6/15/14 Happy Father's Day!

Hey! Being in a 3 some is mostly for the mission president transition because I go home like a week and a half after Nakatsuka Kaicho and Shimai get here. I'm really lucky I get to meet them! It would've been fun to extend, but I think that was just me wanting to end my mission in the way I wanted to end it. What's more important is ending it how the Lord wants me to which is obviously the Honbu! I did talk to President Evans about it for like half a minute and he kinda said the same thing. I'm not bummed about it at all. I'm glad you are so trusting in the Lord and would've been okay with it if it were to happen! You are the best family. I'm so excited to spend time with you again. I'm definitely not excited to leave this wonderful place, but it will be wonderful to give everyone big hugs and play with Lily again.

I'm glad they sent the itinerary! Hopefully Haramai Shimai and maybe some other Chitose/Eniwa members can come see me off. :)

I have no idea where I will apply or even try applying at this point so there will probably be some time. I also don't really want to go back to USU unless there is nothing else to do.
The melon flavored melon pan is the best. In Nemuro they had a cantaloupe one that rules.
Sounds like you had an awesome Saturday! It's Father's day now right? I wrote dad a letter and I'll send it today. The house sounds like it will be crazy! Condie pool parties are definitely natsukashii... (nostalgic) I am kind of nervous to go to church in America hahaha. Thankfully Tomita E and Chiba E took the shimai clothes away to a recycle shop! It was great. :D

I'll try as far as pictures go! I feel like anything that happens here, Evans S gets pictures and puts them on facebook anyways w.

Here's the weeeeek
Monday was the Sapporo activity! We had a barbecue (I cooked) and then hiked Maruyama (round mountain) and it was fun. It reminded me of a YSA activity or something so I had to do my best to not get trunky wwww. We did some great streeting after that around Odori Park. Tuesday was an Asahikawa adventure! In the morning, kaicho was getting his visa renewed so we went to Andersen E's DTM that was pretty fun! It's always nice to be able to go to DTM. After that Chiba E needed someone to go with him to Asahikawa to sign off for a new sister's apartment and since we are a 3 man AP and the recorder is busy doing the job that normally 3 people do, I went with him! We mostly just rode the bus, I wrote note cards, and in Asahikawa said hi to Nishime E, Spurling E, and ate ramen that was amazing. Wednesday was ML kaigi. It went pretty good and we had a workshop on teaching people without a Christian background from PMG and it was mostly discussions on how we can teach our missionaries to do it better. Thursday was a long day in the office. I think... I can't really remember what happened on this day. We did do a lot of streeting at night around the honbu and Odori park. Friday was similar, but we did a lot of cleaning and preparation too because Ringwood Kaicho from the Asia North presidency came to give Kaicho his returning interview. He is a cool guy, but didn't remember meeting me when I was a bean w. Other than that, Lee E and I are owning microsoft excel. The spreadsheet I made from hearing reports got way more convenient. It was tiring to be in the office. We would've left, but someone had to stay with Denison E. That night we went to Moiwa because I had splits with Andersen E the next day! (He is a ZL now) I see him a ton lately, but it was really fun to talk and stuff again. We had decent splits the day after. It is so great to have a normal schedule! We did a bunch of streeting in these rich mountain neighborhoods. We found an older lady with great English who heard the Mormon Tabernacle choir before. We also saw a Rolls Royce. We stopped by a Matsuri that was nothing compared to the Nemuro one, before dendoing around Odori park. Matsuhashi E (Andersen E's comp) broke his bike so they had to stay at the honbu that night. Sunday was great! I was really tired, but the talks were super good and we had lessons on the sacrament and the oath and covenant of the priesthood. This cool inactive member who's about 19 came coz we invited him and I didn't think he was going to stay, but he did! He then came to the Pres Evans Fireside that we had after church! I sang with 3 other missionaries at that. Their talks were really awesome. Because of that though we didn't have a lot of time to do anything else! I am still a little sleepy, but am looking forward to doing something fun today! (probably shop or something0 btw! I had to buy new shoes(because I only had soft leather ones) and I found these really good ones that are waterproof that were on sale from 7000yen to 2000yen! wooo). :)
I love you tons and tons! Have a great week!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

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

3/16/14 Surprise ZTM and Asahikawa music night

Hey! Thanks for the great letters as always. Thanks for the fun pictures too. Olivia looks like she had a good birthday. How lucky they are to have gotten to go to Disneyland with their awesome parents! Sounds like a new house is a pretty great (birthday) present for Dave, though it'll take some work. I'm excited to see it become awesome little by little. I'm so grateful for his amazing example as a father and friend. He is Christlike in a lot of different ways and it shows in his daughters' beautiful faces. I hope his birthday is incredible. Ask him if there is anything that he wants from Japan as well :) Washi tape is really easy to find and so are bento boxes. You can get them in just about any character you want. Nishime E is from Okinawa, yeah. You are lucky (to find his picture) because he is the youngest of the missionaries that are on that Christmas card. I counted the other day and only 11 of them are still living. He is way cool and it is great to have a Nihonjin comp again! That's cool you're still talking with Rodenberg E's family. If you meet them, say hi for me and make fun of Rodenberg E's clothes or something haha, jk. That's awesome you got a mail from Okuchi S as well! Her English is getting a lot better! Thanks for the package I am looking forward to it!

Your missionary experience is so dang cool! Wow. That sounds like something from an Liahona article or something. Sounds like it'll be really amazing! That was cool of you to give her a book about non-alcoholic drinks too. I'm rooting for you!

This week was pretty crazy! P-day we had some finding and I had a little music practice w/ the Ebetsu elders for the Asahikawa music night that is all of a sudden happening on Saturday. The next day Nishime E and I planned for a ZTM that is being coupled with the music night so we had to hurry and plan a bit. When we finished we went to this kinda out there part of the area called Kamihoromui where we found a lot and visited the Miyazaki family. She gave us tons of great bread and we shared a spiritual message. Wednesday we had MLkaigi again and it was cool and eye opening. Pretty soon I'll be the oldest in the mission. There are so many missionaries coming in and I'm so jealous! It's great to be in a position to serve them, though! We learned a lot about focusing more on PMG in helping the young missionaries become the next leaders.

Afterwards I had a little practice with Evans S and headed home to call a bunch of old investigators. We found some neat people we can probably pick up! Thursday we were going to meet Hayashi, but he ended up being busy at the last second. I'm glad his prayer got answered and he found work, but I hope we can find more time to meet! Otherwise we did a bunch of finding and found some really nice grandmas. We had Eikaiwa and I'm still getting used to teaching the normal class again haha. Nishime E seems to be really good with the kids. That night we swung over to Asahikawa for splits on Friday. I went with Bickel E and had a fun time finding with him. He came at the same time as Morgan E so he is still young, but growing a lot. We also helped out at the Asahikawa Eikaiwa that night.

Saturday was the busy day. On Friday night we had to lay out 12 futons in the Asahikawa apt so that was crazy. We started out with ZTM and did our workshop on finding with three categories: enjoying it, being united, and being engaged in it. It went great. The sister training leaders did a workshop on comp relations and the AP's did one on baptismal invites. Afterwards we had a testimony meeting then a lot of last minute time for the music night which went pretty well I think. I played my song and played with Evans S on 'Sukiyaki' which you might know. This member from Kitami came and played these really cool songs he wrote about the gospel and stuff. He did a trio with two other Shimai and they sounded a lot like the Mamas and the Papas and it was great. He usually plays in a gospel themed reggae band with his family, but they haven't been able to get together lately. Anyways, we came home on Sunday morning very tired and had a good Sunday with another NA visiting adventure with Adachi Kaicho. As usual I was a horrible son and forgot to take my camera out once. Sorry! I will repent ;)

I had a cool thought about the sacrament last Sunday. It's really simple, but I thought that repentance is like doing our homework, and taking the sacrament is like turning it in. You can get it done, but it's not til you actually turn it in that you can get it off your chest. It's such a great feeling :D

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

3/2/14 Probably the busiest week ever

Hey! The snow keeps melting, but it's falling again. I don't think anyone can escape Hokkaido winter so easily, hahaha. It must be fun to have almost no snow already! I want to bike!!! I want to run in the morning too... I've gone up like five kilos since Nemuro. It doesn't show, but I can feel it (T-T) Too many long train rides... Time to step up morning exercise.

I am really big on getting rid of old stuff to make room/pack lighter. Would you be upset if I didn't keep every letter you sent? I'll definitely keep certain ones, but it's hard to store them all. With college and all I feel way dumb about not talking to him about it earlier, but I'm glad I at least have the picture now. Thanks for always helping so much money wise. I need to be more grateful! If there is anything you want me to get for you guys here in Japan please let me know. I almost never buy souvenirs. Dave and the gang look like they're having fun as always! I'll prepare to work hard on their house. I probably won't have many other things to do haha.

Transfer calls are tomorrow and I think next transfer is going to be pretty crazy. Actually it'll definitely be crazy. Dixon E is leaving and so is Hatch E. I have definitely grown a lot since being a bean, but there are parts of me that realize that I need to get back some of the traits that I had at the time. Especially dendo fire and being excited about the work. I am for sure still excited and wanting to dendo, but having so many things to do makes it tricky sometimes.

That's so cool Nemuro has a facebook page! They are really moving forward. I'm so excited for them! BTW the Satou family that I taught before got baptismal dates again! The facebook responsibility sounds like it fits Okuchi Shimai really well. My camera keeps dying at all the key moments lately. Particularly the music concert... Which went awesome! Here's the week.

Monday was music practice, then riding straight to Asahikawa to go with the first ward elders (Suehiro) which was fun. I went to their DTM and met a shimai who was in the MTC with me! She is Tongan, but raised in Japan and that was kinda cool. I also got to go on splits with Hatch E and dendo with him one more time. We left for Shibetsu that night and I went on splits with Komori E who came with me to Japan. He is a great guy. His comp Satou E is really fun. Thursday we came back to Iwamizawa, ran to Bibai to visit an NA and then came back to have Eikaiwa. After Eikaiwa we went to Ebetsu because I did a baptismal interview! It went great! I also went on splits with Spurling E that day one more time. Saturday morning we worked a bit and then headed to Sapporo to practice and prep for music night. It was a blast! Everyone's numbers were probably the best they've ever been (even though I dropped my pick haha). It was great. Adachi the investigator came with EIGHT friends! Whoa. Sunday was good and we decided to take some time for phone dendo and organizing member records so Dixon E could pack. I also made some way good tomato sauce.

I'm looking forward to a normal p-day today B)
Thanks for everything and love you so much!!!

Hutchinson Choro

2/16/14 Music Night Number One

Hey! Thanks for all the cool news about your trip. Sounds crazy! Dad looks crazy good. You could've photoshopped Adam's head on that picture and I probably wouldn't have noticed! Sounds like he was being a boss missionary too! That's my dad :)

I hope you didn't eat too much southern comfort food. The members gave us so much valentines candy it's frustrating, haha. They also give us lots of tomatoes and lettuce. They actually give us a lot of really good, useful food as well actually. They are great ;D Also I hope to see all the rest of your pics after I get home. The adjusting to missionary life book doesn't really have any adjustments.... It's just about tips for overcoming bad habits or stress or other little things like that you can work on. I also heard about the crazy weather in New York. Tell Joseph hi if you see him! Here's the ridiculous week.

Monday was pretty much owned by music practice. Whoa. We went to Ebetsu that night for splits the next day. I bought some stuff for the guitar. Tuesday I had splits with Spurling E who is the district leader of Ebetsu now. He is fun and a great missionary. Because we had DTM and Eikaiwa on the same day there, splits were pretty short, but we found a pretty kinjin middle aged couple that let us in and practically fed us dinner. Awesome. Tuesday his comp Brackner E and I headed to Iwamizawa and worked. It was way fun and we taught Hayashi about prayer and faith. He told us more awesome stories about his life and how he was helped by going to church when he was younger. He also prayed for 15 minutes straight. We had some more fun finding and then headed home. After that was Thursday which was some weekly planning and Eikaiwa in Iwamizawa. Friday we went to Bibai and had a really good lesson with an NA about the celestial kingdom. We also contacted this lady we met in Iwamizawa. Kinda cool story. We were pinging a small apartment building when Dixon E accidentally pings a door that has tape over the mailbox (sign that no one lives there) and right as I point out that probably no one lives there, the apartment owner comes out! She actually lives in Bibai, but was super nice and gave us her real address. When we visited her, her and her husband, both way awesome and way interested. We also visited Yamashita afterwards and had a... interesting, but good lesson. He has a lot of concerns, but pretty much decided no matter what we say he doesn't want to change. I know he will someday, but it was kinda sad because there wasn't much we could do. He has problems forgiving people and stuff, but that just takes time and love :)

Saturday was owned by the music concert. Practice in the morning and performance. The music night was way fun and I performed a song that I arranged this time with a small group. My old investigator Nakagawa from Toyohira came and that was way awesome! Hopefully from that he'll meet with the missionaries there again. Sunday was good and I was insanely tired. We had to plan more for ZTM after church and that was pretty much it! Hopefully we can get 100% prepared for it today!

Thanks for everything! I love you tons and I'm grateful for all of your support and love. It is crazy Adam transferred so much already hahaa.

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Picture that a member drew of me while giving a talk

Me and Nakagawa, investigator from Toyohira

1/13/14 Never ending snow

So it snowed. A lot. I knew Iwamizawa was the snowiest area in Hokkaido... but i didn't think it was THAT much more. It's above my head. Church was canceled except for sacrament, but that was kinda neat because we got to do lots of service and shoveling to help people make it to sacrament.

All the birthdays and mini get togethers sound great. I am probably not even going to recognize half of the ward when I get back ne, hahaha. I hope you have fun practicing for the relief society meeting! Today p-day was nothing but music practice...... I love music, but I would like a p-day sometimes haha. I'm glad you got Hatch E's mail. I felt bad for running out of time. The meetings that Heavenly Father guides us to blow me away all the time. Thanks for telling everyone back home how I'm doing and thanks for receiving and showing a bunch of gratitude for the blessings you receive.

So Zone Conference went WAY good. We rode with the AP's to Asahikawa and got everyone together. I thought I was going to be nervous, but everything went way smooth. We talked about goals and basically just went through PMG about goal setting and having faith in the goals. We encouraged everybody to have faith and bore testimony a ton because we know how much success they can see here because it is an area that God has prepared and opened through church leaders. We had everyone report numbers etc yesterday and almost all the missionaries improved like CRAZY! They all said they were way inspired by the workshop to make high goals and work hard. Anyways after getting back I went on splits with the AP Jones E and we had a lot of fun streeting and stuff. I still don't know the area very well at all because we are always gone, but we made stuff happen.

The next day we went to Ebetsu and had splits and I went w/ Sakamura E. He is so awesome. He has so much dendo fire and is way funny. We went all over the area finding old investigators and giving feedback on each-others' finding skills. The next day we had DKK and headed to Takikawa. In Takikawa I went on splits with Yanada E who also has lots of dendo fire. Next transfer is his last and he wants to make sure he ends strong. Yoshikawa E who was in Kushiro is his comp so it was good to see him again. We taught this way cool guy who has been an investigator since he was little and is like 37 now. However he had a big change of heart and wants to get baptized way bad now. We made a baptismal date with him and that was super exciting for them.

We came back from Takikawa on Saturday and headed to this part of our area called Bibai (it means beautiful song) to see Yamashita. We met another really nice NA there before we went and taught him a lesson. He is way awesome. We taught him mostly the rest of the commandments and he accepted them all right away except for wine... He feels like since it's in the bible that it should be an exception. We explained to him about how it's restored truth and he understands that, but just needs to get the confirmation for himself. Then I pretty much told you what Sunday was like so yeah!

The gospel is so incredibly true and I love being a missionary. I've gotta head back to Iwamizawa though so I'll catch ya later! Love you tons!!! Aishiteimasu! BTW tomorrow we have DTM then go to Wakkanai which basically takes all day. It's the northest! I'm way excited.

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

12/31/13 akemashite omedetou gozaimasu (happy new year's)

Hey! Christmas was pretty missionary-y and Japanese-y, but still way awesome. I'm glad the call worked out. I always feel like they end up being all over the place, but I guess that's what happens when everyone is excited. Thats crazy you had to have Christmas dinner at Maverick! Sounds like Lily got some great presents and Adam's phone call was fun too. Definitely send me a pic of Dave's present when you have the chance. I'm glad the Hutchinson family is doing good. It doesn't snowstorm here every day, but there was a way crazy one last Saturday. My new shoes are definitely awesome and you don't have to worry about money. They were a present. I was only gonna get one pair of shoes, but since they were on sale she bought me 2. Way generous and awesome! I hope Mara's talk, etc. went great too!

Here's the week. (since talking to you) So Wednesday DTM went great and we ate sushi with everyone. Then went back to Iwamizawa and planned a bit for zone stuff then went out to do Merry Christmas dendo. Basically like normal housing, but we only went to houses with Christmas decorations and talked about Christmas extra. We did find one pretty cool guy we'll meet again on Friday. On Thursday we had some planning and then rode w/ Adachi B to teach Yamashita at his house. He lives in the city next door called Bibai. It went pretty good. He had a concern at church so we addressed that and then taught him about the plan of salvation which he is really interested in. He definitely has a lot of potential and I can almost say for sure he'll get baptized. We just need to be patient because he likes to talk a lot and has lots of little concerns. After that we rode from the station in Bibai to Shibetsu! We had splits there and they went awesome. It is the second smallest area after Nemuro. There is a lady there who runs a pretty classy shop and is like a Mom to the missionaries. She fed us all for free and we talked with her, a member, and a non-attending. I went on splits w/ Hirata E who is on his 3rd transfer. It was way fun and we taught some awesome people that he had found + I taught him how to street contact because his trainer never taught him. On the way home I found a way interesting shop called "Rodeo" that was just full of retro American stuff, playing oldies rockabilly music. It was way cool and I met the shop owners and they were way happy to meet a real American. It was a pretty unique chance to share the gospel because I tied his desire to show Japanese people what America is like, to us wanting to show everyone they joy we get from the gospel. He was really cool. Kinda looked like a biker with a super long goatee, but we made pretty good friends.

We rode back home and did a bit of finding on Saturday before riding w/ Adachi B and Yamashita to Sapporo to see the Messiah concert. He had a good time + we got to review and talk more about what we had talked about so far in the car. Also, I got to meet a ton of members from Eniwa and Toyohira! That was way happy. Best part is that everyone remembered me! Church went pretty great even though Yamashita had a thing come up and couldn't come. We did a bunch of finding after talking w/members and stuff a lot. I actually translated sacrament meeting into sign language for the deaf member and it was way hard, but I did it somehow. It's pretty fun, but I definitely don't know that much yet hahaha. Monday was DTM in Ebetsu that went great. We ate and came back to visit this NA family (whose daughter came up to visit for new year's-she's active). It was pretty fun and though her parents are in their 80's we had a fun and spiritual time. Yesterday was read the BofM all day day. I got way tired and fell asleep while reading several times and didn't even get half as far as I got last year, but it was still awesome and I got some good revelations for our zone. At night we ate "toshi koshi soba" which is a Japanese tradition that they do every new year's. It was pretty fun. Maybe I'll do it every year from now on :) Did you do anything for new year's?

I'm so grateful for the Christmas season and chance to think of Christ so much more. I'm also really grateful for the awesome responsibility I have to be a leader and serve the missionaries in my zone and district. I miss just focusing on investigators sometimes, but all together it's such an awesome experience. Love you tons! Happy new year's!!!!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

toshi koshi soba

in front of Rodeo

My district at Odori park after caroling

Me on Book of Mormon day

Icicles

Day after snow storm

Everyone at the shop in Shibetsu

Our Christmas dinner

Christmas cake

Christmas morning in Ebetsu

more icicles

12/15/13 "I am in Iwamizawa. I am a zone leader. I am buried in snow."

(Note: when Braden's mom looked up the name of this city, she was surprised to see that while Nemuro has 14" average precip in December, Iwamizawa has 87")

Hey!!!! That's cool you got to see the transfer list again. I'm in a place called Iwamizawa. It means "boulder overlooking swamp." It's a branch as well, but the church is way nice and huge. My companion is named Elder Hatch and he's a boss. He's a few transfers older than me (he actually went into the MTC with Gandy E) but since we are zone leaders we are both SR companion haha. I'm ZL over Asahikawa zone which goes all the way up to Wakkanai which is the very top of Hokkaido. I really hope I can go because it is a recently opened area with a tiny branch just like Nemuro! I'm also excited to go on lots of splits all over the zone, but it is tough not having a lot of time to focus on your own area. The members here are way legit especially the branch president Adachi B. He is way strong and has tons of dendo fire. We actually haven't done any finding since we got here since he has taken us everywhere (which is nice because the snow was INSANE! Iwamizawa is known for being the snowiest part of Hokkaido). He has taken us to visit a lot of less active members and he also has been doing a lot of planning with us to help out our investigators. Since this area has been a ZL area for a while, there are not very many investigators, but the ones we have seem pretty cool. I'll tell you about how everything went since last week though.

On Monday in Nemuro I honestly spent a pretty good amount of time packing because of how sure I was about transferring. That day of dendo was visiting a few investigators and also doing some finding to give Morgan E more potential investigators to work with. On Tuesday we got our transfer calls. We found out that the next Nemuro missionary is Kina E, the former AP so I'm way stoked about that. We had a good DTM with testimonies and headed to an appt with Kunii. We ate sushi and he promised to read the BoM over his Christmas break! I ate a lot of sushi because it might be the last time I get to eat eastern Hokkaido sushi... T-T After that we tried to do finding, but it RAINED way hard. It wasn't effective/no one was home so we went home and got a call from Ozawa B and Okuchi S and went over to Ozawa family for a final party. It was way awesome. Kinda random, but Okuchi S pulled out her tablet and we skyped with Ishiga E! He is doing pretty great hahaha. Wednesday was eating my favorite food in the world (the chocolate covered cream filled melon bread from this store that's only in Nemuro) and then all day travel to Sapporo. We left at about 12 and got there at about 8:30. There was about an hour in Kushiro (where I said bye to my awesome, grown up bean, Morgan E) but yeah. Crazy. A bunch of members came to see me off. A bunch of other people were going to as well, but the train was too early. At the Honbu I practiced my song with Mecham E (Where can I turn for peace, yeah it should be on Youtube eventually. I don't remember when the performance is). I also found out that Andersen E became a trainer! Way happy for him. He is such a brother to me. I stayed up talking to him for a bit. The next day we had a way long music practice and met all the other missionaries. Stilson E went home which is way depressing. He is also like a brother. It was way awesome to see everyone though. We came back to Iwamizawa that night in time for Eikaiwa which was pretty good. Just like in Nemuro I teach the crazy kids class. Me and Hatch E are also district leaders. We just take turns doing district meeting. Friday we had DKK which is way different as a ZL because it was mostly planning splits and not as much planning for Iwamizawa. We also met a pretty cool non-attending member named N who is pretty nice, but has WoW problems :(

Then we tried to visit a member who sometimes comes to invite him to the Christmas party. It was the craziest blizzard ever :) But we made it there and back w/out any problems. When I first got here there was almost no snow. I send you a picture of outside the church. Saturday was the sweet Christmas party. We did a song with the Eikaiwa students and I played guitar (Silent Night) and a decent amount of people came (I was also Samuel the Lamanite in the play). There is also a deaf member here so I got to use my sign language again! Everyone was way impressed and they want me to translate for her in sacrament meeting... I'll see what I can do! Sorry the space bar on this keyboard isn't very good. This guy named Y came as well. He actually met missionaries 30 years ago and then some stuff happened in his life prompting them that he needed to meet again so he called the Honbu and met up with us. After the party we had a pretty good lesson with him. He really wants to believe and mostly does believe our teachings, he just also wants to believe buddhism at the same time. I think he really has a ton of potential though. We invited him to baptism and he seems like he wants to when he knows everything more fully.

After that we rode w/ Adachi B to another non-attending and it went pretty well. We introduced her to the RS pres so that we will be able to hand her off to the RS soon. Way good thing. Way too many non-attendings for just the missionaries. Sunday went good too! I gave a talk and I wasn't used to only having to give a 10 minute talk, hahaha. The members here are so so awesome. After church we visited another NA w/ Adachi B in a far off area who is 16 years old. He and his brothers got baptized and were way active, but since they moved it became hard to go to church. We talked to him and his mom and she really supports him going to church and worked out a way for him to come up to Iwamizawa more often for church! Pretty stoked for him. His name is Suzuki Kouta B. And that's about it!

I'm excited for all the cool things you are doing for Christmas! I hope everyone gets feeling 100% soon. I haven't written Adam yet, but I'll work on it. I'm glad Mya and them are doing great. That's cool how polite she is! haha Thank you for your testimony and love and support. You are so awesome!!! I love you so much!

Aishitemasu!!
Hutchinson Choro

Farewells at the train station

This time, see if you can find Yuka

FHE with Ozawa and Okuchi families

With Kanno Yuji

Hatch Choro, Braden's new comp and fellow ZL

Snow at the church in Iwamizawa

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:

9/15/13 Too Many Splits

Hey! So I did get the package! We went to Kushiro on Monday morning for a district activity. And it actually came right after I left! I had to call the post office to get it redelivered, but it was all fine. It was pretty great! I still haven't used any of the deodorant or toothpaste from the last packages you gave me though. I will be fine on that for a pretty long time I think. Maybe even till the end of my mission! Yikes! Also the card is fine. I got the SS# and called the place again. After I put the number in, they asked for my pin and I was like HUH? I don't know it so that's why I'm calling! But before giving up I guessed one more time and it ended up being the right pin... hahaha. Guess it didn't get reset. I'm glad I remembered it though. I used the money to buy bike stuff and the best suit pants ever from uniclo ($20) Other than that we did bowling, ate some all you can eat naan at this sweet Indian curry place, and window shopped. Meh p-day I think, but we made the best of it.

That night I got to go on splits with Yoshikawa E who is on his first transfer... He should be on his 8th or something, holy cow he is such a good missionary!!! I had a WAY good time and learned a ton from him. It also made me really excited to maybe get a bean next transfer. Don't know for sure if I will still, but transfer calls are tonight! I sure would like to stay in Nemuro too... I feel like it's my home a lot of times. Especially since I practically put the house together hahaha. Also that morning in Kushiro the branch pres of Kushiro, Andrus Kaicho, picked us up from the bus stop and gave us breakfast and a tour of his new house!!! He's way cool. Make sure to keep checking my facebook every now and then if it's not too much trouble. I apparently get a bit of friend requests lately. The next day we had district meeting in person!!!! That is something I haven't done for a long time. It was pretty good. I then went on splits with Ishiga E. It was pretty interesting. We went to this far away area in Kushiro called Akan to visit an active member family and find a bit. It was a lot of time on a bus, but I learned a bit about working with members. When we did find though, I was able to be myself so much more than when I actually was with Ishiga E which was cool. He was really surprised at how much I've grown, I think.

The next morning, we had a normal schedule and went to Andrus Kaicho's house again to make breakfast (fajitas... first Mexican food in a long time!) and then ride to the bus. We got back to Nemuro really tired, but were still able to teach 2 way good lessons! One to the guy Nakagawa who we met last week. We made a baptismal date with him and he is looking forward to learning a ton! After that we had to go pick up the zone leaders for splits again and walk home with them from the Eki (train station). I went with Jones E who is from Arizona and a pretty good guy. I am really grateful to be working with Andersen E though. We match up pretty good I think. We did get some really good stuff done though. Our investigator Tatsuya actually listened really seriously to our lesson this time around! We taught L3 and he even asked some really good questions. He has changed and grown so much over time, it's awesome! Still a 22 year old kinda punk guy, but he's the best. He prayed for us out loud at the end of the lesson and also gave us a lot of tips on Japanese etiquette! He said that he wants us to be successful and give people a good image because we're his good friends. That was cool. Also Andersen E and the other ZL Stout E went to Igarashi Shimai who is the non-attending non-speaking/hearing member we went to eat ramen with one time. Stout E got really good at sign language in one of his other areas so it was perfect! According to Andersen E they had a great time and she came to church on Sunday for the first time in almost 10 years! Cool stuff.

Friday and Saturday we were very tired. I think I got a fever, but I worked through it until Sunday night where I fell asleep right when we got home. I feel great now! Friday we got our DKK cranked out somehow and then had Eikaiwa. Nakagawa came to that as well. Some of our students taught me some Hokkaido-only slang which was pretty funny. Saturday we went to Betsukai for the first time in a long time. We couldn't go to the farm, so we did lots of finding, but it was good. We met Kawashima again and she was glad to see us. She said she wants to pray and read the BoM etc again, but her husband is so against it he won't let her. Otherwise she is doing well and hoping for a day that she can hear the gospel again. We are too. On Sunday Van came to church again and it was really good. Instead of teaching gospel principles to a small class like usual, the branch pres wasn't there so Ozawa Kaicho had me teach everyone from the gospel principles book. I didn't prepare for that at all, but it went really good! After church Igarashi Shimai showed up and I tried really hard to remember/learn sign language. At the same time on the second floor the members threw a welcome party for the Okuchi's which was pretty awesome too! Van had to leave right when church got out, but we met her again at 3 and she brought 3 of her friends to talk with us! It was fun and nice to meet them, but kinda hard to keep the conversation focused on the gospel/our purpose etc. I guess that's what you deal with when you meet a group of girls in their 20's, but we:ll prepare more in advance next time... If only we had Vietnamese materials... Their Japanese isn't good enough for the Japanese stuff we have. We were able to teach Van the word of wisdom while walking which was really good though!

After that we met these two WAY awesome guys in their 20s that we found last week. Even though my head really hurt and it was way hot we taught some great lessons on prayer to both of them. I'm really excited to see them more because strong priesthood leaders are the most important thing to get Nemuro branch going!

Anyways, we don't have any big plans for today other than cleaning the apt. and maybe doing something little as an early birthday present to Okuchi Shimai.

Thanks for the snickerdoodle recipe!!! I'd definitely like to send it to Haramai Shimai too :) From what I hear she is doing way awesome! Haven't gotten a reply to the last letter I sent yet, but yeah! PS the candy you gave was well liked! The zone leaders nabbed a bunch while they were here.... but what I was able to save got passed out to a lot of Japanese people that are surprised about how strong the taste is in our candy! hahaha Thanks so much for the CD too! I love it! I'm really excited for the other music if you have a way to send it :) Maybe the best way would be to get the CD's/download online and then put it on an SD card and send that! Just an idea to save you money on postage. It'd also be convenient to me because our dvd players read SD cards, and CDs are tough to move around when transfers come. Whatever you can do will make me happy though!

Love you tons! Even though we've been tired lately with all the moving around, God puts us where we need to be to see the miracles that he is preparing. Remember and apply that in your lives too! Oooh also I was reading the Liahona this morning (probably last month or 2 month ago... We get the magazines way late coz we're missionaries....) a really good article about asking good questions in class that I thought you might like as a Sunday school teacher! I'm grateful to hear about the family and all the awesome stuff that's going on. Cool to see Adam's letters too! Love you and excited to hear from ya next week too!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Pres Evans, Van, the Okuchis

Raw fish (sanma, famous fish in Nemuro) that Okuchi shimai gave us as a present that we ate like that. Way good.

How DTM normally is here in Nemuro

Tatsuya and his kid

Vietnamese friends

Okuchi's party

9/8/13 Snickerdoodles and Vietnamese people

Hey! Good to hear from you and good to hear from Adam as well. He's gonna be a boss. Things have gotten better here and I hope the Dendo fire is helping you all to find ways that you can open your hearts and mouths up to the people around us that need you!
I haven't gotten my SSN from elder Hansen yet... He said he'd call right when he got it, but I guess he never did. I'll ring him now. Thanks for sending the package! Speaking of American candy we have a way awesome investigator named Tatsuya. I think I told you about him before, but he is probably more excited about that package than anyone else! Speaking of which I have more music requests.
Enoch Train - Jazzyish instrumental hymns. Way awesome. Hansen Choro had it
Lamb of God - Like an opera of Christ's life, but way epic. Hansen Choro had it too
RM and Singles ward soundtracks - maybe SOME of the songs are a bit rowdy for missionary life, but I remember there being some WAY good songs that I have been itching to hear ;)
Hope you can find them though! Hope it's not too much trouble as well ;)

Hope Mara has fun at the dance! Did not think she was already going to be 16! whoa! Her birthday is early though huh. Lily looks way sad!!!!!!!!! AH!!! Take good care of her. That sounds tough.

Did you take any pics of the Takara's?!? That's SOO awesome!!! Whoa! Their name means treasure, which is a way cool kanji. I am so excited about missionary work happening in the ward!!!! Be way good to them and strengthen them lots please!!!!!!!!

So the summary of this week issssss
On Monday we had yet again another day of catch-up on journals and letters (AND I ACTUALLY GOT CAUGHT UP!!! YEAH!!!) and we went finding for a bit. Found a really nice mom who got way excited about Eikaiwa. Tuesday we had a great DTM on prayer that opened our eyes a lot on what we need to improve on in helping our investigators understand the importance of prayer! We had a ton of appointments today, but only a few worked out. One was with an awesome guy with a HUGE house. He met missionaries when he was in high school and is 46 now. His family is in Sapporo, but his dad died so he came back to watch the business and house. We weren't able to teach him a lot, but we found out that his b-day was the next day. His family is all away and it seems like he doesn't have a lot of friends in Nemuro, so we brought him a card and some candy and he was WAY happy about it. I think it was a cool way to show him Christlike love. Andersen E's idea actually. We also tried to teach a Jehovah's witness lady who was nice, but they have a way of being really unopen to anything but their own teachings. However it was a neat experience to meet one nice enough to listen to what we had to say! That night it got insanely rainy. We had to miss a few of the appointments we had and stopped at our investigators house (Edo) and were able to play with the kids and teach a bit about the restoration and book of Mormon again. The husband is warming up to us a lot more. It was raining so bad still so the Edo's let us borrow an umbrella to walk home with our bikes. Wednesday was a good day of appointments as well. We visited Tatsuya in the hospital because he had been having stomach issues. Andersen E gave him a picture that he drew of him and his wife and kid that he requested and he was way happy about it.

While there he told us about this amazing cookie he got from a friend who went to America one time... Cinnamon taste... thin... soft. I had no idea what he was talking about. We also shared some scriptures with him and talked to him a lot about prayer. He is kind of a tough guy. He was a sailor, but in an accident got all the fingers but one on his left hand chopped off so he can't work anymore (though he gets TONS of money because of it). But anywho he wasn't very open to gospel stuff at first. This day was different though. He asked questions about the scripture and we also told him about how through trials we become stronger/even though we have trials, when we count our blessings we know we don't really have it that bad. It seemed like his countenance changed and he promised he'd try praying. After that we went to this other area to house and found a way funny cool old guy who somehow convinced Andersen E to teach him golf swing technique. We then taught a short lesson and he was really into it. When we set the next appointment he went over to his calendar and circled the day we wanted to come. We also taught a way cute little family across the street with 3 WAY cute little boys. The mom was really intent on listening and the kids just wanted to tell us about their toys and sunglasses etc.

We met with Van again that night at a nearby elementary school. She has been trying way hard to read the BoM in Japanese and is really thinking about what we are teaching. We also told her about baptism. She was baptized in her church before, but she said when she knows the BoM is true she will get baptized. She gave us a bunch of apples and pocky. Thursday was DKK and then running all over the place to appointments that didn't quite work out. We taught the Okuchi's a ton about the temple and Ayako is really interested in it! Her favorite temple is the Bountiful temple and it's her new phone wallpaper. We also gave them a picture of the Sapporo temple to put up. We gave her a gospel principles book and she has been studying it like crazy. Friday was lots and lots of finding. We were kinda hyper the night before and stayed up late talking so I was really tired, but we repented and I was able to make it through the day just fine! And oh yeah. The cake mix you sent me on my birthday? It has been sitting in the cupboard since then, BUT since I got my journal caught up I actually have time to do things! So I made snickerdoodles using the cake mix (we don't have any cake making supplies and I decided that the microwave cake wasn't my fav) We decided to give them to a bunch of people. Everyone was happy, but especially Tatsuya! Lo and behold they are his favorite cookies that are impossible to find in Japan and even if you find them they are hard and crusty like every other Japanese cookie. He was way happy. Therefore I want the recipe to make them from scratch ;D

Eikaiwa that night went pretty well. Not quite as many people as usual, but still lots of fun. Saturday was a bunch of finding and more being tired because I was trying to get over my staying up hangover... We found a way huge Japanese garden with a giant amazing pond and everything! Also another really cool dollar store. I don't know what I'll do when I get back to America and the dollar stores aren't any good. They are amazing here! We taught a lesson to our 80 year old investigator couple Abe about the doctrine of Christ. He is still having a bit of trouble with actually believing, but is trying hard. Or at least he says that wants to, but that's where it starts! We made a baptismal date with the both of them so that's exciting. Sunday was way cool. Van came to church and we gave her the Vietnamese BoM we ordered and she was SUPER happy to get it. She is getting better at understanding the gospel in Japanese. In gospel principles class I taught about our heavenly family and tied it into the doctrine of Christ. We made a baptismal date with her there too! Woooo! After church we went to meet the other friends, but they were asleep so we talked at the park for a bit. She gave me this cool Vietnamese game. It's like hacky sack, but with a feather on it and this plastic stuff that makes it springy. I forgot to take a good picture, but I'll send one next week! We tried playing with it and all these kids gathered around wanting to play too. They instantly became our best friends and wanting to drag us around everywhere and introduce us to their families etc. We headed home for lunch and Van gave us a ton of apples and juice again. People are too nice! We found some way cool 20ish year old guys (way rare in Nemuro) and one of them plays the guitar! We had a mini jam session. I am so rusty.... Maybe I'll use my new found time to get some practice in for once as long as it doesn't distract me from what's most important!!!

This work is the most important! There are so many miracles! Honestly so many very hard and mindblowing things, but there is always a way for us to get to where we need to be and feel the light of his love. Love you all tons!

Aishiteimasu

Hutchinson Choro

8/25/13 "There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny."

(First, a housekeeping note to mom: Yeah a bunch of people are trying to find me on facebook and I won't show up! Even if I search for them or go to one of your profiles and look in the friends. What's going on? Can you go on and accept the friend requests/turn my privacy settings down/off? Also I can't remember my pin # and am worried that it may have locked because of too many failed attempts... Please look into that because my bike's brake lines are dangerous right now and I have no money to fix them. THANKS! Maybe when you get that fixed you can contact the honbu and let them know to contact me so I can get it done ASAP. Thanks!

So yeah! The Okuchi's are doing way amazing still. Ayako Shimai said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting after I gave a 30 minute plus talk.... Yeah I got asked to give a talk on Saturday (the day before) and little did I know that I was the MAIN speaker. Yeah. A youth speaker and then me and that was all of sacrament meeting. Pretty cool experience. Everyone said it went really well afterwards and all the little kids were like NAGAAAAAAAIIIII!!!!! (long) Church was pretty awesome that day. For primary we went for a walk after a short lesson about hardships of the early church members. Yuka gave the prayer again and is getting way awesome at it! Also Ayako shimai has started practicing piano for her new calling as primary music coordinator. Way cool. They actually surprised us with dinner last night as well. They are pretty dead set on coming to America some day to visit us and also go to Disneyland. They made us promise that we would take them. I think I'll have to be really thrifty with money when I get home so it works out hahaha...

Other than them and their awesomeness I'll start from the beginning of last week. On Monday right after I finished emails, I found out that my bean had to get surgery again...... yeah right after we said goodbye to everybody for the 2nd time. It was a little stressful, but we are over it and really happy to be together for this transfer too! There is still a big chance that he will come and I will train him next transfer so I'll send his picture and info anyways. Whether he comes or not I'd still like to meet him someday, he seems way rad. Tuesday and Wednesday were really good, just lots of finding and little follow up lessons with investigators. Saying "oh hey! by the way Andersen Choro isn't actually transferring!" a few times as well. Thursday we had a kinda long DKK and headed off to Kushiro for Zone Training in Obihiro! Yay. Way tired and way rushed. I used to not be able to sleep on buses/trains at all, but it's all I can do now!

Woke up early on Friday to get to Obihiro. Practiced a song with the sisters in Kitami and played that at ZTM. It was the song we did at the baptism, but Evans shimai asked me to do it with some other missionaries. There are so many sisters in the mission it's not even funny. They are almost all brand new and can hardly speak Japanese at all. It's awesome though. Got to do some practice lessons/stuff with them and they have way strong testimonies and desires to serve. So do the new Elders! Made me excited to become trainer. Had a good interview with Kaicho as well and he pretty much just explained how he was sorry about the mix up and he still wants me to be trainer really bad. Cool! After that we ate some famous Obihiro butadon (pork on rice) and went back to Kushiro where we visited a family from the ward Andersen E was close with. The next morning we ate McDonalds for breakfast with the Kushiro branch Pres, Jay Andrus, who is way awesome and he saw us off to head back to Nemuro. We fixed Andersen E's bike tire and did some finding! What a week. Lots of moving around!

Sounds like your week was a blast! I'm excited for Adam's farewell and the house remodeling stuff being done! Pictures please! I'm really excited for Mara in high school too. Tell her to do her best in Boland's class. It's really easy, just don't let the slightly extremist teacher get to her. The only advice I have for Adam is that airplanes are awesome and I hope he started his Spanish study early. Still can't believe he has a girlfriend ... Crazy kid haha.

As far as candy... I don't know if I can just make a list of all the stuff they have, but I'll try: snickers, kit kats, pringles, m&ms...
Yeah, I'm stuck. Whatever you send will be fine, I'll just tell them it's from America and they'll be happy. Warheads would be awesome!

Every day here IS amazing! Love you tons! Another random experience. Last night we got approached by a group of Vietnamese girls that are living here to work (kinda like the Philipino guys at the farm) and they told us they really want to come to church! Random, but kinda cool.
Hope you see lots of miracles too! They come at the most unexpected times!

Love you!! Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson CHoro

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