"God engraven upon your countenance"

Am I the only one who is just floating on a spiritual cloud right now? Conference was the BEST! People say that Conference weekend is the best weekend of your mission, and they are RIGHT! I feel bad for everyone else because I just feel spoiled since all the speakers prepared their talks just for me.. or atleast that's what it felt like ;) I especially loved Bednar's talk about the "load". We spent time the Lee family, they are my favorite! We even went our to Orange Leaf in between sessions, so you can imagine.. I was a pretty happy girl :)

This last week has been amazing and full of miracles :)

The fields are white in the Madison 4th Ward.. and whitening every day we are here. People are searching for us, they are searching for God, they are searching for the gospel. It's amazing!

I have some really sad and devastating news.. My dad sold my blazer.. For those of you who had been on adventures with me in that baby understand what I mean. "mourn with those who mourn" Haha I hated that car and it died on me so much but we sure have been through a lot together. My dad sold it to a friend, he said he "hopes he doesn't lose 15 years of friendship over that piece of junk" Brutus, was a good car, he will be missed..

Also, BIG NEWS! Brady turns 18 next week! Hold the phone, when did time fly by so fast? Make sure to give him some birthday love next week for me :)

Life has been great out here in Wisconsin! We got two new investigators this week! Trisha and Sam! (<<<<<good name!) but they are both awesome! and I am so excited to teach them more! Trisha is a single mom of older teenage girls! She loves religion and was taught by missionaries like 20 years ago! She has such a light about her, I love her already! Same is married and has two teenage boys! She is awesome! Not to mention i love her cuz of her name! It's crazy, and almost creepy how automatically you can begin to love someone out here.. I feel so much love for the people I meet because I know God loves them! (cheesy but it's true!) God loves all of us! He loves us so perfect, regardless of our imperfections, our mistakes, our shortcomings, he loves us SO MUCH! I am just begin to understand the smallest layer of that love and what it truly means to be a child of God. We are also visiting a less active named Tamesha who was baptized a long time ago but never went to church. She cried last night when we were reading the scriptures and said she has "never felt so much love in her life" :)

AWKWARD MOMENT OF THE WEEK: so there is this guy named Nate who works at a gas station Sister bean and I always stop by at, he is black and AWESOME! He knows every customer, by name. So he has gotten to know us pretty well and what we are about. So we went in on Wednesday and he was like "my siiiiiistas" and started coming out from behind the counter to greet us and I knew what was coming.. he was going in to hug me! (as a missionary, I can't hug men) So here I was with like .27 seconds to react, but it wasn't enough time because he was too fast so he started hugging me and I AWKWARDLY went like all stiff and then I went into like this bent over position while he was still trying to hug me, this whole time I was just screaming "i can't hug you I can't hug you" I wish I could describe it better, and I wish I could show you a picture of his face and reaction after.. he was like shocked. We then had to spend like 10 minutes explain why I can't hug him, and we had to assure him that other mormons can hug him. (it was the most awkward moment of my mission, thus far) Anyways, he is so awesome! We gave him a BOM that day and he promised he'd read. His mom is a Jehovah's Witness, and he said if she finds this book he'll be burned at the stake and that he will make sure to haunt us in his after life." hahaha he is awesome!

It's finally warming up out here.. Wisconin is so full of wild life haha there is bunnies everywhere! I need to try to get a picture of them in our front yard! and WOW the squirrells! EVERYWHERE!!  I cannot wait for spring out here, people say it is so green and beautiful! :)

Micheal is out of Jail.... wooooo! So that's good.. he is still moving towards baptism but he definitely still has a lot to go. Tim is on two weeks no smoking! If I don't see another miracle my whole mission.. Tim will be enough. It is amazing seeing the Lord work within someone :) He is so awesome!

I'm doing really good ) don't get me wrong, it's hard.. really hard. But it's worth it! People are generally pretty friendly out here.. haha till they find out we're Mormons, then they run away like we have the plague! But it's all good! The work is  progressing. We are building up our teaching pool and find new people every day! I know this is the true church of God on Earth, and I know it can bless lives, like it has blessed mine! that is why I am out here.. I would hope we all can reach out our hands to someone as Christ would, you can changes someone's life by bringing the Gospel into it.

I love all of you guys and I am so grateful for all the love and support my family and I have received! Especially the prayers on my behalf and on the behalf of my investigators!

Until next week, god bless <3

all my love, Sister Askerlund

"stop waiting for the rainbow and thank God for the rain" -Utchdorf