Mom and Dad,
I made it to my new area without any complications, and I absolutely love
this place. It's pretty inaka (rural) which makes working here different, but
it's absolutely beautiful here. It's nice to get away from the commotion of the
city. The weather here is a bit different than it was in my last area. There's
a lot more humidity here in Toyooka. It's generally been really nice if not a
bit too warm during the days and it gets pretty chilly at night because of the
moisture. It gets really cold here in the winters I'm told and there's plenty
of snow as well. In one of the cell phones (as Zone Leaders we each have a
phone) there's a picture from last winter when one night it snowed about 1
meter. Probably not anywhere near what Elder French will face during the winter
way up north, but it's definitely on the more unpleasant side of things for this
mission.
So something pretty cool about Toyooka is that we live in a house! It
feels outright weird living in an actual house. It's got a second floor and
everything. It's a pretty average sized house by anyone's standards, but it
feels huge after living in apartments for the past 6 or 7 months. Also, it's
just myself and my companion in the house, so there's absolutely no wont for
space. It's in pretty good condition all around.
My new companion is Elder Kawabata. He's 20 right now and he'll be 21 in
December. He's Ni Hon Jin (Japanese) from a place just on the border of the
Nagoya and Kobe mission boundaries. His home is an hour inside of the Nagoya
mission boundaries. He's been out in the field for 10 transfers now, or about a
year and 3 months. He is an excellent cook and he always graciously makes
lunch. He's really nice, chill, and likes to joke a lot. Being with him has
helped my Japanese a lot already, he's very willing to answer my many questions
about things I hear and things he says. I feel like I'm able to communicate
pretty well and understand pretty well in Japanese now. Where the last 2
transfers I was with a trainee and was doing most of the talking, listening, and
communicating that really forced my language skills to grow. Now I'm speaking,
thinking, and hearing Japanese almost all the time so I feel like I'm still
making good progress. Kawabata Choro has decent English, but we almost always
speak in Japanese.
So to answer your questions about the crash last week, my bike was not
damaged at all. It was absolutely fine. Right now my leg is doing really well.
The swelling is pretty much gone and the bruising is starting to fade. It's
still sore, but only to the touch, walking and biking doesn't hurt at all. Even
that's getting less and less bad every day. Before I left my area last week I
gave the Motorcyclist the mission home's phone number and the phone number of
one of the Toyooka cell phones. I filled out a Bicycle Accident Report form and
sent it to the Mission office last week, so they're informed about it all. I
still haven't heard anything from the Motorcyclist. He said he would contact me
or the Mission Office this week after he had his bike looked at by some one.
Really the worst I think could have happened to his bike would be a few
scratches. I don't think any of the body work was affected.
Exciting to hear that Grandpa bought a couple of mini Black Angus! Crazy
to hear that Michael Moos is here, I'll keep an eye out for him!
I'm happy, I feel great, and I love what I'm doing!
Love,
Elder Kyle Hutchings
Ps.
I loved conference! Also, I took pictures of things and I was going to
send them today, but the computer I'm using doesn't have a
card reader and I forgot my USB converter. I'll send pictures next
week!
