6/9/13 Lots of Twists

Hey! So I got some emails from friends (Cash and Breanna) and was kinda surprised and lost track of time writing them back so I'll have to keep this email a little short. Theme is lots of twists.

So on Monday we had an awesome lesson with Inoguchi on the life of Christ. We watched finding faith in Christ and it was a great lesson. He said how much he has gained in faith and wants to believe and rely on God in his life. We also tried weeding and spraying weedkiller on all the weeds around our house. Having a house isn't as fun as I originally thought hahah, but it's good prep I think. Tuesday was lots of finding which ended up being talking to lots of really nice old people. Sometimes it's tough because they are really set on their traditions and don't want to change anything, but what I always try to do is leave a good Christlike impression. I think that's the most important thing, because we can't change other people no matter what. We can do our best to be a cause for them to want to change though. Wednesday we did more finding and found some cool middle aged people. Taught some decent lessons and passed some Books of Mormon. Thursday we had planning session and my bike tire popped! But we fixed it and did some great finding that day as well. We found one guy who went to church a waaay long time ago and he promised that he would come again. Friday was a lot of finding and meeting with Inamura shimai to read the Book of Mormon with her and it went really well. She still has some things on Sunday that make coming to church hard, but we will do our best. We had eikaiwa too and it was way fun! We have been putting up posters around and actually get good calls once in a while so our eikaiwa will get even bigger! It feels so cool since we started it from nothing at all. A while ago Aoyagi Choro from the 70 spoke at district conference about an area that had no baptisms for a long time that finally started to flourish when they put almost all their focus on finding ways to serve, especially eikaiwa.

Saturday was the twists day. We taught one of the middle aged ladies we found earlier in the week and then went to Inoguchi's. He said that right now he can't do the whole Christian thing. He is just too busy with his health and watching after his mom. He does still want to join the church someday if it were possible, but right now he cant take any free time. It was kinda scary and tough because it was such a sensitive situation, but by listening to him and showing him love it turned out alright. Time to search for the new prepared person! We'll still focus on Inoguchi when we can, but for now is finding! We also met a guy that day who is from Osaka and has LOTS of questions about religion. In his apartment was stuff from pretty much every religion you could think of. He is seeking the truth, but too much in the logical sense. Very nice guy though. Sunday was great. The guy we met on the street before came to church and so did Takizawa. He could only stay for a sec though. A few people went on a temple trip so different people taught the church lessons and it went really well. After church we got spontaneously asked to eat at Endo's house and the member we were going to go with got sick at the last minute! We got to her house and tried to explain that we couldn't go in without another guy. I got the idea to try one of our investigators that we go out to eat with sometimes and he was really happy to come. Funny experience, but it went way good. Today we are going to Nosappu cape which is the most eastern tip of all Japan. Way stoked and will take lots of pictures.

Thanks so much for the email this week! I'm so proud of all the cool things going on! Cool experience with Bonnie and excited for Mara to become a high schooler! Thanks for the picture of the house too hahaha. That's cool you did mission prep stuff with Sarah! Oh and I did get your ensign and letter last Monday right when I got home! Thank you!!!! Did you say Jessica Lim sent a letter a while ago? I still haven't gotten that :( Hopefully nothing got lost in the mail though!

Love you tons and tons and am grateful for all the cool things happening in your life and soo happy that FHE is going well! Also I really hope your dream of me wearing white for a baptism comes true!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

P.S. - and yes it has gotten a little warm! There were a few days where I wore short sleeves for part of the day!

6/2/13 Back in Nemuro

Is it really 33 celsius there? That's insane. Yesterday didn't even make it to 10. Some days it's around 15 and that's nice, but that's as high as it's gotten. It is of course very rainy as well. I'm glad the music fireside was on Youtube as well. It was lots of fun, but I'm glad I'm done running back and forth to Sapporo (at least for now, I'll have to go back when they send Inumaki Choro home).

That sounds really tough for Uncle Merril. I have been doing my best to pray for him too. Sounds like it'll be fun to be together with all of Dad's family though! Dad's birthday sounds like it went great too. I feel like I'll be really disappointed with Chinese food when I get back. I'm going to try to send him something soon. How long ago did you send the conference Ensign? Since coming to Nemuro I haven't gotten a single letter from America. It's kinda strange. There wasn't anything at the honbu either. Also did you ever get my letter for the young men? I sent that 3+ weeks ago. Thanks for giving Cash my email. Glad to hear that he's working - I hope he's doing great. Super excited for everyone's mission prep as well! When is Adam's availability date???

SO on P-day after we emailed I got on a bus to Kushiro at about 10am and got there at 4pm. After that ate dinner and went on splits with one of the Kushiro missionaries for three hours and that was P-day. The next day went on splits with him for the whole day and it was pretty fun. There is so much you can learn from every missionary. The next day was a zone meeting in Kushiro and then a bus to Nemuro. We just checked in with our investigator Inoguchi who is doing great. He is just so busy with going to the hospital and watching after his sick mom. It's really cool to see how the gospel is helping him find peace in that time even though he's only learned a little at this point. We're visiting him again today right after this. On Thursday we had planning session, went to some appointments, and ate leimen at this yakiniku place. It is like noodles and really good, I don't know how to explain it. The sunset over the ocean that day was way awesome as well.

Friday was a good and busy day of visiting appointments, finding, rescheduling lessons, and getting ready for Eikaiwa. We also stopped by this place I did service at last week because they have a special needs day service there. They remembered me and were really happy to see us. We might be able to do more service there some other time. Eikaiwa was way awesome. 2 new people came that saw our flier on a store window. The classes are getting bigger and bigger and it's way fun. Saturday was visiting some members, a non attending member who is really nice, and lots of housing. The non-attending member is named Unosawa Shimai and was the first person to ever get baptized in Nemuro. She had a hard time at church a long time ago and stopped coming, but feels like us visiting her is a sign from God that she needs to come back. Hopefully we can get her ready to come back and help her kids come to the Gospel too. Yesterday was church and the Ozawa kid's baby blessing. The grandparents from both sides came plus one more guy from Tokyo came for a seminary thing so there were a lot more people than usual and it was really cool. After church we met another non-attending member Inamura Shimai and talked to her a bit. She got busy in the past and had to miss church, but after a while because of that she felt guilty and it was hard to come to back. She told us that she has a desire to feel the good feelings she felt back then and committed her self to pray everyday and make steps to come back. That was pretty good news. I'm excited to see this branch grow :) Other than that it has just been great being a missionary. I get very tired and sometimes frustrated about certain things, but I can always find a solution in the scriptures or in remembering why I'm here.

The guy from Tokyo Onda Kyoudai bore his testimony on Sunday, but he shared a cool though about member missionary work. Set a goal to share the gospel, introduce the church, invite to activity etc. even if it seems like you'll be rejected. He said that even when we do that and get rejected we are seeing success because being a missionary isn't about bringing a billion people into the church, it's about declaring the word. The missionary purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. The thing that we do is invite. I like to think of it like invitations to a party. If you don't invite them, they won't even know that it's going on. However, in order for them to want to go to the party and actually know how good it is, we use our testimonies, examples, friendship, and love. I think that's a good example of what missionary work really is. I love you all so much and am super grateful for such a great and strong family. How is FHE lately? I'm excited for that when I come back ;) You're the best!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

5//26/13 Happy birthday, Dad!

Hey Mom! This was a busy week too with lots of running around. I totally forgot what Memorial day was for a second. I wonder if Japan has it too. Glad you got your project done and must be so busy working hard that you forgot your shoes! That's too bad about Bonnie's friend, but it's good that you could attend with some good shoes. Send me a picture of the house next week if you could please :) I realized I don't have any pictures of it. If Mara and Adam work for Justin my advice is to just work really hard, not care about getting dirty, and work hard. Always find something new to do if you get a job done early. I hope Mara gets awards too!

That's crazy dad is turning 50! I feel bad because I completely forgot how old you and dad are. Someone in the branch asked the other day and I couldn't answer so I was a little embarrassed. That means you are *** right? That's exciting for Max's blessing! Thanks for the picture of Lauren's house, that's the first time I've seen it. That's crazy it's almost summer there. I don't think I'll need sunscreen here for a REALLY long time hahahaha. Can you tell me how hot it is there in Celsius? Adam and Mara's pictures are great wow they are really grown up looking. I can't wait for Adam's mission call! His hair looks great. I actually cut my own hair the other day and it looks pretty decent I've gotten compliments from pretty much everyone.

So this week for P-day we wanted to go to Nosappu cape which is the farthest East part of Japan, but it rained way hard so we just stuck around and did music practice. We had some awesome lessons that day too. We visited 3 people that we had appointments with and they all became investigators. One particularly awesome guy named Inoguchi went really well. We first met him on the street, but he was busy and couldn't listen. The other day we found him housing and he remembered meeting us and we made an appointment to come back. It wasn't a really strong feeling and we actually were a tiny bit late for it because the lesson before it went kind of long. When we got there he told us that he was worried that we wouldn't come. We talked to him to get to know him a bit and he is having a pretty hard life. He is 50 and has diabetes pretty bad. It affected his eyes and he had to quit his job. He has been searching for a new job, but the hard thing is that he has to take care of his sick mom too. Long story short at the end of the lesson he said that he thinks following Jesus Christ is what he needs to do to make his life better. The next day went really awesome, just lots of finding cool people. Wednesday we had splits with the District leader and did some service helping plant a garden. That day we had another lesson with Inoguchi. He understand faith and repentance pretty well and when we invited him to be baptized he just asked "where?" He is pretty strong. The only problem is that his eyes are bad so the Book of Mormon is hard to read and also he has to go to the hospital on some weekends so church is kinda tough too. We had a ton of fun with the district leader and his comp afterwards. This weekend we had to go back to Sapporo for the music performance and it went great! Maybe you'll be able to see it on Youtube again.

Thanks so much for everything! From here we are headed back to Kushiro for a couple of days for splits and a zone thing. Talk to you next week! Love you!

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

The new haircut!

I have no idea what these are, but I hope he didn't have them for dinner :)

Another mystery photo

5/19/13 The first warm day I have had since coming to Nemuro

Hey! Thanks for the email as usual. Sounds like a great week full of awesome stuff. Do you write in a journal? If not, I feel like the emails you send me give a pretty good outline of all the fun stuff you do.

So Mara had a play, choir, and dance performances? (note: she actually did not dance) AND MC'd? She's crazy. That sounds like a lot of fun and a lot of work.
I'm glad that you are ok from bumping your head. You use very hard English sometimes. I still understand it all, but a lot of times words that I forgot existed come out, like "jutted" or "cleaned my clock." I'm glad Adam's excited for his mission. How are his interviews coming? How is Todd doing? I'm glad the car got fixed too.

I'll remember Bonnie in my prayers. I hope everyone in the neighborhood is doing great. That's cool Yvonne spoke in conference! I actually gave a talk in church yesterday and talked a bit about the experience with the Fullmers coming back to church. Mochida is in Hakodate on a business trip and we haven't heard from him. Giving out copies of the Book of Mormon hasn't been too bad either. The hard part is that seeing whether people read the Book of Mormon or not is kinda tough because it's tough to make second appointments with people a lot of the time. Hopefully you'll be able to see the music thing online again. I play guitar in 3 songs.

So the report on this week was on Monday going to Nakashibetsu to play basketball with some Phillipinos that work on Itou shimai's farm. It was way fun to play basketball after not having any chances to play in such a long time. We dendo'd there for a bit too. It's actually a lot more city like than Nemuro, but doesn't have quite as many people. It'd be cool to have a church there someday too because it's pretty far. On Tuesday we had phone district meeting and did a bunch of advertizing for Eikaiwa, putting fliers in mailboxes and handing them out in front of high schools and stuff. We also found 2 really cool people on the street that we taught short lessons and passed the Book of Mormon to. Wednesday was putting up Eikaiwa posters at nearby shops and doing lots and lots of finding. Thursday we had planning session and went to the city office to ask if there were any things we could do as service projects. We did more finding and taught this guy named Takizawa who is pretty neat. He has investigated for 8-ish years, but he actually has a lot of interest, read the Book of Mormon twice, and knows the gospel principles book really well too. He was a Methodist and has a few concerns about the Book of Mormon and stuff like that, but he practically has a testimony. We just need to help him realize that and overcome his little concerns. Friday we tried to visit some less actives and dendo'd around them.

That night we also had Eikaiwa! It was way nice to teach Eikaiwa again for the first time in a long time. 5 people came. (4 members and 1 person a member invited) so we didn't get to see the results of our advertising yet. Still had a great time. Hopefully lots more people will be able to come. Saturday was finding near the apartment and visiting some appointments that we made before. One was a cool lady named Hatanaka who said her biggest desire was for her father to live a long life. I showed my picture with Grandpa Price and told about how it was at his funeral to know families could be forever. It was pretty cool. She took a Book of Mormon as well. We also stopped by the Ozawa's before and after to pray with them and report how things went. The kids were crazy hyper as usual and the two younger ones actually ran us over to a friends house who they wanted us to visit. That was pretty fun. Sunday was great as well. Gave a talk in church on a talk from priesthood general conference that I only had notes from since we don't have the English Ensign yet. It went pretty good though. The Ozawa kids played with us a bunch after church as usual. Inumaki Choro spent a ton of time making these things called scones (kinda like cookies made of pancake mix) that we cooked in our toaster oven to give to members. We were also able to meet with 2 non attending members that we hadn't been able to meet with up until then and gave them scones too. We visited Takizawa again that day and learned more about what we need to help him do to overcome his concerns. Ozawa Karebu Kyoudai (who is 15 and a boss) came with us to help us teach.

Thanks for all of your love and prayers! Keep me updated on everyone's spiritual progress and stuff! Love you to the sun and back!
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro


Yume no mori (dream forest) park

After basketball

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

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

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

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

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

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

5/5/13 The Rest of the Story

Hey! I found some more time to email. If you call at 3:00pm on the 11th (Saturday) I will receive the call at 8:00 on the 12th Sunday morning. Also it's always going to be exactly the same as it was on Christmas, but with a different number depending on my area. All my clothes are pretty much fine. I had to chuck one of the pairs of pants I bought at Kohls because they didn't hold up and it was too big to fix/didn't have time because it was the end of the transfer. My luggage is great I love it. Also I will try to remember Uncle Merril. Are things not getting better? Also *P.S. Your house is SO cute!* I don't know how I feel about this... haha

So this week was pretty good. P-day we went to a pretty neat park called Meiji Coen and bought stuff. Tuesday was district meeting and my bike's brakes not working so searching all over Nemuro for new brakes because there are no bike shops in Nemuro. We also did lots of finding. Wednesday was some other lessons and finding. We found some Chinese guys and they were some of the nicest people ever. Right upon seeing us they let us into their apartment. They hardly spoke any Japanese or English, but we invited them to church by writing the kanji for it and stuff. They said they really wanted to come. Makes me want to try to learn Chinese too! Thursday was planning session and finding. Friday was lessons and finding as well. In all of these days we decided that most of the old investigators needed to be dropped because they won't keep commitments at all. They just like talking to missionaries. Even though they feel the spirit when we talk to them, they won't change and stuff. It is hard, but the really prepared people are waiting for us. We dropped about 6 or 7 of them. Tough stuff, but I'm excited to find :) Finding really is a blast I love it. It is just like making friends. I want to keep trying it when I get home.

There is a way cool investigator named Yamagishi who is actually pretty promising. He is from Tokyo and is 24-ish years old which is pretty cool because there is no one that age in Nemuro because there are no colleges. He is really awesome though and likes a lot of the same music as me. We went out to eat with him and he asked us a lot of questions about why we are on missions and stuff and after we explained that to him he said that he really wanted to read the book of mormon and come to church if it was really able to help us so much. He even wanted to buy the book of mormon haha. He ended up not being able to come to church, but it seems like he has started on the book of mormon. He said he would pray about it too so hopefully that works out. I know he'll really get an answer if he goes for it.

Saturday was a way awesome day. We went to this area called Betsukai which is pretty much straight farms. A member who is Phillipino lives there and we did service at her farm. She also took us to ice cream and pizza at these 2 really tiny places there. Way good. I never thought that in Japan I would be cleaning out cow stalls and stuff. It was a blast though. Her family is way cool. They are not all members and she has a strong desire to bring them into the gospel as well. She really wants her kids to go on missions too. Anyway that pretty much took all day because Betsukai is so far away by bus. Sunday was good. We had a lot of people planned to come to church, but they didn't end up making it. One old investigator named Takizawa came though. He is methodist, but believes that all of our church's teachings are true. He just won't apply them so his testimony isn't deep enough for him to have a desire to be baptized. It was cool that he came to church and told us about that though. He used to have a lot of doubts, but it seems like in the long time missionaries weren't there he overcame them. Hopefully we can get him to apply the principles in his life.

After church we did some finding and visited the Ozawas. Their kids are so fun (hyper), but it's a blast. I met the baby for a little bit. We found some cool people around them.
Anyways, that was my awesome week! Sorry that I had to send it in two parts! I hope that you are doing great and find lots of opportunities to share the gospel! I know it seems probably really tough, but you just have to try getting out of your comfort zone just like working out or saving money and things like that. God will prepare a way for you to do it if you really want to enough! Loveyouloveyou

Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro


Oh I forgot! SO this week was golden week which is apparently a big deal in Japan. No one has school and most people don't work. Everyone usually visits their hometown/parents' town. Haramai Shimai's hometown is a WAY small place nearby Nemuro, so she came and visited me on the way home!!!


The park we visited, Meiji Coen

Visiting with Haramai's outside our house

Good pizza at the place called *chiisanaouchi* which means a little house


Enjoying pizza with family from Betsukai

Feeding cows with Ishiga Choro

Us and Richie the Phillipino guy who works at the farm. He was WAY cool and nice.

5/5/13 Super fast letter

Hey! I don't know if I have a ton of time today. The computer was acting up and stuff... I'm in Kushiro right now for p-day district activity. I think we are going to a buffet or something I have no idea. What are you talking about dreaming about envelopes? Did you get the one I sent a while ago with all the shirts for the young men? If you haven't it is probably because Nemuro is so far away it takes a lot longer for mail to get places.

Thanks for letting me know about new missionary calls! That is WAY insane if the Shorts are really going to have 3 missionaries out at the same time. Unbelievable for sure. Good luck to them. That's cool he's pretty much the same area as dad was too. I wish I could have heard more about dad's mission. That's cool Adam got his wisdom teeth out, I hope it was way fun!

What did we have to get for our place? Everything except a fridge and futons and a dresser. That's exciting for Max - I'm not surprised if he's learning really fast. I finally met the Ozawa's baby for like 3 seconds. Yay for babies. That's cool KC got married. Does David wear glasses now? I'm glad everyone is going to the temple lots. I have no idea what's going on with the temple here. This is all the time I have today. Thanks and love you!

Aishitemasu
Hutchinson Choro