I say BRAT.. you say FEST.. BRAT FEST! BRAT FEST!

Well besides the Packers and beer, the next most important thing in Wisconsin is BRATS! On Friday last week Sister Bean and I volunteered at Brat Fest! IT WAS INSANE! It's this concert thing that goes on all Memorial Weekend and members of our church volunteer because then we get money donated to our boy scouts group.. so me and Sister Bean hopped on that because we knew it'd be an awesome opportunity to talk to people.. and it was! There was so many people there, and like 7 stages for bands to play music.. (we stayed by the Christian Rock stage :) ) Me and Sister Bean were for sure the only mormons there, just how we like it :)  We were supposed to be under the brat tent but we got reassigned to the "sparkle committee" so we picked up trash all day... :) but it was awesome! this chinese girl Yiyang (Yee-Nang) got assigned to the same area with us so she didn't have much of a choice than to hear about the restored gospel all day.. I gave her a Book of Mormon, which I will tell you is one of the scariest things ever, but she graciously accepted it and said she wanted to read it. Sadly she's not in our area so other missionaries are going to teach her but she is so awesome!! She goes to Cornell University.. crazy huh! We got SO sunburnt. I am pretty sure I will have this farmers tan for the rest of my life.. It's just lovely :)

Charlotte, our investigator is really progressing. She loves the gospel and loves learning. It's beyond amazing to see this woman change as she has come to know of her Savior, it's a beautiful thing. She is basically teaching her neighbor the lessons because "she wants him to be a mormon too" We love her so much!

Dan (inv) still loves our church.. he'll get baptized.. eventually I know it. 

Micheal, our old investigator called us Sunday and told us he knows the BOM is true and wants to be baptized.. He's a little sketchy so we're not sure what to think but we're seeing him tomorrow so we'll see..

Besides Brat Fest, it's been an awesome week full of miracles, minus our fridge breaking and all our food going bad - we've had blessings poured down on us! I love it here and I love everyone we are teaching. Transfers are next week, so I could be leaving here, we'll find out on Saturday. I want to stay here but I know the Lord knows best and he'll send me where I need to go. 

This week I read this talk called "Progress through Change" and this quote was in it that I love,

C. S. Lewis indicated there is often pain in change when he wrote of God’s expectations for His children: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York: MacMillan Co., 1960, p. 160).

I know Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us and it is far greater than anything we could ever imagine on our own. I am grateful for Heavenly Father's plan for me, there has definitely been a few stumbling blocks put in my path but I know they are all refining tools the Lord will use to make me into who he knows I am supposed to be. 

Love you guys so much!

-Sister Askerlund

"Great souls have wills, feeble souls only have wishes"

Some people may say it's partly cloudy, I like to say it's partly sunny

Hello everyone! Sister A. here! People have just accepted they don't know my last name and just call me Sister A. we tried Sister Ask for a while but some kids in my ward kept forgetting the 'k' and would add an addition 's' so we are keeping it safe with just Sister A.. Hahaha

It has been a beautiful and wonderful week here in Madison, Wisconsin. It looks as if just over night everything just got painted green! It is so beautiful and I love it! With the warm weather the bugs have started to come out.. I swear there is like honey in my blood - so every bug on the planet just wants to bite me. not ideal, but I am dealing :)

Sister bean and I met some awesome people this week, on Tuesday we had an appt that got cancelled so we were driving home from that and there was this house we drove by that a guy was sitting on his porch. He caught my eye (no, not in that kind of way.. ) but I just felt super prompted to stop so I made Sister Bean flip a uturn and we went back, parked, and just got out and started talking to him. (we do super creepy stuff like this all the time) His name is Frank, he is from NYC. He is a single dad with two boys, all of his family is back in New York. We started talking to him about our church and what we do as missionaries and he was super interested! He started bearing his testimony on Jesus Christ and everything he has done for him, he told us he wants his kids to know Jesus and to go to church. We shared Alma 36:3 with him-that talks about whosoever will put their trust in the Lord will be supported in their trials and afflictions, he was really touched and loved the scripture and asked if he could get a copy of the Book of Mormon, he was a little surprised when we just handed it over to him :) He works like 3 jobs but said he wants to learn more so we're going to go back and teach him this week! The Lord is truly preparing people all around us and I can't/we can't know who they are if we are not diligently searching for them. 

Charlotte finally came to church and LOVED it! She felt the spirit after so strong and just kept telling everyone that would listen that "She is going to be a Mormon" I attached a picture of us and her on her first Sunday, its like an aerial view because she wanted Jesus in the picture haha

Sunday we had a going away party for a family in our ward, the Turners. They are the most missionary oriented people I know, I attached a picture with us and Jen Turner and Lisa. Lisa and Jen are best friends and Jen taught Lisa everything about the gospel and got her to meet the missionaries and she was baptized last November! I sure am gonna miss this family!

We're teaching a new guy named Kevin who "isn't churchy, he's just spiritual" He wants us to go to his "drum circles" with him if he agrees to come to one of our Sacrament meetings, this sound be interesting... ;)

Madison Wisconsin is one of the most diverse places I have ever been. No joke one part of town people are all homeless and begging for food and two streets away is mansions. I have seen some very sad things here and met some very sad people. People who are looking for something better. So many people here feel all alone.. that's where us missionaries come in. I love, love, LOVE helping people to feel loved, whether it is love from me or love from the Lord, everyone deserves to feel loved. Everyone deserves to feel special and know their purpose in life. We are teaching some amazing people who are coming to realize there is so much more to life than they ever thought possible, and that is an amazing thing to see.

I love you guys!!

Until next week,

Adios amigos

-Sister Askerlund

"The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. that which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude. "

ZOO

We went to the zoo today for P-day with our favorites, the Lee Family :)

'Murica!

Why do Sister Missionaries always sit with their legs crossed?

Because they only get one P Day a week!

Hahahaha

It's official, I'm positive that talking to your family on Mother's Day is better than Disney World! Yesterday was the greatest day!! On Saturday night I could hardly sleep I was just so excited, anxious and even a little nervous! But it was the greatest! My nephew Drake is the biggest thing and is just talking a mile a minute, my family is doing awesome! It was so good to see their faces! Sure made me miss em though. But I know this is where I am supposed to me. This is where Heavenly Father wants me to be. 

The weather has been bi polar here this last week! (it's not just a Utah thing) :) it was like 85 and humid one day.. I was dying. This desert girl is not used to humidity! but today it was been POURING, lightening and thunder! Pretty sure the Second Coming will look a little like how it did this morning. 

Sister Bean was really sick this last week so she slept a lot.. and I.. well I kept myself busy. read a bunch of talks and watched Mormon Message and rearranged the apt a of times.. :)

Once she got feeling better we kicked it into serious gear. Sister Bean is a hard worker and I am grateful for that! We walked a lot this week and contacted a lot of people. The warm weather makes all the difference, people are so much nicer :) We street contacted a lot (for those who dont know that just means we basically talked to anyone and everyone we saw outside) most people aren't interested but a few people were which was awesome! Friday we started talking with this Jehovah Witness.. They're interesting folk. But she was actually really nice! We exchanged info and we're gonna meet up, pretty sure she thinks she can convert us... she's got another thing coming :)

We had a lot of lesson in coffee shops this week.. Ironic right? People give us the funniest looks! We are teaching this new guy Dan, who is awesome! Awesome but so analytic! He asks the craziest questions about the Book of Mormon, that no mortal man could answer. But he came to church yesterday for the first time so that's a start.. :)

I don't think I've told you guys much about Matt yet, he is less active, but he's not really that less active anymore. He is AWESOME! He was baptized in his youth but then his whole family distanced from the church, his home teachers found him and started visiting. He suffers from major anxiety and depression and it makes him nervous to meet with people, but he has literally transformed over the last couple months. He comes to church every week and some activities even. and this last week he felt a huge prompting to pay his tithing so he did and then this whole last week he said he was just overwhelmed with the spirit and peace. It is amazing to see the blessings of someone keeping the commandments first hand, he's preparing to receive his temple recommend :)

I  just want you all to know that regardless of the rejection and the hard days, I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am grateful for my testimony of the restored Gospel. I may not know everything, but the things I do know, I know with all my soul. Heavenly Father knows me perfectly, (which is slightly scary thinking about all my faults) but he loves me PERFECTLY! Jesus Christ is my Savior, he picks me up every time I fall short, which is every day. he is there for each one of us, we just have to turn to him.

(Can I just tell you when people used to tell me stuff like this, I thought they were full of baloney, but it is ALL true. Sometimes you have to be completely humbled to realize just how wonderful God's plan for each of his children is.)

 "Life is like a Watermelon, sweet and juicy but full of seeds. The fun part is seeing how far you can spit the seeds."

Love, Sister Askerlund

Skyping with the fam :)

Are you doing this for the Savior or for yourself?

Hey ya'll

this week has been really awesome and we have met some amazing people! The Lord definitely guided us this week to certain individuals and it was amazing because it was all the spirit!

We met awesome people at the most random places and they were so warm and welcome. We hope to be able to start teaching them soon! our car got recalled so we had to spend one morning at the Chevy dealership, the guys that work there had a hay-day teasing us, asking how many wives our husband has and if we are rivals with Jehovas Witnesses. They thought they were real funny, but they were cool guys. After all the jokes we got a little serious and bore our testimonies about the church and the book of mormon. It touched them, I know it did. One guy in particular Joe was really intrigued, he asked a lot of questions and I shared Ether 12:4 (my favorite) with him. 
4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with ^asurety ^bhope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which ^chopecometh of ^dfaith, maketh an ^eanchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in ^fgood works,being led to ^gglorify God.

he loved the reference to anchors because he used to be in the Navy, he is awesome. we are definitely stopping back in this week because we "forgot some things in our car" haha..

After Chevy we had to go to the mall to go to the Spring store because our phone broke as well... (it was a bad week of breaking things for sister bean and I) but as soon as we walked up one of the workers was like "are you guys Jesus people?" she must have read our name tags... :) Her name was Luz and she basically told us her life story and about her daughter who is going through a rough time. While Sister bean was with another worker I kept talking to Luz. She asked me to pray for her and her daughter. and then she asked if I would pray right then with her in the middle of the mall at the kiosk. So.. you know me, I totally did! The spirit was so strong and she was crying!  

This Sunday was truly amazing. We had five less actives there, (that usually never come). It was truly a miracle for some of them to be there! We had our investigator Nate there too, he is awesome!

We also committed our investigator Charlotte to baptism. She is amazing. I have truly seen this woman transform before my eyes as she has accepted the Gospel into her life. She felt the spirit so strongly last week while praying and it testified to her that this is the true church.

Yesterday we stopped by a less actives named Blake. Neither Sister bean or I had ever seen his name before or recognized it so we stopped by. He answered right away and was super friendly, he had the cutest dog that just jumped all over me so you know i was in heaven. We got to know him a little and his background and he told us it was super crazy that we happened to show up today because he's been having a really hard time right now and the night before he had prayed for the first time in a rrrreeeallly long time, he said he didn't think his answer would come so fast but here we were on his door step. IT WAS AWESOME! We are going back this week to meet his wife who isn't a member! Hopefully we can build a friendship with his wife and start teaching her soon :)

Guess who is in my ward in Madison Wisconsin.. none other than Coach Gary Anderson (formally coach of USU but now he's out here coaching the badgers.) He's inactive.. for now... ;)

He supposedly isn't interested in the church at all right now.. Our bishop told us that an Apostle contacted him and talked to him about his membership in the church and encouraged him to come back to church. (because that would do amazing things for the church in Wisconsin if people knew the head coach of the Badgers was mormon..) but any way.. he basically said "no thanks" TO AN APOSTLE. He was way nice but just said no thanks.

Soooo...
basically you know me, I've been obsessing over it and want to meet him so bad to see what he is all about.

Sunday is Mother's Day so I get to skype my family... to say I am excited would be the understatement of the century! I LITERALLY AM GIDDY JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!

I love all of you guys and I hope your week is so awesome!!

with all my love, Sister Askerlund (Ask-her-lund--- it's really not that hard)

Jesus is for Everyone!

Hey guys!

Sister A here! Okay first off.. no one out here can say my last name.. like NO one. I never realized my name was hard to say till I got out here.. People just call me Sister A or just Sister...

I guess that will just have to come over time haha

Last week was beautiful and sunny in Madison Wisconsin and this week it's a frozen tundra, it is raining cats and dogs. and a freezing kind of rain that chills you to the bone. Me and Sister bean went running this morning and it just started to pour! but on the brightside... rain means rainbows :)

We had Stake Conference this last weekend and that was so awesome! Elder Carlson of the Seventy talked and a bunch of other wonderful people.

Elder Carlson said that "the mere fact that we are here on Earth is because we had faith and chose to follow our Heavenly Father's Plan of Happiness. We left Heaven only because we knew we could and would make it back. We walked out that door, knowing we'd walk back in"
I loved that. I know that is true.

I read something about life and judgement the other day that hit me really hard, it said that "Judgement day will not be a day in which Heavenly Father gets out a list of all of the good and bad things we did in life. Rather it will be a time in which we look at what those decisions we made helped us become. It is not what we did, but rather who we have become"

I hope my Heavenly Father is proud of who I am becoming.

I love you guys and I love this work.
We are going to ask Nate to commit to be baptized this week.. Keep him in your prayers :)
Love you guys!!

-$ister Askerlund

okay guys... take the time to read this little piece of a talk I read this last week. IT CHANGED my outlook on everything!

"God uses another form of chastening or correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is thebetter way for us. President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personalexperience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, hecame across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leavingonly small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thoughthe heard it say:“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will lookdown on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”
President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruittree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say,‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”
Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty,President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for thepromotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but Icannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in thatmoment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:
“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on thecot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do tomeasure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was asbitter as gall.
“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I knowwhat I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. …

“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurtme.’”⁵

God knew what Hugh B. Brown was to become and what was needed for that to happen, and He redirected his course to prepare him for theholy apostleship."

The first picture is me Sister Bean and our Investigator Nate, (the one who tried to hug me) he is HILARIOUS!

the next picture is Aven Lee, he is my favorite member of the Madison 4th Ward

#BECAUSEOFHIM

Wow! Easter was so remarkable yesterday.. I have never felt so close to my Savior. He really truly lives. I know he does. so many people we meet out here, when we ask them about Jesus, they always say "I love Jesus, he died for me" while that is so powerful and so true, I think so many people forget to realize, HE LIVED FOR THEM also.

On Saturday, Sister Bean and I got to travel to her old area to see a baptism of some she used to teach! It was so awesome.. i cried like a baby.. of  course!  

We are teaching Nate, the black guy who came to church and tried to hug me. The other day we were teaching him and talking about church and he was like.. "why was there no black people at church on Sunday? There must have been a big BBQ goin on or something" hahaha you might need to know Nate to understand how funny this was but I was dying haha He is awesome!

on April 15th, we went with our investigator Coredyn to Orange Leaf to get Fro Yo, (they had a deal going on that you could get as much fro yo as you wanted and it would only cost $4.15 because of tax day..) so you know me... I LOADED up my up. like LOADED! I think I put half a pineapple in there! It rung up as $9.10.... and turns out you had to have the advertisement printed off in order to get the deal. so I had to pay $9 for fro yo! This is completely not gospel related by any means but I just wanted to let everyone know that I think I broke my record for fro yo weight. It was a proud moment for me :)

I have like no time on the comps today because we are getting a tour of this place called Epic today that is within our boundaries. It's like this medical analysis place or something.. I don't even know but it is HUGE and I'm pretty sure it is taking over the world haha google it or something. it's insane... but so I have to get going because we're meeting an investigator over there for the tour.
Sorry I didn't get to write many people back :(
I'll talk to you all next week!
I love you so much!

God is real and there for each one of us if we will seek him 

Miracles are all around us, we just have to look for them :)
Love you guys!!

with all my love, Sister Askerlund

ps attached is some pics of me and my Comp Sister Bean
hahaha people were giving us the weirdest look the day that we matched each other :)