6/15/14 Happy Father's Day!

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

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

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

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

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

6/8/14 Transfer Week!

Hey! It's been hot and rainy this week. School isn't out, but it sounds like everyone is running wild over there. Tell Mara to keep up the good work!

The only thing I said to Elder Christofferson was "thanks for coming" and when he asked me what we were doing I said we were taking a picture together and he said he wanted to join in. He didn't talk about "preparing for marriage" I guess. It was more like why it's important and stuff. It's still scary.

Transfer week went great! Elder Lee is my new companion along with Tomita E staying! It's not crowded at all because the Honbu is big. There are six desks and two showers so we have room for one more if necessary. If you can see the list online, what more can I tell you about where everyone went? hahaha

The Evans will actually live in Salt Lake when they go back! Pretty cool. You'll probably be able to meet them for sure! Sister Evans was just asking about when Connor got back and I had no idea so thanks for letting me know! Is your comment about him getting a job just a light version of saying the same thing to me?? W

By the way. I realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly want to extend!!!!!!!!! I've been thinking about it a lot and it was one of the biggest things on my mind lately. There's definitely a lot of praying and stuff to do about it, but I don't have anything to do when I get home besides speak at church and wait til next year to try to go to BYU. I also really wish that I could spend my last transfer as a normal missionary. It's kinda tough having to be in an office almost all the time, but I need to have joy in what the Lord wants me to do. Right now I really hope he wants me to extend. Would you be ok with that? Kaicho kinda said that they would probably be happy to have me extend, but he thought that you wouldn't be too interested in it. Anyways yeah. That's what I have been thinking about lately.

A new porchlight/carpet/paint? I won't even recognize the house when I get back which is 100% daijoubu (OK)

So yeah. Monday was way fun. We went to the Moiwa district activity and hiked Moiwa mtn. We took some pretty sweet pictures. Did I ever tell you how much I love melon pan? I love it. I've gotten recipes from members before, but you should try to find some and maybe make some. They had melon pan ice cream (Melon pan right out of the oven with ice cream in the middle like a sandwich) and it was really good. We shopped and cleaned and then I did Lee E's training from 6 til the end of the day. Tuesday we had a lot of transfer calls, prep, eating lunch with Andersen E's district and then found out that I will never be able to drive in Japan. Lee E too! He had an Idaho license so he would have to renew it in person. Kaicho might not be too happy about that hahaha. After all that, we went to get the beans at night! They are way fun!!! There was only one Elder, Elder Gubler, but he was way chill. The shimai were especially fun this time around. Two nihonjin, one from Okinawa and one from nearby Tokyo, but used to live in Hokkaido working on different kinds of farms! I wish I could be a bean again. I've probably seen the new missionary training more than 5 times now w. Wednesday we had all the bean stuff; breakfast at the Evans, workshops, meeting trainers, more workshops, dinner, testimony meeting, the works. During testimony meeting, Kaicho made me bear my testimony too because he will be gone at the end of this transfer and won't get to hear mine in that kind of a setting. It was completely totsuzen (unexpected), but I think I did pretty well. All the beans went home, so Thursday night we ate the Evans breakfast with the missionaries that stayed the night the day before. The transfer spot went well, but was way short. I didn't take any pictures or anything. After that the sisters had a taikai IN OUR APARTMENT. ah. We cleaned it a lot before, but they had like a clothing exchange.... So now there are like 4 giant bags of old shimai clothes... ew... wwwwwww I don't really remember what we did after that! Friday was a day of a LOT of preparations for this transfer. At night we tried to shizen dendo at the Yosakoi dance festival, but it wasn't too effective... Yeah. On Saturday was the same kinda feel, but we had a talent show at night. I played with Evans S again. It was the same song as before. Sunday was good too and we actually had time to dendo!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today we have a zone activity (for all the missionaries that are close to Sapporo... two zones and a half) so we'll do the scroll signing thing. Yeaaaaah. I had to wake up early to get email time. sleepy.
Here are some pictures.
I love you! Aishiteimasu!

Hutchinson Choro

View from the top of Mt. Moiwa

Odori and and Atsubetsu Zone Activity, climbing Maruyama

Pres. & Sister Evans at the Zone Activity BBQ

6/1/14 Mission Conference!

Hey! So first off, how many other missionaries' moms are you friends with? That's crazy hahaha. The big scroll has been going around to all the zones so that everyone gets to sign before the Evans leave. I don't know when I'll sign it, but I'm sure I will by where my trainer signed. Well, probably. It's probably covered with everyone else's signatures so I might be lucky to get a spot!

I don't know when my flight is. Apparently they can't tell me yet??? You'll find out before me though. Let me know ASAP because I want to let at least some people from Eniwa know because they want to see me off.

Penny is Alysha's mom right? She's close so you'll definitely still be able to talk to her a lot!
There were actually 2 baptisms in Nemuro! They were both referrals that Okuchi S gave. We got 21 baptisms this transfer which is actually a pretty HUGE accomplishment. :) You can write whatever you want back to Tando Shimai. I don't know what she wrote, so yeah. We ate dinner at her house again last week!

I'm glad your busy week went well! My week went great as well!
Monday a lot of letter writing! We also got a bunch of stuff ready to take over to the conference. At night, we drove the Evans to the airport for their conference in Tokyo! Yeah, we did mission conference without them! Tuesday, we took stuff over to the conference! A lot of missionaries (all the missionaries) had to come to Sapporo so we had to get ready for people to come to the honbu and other things. We also had a DKK to make sure that everything was set up straight.

WEDNESDAY was the fireside! It went so perfectly well! Everyone was so obedient I couldn't believe it. First Elder and Sister Aoyagi spoke, then Sister Christofferson. After that Elder Christofferson spoke and started with a question/answer session and then he shared a message about... haha. Marriage. Well, kind of. It was a lot about the importance of preparing for that and the fact that the two most important things we need to do in this life are to be born, and be spiritually reborn. Thanks for helping me do both!!! Afterwards we took a huge group picture and at the last second he decided he wanted to be in it! The next day we drove back and got things cleaned up. We also found a bit and then went to Tando S's house. After that we picked up the Evans. They had met Elders Christofferson and Cook in Tokyo and they had some good things to say about us!

On Friday night, we had a baptismal interview! It was to a family of four that got baptized the next day! They were so amazing and so prepared. I'm always so happy to see people accept the gospel as families! Other than that, it was some transfer planning and driving around delivering things. Saturday was kind of the same! Kaicho is so cool with transfer planning. Sometimes we'll be sitting in his office discussing where people should go, end with a prayer, and then next time BOOM he has all the right answers and they make perfect sense. Sunday was a great fast Sunday. We did a lot of transfer planning with all the honbu people then made some phone calls and other preparations! It's a busy time!
Thanks for all your love and support!! You're the best!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

5/25/14 Finishing splits and some other stuff

Hey! Real man dendo is great. The important thing is that we don't worry about people thinking we're weird. Also we only do it while housing so no one usually sees us anyways. Japanese people do run, but probably not as much as Americans. By the way, where did you learn the word chorotachi from? I was impressed!

Sounds like you got to get a lot done because of Memorial day! David's house must be pretty sweet. I'm rooting for Kaitlin and her continued education!

Don't worry about my homecoming too much haha. Thanks so much for praying for the Haramais and everyone else! Mikami is a guy we met once and made a baptismal date, but he hasn't been able to meet recently. I'm proud of your visiting teaching goals! And while I'm not really that excited for my farewell (I think he means homecoming?), I'm excited that it can become a missionary opportunity! I think rather than having nice food and stuff, I want it to be a missionary experience for everyone. How is your PMG study? We can study it in the morning before you go to work or something when I get home.

This week will be mostly prep for Elder Christofferson!
So on Monday we had a surprise. Elder Olsen visited with his dad! We reminisced a lot and went out to eat sushi. Then this recent convert named Akiba took me and 8 other missionaries out for ice cream. By Taxi. And the ice cream cost $129. We couldn't finish it all. Also at night the Hansens fed us at their apartment and we had lasagna made in a crock pot. Needless to say I've been working out extra hard in the morning. Tuesday we had some special stuff for a missionary who had to go home early. Went on splits with him and stuff. We also had a little farewell party for the Hansens. Wednesday we were busy with transfer planning, ordering flowers for the fireside, and other preparations. We went to Shinoro that night for splits the next day and I went with Romney E! It was super fun! We saw a ton of miracles! We met this old investigator whose record probably got lost and still wanted to meet. We also met a few families that Romney E has been focusing on but couldn't meet because they were busy. This investigator also took us out to eat at his bar. Despite being a bar, he doesn't drink alcohol and the people who worked there were pretty nice and interested. On Friday and Saturday we found a decent amount of time to find and work in Kotoni. A lot of other jobs came up, but we did our best :D Sunday we had a great lesson from the Hansens on baptism that I translated. We also got a lot of dendo done after wards and met an NA family by accident housing. They were really nice and welcoming! We also got some good appointments. To finish it off we had a PMG study sesh after eating with a member! Awesome!

We finally got the conference Ensign so that has been great too! The gospel is great! Thank you so much for all your love and support. PS expect letters from RS sisters in Kotoni, hahaha.

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

guy from the bar

Olsen fam

giant parfait

5/18/14 Going back!

Hey! Thanks for the mail! It was kinda helpful that you wrote it in a more condensed way. It made it easier to read hahaha. This week was way cool! First I'll answer your questions.

We taught about prophets in primary! Because of the fireside, transfers got moved to June 5th! Preparations for Elder Christofferson are going good I think. We got most everything done pretty early. I'm pretty sure he'll just be in Hokkaidou that one day. They are crazy busy.

Sounds like a pretty busy week! Too many weddings. That's a good thing though. The picture of Mara and Sam is hilarious. Mara looks exactly the same. Sam looks completely different. You're getting new carpet too?? That's exciting!

Bishop wants me to sing too? Is he sure my music will be ok at sacrament meeting? hahaha
It's hard to remember what church was like in America. I feel like Kotoni ward probably isn't THAT different, but still...

Thanks for your thoughts about Alma as well!!! How is your hastening the Work of salvation goal???

My week!
On Monday we went to a onsen-town part of Sapporo called Jozankei. I think it's pretty famous. We went to an Onsen there for another missionary's b-day. It was kinda expensive, but we were the only ones there!!! It was great. It was like having 10 private Jacuzzis of all different varieties! After that we ate sushi at Hanamaru which is a copy of the one in Nemuro! It was pretty good :D We did lots of phone dendo that night. Tuesday we went on splits in Iwamizawa!! First we went to their DTM (my first dtm this transfer! AP's don't usually get to go) They had one of the missionaries in the district do the workshop and he used an example that made me laugh SO hard. Then we went to Iwamizawa and I got to work with Nishime E again!!! It was way fun. We get along really good. We work together really well too. He is working really hard there with Harper E. I have made a goal to do "real man dendo" on all of my ZL splits for the rest of my mission. It's just regular dendo, but you RUN everywhere :) I did real man dendo with Nishime E and found some way chill guys in their 20's who were really interested. I couldn't meet any of my old investigators, but I talked to Adachi on the phone and it sounds like she's thinking about baptism~! I also found a cool American guy there who actually lives by the honbu. His name is Jo and he plays the drums at his church, but he was pretty interested!

Wednesday we came back, got reports, had a lesson with this guy we made an apt w/ by phone named Mikami and made a baptismal date with him. He's pretty nice. We also had some other follow up to do then we went to..... ENIWA!!!!! (Braden's first area)
Thursday we went on splits in Eniwa-Chitose! The Elder's apartment actually got moved to Chitose so I didn't get to see my old apartment, but I went on splits w/ Sasaki E from my douki! (he came to Hokkaidou with me)

We rode our bikes to Eniwa and visited Haramai S!! She is doing pretty great. Her daughter has been stressed out because the bishop changed and missionaries change all the time. Thankfully we found that out, so the missionaries can make a better relationship with her! Her younger sister Kazune is 7 and will be 8 soon, but since Nodoka hasn't been going to church she hasn't been either! Please pray for them :D Please also pray for Haramai S's husband to accept the gospel someday too!
After that we went to see Matsuo S! She is the first Japanese member I met on my mission. She fed me on my first day. We did some service in her yard and she fed us her famous sushi, udon, and corny jokes. It was so cool to be able to understand her old lady Japanese perfectly :D She was pretty happy about it too. We called her mom and she loved it. I also got to see a lot of the members when we stopped by the church to get dressed. A lot of them remembered me! Even the recent convert knew who I was even though I never met her!

Friday was a busy office day with lots of phone dendo. Saturday was kinda similar. We also had an AB lesson with Zen B. He is way cool. Sunday was fun too! Church went well and we actually had a lot of dendo time after church. I will send you some of the pictures!
Thank you for everything!!!! Love you :D
Aishiteimasu
Hutchinson Choro

Haramai S and Nodoka (converts from his first area)

Tomita Choro

Cool hotel in the middle of nowhere on the way to Obihiro

Splits with Fukushima E

Most recent mission leader conference

5/11/14 AP Adventures!

Hey! Tomita Choro has glasses. I only have one picture of him right now. (attached)
I'm glad I was able to share something that helped you out.

Evans Shimai takes pictures a lot, but they should all be on the mission facebook page.

I didn't get any pictures of the cherry blossoms... I just ran by them... Sorry :(

Asian star? hahaha Reminds me of all the wannabe American restaurants here.

Inhumanely proud? wow! hahaha

It's ok the mail was short because we got to talk on the phone.

Here's what happened this week.

On Monday we hung out here for a bit and then ate at MATSURIYA!!! It's one of my favorite sushi places from Nemuro and Kushiro, but there is one in Sapporo too! It was almost exactly the same :D
We were way tired that day and did phone dendo afterwards.
Tuesday we did some office stuff and a bunch of streeting! It was pretty neat and we met some really nice people. I'm surprised how many people listen. Everyone always made it sound so hard in the city.
Wednesday we had our first transfer talk. It was really stressful at first, but I realized that we didn't pray first. The next day we continued it, but I suggested we pray first and it went WAY better.
We had a stake coordination that night as well. Thursday we drove to Obihiro and had an interesting experience. We ran out of gas and had to have a guy come bring us gas at 10:30. The splits the next day were way awesome! I worked with Fukushima E and he told me a lot about how awesome stuff is going in Nemuro! We drove back and had the Kotoni talent show that went great! Church was also awesome because we had ward conference. Tomita E and I taught a lesson in primary and it was awesome!
I love being a missionary! I'm out of time!

Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro

Elder Tomita (with Elder & Sister Aoyagi)

at the airport pickup with President and all the new incoming missionaries

Welcome dinner for new missionaries at the honbu

recent mission leader conference

with the outgoing missionaries at the airport

5/4/14 Successful ML Kaigi

Hey!!!! I'm trying to remember what happened this week.
Thanks for your email!!! I'm way stoked for the Takaras! That sounds way cool about the ward getting bigger. I hope lots of people are able to go on missions! The senior couple here is leaving this month and there will almost be a whole transfer that we have no senior couple because there aren't enough sr. missionaries. I probably won't recognize half the people in the ward though, huh hahah.

Speaking of Vietnamese and Japanese, Nguyen E and Sakamura E (in Nemuro) are teaching so many it's ridiculous. Van S is going crazy with dendo.

It is still hard to find dendo time, but we are doing our best and I'm feeling more satisfied with what I can do. I am definitely learning a ton. I have to learn to be better and finding things to do when I get other things done.
Anyways...

I still haven't been taking any pictures, but we saw some amazing sakura by the giant shrine this morning when we went running. I got the shorts at uniqlo and no I wasn't freezing because it was inside, plus it's way warm now. I bought short sleeves at uniqlo the other day as well.

Thank you for the prayers!!! Thanks to all the prayers, this transfer there have been 6 baptisms so far. Based on the reports we have, there are a ton of baptismal dates, but at least 8 more will probably be baptized this transfer! It might literally be an all time record for the mission.

This week on Monday we hung out, went to the eki with a few other missionaries and I bought shirts. I think we prepared for a stake meeting or something that night. Tuesday we met to have a preparation meeting for Elder Christofferson coming. We also prepared a ton for mission leader kaigi (conference) the next day. A bunch of missionaries slept over. It actually went really good and a lot of people said it was their favorite ml kaigi so far. That night we had the stake meeting over skype for Asahikawa stake. Thursday we followed up with beans and got a lot of stuff done in advance for Elder Christofferson. Then we did some phone dendo. Friday I went on splits in Moiwa with Elder Inoue and it was pretty fun! Moiwa is probably the most metropolitan area in the whole mission. The funny thing is that all of their investigators and recent converts are grandmas hahaha. I biked all over and it felt great. Inoue E is way fun too.

Saturday was Elder Tomita's b-day. We sang to him and gave him cake etc. Randomly, a bunch of RM's showed up so that was pretty fun! We did lots of computer stuff and made some time for phone dendo. Sunday at church was good. It's way different to be at a church with other missionaries. There are 8 missionaries in Kotoni. Crazy. It's pretty big though. We had a way good AB lesson with Tadano B and a member actually taught him this time! His name is Kumagai B and we had dinner with him that night! It was super fun and spiritual. He used to be bishop.

Anyways I'm out of time, but love you so much!!!!
Aishiteimasu!
Hutchinson Choro