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

9/1/13 Surprise visits from kaicho and surprise vietnamese girls coming to church

Glad everything went well with Adam at the airport! I sent him a quick note. As far as my card goes I meant to call the bank about it earlier, but I think I'll be good as far as getting it fixed from here. I remember having to call when I bought my bike because my draw limit was low and they were cool with it. The only thing I'm worried about is that I don't remember my social at all... :s We'll get it figured out though.

Glad the food for Adam's farewell was good too! OH MAN the kitchen looks SICK!!!! Do you have a before picture or two? I'm trying to explain to Andersen E the awesomeness.

Proud of Mara continuing to do awesome being involved in school. Glad the girls are still super cute. I heard from Lauren about Max being awesome on his belly as well. Fun stuff! In the meantime... Japanese kids make me melt. When housing, a lot of times kids come to the door with their parents and they are just the best.

The week was crazy awesome though. Monday we got an email from one of the Vietnamese girls we met saying that she really wanted to go to church even though we weren't able to invite her to church when she first talked to us. P-day was lots of catching up on journals/cleaning etc. We also went out to Sushi with the Okuchis. It's funny because they are picky eaters and won't eat raw fish so it was like reverse! The gaijins were eating all the Japanesey stuff and the Japanese people were eating all the American stuff. Oh man they want to come visit us in America so bad it's crazy. They are getting ok at English and way serious about saving up money to go to Disneyland while paying their tithing. After Sushi we had FHE at the Ozawas and played a fun game kinda like mad libs. Tuesday was a great DTM from Ishiga E and then we headed out to do a bunch of finding.

There is this one mom we met with 3 cute little boys and she is the smiliest person ever. She was really happy about learning about families and prayer and said we can come over anytime we want. The husband was really cool with us the first time we came, but he wasn't home the second time. We end up teaching a lot of people standing in their doorways because of that, but still fun. We got started on Okuchis AB lessons on the temple and told them we want them to have a goal there too (and to prioritize it over Disneyland haha) but they are pretty excited for the temple too. Wednesday was lots and lots of finding and some really good appointments! We actually broke our record for appointments in a week! We made 22. Sweeeet. All week there has been "senkyo" it is like advertisement for elections. Basically the people running for office drive around in vans speaking on microphones REALLY loud telling people to vote for them... It was ridiculous. Thursday we had a good DKK and more great finding. We made lots of plans to have more "Dendo Fire" Basically drive or morale or whatever you want to call it, but it makes everything we do feel more rewarding even if we're not seeing lots of results. Friday was good finding and organizing our records a bit because of the rain. We also had an awesome eikaiwa! Another new lady came with her son. She used to live in Pennsylvania and is pretty fluent. A lot of people didn't come, but I think we'd have well over 20 if everyone did! Saturday was another great day of finding and a great AB lesson with the Okuchis about missionary work! We are excited to have them team up with us in lessons/make friends with our investigators. Sunday the Vietnamese girl actually did come to church! So did Evans Kaicho! (The Mission President) It was a surprise, but a good one. A family from the Kitami branch came (3 people) and sacrament meeting was 28 people!!! Way awesome. The Vietnamese girl is Christian and has a way strong testimony of God and Jesus Christ. She said she felt so peaceful and separated from her problems when she came to our church though. It was tricky to teach everything to her in super simple Japanese, but she was super responsive. Her name is Van. After church she took us to her dorm where she lives and brought out some other friends that are interested in coming to church too!!! Also we found that night and it was crazy how many miracles you see while finding on an empty stomach.

This is such a great work and I LOVE it! I love you guys too and everybody loves seeing your pictures in my book. You are such a great example and light to me! Thanks always!

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

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