4/13/14 Crazy birthday!

My birthday has already been pretty crazy so far!
I'll just tell you right away....
I got my transfer call last night...!

I became Assistant to the President!!!!
Whoa!
SO that's probably the biggest news! I spend p-day here getting packed (though I packed everything last night) and then head to the honbu by six to begin training and stuff. I'll probably be giving people transfer calls, preparing for bean training, and heading to the airport to pick the younguns up ;D

Thank you soo much for the money! That's a lot hahaha! I'll try to be thrifty with it. I love you so much! I won't forget to get cool things for you guys too.

It is for sure crazy being 21. I do kinda feel like it though. Mara looks like she's having fun! Is there a Lincoln movie out??? Hahaha I'm glad that joke is still going on. How are the soccer boys? (inside joke from when Mara was 6)

I bet the Luau was fun too! I'm glad everyone is remembering me and stuff hahah! I will not be trunky though!!!! In the honbu I'll probably spend a LOT of time doing 'not dendo' so I will have to work hard to take advantage of every chance I get to work outside ;D.

I actually was able to fit a lot of my stuff in my suitcases so I might wait a bit before sending stuff home. Stuff that I'll throw out is probably the old short sleeve shirts that got really sweaty and the thermals that are all pretty ripped up. Still usable, but a member bought me some nice new ones from Uniqlo. Anyway I'm looking forward to the b-day package! I thought the last package was the b-day package hahahaha. Conference was super great! I watched all of it on Saturday day and Sunday and only had to watch one session in Japanese ;D I'm glad you're enjoying Alma as well!

The sister missionaries and Mara's food must've been fun! I hope you find opportunities to work with them a lot! :D Thanks for the pictures! Also, guess who didn't forget the camera plug? Yeah!
Here's the summary real quick.
Monday was a way fun P-day! We went to Mt. Moiwa in Sapporo with an Eikaiwa student, then to a ski jump w/ museum, then to a buffet, then to Ebetsu where we went to an Onsen! Pretty full day! The next day I went on splits in Ebetsu after doing the workshop we did last week for the Ebetsu missionaries. Nishime E did a way cool example about spending every second in your day like it's money. I'll have to tell it to you someday because it'd take too much time. Splits in Ebetsu were fun! I went with Louis E who is a bean chan! We saw some great miracles and visited a member who is so strong I was blown away.

Wednesday we went to a small area in Iwamizawa to visit a member on her b-day then went to Takikawa to have a baptismal interview! It was a 16 year old girl that went to youth conference and felt the spirit super strong and overcame all her doubts. Way fun! We spent the night there and then headed home to have DKK and Eikaiwa. The next day was splits with the APs!!! I went with Watabe choro and we just worked hard finding all day! It felt great even though it was still cold. Saturday was of course all day conference! It was great though! Sunday was conference and lots of eating with members! Adachi showed up just in time for Pres. Monson's talk but had to leave afterwards. We also did lots of finding after church and then I got my call!!!
I love you so much! Time is running out so... Pictures!!! :D
aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

This morning's surprise from Nishime E (spells out HAPPY BIRTHDAY one letter at a time)

Birthday cake from a member!

After the interview

View from Mt. Moiwa

Museum @ski jump

famous yakitori

Nishime E and his tempura don

My crazy curries one and two

3/30/14 Lots of food and splits and stuff

Hey! Thanks for the email as always. That's tough Adam coudn't get his all done. The women's conference sounds like it must've been interesting. That's way fun for Mara too! It might be a good thing they stopped the early morning stuff. It was fun pushing my exploded car around town at four in the morning though hahaha.

I'm jealous you get to see conference next week! However, it just makes my birthday all the better. :D My birthday is also the day of transfer calls so I have been wondering what present Evans Kaicho will give me as well... By the way I got your package! So much sweets... Haha I was trying so hard to give up, but thanks for the little taste of home. I don't know if you noticed, but I took out money last week to buy new pants. They are all pretty destroyed. If you could let me know EXACTLY how much is in my account every time there is a change that would help a LOT because I completely guessed and just hoped I had money.

Have fun with Jamie's family! That's way crazy about Emily's baby too. Everything is crazy. I wish I could've heard her recital as well.
I'm glad the music fireside videos are up! I was pretty happy about Where Can I Turn for Peace as well and I hope it sounds good on the CD too.

Anyways, here's the week.
Monday was Furano which was still covered in snow so not as amazing as any of the pictures you saw, but still nice. An Eikaiwa student took us and we had some famous ice cream and pudding there, then went to Takikawa for all you can eat "jingis kan" which is ram meat. I thought I was going to die haha. After that we came home and prayed with a member before finding in her area. Tuesday we had DTM in Ebetsu about "heart, might, mind, and strength" and it was good, but we had to hurry and head home to eat lunch with a member that took us to #2 ridiculous food store. I had normal katsu curry (it was a smaller item on the menu) and it was pretty difficult to finish, but I did. Afterwards we met a non attending member and found in his area and then one more area before heading home. Wednesday morning we left really early to get to Shibetsu for splits and I went with Satou E. He is way cool and fun! We went to the place Hill Side Box to eat like we always do and because it was Komori E's b-day she gave us a bunch of sushi and chicken and stuff. That was #3. Afterwards Satou E and I did some finding and then taught their strong investigator Yuzuka. She is from a part member family and is about 12 years old. She is a typical 12 year old, but the missionaries and her family helped her to like church more and want to be baptized. I also taught Eikaiwa there that night.

Thursday we came back early in the morning and then helped a member move. We were able to meet a bunch of her friends that she wants to eventually introduce the gospel to so that was great. We used the rest of the time for DKK and English class then at night headed to Takikawa where one of their investigators took us all out to all you can eat yaki-niku. More ridiculous food. Friday I worked with Kojima E in Takikawa and it was pretty fun. We went to a nearby city called Akabira to try to visit some members and find a little bit. There are a LOT of towns in that area that used to be huge because of coal mining, but it's all shut down now, so they've gotten a lot smaller. We came back and visited some people then it started to rain! Yes! Winter is over! I officially overcame an entire winter in the snowiest area (though the piles of snow might take some time). Afterwards the Takikawa elders being so nice took us to the next horrible restaurant. It is called Marin and is actually famous for serving food that is way too big. I got a different type of curry this time. We decided to run in the morning because of all the eating and the weather getting better, but I didn't have my running shoes on me and ran in regular shoes and kinda messed up my foot. It feels a lot better now, but Saturday was mostly resting it, calling people, and organizing stuff in the apartment.

One cool miracle though is that an old investigator from 4 years ago saying that he has time now and wants to go to church! We found his teaching record and it said that he wanted to get baptized, but was busy. This Sunday was a bit busy for him, but he wants to come next week! His name is Ogasawara. It's cool that even though a lot of our investigators can:t meet until next transfer, when we focused on what we need to do, somehow we meet the people we need to meet in the time that we have.
Sunday was good too! One of the member's daughters and grandkids came from an area near Nagoya to visit! There were 7 way cute kids and it was really fun. After church we did more finding near a member and there were a lot of awesome people! One person had just moved from Kushiro and used to be one of Andrus Kaicho's students! I was really moved by that. I feel like he is still dendoing a lot on the other side :) Anyways that was the week!

I hope you have a great week as well! Prepare spiritually for conference! I'm looking forward to it a lot. In the meanwhile, we can ride bikes again!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

11/17/13 Pulling things together!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9/29/13 District conference and other awesome stuff

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Mom's note: We had a really great time talking to Braden Saturday. Because of the time difference we called at 6:00 am for him and he was still on the train coming back from a mission-wide meeting. We called again later and eventually he was back in Nemuro, just tired. He sounds great! He loves what he's doing and will be at this location for one or two more transfers due to his companion getting ready to go home.)

Hey! I am still a little tired, but doing great. Sorry about all the time misunderstandings and stuff. I'm really grateful that I could talk to you all as well. I'm grateful for the prayers and great example as always. Thank you thank you thank you! I hope Grandma Price is doing great! To answer your question about popcorn popping, yeah they have it. The hymn book doesn't have everything the English one does, but the primary songbook does. I can't believe how much Mya can talk - that was really surprising and neat. I'm glad your mother's day was so happy you deserve it!

I have a question about sweets actually... do you have that recipe for the microwave cake that you make in the bowls? Since we don't have an oven I was thinking about maybe trying that. Lauren is a very cool mom and it sounds like she is working hard and having a great time. I'm glad I had a chance to talk to Adam about preparation. I hope he is doing great. Taking classes and studying the scriptures is good and everything, but the most important thing is being able to apply and share what you learn with confidence. Find the reason that you are grateful for the gospel and tell everyone about it! Anyone who has applied the Savior's teachings and received a spiritual witness can do that. Thanks for saying hi to everyone in the ward again!

So I kinda let you know about what happened this week already, but for the most part it was hanging out in Kushiro for a bit, coming back, having splits that ended early, and going to Sapporo. Splits were way fun. It was my first time doing splits as the Sr. Missionary in the companionship. I went with Fukushima Choro who is way cool and we decided to go to Hanasaki port which is about 30 min away on bikes. Before that we went to visit some potential investigators and found some more Chinese guys that are way cool and nice. Then Fukushima Choro got a call finding out that he had to transfer early because his companion was becoming a trainer. We didn't know what to do so we tried to call the other companionship, but they wouldn't answer so we prayed about whether we should go home early or go to Hanasaki and take the later train. We decided to go to Hanasaki and had a really good time and met 2 really cool people on the way that we exchanged phone numbers with. The day after that Inumaki Choro and I had planning session and had really good finding that day. We made a goal to pass out more copies of the Book of Mormon because of how important it is for investigators to read it. We talked to Mochida that night and read the Book of Mormon with him and it went really well. He has a lot of interest in the Book of Mormon and promised to read and pray about it everyday while he is on his business trip.

The next day was straight traveling to Sapporo... train then bus. It was very tiring, but not too bad. We got to Sapporo and Inumaki Choro had to go to the dentist so I waited for a bit. That night we hung out with the missionaries that came early and it was way fun. The next day was music practice and pretty much everyone in the mission was there. It was way rad to meet all the new missionaries! Music practice went well and right after that we got on the train to Kushiro. Next morning woke up at 4:45 to make the train to Nemuro and got to talk to my awesome family! Church went super well. An old investigator named Takizawa came and we taught him from the gospel principles book. He doesn't disagree with any of the church's teachings. He thinks they're true and everything, he just has a hard time because he has been Methodist for such a long time. He pretty much wants to join the church, but is looking for that confirmation y'know. Kinda tough, but he is way nice. After church we had a sign language lesson from Nariyama Shimai that was pretty sweet. I:m really excited to be able to speak it! It's way fun. After church we rested and went out to find! There was one really cool guy named Fujishima that we taught a great lesson to about the plan of salvation. We got home and Inumaki Choro got to call his family. That's it!

I hope everyone is doing great and has opportunities to show Christ-like love to everyone around. Don't get too warm over there! haha
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

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

4/14/13 Tanjoubi omedetou! (happy birthday to Braden)

HEY!!! Thank you! Tanjoubi omedetou is right :) Oh wow! That's crazy that Max hasn't been born yet. I mean chances are he's been born now, but I'm still excited. There are no special birthday songs here. Just the regular songs translated plus the traditional birthday song with sweet Japanese accents (happee bas-day tsu yu) and stuff like that. To answer a question, the cake I got from the Kuramis was chocolate. I can't believe I am 20. I don't really feel like it and I forgot it was my birthday until I found a cool origami shirt that Inumaki Choro made for me on my desk. I'm so proud to be your son as well and am grateful for your support and love and example. The prayers are so incredibly helpful as well. Thank you and I love you!!! I have a letter I will send next week with a reply to the priests quorum as well.

Nemuro is still awesome. It is really cool to be re-opening this area after a long time, but a lot of the times it doesn't feel much different from any other area. Just that we don't have Eikaiwa yet and there aren't as many members to get to know. It is so great though and I'm grateful the Lord trusts us and has prepared us for the people here.

With conference I only had to watch the first session in Japanese. Afterwards a member let me use their laptop with headphones to watch the rest. I was surprised how much I did understand in Japanese actually. Probably took the most notes then out of all of it. The translation is pretty much just the basics of what happens in the talks. Not going to lie the general authorities use some pretty hard English hahaha. I got tons out of it though. It is cool as a missionary because all the time you are thinking of what you can do for the area and your investigators especially as you study and do stuff like watch conference. I really liked how they focused on member missionary work and happy family relationships etc. Way good. I think these are the things that we need to do to get more people into the gospel and baptism. With those strong family examples and desire to share them I think the work will go faster and faster all over the world.

Lauren really is a basketball! Wow! Looking forward to Wednesday for her! It is actually pretty clear here. Not too much rain. The wind is still very cold though. I don't think it ever gets *hot* here, but that's ok. That's great for Adam and his papers progressing! Sounds like everyone has been busy! I hope you did great on your Sunday School lesson! Have you been trying to involve the class a lot lately? I feel like in gospel classes if the teacher just kind of leads and everyone teaches each other the spirit can come more fully. That is one thing I've been learning and thinking about lately in my teaching and noticed from good lessons that I've had up to now in my mission. Don't worry and the spirit will help you out. You are probably way more prepared than you think! That's wild that the stake presidency is changing! I can't believe that. I don't have any memory of a Stake President besides President Nordgren. I wonder what he will do next. I also wonder who will release me when I get back! He did so much great work and it was really a privilege to be in the stake with him.

Thanks for the happy wishes from the ward! I love them all and am excited for all the great work that is going to happen there as well!!!

So this week was a bit of continuing gathering things for the house and also searching for old investigators. We also had our first district meeting which was... Over the phone! It was pretty interesting. Very different, but still had a great experience. It is kinda sad to not be able to mingle with the other missionaries, but we still fulfill the purpose and get a lot out of it spiritually. We have been finding investigators new and old through all sorts of methods, but mostly by NEVER STOPPING FINDING whenever and wherever. Old phone numbers, on the street, houses, stores everywhere. It is so great. I love talking to and meeting people, but I love best when you can just tell that the people are prepared and when they listen. I am really wanting to work harder and harder to help them understand and think of the importance of the gospel. The members here are so willing to help as well. The district president Ozawa kaicho is in our branch and even though he is busy and has 6 kids (newest born Saturday morning) he is so strong and helpful to us. The members have been so fast and willing to help team up with us in lessons. We have also been working with members by meeting at their houses and praying with them before we go out to find in their neighborhoods. It is so great and cool and you really get power from the branch like that. Also we run when we find to use our time more effectively and that is way fun too. One interesting thing I noticed is that the people that are hardest to contact are usually the most prepared (farthest away from the path you're going, etc.)

We also had splits with the Kushiro missionaries and when they came we ate dinner at the Ozawa's house. They are way amazing and their kids are super fun too. The have a son who is 15 and just got into high school who was way happy that missionaries finally came back to Nemuro. We ate sukiyaki (a lot) and had a blast. On splits I went with Ogata Choro who was in the same apt as me in Eniwa on my 3rd transfer. It was pretty fun and we did lots of housing and made lots of appointments to come back and share a message! We also taught a great lesson to an investigator with Ozawa Kaicho and I learned a lot about the importance of asking questions to get investigators thinking and to know by the spirit what they need to hear. Also learned that at night if you go to the supermarket the sushi and tempura becomes insanely cheap (like 3 dollars for 12 rolls) Anyways that was fun. Saturday was just general conference and so was Sunday, but then we went to visit non-attending members with another member which was cool even though no one was home. We did meet a lady whose son is a member and used to live in Nemuro who was way happy to see us and wanted to feed us really bad. We couldn't go into her house because there were only two of us, but we will be able to come again and teach her. We also taught a lesson to a Filipino that we found! She speaks no Japanese and we teach her in English, but she is way strong. She is good friends with the Ozawa's and is also Catholic and believes in Jesus Christ really strongly, but she is really open to hear our beliefs and was really intrigued about the restoration. She has two kids who are awesome as well and is married to a Japanese guy who is very nice as well! We'll probably be able to teach him too.

That is about it though! I feel like I write so much some times. I might as well not even keep a journal hahah! Well if I find a voice recorder eventually I could just record little by little everyday and spend less time on the computer, but there doesn't seem to be any place to get that here. I'll just keep going normal for now! Thanks a ton and as always I love you!!! Tell me about your missionary work too!

Aishiteimasu! Hutchinson Choro

10/15/12 Dendo stories & surprises

Hey! So I have no email from Lauren and I even let my comp go first to see if it would come, but it didn't so that's lame... :( Well I read it in your letter cause I have to finish this and get going to dendo and stuff, but that's crazy good news!!! I'm sorry I didn't get to hear it directly from her email. Sounds like a way fun to let you guys know too!!! I wonder if you are right about it being a boy. Whooo another niece or nephew comin' up!

So yeah conference was sweet. Speaking of sharing it with investigators we have a way awesome one named Fukunaga (her name means eternal happiness. killer right?) who is 24 and crazy cool. The sister missionaries in another area found her and passed her to us because she lives here, but she is way cool and she came to every single session of conference. Every single one. We've only taught her one lesson so far and afterwards we talked to her about it and she said that she got really good feelings about it and help for her life! Yeah! So she is going to pray about it and I have pretty good vibes about that. So we watched it at the stake center in Shin-Sapporo in a little room. No worries about the *surprise announcement* Everyone had pretty much heard it from someone's mom. That's way cool though. I say it's about time girls get to go at 19 and everyone pretty much agrees there, but we also all agree that we think 18 years might die... haha not really but it's way neat and I'm excited for the world to be even more full of missionaries. Good luck waves going towards Adam and all the other people getting ready to serve and stuff. I'm definitely glad that I'm here and that I was patient through my year of college. It definitely made me more ready to be here. Also I was pretty sure I replied to Sarah within the last email I sent. haha If I reply to anyone personally go ahead and just leave it in the reg email.

I bet Mara's talk was cool! I'm way proud just hearing. Speaking and being confident is definitely way tricky. I think I could even work on it quite a bit. Sounds like a fun time at Grandma's too. Also, sounds like I left you high and dry as far as explanations of those pictures go hahaha... So that picture of me *teaching* was probably me singing as sisters in zion to be *initiated* The picture on my bike was an insane day of rain where the izarigawa (river name) was way overflowing. It was intense. I think I sent you a bunch of pictures of getting fed by members, one time was sushi (a ton) and the other time was probably 3 farms worth of tomatoes and pork cuts or something. Yesss. The picture of the bean is in a recent converts house and is me. Elder Hansen is very proud of the picture of me passed out with my journal. The picture with all the blue things is this cool rocket balloon thing they did at the game. Probably the most interesting that at that game. Let me know if you have any other picture related questions.

Wait, what are you mailing tomorrow? I hope there is deodorant. I don't need it for a while, but you might as well put it in if you're sending a package. I can't really think of stuff I need so I'm confused. I think I'll be alright with one suit coat since all my pants are black.

Sounds like a lot of rad stuff at home. Lots of getting ready for stuff and going places. Cool Adam got to go to that play. Sarah told me about it in her letter and sounds like it'll be way good. She told me about Emily being in it too. Must've been a lot of fun! You should have just went hahaha. I have definitely kept Uncle Merril in my prayers especially since I got the handwritten letter from you this week. I'll try really hard to find time to write back by hand too.

So this weeks dendo summary:
P-day was way sweet. Played some park golfage. Pretty fun. Like a cross between regular golf and mini golf. Then we hit the onsen which is the most comfortable thing ever. Then we had FHE at the bishop's house because it was his b-day. We had some way good food and taught a little lesson to their kids and stuff. Coolio. Next day was district meeting and a regular day of dendo. A lesson with this kid we contacted one of my first days here who could finally meet with us. Then we had Eikaiwa (English class) and an investigator showed up randomly afterwards who has been sick, and we gave her a blessing and had a really spiritual experience.
Wednesday we went to Chitose and met this old guy who was way nice, but just wanted to speak English the whole time and talked really slowly even when he spoke Japanese. We tried really hard to get the gospel in there... He kinda sucked our energy haha. The cool thing though is on the way there Elder Hansen and I were talking about how he met a guy riding a bike from the top of Japan to the bottom with all his possessions attached to his bike and stuff at the exact place we were riding. Then, we look over and lo and behold there is a guy who fit the description perfectly! We were so awestruck all we could say was *konnichiwa* as he passed by, but then we felt like we had to chase him down and we did. He was a way cool guy from Hong Kong and we got his email and stuff.

Thursday was just a crazy ton of planning and a lesson that went pretty good. Friday was going to Chitose again and not being able to meet with a bunch of people we wanted to and searching for this address that someone gave us one day. Saturday and Sunday were conference. Nuff said. So far on P-day it has just been regular. We taught a lesson to Nodoka again and she gave us origami and popcorn and a thank you note. She also rocked all the roleplay baptismal interview questions. Still a genius.

Anyways I love ya a ton and it's great here! Stay spiritually strong and keep showing your strong amazing examples! I've been resting enough and it's time to go dendo my heart out. Thanks a ton as always! Love ya bunches!!!