Off to Belfast!

Tuesday, February 6, 2018 

Today’s the first day out of the MTC. It took 4 to 5 hours to get to Edinburgh Scotland from Preston England. The Mission home is cool. I found out where I'll be serving and who my trainer will be! I'm going to Belfast in Northern Ireland!!!

My trainer will be Elder Greenhalgh. I haven’t met him yet but I met his older brother at the temple when I got endowed. #Weird. Crazy. After we had dinner, we went out GQ’ing (Proselyting) and I got a good story for my first day out. We were out trying to find “The Meadows,“ a big park near University and Edinburgh. We got lost, and tried, finding our way by asking people for directions. We found one guy who said he would walk us there. Cool. This guy was weird, he’s been to jail lots and was a little cuckoo. Every time we walked past any female he’d ask them inappropriate questions trying to see if he could get with any of them. (He didn’t) he was gross! Gross jokes and gestures and we told him we didn’t need his help but he insisted. Once we got to the park we wanted to split ways. He said he needed payment by                        (redacted it's so bad!)  We said NO! and walked away. Otherwise, a good day!

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

First day in my new area! We traveled from 5 AM until 2 PM with four buses and a ferry to get from Edinburgh to Belfast. And I slept through none of it… The ferry was fun, it had PS4’s , a cinema, and a bunch of other fun stuff I can't use… When I finally met my companion, we hit it off pretty quick- he’s laid-back and cool. We spent a lot of yesterday GQ’ing and only got two numbers that are not even maybes. For dinner we went to a recent convert’s house named Albert, he was baptized after six weeks with the missionaries back in April and he’s already read the book of Mormon nearly 8 times!! I couldn’t understand a word he said but his spirit was so strong. After his house we did some more GQ’ing walking back to the flat, it takes nearly an hour and 15 minutes to walk to the city center where we spend most of the day. We spend time around the “Spirit of Belfast“  so I’ll start giving daily steps. Today was fun and I’m excited for the rest of my mission. 20,008 steps

Thursday, February 8, 2018

First full day of a lot of firsts. We spend a lot of our day GQ'ing and it’s pretty fun. We got probably 10 numbers two appointments for the next week. A few “lovely“ people showed me N. Ireland. I cannot understand half of what people are telling me, they talk so fast with a bunch of weird words. We had lunch at some Cuban Subs place and it was fun! Sister McNamara was there, we then found a Starbucks with a 1/5 hygiene rating and that was pretty cool. We GQ for a few hours then had dinner with a recent convert named Stewart and it was super yummy! Three course meal; biscuits with gravy, spaghetti, ice cream with big pumpkin spice cookies. Sister McNamara was there too. We did some more GQ’ing then had a lesson with  Bruce. He spoke French so we had to have one of our sisters from Tahiti teach him. Super cool dude. Then they gave us a ride home to our flat. 23,000 steps

Friday, February 9, 2018

Friday, February 9, 2018 

Hey, Michael here. Actually it’s your boi, Elder Hutchison, out here GQ’ing for hours on the daily. The morning is so hard to GQ because you just want to sleep or because you don’t feel like it but by the end of the day you could do it forever except: Flippin’ Belfast has nobody out on Friday nights, city center was practically empty at like 8:00 PM we got two 18-year-old girls numbers and set up an appointment later. #FlirtToConvert actually worked. But back to the beginning of today. We had a lesson with a guy, Carl, that lived in _______ and mom, this guy was an actual hoarder, like squeeze through the door. It was a good lesson, I invited him to be baptized and he agreed. The highlight of the trip though was that it was a 30 to 40 minute walk to the train station then a 20 minute walk to the dude’s flat. But wait there’s more! We had to also walk back to our flat. So there was about three hours travel for a 20 minute lesson… This shows (at least here) that as missionaries, that we love you and Gospel so much, we’d do anything for you. 37,002 steps. 8.4/10

Saturday, February 10, 2018

When I got my call to the Scotland Ireland mission everyone told me it was going to rain a lot but I’m just like “I am from Seattle, rain brings me comfort“ but I was wrong. I dislike rain strongly now. Today started warm with sunny skies. Around 3 PM it started raining and that’s no big deal, because it’ll rain for 10 minutes.. But no, it rained from 3 to I don’t know, when I got home! Normally rain wouldn’t bother me because I’d be inside but today I was outside the whole time and I had to walk 50 minutes back to the flat in the rain. My jacket held up well but my pants/trousers aren’t waterproof so my knee caps were frozen. Fun night! 

I also lost my “Booginnity” because it was the first time I ate at Boojums. It’s basically a knock off of Costa Vida, but in the UK, and worse. Not bad, but not super good. 35,448 stepson with a guy, Carl, that lived in _______ and mom, this guy was an actual hoarder, like squeeze through the door. It was a good lesson, I invited him to be baptized and he agreed. The highlight of the trip though was that it was a 30 to 40 minute walk to the train station then a 20 minute walk to the dude’s flat. But wait there’s more! We had to also walk back

to our flat. So there was about three hours travel for a 20 minute lesson… This shows (at least here) that as missionaries, that we love you and Gospel so much, we’d do anything for you. 37,002 steps.