Mom and Dad,
This week went by ridiculously fast. I went to Kobe for a District Leader
Training. Me and the other District Leader met up in a neighboring area,
Yonago, and our companions went back to his area to work, and we both jumped on
a bus for Kobe. Or, we were supposed to go on a bus to Kobe. The Kobe bus was
full by the time we went to buy tickets, so we ended up taking a bus to Osaka
and then taking a train from there to Kobe. We left Yonago at 4:30 ish and
ended up finally getting to the Honbu (mission home) at like 10:00 at night. Travelling can be
long, but it's always an adventure. The District Leader Training was really
good. I ended up translating for most of it (English to Japanese), but I was
still able to learn a lot.
We were also able to see some wonderful things done in Matsue. On Tuesday
a young man we met on the street has actually had interest in Christianity and
has wanted to go to a church for awhile, but never had the courage to go look
one up and find one for himself. So when we talked to him, he was thrilled with
the prospect of going to the church right then and having a look around. So we
went, taught him a lesson, and now he's an investigator. The next day, we met
with a lady we found while calling former investigators in our area book last
week. We had a really good lesson with her and a couple of members, and came to
find out that she has a young daughter close to the age of a member's daughter
in the ward. Just the Sunday before, that member had requested that the ward
pray to find a family with someone with a daughter who could be a friend for her
daughter in the Young Women's program. As of right now, that member's daughter
is the only YW in the ward. Truly an answer to prayers and a blessing from the
Lord.
Yesterday, the investigator who came to church last week ended up having to
leave early so we weren't able to teach him. It was a bit disappointing, but
then after Sacrament Meeting, a member took us out to the foyer to meet a lady
who said she had met missionaries before. Neither I, nor my companion
recognized her. Neither did the other Elders in this area, so when I asked her
where and when she had met us, she said it was when I was fixing my bike a few
weeks ago. Then I remembered. A couple weeks ago my companion and I were out
next to our apartment while I was fixing my punctured bike tube. I said hello
as she walked by, and then she asked me if I was from a foreign country. From
there we had a simple conversation, and I invited her to come see the church
sometime, because our apartment is literally right next to the church so it was
hard to not talk about or point out. She had a lot of questions and such about
churches, because people from another church had visited her before and given
her pamphlets which she described as grotesque. (Grotesque, by the way is a
katakana word. グロテスク） I assured her our church is different and gave her a
flier about our church and that was that. As it turns out, she's had some
troubles in her life, and she also doesn't really have much to do, so yesterday
she remembered the invitation to come and just up and came. We taught her with
a member during the second hour of church, and she's planning on coming to
sacrament meeting next week.
There are always wonderful things that happen in the Lord's work. I love
being a part of it. Things like the above experiences happen, and I remind
myself, "I just work here." There's a lot going on in the upper management of
this place that I don't understand. I just work here. Seriously.
Going to Kobe again this week for a Trainer Trainee Training meeting. I
may need to pull a little from personal funds to be able to make it there and
back. Thank you for all of your help and support.
Love,
Elder Kyle Hutchings
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| A picture of a really amazing curry restaurant a member took us last Wednesday. It's in the middle of nowhere and basically built into part of somebody's house, so you would never expect/guess that it's like it is inside. All of the wood furniture is crafted by the owner's husband. It's amazing! And the food was ridiculously good! |
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| The main course |
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Dessert - The drink is some sort of Okinawan fruit juice. Kind of
lemonade-like. Way tasty.
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