Mom and Dad,
I'll be completely honest, it's been a bit of a tough week. Whitewashing,
training, and being a District Leader is all very new to me. There are a lot of
new things that I have to learn how to do and that I'm experiencing. It's been
difficult. But I ever take comfort in knowing that my Heavenly Father is by my
side every step of the way, and will help me so long as I am humble and seek His
guidance.
Takatsuki is a nice area. The apartment is huge! There's a study room, a
sleeping room, and a tatami room. The church building is also huge! It's
actually a stake center, so there's a gym, a full chapel, and two levels of
classrooms. It's a building shared by the Takatsuki and Ibaraki wards. The
members in Takatsuki are very kind. The Bishop is young, fun, and very helpful.
And the Ward Mission Leader is also way nice and dedicated. Whitewashing has
been crazy. I don't know the area or any of the investigators. Also I'm not
exactly pera-pera (fluent) in Japanese, so communicating with the Members and stuff has
been a bit crazy and stuff. But that's life right now!
My companion/trainee's name is Elder Baldwin. He's from Idaho and he's an
incredibly solid missionary. He has a lot of desire to serve and a lot of dendo (missionary) fire. He's a real muscly guy too, he's going to be playing football for BYU
when he returns. We've been getting along fine and working our best these past
few days.
The way transfers normally work is that we get our transfer calls on Monday, and we don't
transfer areas until Thursday or Friday (depending on how the flights of the incoming and
returning missionaries are. We have to have everything packed on Monday, and we send
our luggage through a shipping service.
Being a District Leader has been all right so far. My district is just my
companion and I, and Sisters in Ibaraki. It's all been going all right. The
biggest frustration/difficulty in all of this new stuff has been whitewashing.
I've been reporting to my Zone Leaders about investigators I know nothing about
and things like that. I think in a little more time things will settle down a
bit and I'll have a little time to think. Right now my head has been going
crazy and in about 12 different directions all at once. But, because the Lord
has called me to do the things which I have to do, He'll provide a way.
Oh, I almost forgot. On top of all the craziness, I kind of sprained my
ankle last Saturday at a volleyball activity. I jumped up to tap the ball over
the net (which worked and was the winning point of the match) but I landed on my
right foot sideways. I've been icing it and keeping it elevated at night. One
of the Ibaraki Sisters lent me her ankle brace which has been helping. It
wasn't really a bad sprain, no bruising or anything, and it's been been a lot
better today, so
I'm not too concerned with it. If it gets any worse, I'll definitely go to the
hospital, but if it's not necessary, I'd rather go out and do some limp
dendo.
I love you and I'm grateful for your support and prayers!
Love,
Elder Kyle Hutchings
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