Hiya from Belfast!

"In 1840 Elder Orson Pratt, an LDS Apostle, climbed to the top of Arthur's Seat.  There he dedicated the country of Scotland for the preaching of the gospel.  Today your missionary climbed the hill and dedicated themselves to the preaching of the gospel in this great land." - President Donaldson  Feb. 5, 2016. Edinburgh, Scotland

It's been a crazy week! In the past 5 days, I've gone from Preston, England to Edinburgh, to Belfast (via ferry!), to Dublin, and finally back to Belfast. I'm so exhausted, traveling really takes it out of you!

MTC District

So we left the MTC in England on Wednesday morning. We got to the mission home base in Edinburgh a couple hours later, and holy cow, the house is huge! It's literally a mansion! As soon as we showed up, all these missionaries ran downstairs to meet us. It felt like I was entering a sorority haha! Then we went on a hike with everyone to the top of Arthurs' Seat.  At the top, our mission president, President Donaldson, talked to us about the history of Mormons in Scotland and Ireland. It's the site where Orson Pratt dedicated the land for missionary work in 1840.  It was really cool!!

 With Sister Esplin on our hike up Arthur's Seat.

We headed back to the mission home and sat down in this big room. Donaldson took us newbies out one by one to interview us and figure out which more experienced missionary would be our trainers. Then we all went back and he read out who was with who. I'm companions with Sister Wagner from Boise, Idaho, and we were told we're going to Belfast the following morning! We're whitewashing in, which means neither of us were ever in Belfast before, so we're kind of starting fresh. Sister Wagner is super nice and fun, and she goes home right after she trains me, so she's got 10 weeks left!

That night, all the missionaries serving in Scotland shipped out. It was sad to say bye to my friends, especially Esplin, but we'll see each other throughout the next couple months.

So Thursday morning, Sister Wagner and I, along with 10 other elders and sisters, got on a bus for 3.5 hours, then a ferry for another 2.5 hours. The ferry was more like a cruise ship, it was so fancy! After that, we were in Belfast! We got to our flat, and elders lived there before us, so it was kind of a mess. 

The next day, we took a 2.5 hour bus to Dublin for a mission conference. Elder Halstrom was there from the 70, he did a great job! It was really nice to see my friends who were elsewhere in Ireland as well.

 So Ireland. It's green, it's beautiful, it's rich in culture...in most areas. I'm in the middle of the city of Belfast. It's not quite so beautiful right here.

We went to church yesterday, and it was quite the experience. We are in the Cavehill Ward. There are 35 members in the ward; 2 primary, 3 yw, 1 ym, 3 ysa, 2 young couples, and 22 adults over the age of 60, most of them closer to 80. They're all really nice, but think that missionary work is pointless. We came into the area with 0 investigators, so right now we're just trying to find people to teach. 

The accent isn't too hard to understand, unless the person is really old. Then it's rough! This week has been an adventure for sure! Hope everyone at home is doing well, love you all!
-Megan