7/6/14 My last p-day!

Here's how the week went :D So on Monday we were getting ready to have a normalish p-day of shopping or planning something fun, when all of a sudden I get a call from Nakatsuka kaicho about how they are worried about driving to Kushiro by themselves because they still have jet lag. This week they met all the missionaries in the mission by doing these little firesides with all the zones. Long story short we ended up riding with them all the way to Kushiro again so p-day died, but it was WAY fun to ride and talk with them! It was also great to go to Kushiro again! Sis Nakatsuka is a great driver ww. In Kushiro at night I slept on the balcony and it was amazing. Their fireside was sooo good! The main theme was obedience/working from the heart, not just because it's a rule. The Nakatsukas' testimonies are so strong and they are so funny. It is different without the Evans, but I'm so grateful I got to have that time with them. We came back on Tuesday and that was Monday and Tuesday www. Wednesday was basically a normal day of dendo!!! We did lots of housing and streeting and I was super hot and I loved it. We weren't able to meet a lot of the people we wanted, but dendoing in Sapporo is always fun because there are tons of people. We did meet an awesome Chinese guy that was super interested though! That night we met Zen kyoudai and had a great lesson w/ him about Scripture mastery. Probably my favorite day this week :D

Thursday was another Nakatsuka fireside with the Sapporo missionaries! It was great as well. We had this Okonomiyaki that you can grill right at the table courtesy of Andersen E's recommendation. Once we got back it was lots of transfer planning. Even though President only met the missionaries for a bit, he knew so much about them! I was so surprised. It went really well, but he hadn't met Asahikawa zone yet so we only went part way. That night we ate with some really fun members called the Ides! (E-days) They are cool. A single mom and an RM daughter. They have a lot of dendo fire and are way happy people. The daughter is trying super hard to get married. I'll try not to be a menace to society as much as possible. wwwwwwww

Friday we had a bunch of dendo as well! Kinda similar to Wednesday, but once the Nakatsukas got back there was lots of planning to do w/ them for next week. We also ate dinner at their house! That was pretty delicious. Sis Nakatsuka makes lasagna with tofu instead of ricotta. It was great!

Saturday talked about transfers even more! We got through everything and almost finished, but then had a lesson w/ the cool Chinese guy. It went pretty good! Kinda tricky because his Japanese isn't perfect, but pretty well! He's about 30, but really humble. He kept saying stuff like "if everyone in your church is like you guys, I want to join". He's going home in August, but I'm planning on emailing him after I get home as well. That night we went to sports night and hung out with some members, less actives, and other investigators. There are two kids who are crazy good at basketball. One of them is at least a few inches taller than Dave, but they were so chill and humble. They're the Odori elders' investigators and it'd be cool to see them get baptized. We also had Indian curry with all you can eat naan as usual and filled up for fast Sunday which was super good. We got to church and had coordination meeting and no one remembered that it was my last Sunday which was pretty funny. Everyone was like what? I would've gotten you something! Kotoni members love the missionaries a lot. Sacrament meeting was great too! They played all hymns that I love. By the way, do you know "Beautiful Zion with Hills Surrounded"? It's a great hymn. I never sang it once in America.

For testimonies I thought that obviously I had to get up, but before the bishopric member finished, like four people got up! I had to get up fast too and after me, like 7 more people came and sat down. Everyone's testimony was awesome, but as usual I couldn't do it in 5 minutes so everybody after me only had like a minute each. I feel like my testimony went great and of course everyone there was surprised it was my last Sunday too. The lessons were great about fasting and family history. After church I took pictures and said goodbye to a bunch of people. There is one member named Sakamoto Naomi Shimai who is my age. She asked us a few weeks ago to help her with her graduate program which was doing surveys to 50 nihonjin and 50 gaijin which would work out pretty well with the missionaries right? Well I sent it to everyone and almost nobody did it, so I told her that I'd help her out by giving the survey to people back home. She was so happy she cried and then brought me fruit that night. It shouldn't be too hard. I'm glad I found ways to help people even after I go home! Once we got home we put the cap on transfer plans. There was just one little thing that took up all of our time, but at the end everyone's timing of saying things helped us to find the perfect solutions. It was super spiritual. To end the day we went to eat at the Ebisawa's with the Harada family as well. It was way good and way genki. Ebisawa S's son is not very active, but since Harada B came back from his mission, he's been coming a lot! That was our week! I'm super excited to tell everyone about transfers! :)

I love you tons and I love it here, but I'm not going to complain about things that have to happen especially when they have great consequences like being able to see my super awesome family again. :)

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

4/20/14 Busiest week of my mission so far hahaha

Hey thanks! I'm pretty thrilled as well. I hope I can do all of the things that the Lord needs me to do while I am here. My goal in one part is to do everything to make this mission a better place. I actually just got a mail from Hansen E and read Adam's email. hahaha I told my bean the same thing because I am a third generation AP. Powell, Hansen, me. Morgan E just became a trainer over a cool Australian Elder Named Karaka E so I just became a grandpa!!! hahaha

So far the office has been great. Monday I got the money out and had a uniclo shopping spree. A member brought me a really sweet birthday cake. I bought some fun shirts and some new dress shirts, plus one pair of new slacks and a few other things. I have only used half the money, but might buy some new slip on dress shoes today. In the honbu there is lots of running around and changing shoes, so those would help haha. Anyways Nishime E and I ate sushi and then headed home to finish packing, said bye to some members and investigators by phone, then headed to the station where Hayashi met us to say goodbye. He is pretty great.

Unfortunately that picture killed my camera battery and I think I forgot my charger in Iwamizawa. Until then I can't take pictures so I didn't get any of this crazy week. After we rode back to Sapporo I met Elder Watabe and he gave me a bunch of AP training. Mostly computer stuff and a talk about what we do. After that we did transfer calls for the trainers! I got to tell Morgan E so that was cool. I was a little bit nervous at first, but the next day I got a lot more used to it and they went great. :D The next day was transfer calls and the rest of training. We also picked up the beans from the airport at night. There is a Vietnamese kid and he is going to Nemuro! I hope he can work with Van S a lot. They were super awesome. There are 9 nihonjin and 3 gaijin this time. Polynesian, Australian, and Viet. Pretty cool.

The next day was their training and all that great stuff. Thursday was transfers and all of the returning missionary stuff. Dinner, testimony meeting, etc. I'll actually spend my last time w/ Nakatsuka K so I'm glad I get to experience that once. Also this guy came to the honbu that one of the beans found with his trainer on his first hour of dendo. Pretty cool guy. Friday we sent the missionaries to the airport. We talked a lot in the car. My new comp Tomita E is sooo spiritual. I love the heck out of him. I feel more like a missionary with him than any other comp. He's way funny too. Friday night we got in some dendo time and found 2 WAY cool guys on the street and had pretty strong lessons w/ them. Sunday was great too. Kotoni ward is WAY bigger than anywhere I've been so far, but I've made a good relationship with most of the members so far. A lot of them had heard about me from other missionaries. After church we taught the recent convert Tadano Zen and that went great. Then we drove to some NAs before heading to a member's house for dinner. I will have to get my license renewed to drive here sooner or later!!! Anyway the member we visited used to dendo here and was in the same zone as me when I was a bean! The food was great. We got back and had baptismal reports and it was super busy but so fun!!!

I'm out of time, but I love you! I have been feeling the push and power of the spirit so much here!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

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

3/9/14 My new Okinawa buddy and lots of snow. Still.

Hey! I'm glad my letter was well received. I always feel like I'm in such a hurry sometimes. I can't believe everyone went home too. Crazy. Andersen E and Morgan E are still around as well of course. It's funny that of all my companions I've only had 3 who are younger than me one being my bean, one being Andersen E (one transfer below me) and my new companion Nishime E! (he is two below me). So I feel like I've never really been a normal senior yet haha. So far we have had a lot more dendo time so we'll see how everything goes. I'm pretty sure the music from the fireside should be posted soon... hmmm. I'll ask Evans shimai! Sounds like if you go to Pres. and Sis Evans' page you might be able to see one song. It should be about a week before everything is up.

I can definitely find washi tape for you. That stuff is everywhere. Good luck with your BoM challenge! I'm rooting for you! We have been having crazy Old Testament lessons lately as well. Smiling is going good too. I get along pretty good with Nishime E. He is a great missionary with lots of skills, but he is a tiny bit quiet sometimes. He is a great zone leader. You said you were going to post something from Sis. Evans? You also said you had a picture of Lily. Haha thanks for the girls pics as well. I feel like those girls get their picture taken all the time. I'm jealous of your sunny days. It'll get warm here and melty for a bit, but then freeze and snow all over again. Just when I was making plans to send my winter stuff back... haha.

I got a short letter from Mara and it sounds like she's doing good. I am WAY stoked that the Fullmers are going on a mission! They are just way too cool. So many miracles. I'm so happy. Please keep in touch with them. I am really excited to meet them again. How long will they be serving for? I can't think of anything I want in a package... I've officially given up chocolate for a while at least. It makes me sick. Literally. I haven't gone too long, but I feel better already :) Here's the week.

Monday was doing some finish up shopping with Dixon E and a bunch of finding. Tuesday we had DTM and it went way good. Spurling E had Dixon E and Smith S do two mini workshops and then he did one so it ended up that we had 3 chances to roleplay and it was awesome. We got our transfer calls and I also found out that one of my fav missionaries Sakamura E is going to Nemuro! He was a little nervous at first, but I'm happy he gets to go. We had lunch together and played a fun game that Dixon E and I made up. Then we went home and did a bit of finding and a bit of phone calls. Wednesday was eating lunch with the Okuizumi family then being taken to this big indoor garden for a sec. They dropped us off and we did some finding and Eikaiwa advertising. We also did a ton of phone dendo and found some interested people. Thursday we headed to the transfer spot and I met Nishime E and the new beans. We headed back, had DKK, planned for the zone, then went to Eikaiwa. Thankfully Nishime E is a boss at English (he wants to go to byu) so he taught the kids' class. It was my first time in a long time not teaching kids' class.

Friday was pretty good! All finding! We walked and knocked and had lots of fun. It was way colder than I thought it would be since it was warm the week before. The next day we went to Bibai and it was the same thing though we focused on old investigators. We taught the Takeuchi family again and they were good, they just have some really interesting beliefs right now. They love to hear the message, but not big on acting right now. Plus they live super far away. Last off was Sunday which was fun as well. Tochizaki S (the sign language sister) told me about her daughter (who is not a member and lives in Sapporo). She said she might move in with her soon and maybe try coming to church! That would be way cool. There is also a member (Kaneko B) who is way awesome who is having an open house that anyone can come to and he is making all the food. He invited everyone to come with friends so it'll be a good opportunity for members to introduce friends to missionaries and other members. We also found out that our ZTM is on Saturday so we have to prepare right away! Evans S is doing a mini fireside in Asahikawa as well so it's connected with that. That's where we are though! Thanks so much and love you tons! Find lots of ways to make missionary work happen :D You're already doing a big one helping Adam and me out.

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

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

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

8/11/13 O-Matsuri!!!! And lots of other surprising stuff.

Hey!!! So guess what? I'm becoming TRAINER!!!!

BUT
not yet...

My bean apparently had to get surgery and is delayed 2 weeks!
I was kinda sad at first because I was really excited to train and go to the cool meeting at the honbu where they do orientation and everyone gets to meet the beans, but also really happy that I get to work here with Andersen Choro for a bit longer!
Actually kind of a miracle I think because it will be JUST in time for both of us to see the Okuchi's get baptized!
We got the transfer calls on Monday because trainers get them early and spent the whole day saying goodbye and packing. Okuchi even threw a big goodbye party/fireworks show for Andersen E. When we were about to leave from saying goodbye to them all of the sudden I get a call from the Assistant to the president (Hansen Choro, my trainer who died this week too....) letting us know about the transfer being extended. Okuchi's were so happy and it was awesome. We met them everyday this week again and have taught them all the lessons. We even did a practice baptismal interview and they are set to go! The new district leader here is actually Ishiga Choro which is neat. He will be coming on Wednesday to do the real interview and they will get baptized on Sunday after church. It'll be the first convert baptisms in Nemuro in 8 years I think! They only had one jumpsuit here for Okuchi to wear, so we were going to have someone from Kushiro bring us more, but Okuchi is pretty good at sewing and is going to try to make Yuka's baptismal dress! She even wants to pass it down to the Ozawa's so that their daughters can use it when they turn 8 as well. She is so cool.

Other than that this week was going to another far-outish area called Attoko (that is way small, but we met a bunch of really nice old people) and the third biggest matsuri in Hokkaido which was so crazy. We couldn't really do regular dendo so we just tried to start up conversations with people normally while they watched the parades/went back and forth to the bazillion food/game stands they always have set up for matsuris. It was really fun because so many people try to speak English to us/get WAY surprised when we can speak Japanese. We were able to do a lot of easy Eikaiwa advertising through that as well. All in all it was pretty cool and very Japanese culture-ish. Andersen E took so many pictures it's crazy. We didn't do Eikaiwa because of the Matsuri, but hopefully tons more new people will come next week!

But sounds like stuff has been awesome there with mission prep, babysitting, and church activities etc. That's so sweet that Adam is going to the temple soon! What do you mean there is supposed to be a new movie? Hah? Have fun with all the farewells too! I'm super excited for Megan and new baby Brooklyn.

It definitely has been super awesome here. I feel like the email this week is really condensed, but it was just a bunch of little things and interesting people we met at the matsuri. Also being all over the place with the transfer mix up and not being able to do normal dendo because of the matsuri. It was definitely a full week though! I am excited to see what happens this week and I expect there to still be a lot of tricky things up until the baptism, because that is how the adversary works, but we'll make sure to follow the spirit til the end and not give up! Love you tons and am grateful for your support!!!!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

8/4/13 Stressed about transfers

Hey! It was another good and crazy week! I feel like we had to run around so much and didn't get a lot of the things we wanted to get done done, but at the same time I feel like we still did so much. On p-day after email we took some dry cleaning to this lady named Endo whose son used to be in the branch, but moved. She is way nice and does it for free. After that we shopped and looked at clothes for a bit, but I had an inner battle and ended up not buying any. It is really easy to find clothes that I like here, but with not being able to wear them, they just become another thing to pack so I will probably wait til closer to when I go back to America. We dendo'd by Okuchis for a bit and then met them to teach them about Joseph Smith more in depth. They are getting more and more into it and involved when we teach.

Tuesday we had DTM and right after I went to get on my bike and the tire was way flat. It also rained really hard all of a sudden. I had to push my bike across town to the only bike shop in Nemuro and it wasn't even open. So I left it there with a guy and we walked in the rain. Kinda tough, but we still got some good dendo in. We tried to shizen dendo in some stores too and that went ok. At night we went out to eat with the Okuchis and it was pretty fun. We followed up with them quite a bit then. Did I tell you before that Yuka had asthma before they met us, but ever since the day we visited it went away? Pretty crazy miracle. They have seen lots of others in their lives as well.

Wednesday was a day of lots of finding. We met some really fun and nice people though. Made some decent appointments and stuff as well. Then we stopped by the Okuchis for a sec to follow up on Joseph Smith and prayer again. We met them everyday this week actually.

Thursday we had DKK which went a little long. Andersen E and I just get along too well and talk too much hahah. Afterwards I called Kawashima and she was happy to hear from me. She has been reading and studying a bunch and has lots of interest. She is starting to have weird concerns about ghosts and the universe and stuff, but I shared Jacob 4:8 and it helped a lot. Hopefully we can just get her to the next step of coming to church somehow... We went to this awesome area called Tomoshiri which is a little ways away, but it was way pretty. It has a huge (freezing cold) beach and islands out in the distance and stuff. There were some nice people there too. Some even gave us frozen shrimp. We headed back to see Okuchi because she made curry for us. We taught about modern day prophets/revelation and then taught the word of wisdom. It went so well I was surprised. They love coffee and tea, but were not hesitant at all to commit to giving it up. It was the part I was most worried about.

Friday was interesting. We went to Nishihama and the ocean was really windy and wavy. We tried to visit some people who weren't home and then we visited the Sekiyas. The son was there and he was just about to leave. He said, "I'm going to make slime, want to come?" and it sounded interesting and we want to keep a good relationship with him so we went to the kids center there and watched a bunch of little kids make slime. It was fun to play with the little kids and leave a good impression on them and the teachers. We then went to pick up our dry cleaning and visit some other people in the area. One of them being Tatsuya who is the 23 year old guy we met the week before. He is way cool for real. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and told how it helped us and he promised to read it. He also came to eikaiwa that night! We had 11 people this time which is still a way good turn out! Him and another new lady came so our numbers just keep on growing ;) Throughout the whole week we have been worried about transfers... Neither of us want to leave because this is the best area ever. There is a high chance I could become a trainer next transfer because 9 new elders are coming to the mission. All the eikaiwa students/investigators were pretty bummed when they heard that we have a chance of leaving and stuff... Especially Okuchi's daughter Yuka.

Saturday we went to Betsukai and did some finding. A lot of the people we met last week were happy to see us again. We also taught the plan of salvation to Kawashima and she told us how she is changing a lot as far as feeling peace, attitude, smoking less etc. She is starting to get a testimony and it's so cool. Afterwards we helped at the farm again and gave some Tagalog copies of the Book of Mormon. We then played with the kids a bit and gave our scripture reading challenge to them too. After getting home we went to the park with the Okuchis for a bit and followed up and they have been keeping the word of wisdom!

Sunday was a great day too. The Okuchis love church especially primary! They went to play with the Ozawa kids last week twice and we didn't have to set anything up at all! Yuka shared a scripture and Ayako gave the opening prayer. It was so boss. Testimony meeting went way great too. I even got Karebu kyoudai to get up and bear his testimony too. Proud of him! We played a bunch after church then went home to eat. We dendo'd a bit nearby Endo (dry cleaning lady) and then went over to her house to eat for the first time in a long time. She made us cook (she likes doing that) and we made WAY too much food (she also likes doing that) including fried venison katsu. It was really good, but after like 15 minutes of eating I thought I was going to pass out (I think she likes that the best). We left to do missionary coordination meeting with Nakazawa kyoudai and called it a day.

I'm glad your week was great too! Lauren sent me an email with tons of pictures of Max. He has swagger I think. That's way cool the kitchen is just about done. Nice you had the missionaries over! I'm glad they were serious with the message and didn't just play the whole time. Cool that they shared advice with Adam too. I wish I could send him the shirts I find here. Not only are they way awesome, but they're only $10. I will probably end up with some too... I'm jealous you get to hear from so many of the other missionaries! A few people email me now and then, but that's about it. I'm glad the ward is doing awesome and let everyone know what I'm up to.

If I end up being a trainer I will probably find out sometime today. If not, regular transfer calls are tomorrow. I have always wanted to be a trainer, but I have gotten pretty close with Andersen E. Whatever happens I know it revelation from the Lord and what is best for the area! I love you a ton and for helping me to grow up and be ready for change and things that need to happen. Especially for helping me be able to handle the responsibilities that I am given whatever they may be.

Love you tons!!!!!!!!
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

4/7/13 "I Live In A House!"

I Live In A House!

HEY!!! Sorry last email was so short. I am way sorry. The sports activity made everything crazy. Also yeah, I did meet Daniel and his mom there!!! They were doing great and it was super good to talk to them. Thank you for the presents!! The CD is the best! The chocolate was delicious as well and I shared it with Stilson Choro. Also how did you know that I got transferred??? I am in Nemuro!!! There have been no missionaries here for 6 years and it is 7 hours away from Sapporo by train. My new companion is Inumaki Choro who was the Assistant to the President ever since I got to Japan. He is awesome!!! Also we live in a house not an apartment and it is pretty cool. A small house, but still cool. There are about 13-16 active members here and the church is very small too. It is a rented out building, but it is great. The members are way cool too. We are way excited to see a lot of miracles and baptisms here to make this area strong.

OK so I'll answer your questions (this was for another missionary going to Sapporo):
My backpack... I just use a regular backpack really haha the brand is dakine and it's made for laptops so it's really skinny. You can use any backpack really. The best is to just get one you like and then get a rain cover. I didn't buy a raincover when I was in the city and wish I did, but I'm doing ok as long as I put the stuff in my backpack in waterproof bags etc. Everyone also just uses completely normal sheets. No worries at all there.

Keisha in Buenos Aires? That sounds perfect for her!!! I'm way happy she is going out to serve and she is going to do so amazing I think! Tell her congrats for me and that she is way rad. Lauren thought she was in labor? Sounds tough! Still wondering when he'll come. Probably going to steal my birthday huh? hahaha You better get some sleep though! The hospital is an interesting place to watch conference! Funny that it is the room by where I was born too haha. I still don't know if I'll even be able to see conference in English because I am the only person this half of Japan that needs it. I might just print it all off from the internet and read it. Sounds like a good challenge from Bishop! I have been reading the issue you sent me quite a bit lately as well :) I'm way happy for Adam getting his papers pretty much done!!! Cedar City Temple?!? Whoa!!!!

Yeah Elder Stilson told me he wrote that letter. I'm glad you got it. He is way cool. (Note: this was a way cool letter Braden's comp wrote to his family thanking us for his great example. Made us cry, okay well mom at least ;) ) His new companion is Elder Harper my comp from the MTC. He'll do great there!

So since last Monday (I'd start from before, but I don't have my journal and can't remember) not a ton has happened. Of course we had the sports activity, that was not too bad plus I got to meet the Gandys. I don't really remember what we did for dendo that day, but it went pretty well. The next day at district meeting we had a way powerful testimony meeting and everyone shared way awesome experiences from their missions etc. After that I got my transfer call and was so surprised! I went home and waited at city hall for a few hours to get my residency card ready for me to transfer (it was very busy) and after that we tried to visit lots of members and investigators to say goodbye, but not too many were home. I got really close to the members in Toyohira even though I only had a short time. That night was lots of packing and getting other things ready, plus telling people that I was transferring. The next day was more of the same things. One of the members was really excited to celebrate my b-day with me - she brought over a cake and a bunch of other stuff. Probably one of the kindest letters I've gotten in Japan as well. That day we also tried to visit lots of investigators and members. Somehow when you tell everyone you are transferring everyone makes time to meet you. That was really nice. I'm really glad we still got to find some neat people on the street that day too. For dinner we went out to eat tonkatsu with an investigator and some members. The investigator gave me a tie and was really sad about me transferring, but excited for me too. He is way cool (Nakagawa). He has come to church twice and reads and prays every day. Way strong already actually. Then they came with us to Eikaiwa as well. The lesson went great and I announced my transfer to everyone at the end and took pictures and gave out my cards to them. They are great. One of them told me *every moment I spent with you is a treasure* in English. Hahaha way funny he is super cool. Next day was transfers. Went to the transfer spot and met Inumaki Choro and got going on my 7 hour train!!! I studied the whole time and talked with the guy sitting next to me. We arrived in Nemuro and the branch president met us and took us to eat and shop (there was hardly anything in the house when we got there, today our plans are mostly buying stuff for it haha). He is way cool and has 6 kids. They are most of the branch, but very strong. Next day was trying to organize the house etc in the morning and dendo like any other day! Nemuro is right next to the ocean. Literally a one minute walk from our house and you are there. It is a port town. Quite pretty. Hilly as well. Not very many people out on the street. When there are though, they are great people! Next day was pretty similar actually. We found some really awesome people already and have decent investigators already. The records the old missionaries left were not in good shape at all, so we have spent a lot of time organizing them! That's actually what most of Sunday was, after church (which was really moving in such a small place with the few people that were there). It was raining and windy WAY bad. (Another reason church was special, everyone got there anyways.) We tried to dendo for about an hour, but it was impossible so we returned to the house and organized and called people from the old records like crazy! Found some awesome people that way as well! It is way great to be here especially with Inumaki Choro. He is such a great and skilled missionary. He's great at English too! We mostly speak Japanese though. I have learned a lot about being humble, yet bold and realistic, yet faithful. There are so many blessings within the hard things that come to us as long as we show faith and search for them. I'm grateful to be here and grateful for my awesome family and this amazing restored Gospel! I know Jesus Christ is our Savior even stronger and know that He loves every single person in this little town. I love you and am excited for the miracles in your lives as well! Not to mention Max! I want to write a real letter soon.

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Early birthday cake from a member in Toyohira

Eikaiwa group in Toyohira

With new comp, Inumaki Choro - (he says excuse the glasses)

Church building in Nemuro

2/17/13 I'm in TOYOHIRA now!!! AND IT ROCKS!

HEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!
I left Eniwa :'( but I'm in TOYOHIRA now!!! AND IT ROCKS!
So it was a pretty intense week. On Monday we went to Lake Shikotsuko because they have a festival there called Hyoutou Matsuri and it was SOOOOOOOO good. It was way better than yuki matsuri not gonna lie. They made these huge caves out of ice that they poured little by little over these frames so everything looked like a frozen waterfall. So amazing. Look up pictures because I forgot my camera so you should look up pictures online until next week. It was awesome and the lake was really cool. We went with Sugiura shimai and then the rest of the p-day we just chilled. Tuesday was transfer calls and they came really early but I found out that I was going to Toyohira with STILSON CHORO who is the coolest guy ever. He is a convert from Seattle Washington and super strong. He is 23 and super buff. Probably the buffest missionary in Hokkaido haha. He played football and tons of sports and is probably also the nicest guy ever as well. The members and investigators in Toyohira are super cool as well and I am just super excited about everything. I will probably say lots of cool stuff about Stilson Choro and the ward as I go.
So on Wednesday we met a few non-attending members named Adachi and Katou shimai and they were super funny. I made a paper with our favorite scriptures on it and we are handing it out to a lot of people to help them read the Book of Mormon more. I also met another non attending that morning at the church (which is 3 stories tall!!!!) and we also taught him a way powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it in your testimony. Way good lesson and he is really into music too, so he was really interested that I studied guitar and stuff.

The time went by really fast actually and I don't have my planner or journal so I don't remember a ton of stuff, but dendo here is crazy different. Probably 4x the amount of people talk back to you than Eniwa plus there are tons tons more people here. We have met some crazy cool people on the streets haha. So we also went to a couple members' houses (the Kurami's and the Yasutani's) who are super awesome and they love me a ton. I helped Yasutani kyoudai with his application to BYU. He is fluent at English and just a way cool guy. There are a ton of people here that speak English by the way!!! Way surprising. On Sunday we went to church and it is such a fun ward! Everybody is way nice. They were excited to meet me too. There are seriously so many awesome people in the ward though I don't know if I could tell you about them all and I have only met them like once! Anyways we had our golden investigator named Yukio come to church (he is also fluent in English) and he liked church a ton. The lessons were all about missionary work and the spirit and so were the talks in sacrament meeting. After church we taught him a lesson (all in English so I was a bit nervous at first, but because of the spirit it ended up being really good and powerful) and he said he was looking forward to praying about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he wants them to be true. He is pretty much getting baptized no doubt. Elder Stilson found him last transfer on the street because he was wearing a Raiders jacket. He played football at a college in America for a while and that's why he knows English. All around awesome week. I'm at the honbu now because that's where we do email from now on. Fun stuff.

I'm way stoked for you as Gospel Doctrine teacher! Have lots of fun because I think you will be a great teacher. I think as you get better at it it will become more simple. That's tough your uncle passed away. Where was the funeral? I'm excited for Cassie too! Glad Mara's grades were better than they seemed haha.

Valentine's day was transfer day, but I still got some valentines earlier from members and one Eikaiwa student who saw me off at the train station. But anyways I've been distracted this whole time and ran out of email time, but I'll see you around and I love you!!!!!!!!

Aishiteimasu!!
Hutchinson Choro