Hi Mom and Dad!
Oh man, camping sounds like it was so much fun! Nice to hear that you got
to escape from the heat for a little while. It's still hot and humid here and
that probably won't be changing for at least a couple of months. I don't know
what the temperature is, but it definitely feels really hot. There are plenty
of bugs and mosquitoes, and there's really not much we can do about it when
we're out dendo-ing, but thankfully it's more controllable in the
apartment.
Sounds like the Japanese culture night was fun and you ate plenty of good
food. Not too surprised to hear that the natto was unpopular. I eat it pretty
much every day, but even my Japanese companion I'm with right now rather
dislikes the stuff. Dad, to answer your questions, we are sleeping on futons.
Our sleeping room has tatami mats and our closets and the doors to the study
room and sleeping room have sliding doors. In our apartment there is a good old
western style flush toilet. In some places there are "squatters" but for the
most part western style flush toilets are what you'll find just about
everywhere. The bathing room has a bath tub and a little spot to shower to the
side of it. The showers in all of the apartments I've been to are a shower head
that you hold which is on the end of a hose. We typically eat in the apartment
- at most we go out to eat once a week (that probably depends on the companion
your with). In the apartment we make udon, yakisoba, miso soup, cha-han, curry
- just simple stuff.
Things have been going well this week! We had a very good experience this
last Wednesday.
On Tuesday evening after we prayed I felt that we should cross the river and go
to an area not too far to the South. I didn't feel like we should go to any
particular place, but we both decided we should follow that impression. On
Wednesday when we went out it was pouring rain and there was almost nobody on
the streets, so we decided to go housing. We picked an apartment building and
started knocking on doors. The whole top floor kekko-ed us. We went down to
the next floor and started knocking again. When we had almost finished all of
the doors, a potential investigator that I met on the 2nd of June came
walking up the stairs. We both had no idea where he lived before we went there,
but he lived in one of the apartments we had just tried. For all of the month
we had been calling him trying to meet with him, but our schedule and his had
never allowed for us to meet. He invited us into his apartment, we had a great
lesson with him and came to find out that he has really been searching for
something more in his life and he wants to change himself. I know that the Lord
led us to meet with him. We followed the Spirit and guidance we had received,
and the Lord guided us and made up the rest. It's amazing to be a missionary
and be blessed to have experiences like that.
Love,
Elder Kyle Hutchings
