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| Sister Aeschbacher! |
I am in Wells, Maine. It is near the New Hampshire border, and it's on the coast- I can see the ocean from my apartment. We live in a pretty touristy area. Fun fact: my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Femia lives in my area, so I am gonna try and go see her one of these days! I also got to see my BYU roommate, Jena (Sister Aeshbacher), the first night I arrived at the mission home.
Everyone, please update the address on the business cards I gave you. My address is the mission home address, stuff will get to me just as fast. For packages use Priority Mail. My address is:
Sister Johanna Welling
New Hampshire Manchester Mission
2 Bedford Farms Suite 208
Bedford, NH 03110-6525
Some interesting facts about Maine:
-Everyone in Maine has cemetaries in their yard. Like... everyone used to just bury their dead family members in the backyard. So you're driving down the street
and there will be 4 random tombstones just chillin. It's the weirdest thing. Talk about yard decorations.
-The three states in my mission (VT, ME, NH) are the three least religious states in the WORLD, and Maine is the least religious out of the three/the entire country. 70% of Mainers claim no religion. They like to sit on their front porches on Sundays.
-While all other religions in Maine are declining, Mormonism has doubled in the past decade there. Interesting.
-When we try to talk to people or knock on their doors, they say "I'm all set." (Means they're Catholic).
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| Her companions, Sister Westling and Sister Hall |
I am in a threesome companionship, my trainers are Sister Westling and Sister Hall. We're all pretty different but we get along great so that's a relief. Sister Westling was in High School Musical 1 AND 2. In #2, she's the one that runs up to Sharpay to get her to sign her yearbook as they are leaving school for the summer (opening song of the movie). So I guess you could say my companion is famous.
This week has definitely been full of ups and downs, missionary work is not a walk in the park, especially with some of the rules I'm trying to get used to. For Fast Sunday yesterday, I fasted for increased faith because I was feeling down about how slow the work is here. I thought that right when I got out here, I'd be teaching lessons left and right but that is not the case. In Relief Society yesterday (the class at church for all the women), the lady who gave the lesson talked about a CES Fireside given by Elder Bednar in March I believe (I remember watching it with my roommates). I learned that faith is not dependent on getting outcomes we want, but rather it needs to be dependent on our willingness to submit to God's will. Having faith isn't a one way thing... we can't only have it if we get what we want out of it (aka teaching lessons left and right). True faith is being willing to take whatever hand God deals you, whether it's happy or sad. She said that "Having faith in God's will frees us from worry." It is so true. If we have faith in God's plan, no matter what it is, then we can be at peace knowing with whatever happens to us. Easier said than done, but it's something we can strive towards. It's the same talk where Elder Bednar asks the 23 year old newly wed guy if he has the faith to NOT be healed. A lot of people have enough faith to be healed, but do we have enough faith to NOT be healed? Do we have enough faith for things to NOT go our way? Or to NOT have any progressing investigators?
Yes, the work here is slow. But we have to remember that God's timing is different than ours. The work IS progressing, just not quite as quickly as I might have hoped. BUT, the church is still true. My testimony is still strong. The Atonement is still very true and I know that God has prepared someone out here in the beautiful New England for me to bring the gospel to.
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