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"