug and kiss. I had to try way hard not to cry the spirit was sooo strong. We went to the font and bishop baptized Nodoka really gently and she was way happy when it was done. She came up and said "Mom!! I did it" and was just smiling tons. Then I traded places with the bishop and went in to baptize Haramai and explained to her how to grab my arm etc. Then I said the prayer and it went perfectly! She went under just right the first time and it was awesome. After getting dressed again it was time to hear the testimonies and Nodoka got up (which is surprising because she's pretty shy about talking in front of people) and said how she was so happy to be baptized and how her goal from now on is to be nice to everybody! Way strong. She:s a genius. Then her mom got up and shared a ton of incredible stories. How she had been so inspired from Nodoka etc. and how recently she read Alma 32:16. I had to try really hard not to cry then too and I did a bit. Afterwards her husband stayed the whole time at church and it was pretty great! After church we got the baptism papers signed and I got chased around by hyper kids because it SNOWED! AH. Then Elder H took a bunch of pics with ward members because of transfers coming up. After church we went to the bishop's house and got the papers finished and rode around all day on our bikes in the snow! Wooo. So cold and wet. We also met this cool guy I found in the phone named Sendai and taught him a lesson on why we're different from other churches and the BoM. It went pretty well, but he said he wasn't ready to take a BoM. So yeah! That's the week!

Mara's play looks like it was pretty fun! The wedding looked awesome too! I hope you said hi to everyone for me. Cool that you got to do things to help them out with it! Did David really not go because of a football game? So cool everyone from far away could come. Thursday is transfers so I'm for sure probably eating curry or something like that with whoever my new comp is ;D It's going to be a way crazy day... After Halloween Japan just goes straight Christmas. Thanks a ton for thinking about me and getting my Christmas stuff going! I also kinda want a small set of speakers that don't need batteries or a plug. (for my alarm ipod) I used to have a pair, but gave em to Lauren and they'd really help.

Thanks tons and tons as always and I hope my letter is fun to read! I hope it shows you the testimony that I'm starting to gain stronger and stronger about the Savior and His power to change lives more than we can understand or know.

Next time you hear from me I'll for sure at least have a new companion! Maybe a new area too, but that's not likely since Hansen Choro has been here for 5 in a row!

Aishitemasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Special day for the Haramais! Hutchinson Choro looks so happy.

From the letter, I think this is Kurashimage's family?

Feast at Kurashimage Shimai's house

Dinner at ward missionary's house - and a long string of paper cranes in the corner - cool

First snow of many to come....

With Hatamaka Shimai (and can you spot the little one?)

11/4/12 Amazing Miracles!

First off here are some pictures to blow your mind.

#1 a tim tam slam party celebrating #2

#2 self explanatory ;) I'll tell that story in my letter

#3 Candy and stuff from bean shower #2

#4 Haramai, Nodoka (left) and her sister




Ooooh man! My new nephew Max is going to be such a bomb kid! That'll be cool if he is born really close to my birthday. I'm really excited for him! Sounds like Tohi and Jameson both going to California is way cool! I'm not sure if either of them are going to the same as missions that some of my friends are in right now. Stoked for them! Mara sounds crazy as usual. Mental torture? Oh boy.

Halloween here was pretty chilly! Rainy. All that good stuff. That's way nice of the Fullmers to have a BBQ for everyone. They are way cool. Please keep up with them for me ok? I'm glad you got to play with the nieces too. I bet they were a ton of fun as usual. 10 hours of overtime sounds tough! But I'm proud of you for working hard. I really appreciate your sacrifice for me so very much. I did get my package and it's really good! I can't believe you packed so much stuff in there! It was heavy too. Some of the Japanese Elders were hesitant about the orange oreos hahaha. They actually have a lot of that candy in Japan, but the Reeses stuff was especially nostalgic. The cereal too, but it isn't lasting very long for how much space it took up. For Christmas I want another suit coat from H&M in black and those earmuffs I thought you were going to get a while ago. It would be really tricky to find a suit here and I have enough pants so even one of the not so expensive coats would be fine as long as it's all black.

What's my favorite Japanese meal and treat? That's too hard. Right now I'm eating a fried squid lunchbox and it's great. My favorite things are okonomiyaki and udon I think. They have way good dessert bread (melon bread, etc) but they have no wheat bread which stinks. The coolest thing I've seen here is picture #2. For Pres Evans' birthday we went and took pictures, ate cake, and played sports in a park in Sapporo. Not too bad.

I was way happy to hear about how you are doing with missionary work yourself!! One thing that I am learning very quickly is that members can pretty much do a lot more than missionaries can. When we met someone who has never been acquainted with the church before we have to make their friend before we can actually teach them well. Without members, once we leave, it's incredibly hard for them to stay active. That's why it's so important for members to do all they can to introduce people to the gospel because that friendship makes everything so much easier. Please keep it up and I know the Lord will bless you with people to share with and how :)

SOOOO here is my story of this week.
After partying with the President we ate shabu shabu at a members house which is way good. Look it up! Then on Tuesday we had our Halloween party which was a big hit. Probably around 60 people came including quite a few investigators and non-attending members. There weren't too many fancy costumes (at all), but not too bad of an amount! We had lots of games and candy and it was pretty fun. Us missionaries spent the whole time making sure everyone was having a good time so we couldn't really play anything, but we got people settled pretty well. Way great. It took a while to clean up, but was great. Halloween itself wasn't that eventful. Just went to Chitose to meet with this guy who is really nice, agrees with a lot of our teachings, but not quite humble enough yet to accept religion so we are probably dropping him. He will still come to Eikaiwa lots though. Then we housed a little bit in a place called Megumino and got some appointments and taught a spontaneous lesson which was pretty cool. I'll pause here and send this since you're waiting right now hahaha.

Ok so here's the awesome story.
Thursday the Zone Leaders came over to go on splits with the other Elders and we were having our weekly planning meeting. We started and were worried about our two most progressing investigators. Nakamura who has been sick recently hasn't been able to meet or even respond to calls in a while which is tough and Haramai who is way solid in the gospel, but worried about discussing everything with her husband. That morning Nakamura sent us a mail about how she has been sick, going to the hospital a lot, and searching for a job. She also said she missed 2 days of Book of Mormon reading and felt bad about that. It kinda sounded like she wouldn't be able to meet soon. We moved on in the planning meeting and wanted to finish fast because planning is not as exciting as Dendo at all when all of a sudden Nakamura calls. We almost didn't answer because she likes to talk and it'd probably give us a lot less time to dendo, but we answer anyways. She tells us she just got done with a job interview and is on her way home, but had a dream where she had her baptismal interview and confessed all her past sins and that she saw it as a sign that she should..... GET BAPTIZED ASAP! We were blown away... She has been having a hard time getting to baptism because of various concerns, but this was a total miracle. We asked her what led her up to that point and she told us how since she felt bad about not reading she prayed to God to help her to do better and to teach her the truth. She then read all of Mosiah and found verse 26:22-23 and was really impressed by it. It wouldn't leave her mind. She said that she wanted to help make God's workload lighter by keeping his commandment to be baptized. Crazy. She wanted to get baptized next Saturday, but we suggested this week and she was happy about that. Luckily since the Zone leaders were there one of them could do the interview the next night after zone conference (which was also awesome) which is another miracle because there is no way our district leader would've been able to make that time! So after ZTM we hurried home to the church and she had the interview while we had our meeting with the ward missionaries. Afterwards she passed (Yay!) and we started planning stuff. She asked Elder Hansen to baptize her since he has been teaching her for like 6 1/2 months.
The next day we invited lots of people and had normal dendo housing in Chitose. The baptism was that night and we had a pretty good turnout considering how suddenly we told everyone about it. Hansen choro forgot the phone the first time we went to the church so we had to run to the apt and back when he realized he also forgot his white pants. Nice. So after biking to the apt and back twice we started. The speakers at the meeting were great and the baptism went super awesome too. Afterwards a member named Brother Takasugi gave her the Holy Ghost and a WAY powerful blessing. So incredible. We had to have it that day because she couldn't make it to church the next day. Then she bore her testimony which was crazy amazing as well. She is so strong and has gained a huge testimony of prayer, the Book of Mormon, and serving God. We still need to work with her a bit to help her transition, but she is pretty solid. PLUS Haramai came AND Nodoka convinced their Dad to leave watching baseball to take them to the service! Crazy miracle. We are planning on their baptism next Sunday so I'll let you know about that.

Well I hope that was a satisfying letter because I sure feel very blessed when I think back on how many amazing miracles I've been privileged to take part in. Thanks so much for your support and everything!!! Love you tons and tons!!

Aishitemasu!
Hutchinson Choro

and some more pics...

#1 Hansen Choro's costume (The Book of Mormon). boss right?

#2 us with an investigator and his friends at the Halloween party. My costume is Moses.