Monday, April 28th, 2014 - Week 68

Mom and Dad,

Just a little info about transfers.  The next transfer day will be Friday the 9th.  Next Monday I'll come to know for sure if I'm going to be transferring or not and if I am, where I'm going.  We still haven't received any word about what will go down for Mother's day calls.  I'll let you know what will happen as soon as I know.

About the discussion you had on "Hastening the Work", I have definitely seen some of the lack of communication skills due to electronics.  Beyond just being weird, I personally don't feel like I've had any struggles with face to face communication because of using electronic communication.  I feel like I'm just a strange person to begin with and would attribute most of my problems with face to face communication to that.  However, I have noticed some Elders and Sisters who do seem to have been affected by that.  Especially as a mission leader I've detected some of that coming through in some of the missionaries I've worked with.  It's especially apparent in those who dislike street contacting.  I feel like those with the electronic-communication dependency have a much greater problem opening their mouth and asking someone to talk.  Obviously what I've just said isn't the whole of the story because it's just been from my experience, observations, and perspective.

About following the Spirit in a conversation, that's definitely true.  Along with that comes what Zinke Kaicho has taught us about situational awareness/kuuki wo yomu.  I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Japanese concept of kuuki wo yomu.  It literally means read the air.  It comes down to really listening to what the other person is saying, paying attention to body language, the clothes they're wearing, etc.  Just as those in the military learn to be aware of their situation and pay attention to the details, we must also learn to pick up on signs and signals that those we interact with are giving.  Just as the lives and safety of those in the military depend on them being situation-ally aware, the eternal lives and salvation may depend on our efforts to truly understand the individual we're talking to and do all we can to seek God's guidance on what their current needs are and how to go about filling them.  With the Spirit, reading the air and situational awareness is how the great missionaries in the scriptures (for example Alma in Alma 32) blow minds and bring about mass spiritual good.  Without the Spirit and correct motives though (as we also find in the scriptures with the examples of priest crafts and such) it just turns into manipulation.  Anyway, that was a bit of a bara-bara explanation of it all, but it's something else to chew on.

Been another great week of working and loving it.  I believe so strongly in Jesus Christ and His gospel.  It works.  It's true.  I love being alive!

Love,

Elder Kyle Hutchings

Monday, April 21, 2014 - Week 67

Mom and Dad,

Crazy that it's already Easter, eh?  It's funny how less big of a deal it is here in Japan.  I assigned the speakers for Sacrament Meeting yesterday to give talks on the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  One of those speakers was my companion, and he mentioned that it was Easter when he was speaking.  Everybody in the tiny congregation kind of had an "Oh, yeah!  It's easter!" sort of look on their faces, and a few of them even shot up straight in their seats as if startled at the realization.

This last week has been absolutely splendid.  We had a chance to do exchanges with one of the District Leaders in our Zone on Thursday.  I worked with his companion, a Bostonian named Elder Carlile.  He's a great missionary, and it was incredibly fun to work with him.  We participated in that District Leader's District Meeting the next day, and then returned back to Toyooka.  That night, the Assistants to the president came to stay the night and then they koukaned with us on Saturday.  It was funny, because they got to the Eki at about 10:00 that evening and asked us to send them our house address.  We did, then got ready for bed, and jumped into bed at 10:30 with the assistants still not having arrived at our home.  We stayed up talking and wondering where the Assistants were.  Around 11:15 I get a call and they asked us to come out and look for them.  It was strange leaving the house at night.  It turns out they were just up the street, and all went well from then.  We stayed up until about 2 talking with them, then Elder Nelson and I got up at 5:45 to go running.  After a day of koukan-ing with the Assistants and then working, we were pretty tired Saturday night.

Elder Nelson and I are working hard and having a ball.  He's been my favorite companion so far.  Even though I've been in Toyooka for 5 transfers, I really wouldn't be opposed to spending another one here.  It makes me sad that Zinke Kaicho has pretty much already told me that I'm transferring.  I absolutely love this area, the people, the members, and everything here.

I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Joy and happiness in this life and the life to come truly does come through faith, repentance, keeping covenants, following the Holy Ghost, and doing it forever.

Love,

Elder Kyle Hutchings

Monday, April 14, 2014 - Week 66

Mom and Dad,

Way fun to hear about all of your adventures in Moab.  It sounds like it was fun, and I'm glad to hear that all went well.  Thanks so much for sending the pictures.  It's way natsukashii to see Southern Utah.

General Conference was fantastic, wasn't it?  I particularly enjoyed Eyring Kaicho's talk about Preisthood Heroes in priesthood session, and I really liked the brother serving in the Young Men's presidency who spoke about how we're the "Choice" Generation.  I feel incredibly spiritually enriched and enjoyed every minute of it.  By the way, have you been studying PMG?  You ought to, and tell me what you're learning.  An Apostle of the Son of God said you should.  I'll be following-up.

I've had a fantastic week.  We had a kokan (exchange) with one of the District Leaders in this Zone and I got to kokan with his companion.  His companion is named Elder Yusa from Hokkaido, and Yusa Choro met French Choro before.  It was fun to train and work with Elder Yusa.  Other than that we found a few new investigators this last week.  The work keeps moving along.

We've only got one computer and a quite a few things to do this week, so I'm going to keep this one short today.  Know that I'm happy and healthy.  We have been running a few times a week lately.  Been keeping up on the working out and such, it's been great.

Love,

Elder Kyle Hutchings

Monday, April 7, 2014 - Week 65

Mom and Dad,

It seems like the weather hasn't been incredibly dissimilar in Toyooka and Utah.  We had a really nice week up until about Friday, then things got pretty chilly.  No snow, but it's been unpleasantly cool.  Yesterday it was going from raining sheets, to sunshine, to hail, then it was just cloudy and cold for the rest of the evening.  Today the skies are clear and things are beautiful.  The morning was really cold, though.  When Elder Nelson and I went running around 6 there was frost on the cars and the display at the Eki (train station) showed 0 degrees.

MLC this last week was fantastic, and the ZTM we did this last Friday was probably one of the best I've done yet.  Elder Nelson and I work really well together.  It went smoothly and was a very powerful and spiritual meeting.  After ZTMs I always call everybody in the Zone to get feedback about how it went, what they learned, and how we can improve.  Many of them also said it was one of the best Zone Training Meetings they've been too yet, so that was encouraging.

Yesterday I met one of the saddest and strangest people in my entire life.  He's a Japanese man in his 60's.  We were looking through our area book, found this man, and said, "Hey, why not?"  We found his house and knocked on the door.  His wife answered and said she remembered the missionaries from before.  She seemed like most any other Japanese lady.  We asked if her husband was available, and she said he was probably sleeping, but she'd go check.  After a minute she came back and said, "Seems like he might come out, wait just a minute."  We stood there for a minute or two, and then out comes this rather pale and sickly looking fellow.  "Morumon kyou?  Will you come in?" he said in Japanese and English in a raspy garbled smoker's voice.  We went in and he led us through his house.  The house was big and way nice, but then he led us to the little room that he seems to spend almost all of his time in.  It was a nasty little space that smelled of sake and cigarettes.  There were bookshelves lined with all sorts of books, most of them in English and (as I came to find out) Yiddish.  There were discarded cartons of sake lying all over the floor kept company by a bunch of old newspapers and a nasty old space heater.  We sat down with him and started talking to him, and by the way his breath smelled and the way he talked, it was apparent he was drunk.  Also, he was drinking alcohol from a mug the whole time we were talking.  We asked him what he had been up to lately, and he said he was translating a book written by the same person who wrote "Fiddler on the Roof" from Yiddish to Japanese.  I have no idea why he knows Yiddish, and when I asked him, he started speaking in English (his pronunciation was ridiculously good, by the way) about how he believed the Book of Mormon is imagined history and he knew that because he's read the Old Testament and he doesn't believe the New Testament except for the Revelations because he named his only son Renew.  It was really strange and didn't make much sense.  He said he was Catholic and Communist and then asked us about Obamacare.  After that he gave us an apple sitting on his desk because it was old, and then when we asked if we could pray with him, he insisted that we didn't pray in his room but that when we leave that we pray for him.  I'm pretty sure there are other things that we talked about and other strange details that I'm missing, but that was the gist of our visit with this man.  It was on of the weirdest things I've experienced in my life, and it was really rather sad to see that this man has chosen to waste his life like he has.  After that Nelson Choro and I felt way weird after that as we dendo-ed the rest of the day.

Papa, don't worry, I'm getting plenty to eat.  After we went running this morning we came back and worked out, so I was starving.  This morning we ran out of milk so instead of putting milk over my protein and corn flakes, I used mugicha.  Then we had a little yogurt left, so I threw that in too.  After that I tossed in some Milo as well.  It was rather delicious, actually.  Also I had 2 eggs on toast with vegemite (the Australian sister who was in this area last transfer got more vegemite than she wanted from her family and was kind enough to give me some), karashi mayo (spicy mayo), and shoyu (soy sauce).  Then I had a carton of natto (fermented soy beans) - and it was the natto with the seaweed sauce rather than the shoyu and spicy mustard.  Probably one of the best breakfasts I've ever had.

I'm way excited to get to see General Conference this Saturday and Sunday!  Things are going way too fast.  I love life and I love being a missionary!

Love,

Elder Kyle Hutchings