MIRACLES EVERYWHERE I TELL YOU! THE WORK IS HASTENING IN MILWAUKEE!

I made Anne a cake! She is moving! :( she is an awesome member and we will miss her!

wow....THAT IS ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! I Have seen SO MANY MIRACLES THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( can't you just feel the excitement in my excessive usage of exclamation marks??????) haha!

     Something SO GREAT that happened this week is we went to the Cutlers (my mission president) and asked sister Cutler if she would come with us to a lesson with our investigator named Charlene! and so she came with us and we talked about prayer with Charlene and reading our scriptures and then we talked about the Sabbath day! and we invited her to come to church with us! And a member picked her up on sunday and brought her! WE WERE SO EXCITED TO SEE HER AT CHURCH!!!!! She is really excited to be baptized!!!!! but then SOMETHING CRAZZY HAPPENED! we got a text right before sacrament meeting from Jessica! (Another woman we are teaching)!!!!! and she said "hey what door do i come in again???" SHE WAS AT THE CHURCH! we thought she was out of town!!!!! so she sat by some members that she knows! And then we  walk to the back of the chapel to talk to some more members and WHO DO WE SEE???? Mary!!!!!! another woman we are teaching who is really good friends with a member in the ward! AND THEN! WE WALK OUT IN THE HALLWAY! AND ANOTHER WOMAN WE WERE TEACHING AND HER DAUGHTER WERE O UT IN THE HALLWAY!!!!!!!! we had FIVE investigators at church! THE LORD has softened hearts and blessed these people here! FIVE AT CHURCH! THAT NEVER HAPPENS! we have been working HARD! and we got tot see the fruits of our labors yesterday! Really its The Lord's labor and we are just mere instruments! But still!!!!!! It was so cool to see five women that i have come to LOVE come to church and feel of the AWESOME SPIRIT of the Lord that church provides!!!!!!!!!!!! it was such a blessing!!!!!! I WAS SSSOOOOOO EXCITED!

     BUT! crazy news! Sister Green (my trainer) is being transferred down to Kenosha Wisconsin (Right on the Chicago and Wisconsin border) and so i just found out that IM DONE TRAINING/..........and that on Wednesday i will be a trainer.....so that is crazy! But with God all things are possible! :) I love you all!

     I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior! The Messiah! I know that HE is my Savior, your Savior and the Savior of all the people you will ever meet!!!!!! I know that God is MERCIFUL! I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God in these last days! I know that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as He was in times of old! I know that we have a living prophet on the  earth today!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW That  we may not feel each others pains but Christ knows our  pains individually! Because He felt them individually! I know that He died for me, but most importantly i know that He LIVES for me! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS WORK! I LOVE THESE PEOPLE! "ON WISCONSIN" As my uncle Brent would say!!!! :) hhahaha

"BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN GIVEN MUCH I TOO MUST GIVE"

-Sister Ashton Wise

Sister Askerlund and ormsby and sister green and me meeting up after exchanges! SO FUN!

I totally decked out my Preach My Gospel in Wisconsin Apparel! Now i am an official Wisconsinite!!! P.S. IS IT TRUE WE ARE GETTING a CULVERS BACK AT HOME!??? That is totally a Wisconsin thing! HAHAHA

I made Anne a cake! She is moving! :( she is an awesome member and we will miss her!

**That is quite the cake... I hope it tasted better than it looked!

7/20 I got a call from Idaho???

This is the famous cheese head that EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG HAS HERE! hahaha Go green bay!!!!

OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hello friends and family!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) SO this email won't be as long as they have been in the past! 

   Sister Green and i have been working HARD in this area and especially this transfer!!! We have really really seen the Lord's hand in His work here in Milwaukee! we've seen our teaching pool almost tipple in its numbers here it has truly been a miracle! The work is hastening!!!!

    SO! sister green and i were wondering what we should do the next week while we were weekly planning and we looked through our list of potential investigators (or just people missionaries in the past had come in contact with, but nothing really happened with them) BUT ANYWAY! So we see a woman who was a referral from Salt Lake City on the list and she hadn't been contacted!!!! So we say "lets go see her!!!!" sp we go and knock o her apartment door and she invites us in!!! Her name is Charlene and her daughter is a member of the church adn we taught the restoration of the Gospel and we invited her to be baptized on septermber 15th and SHE AGREED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is so exited! 

      So the next day! we had been out working and came out of a lesson and i saw that we had a missed call from an unknown number! BUT NOT JUST ANY UNKNOWN NUMBER! It had a 208 area code!!!! WE ALL KNOW THAT MEANS!!!!!!!!!ITS FROM IDAHO!!!!! at first i thought "Ohhhhhh shoot my mom really misses me!!! SHE JUST CALLED ME!!!!" hahaha jk but we got permission to call the number back! and it was a woman! and she told us that she was charlenes daughter! And that her mother wouldn't let her join the church when she was younger and was really offended that she couldn't see her get married in the Salt Lake temple and because of all theses things hated the church and practically disowned her daughter! she hated the mormons!!! and then her daughter said "but i got a call from my mom and she told me that you had stopped by! She said that she had never felt so much happiness than she did when she was with you! so thank you!"

We went back to charlenes to see if this was just all a joke and if she was just doing it to make her daughter happy and she said  "no! I know this book of Mormon is true! I know that joseph smith saw what he said he saw! I want to be baptized! This book is my salvation! I will give  up coffee! I will give it all up! I just want to be baptized!!!" WWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not believe it! The Lord is SOFTENING HEARTS!! here this woman goes from hating the LDS church to knowing it is the true church! we are teaching her and continuing to get to know her! She is fabulous! And her daughter and her spouse are flying from Idaho Falls (they live in Burley) to come to the baptism! And Charlenes son-in-law will be baptizing her! IT IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats all folks! I have a testimony of Jesus Christ! I Know that the Book of Mormon is not just nice stories! It is abook that (like charlene said) contains our salvation!!!!! This is the work of God! I love being a missionary for the master of my soul! I KNOW this is the only true and living church! And it is living because Jesus Christ stands at the head of it! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!! love receiving your emails! THANK YOU!

Because I have been Given much I too must give!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sister Ashton L. Wise

we touched a turtle!!! haha this is our investigator erin's turtles! her daughters insisted that we  hold them! This turtle is princess sparkles and He is a native of a Wisconsin swamp, and yes its a he...haha

and number 2 is WE HAD A TORNADO WARNING! tornado sirens were going off! And of course we were outside when this happened....ive never seen horizontal rain.....but it exists.....hahaha

7/13 Jessica Committed to Baptism!

WELL!  I just want to start this out by telling everyone that it was my beautiful mother's birthday on the 12th!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my beautiful mother!!!!!!!!!! mothers are great!!!! I love you mom!

It was a FABULOUS week though here in Wisconsin!!!!!!!

THERE IS SO MUCH TO SAY AND MY FINGERS JUST CANT TYPE IT ALL!!!!!! haha
LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But what I do want to tell everyone is!...we had an awesome awesome lesson on Friday with our investigator named Jessica! SHE IS SO COOL!!!!!!!! She is 28 and works for a guy in the ward! SHe is so curious about the LDS church and has a really good friend who is a member!!!!!! We invited her on Friday to be baptized on August 22nd and she accepted!!!!!!!!!!! We taught the plan of salvation and she just was SO COMFORTED with the knowledge of where we came from and why we're here and where we are going when we pass from this life to the next!!!!! she was excited when we extended the invite she was also nervous! But we assured her that we will be there every step of the way and that's why we are out doing what we do! to help people receive the restored gospel! :)

So some funny stories (got to have those right??)...haha so one morning sister green and I woke up to take our morning run! and we were getting ready and she said "SISTER WISE! hahaha YOU kept me  up last night!!!" haha and she told me that she woke up at like 2 AM to me talking and saying "I am so grateful for my testimony and I know that the Book of Mormon is true!" haha....so we were joking around and saying that I am so immersed in the work that even my subconscious self realizes that I am a missionary! hahaha so funny!!!!! haha

AND! we were at Wal Mart getting some fabric because we sewed with a less -active woman in the ward! and I brought a smoothie I made into wal mart and this guy was cutting our fabric! and I went to drink my smoothie and it was SUPER THICK (but super good ;)) and I tapped the bottom of the cup and BOOM!!!!!!! hahahaha smoothie! ALL OVER MY FACE AND GLASSES AND HAIR AND EARS! hahahahahaha I looked like SANTA! haha..oh it was awful! but then it started a conversation with this guy even though I could hardly see what he looked like because of the smoothie covering on my optical lenses! SHEESH! haha but he helped me get stuff to clean my face! haha and then we talked with him about the restored gospel! COOL GUY! The Lord qualifies the called! He does not called the qualified! CLEARLY! haha i'm grateful for His patience with me!

I realized that my emails  are way too long and I am sorry! HAHA and I have come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to email about every single miracle I saw during the week! JUST KNOW that there were many! I love you all! I have a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus CHrist! The WHOLE field is white already to harvest! Not just Wisconsin! Missionaries EVERYWHERE are doing the Lord's work and it is hastening! :) I know that through Jesus CHrist we are cleansed from sin! Not just that but we are made strong! We BECOME new creatures in Christ! WE Cannot just do good! We must BECOME good! Through the atonement of Jesus Christ! I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and I sustain Thomas S Monson and his counselors and the quorum of the 12 apostles as prophets seers and revelators! It is so comforting to have men who commune with God for the benefit of mankind! I know these things are true! "Millions shall know brother Joseph again"

"Because I have been given much I too must give!"

-Sister Ashton WIse

"You're A Grend ol' Fleg!"

Hello hello friends and family!!!

   It has been a GREAT week here in America's dairy land! So I just want to start out by saying MAN I am so blessed to live in this country!!! I am so grateful to enjoy the God-given freedoms I do!! I am so grateful for all of those who have fought and are currently serving in the military! It's a privilege to live in a country where I can worship how, where, and what I may! I worship my God and feel grateful to be able to do so!

    ANYWAY! So this past week was SO SO SO good! So Sister Green and I went to our bishops house and set up a time we could come over to have a special lesson with his whole family! and so sister green and I went over there and played a little game! #1 was to write down 5 movies and whoever writes them all first gets a piece of candy and then #2 was to write down 5 book of Mormon heroes...and then #3 was to write down 5 of your friends who need to hear about the gospel! and we committed them to have one person each week over to their house, and then invite us over to give a quick lesson and meet the missionaries! They committed! so we will see how it goes! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

   Okay!!! SO! The REALLY awesome stuff happened this weekend!!! SO! on Friday sister green and I got on the bikes and went just park contacting and I was excited! It was just a really nice day and thought "Oh yeah! There will be tons of families out and about!" And we were riding around and there was no one! No one was answering doors and no one was outside! I got SUPER bummed! and then we just prayed that the Lord would put some one in our path...and so as we were riding home we stopped and talked to a woman named Carmen...and HO.LY. TA.LE.DO! She has such a testimony of Jesus Christ and the Bible!!! She is going through a hard time with her marriage and we gave her a Book of Mormon! We are meeting with her next week to talk about it! She was happy to talk to us and MIRACLE...SHE LIVES IN OUR SAME APT. COMPLEX! So cool! Such a tender mercy the God has trusted us to meet and minister to one of His daughters! :)

    OKAY SO THE FOURTH OF JULY! wow!!!!!!!! the wisonsin accent is REAL!!!!! "Do you want a FLEG!?" "Hey guys! Lets play TEG!" "Would you like a BEG for your REG and your FLEG and then you can run around and play TEG!"haha I love it I love it! BUT our ward mission leader was at the New Berlin, Wisconsin parade and said "HEY! people are always passing out fliers atparades! So come and pass out copies of the Book of Mormon and pass along cards!"so we agreed! so us and a few other missionaries did that! haha and WOW! hahaha it was awesome we taught a lot of lessons but OH MY! I talked to a guy's daughter and said "Do you know much about the Mormon church?" and her dad said "we know its a cult......." hahaha SO AWKWARD! I just smiled and said "NNOO we are not! do you want a card! Go online and read about it for yourself!" haha so that was fun! I love just talking to people though! Especially in big crowds! LOVED IT!

     Another funny thing that happened at the parade was on one float there was a comedian guy for a Milwaukee radio station and He was just saying funny things...and I waved to him and he saw us missionaries and started singing songs from the Book of Mormon musical...hahaha and he said "WHAAZZUUPPP MORMONS!?!" haha and we just cheered and the whole crowd looked at us and cheered too! It was AWESOME!

     It was a fun week! and it is fun being a missionary!..but i'm not out here for the fun! I am out sharing and teaching the gospel for the same reasons alma did! "yea, and from that time even until now I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance. and that they might taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste [...]" I am so grateful for the atonement of  Jesus Christ, not only is my sleight wiped clean, but I am given strength beyond my own! There is no way I would or could be out here, had it not been for the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ! Its sad to see that there are people who wallow in guilt and have no idea that those feelings can be given relief through the atonement, and that is why I am out here! :) to bring them to the knowledge of their Savior!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope everyone had a happy fourth!

"Because I have been Given much I too must Give"

-Sister Wise

Skirts May Get Stuck in Bike Tires

June 29, 2015

and this is a BEAUTIFUL LAKE we found!!!! THERE ARE SO MANY LAKES HERE!

WHAT AN AWESOME WEEK!!!!!!!!!! I feel so blessed to be a servant of the Lord and that I have been able to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ and been able to just open my mouth!! I have seen the Lord work miracles in the lives of those we teach!!!

OKAY!....well something CRAZY happened this week!!! So we met this woman on the street named marlene! and I won't say what religion marlene was, but she was curious as to what we believed so we set up an apt. with her! SO on Wednesday! we show up at marlenes apartment and we walk in and she has an older man and woman with her and they have their bibles open sitting at the table and they are just READY TO BASH! so marlene just says "come on in" and I wanted to just DIE! I was just thinkin "OHHHHH MMYY GOSH! THESE PEOPLE ARE OLD! THEY KNOW MORE ABOUT THE BIBLE THAN I DO!!!! THEY ARE MORE EXPEREINCED! WHAT DO I HAVE TO SHARE THAT THEY WONT HAVE A COME-BACK FOR??" So before we sat down I just said "uummmm....can I use your bathroom????" and she said yeah so I run back there and I just get on my knees and I just offered up a prayer! and immediately what I felt is "You have the truth". and then I got up sat down at the table and.........................

THEY BASHED WITH US! (Bible bash: to bash on ones beliefs with your own)....so as they were telling me things like "We don't have spirits, we die and then that's it we are gone we are not spirits anymore" I stopped them and said "Here wait wait....so my grandmother passed away a year ago! And she is so dear to me! When I sang at her funeral I can't deny that I felt her presence there! How do you explain that?" and they said that I was really feeling a DEMON! WHAT?????????? Oh that was IT! hahaha I was so just...BAH! Not happy...and they were saying all of these other things as I silently had some tears watering up in my EYES! oh baby! It was ridiculous! But then I thought! WOW!!!!!!!! I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT I HAVE THE TRUTH! I love the gospel! I love Jesus Christ! I love that I will return to that God that gave me life one day!!!!!

Okay so later in the week sister green and I were doing nightly planning....and our area is HUGE right??? SO we have to really be smart about who to visit, when to visit them so we can preserve our miles (we are only given so many miles a month). so we were planning and I said "sister green....we don't have enough miles...so....I think we should take the bikes" hahahhahahahahha and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE THAT WAS!!!!! hahahaha it was a humid day and I was wearing a flowy skirt! (BAD IDEA!) hahaha you don't know the struggle.....till you are forced to ride a bike in a skirt! "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble and SKIRTS MAY GET STUCK IN BIKE TIRES!" BUT nevertheless! THE WORK CONTINUES! hahaha kidding! So I definitely put my skirt into a pony-tail...it was great! but anyway! SO we tracted the heavens out of this neighborhood!!! IT WAS AWESOME! lots of people are prepared in this area!!!! but the best part was...SISTER GREEN TOTALLY GOT ATTACKED BY A BIRD....not that that's cool...but its weird! "Persecutions may rage mobs may combine armies may assemble and bird may attack you while tracting!" haha ANYWAY! It was a good time tracting! I was grateful for those bikes!!!!!!!

OKAY!!!! And went to church on sunday and sister olsen (bishops wife) came up to us and said "SISTERS I forgot to tell you!!!! A woman called me this morning! She isn't a member but she's coming to church and wants to be baptized!!!!".......I was shocked......OBVIOUSLY! hahaha but sure enough!!!! Her name is marie! and she sat between us and the cutlers!!! (My mission president and his family) and YEAH! and THEN! Elder and sister Barley (Senior missionary couple) totally brought a friend to church! and I was sitting by them too! And she leans to me in sacrament meeting and gives me a "What would Jesus Do?" bracelet! DAY MADE! hahaha it was AWESOME! and THEN!!!!! Paula Dietz (awesome member in the ward!) asked us to come over and teach her friend! and we did!!! her name is mary and she is SO AWESOME!!!!!!!! she is so kind! She is in the process of a divorce right now! so it was really good to be of comfort to her! we taught the plan of salvation and invited her to read the Book of Mormon to bring peace into her life!

I know that Christ lives! I know that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the Restoration! "He lived great and he died great" as John Taylor once said! I know that this is where I am supposed to be! I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I know that we find and learn in the Book of Mormon of the fullness of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ! I know that God cares about each one of His children! He is in the DEATAILS of every aspect of our life! He knows what makes us happy, what makes us sad, what we regret, what we are proud of! I love Him! I decided that ALMA 36:24 is MY SCRIPTURE!!!!!!!!! people always ask "so why are you on a mission?" and my reason is the same as alma the younger! it's because I have felt the sweet sweet taste of mercy and forgiveness and grace and now I want OTHERS to feel those same things! I love this work! WE ALL ARE APART OF IT! you don't need a nametag AT ALL to do missionary work! do what Christ would do! TALK to people! Share with them what the restored gospel and grace of Christ has done for you!!!! :)  you will be so HAPPY! I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and to all the Idaho people!!!!!! ENJOY THAT 107 degree weather! hahaha GO TO ROARING SPRINGS! hahaha :) wahoo!!!!!!!!!

"Because I have been given much I too must give!"

-Sister Wise

P.S. so this guy in our ward asked me to say a prayer at this meeting and his name is Tom Motta (like Maw-Tuh) but in the prayer I pronounced his name Tom (Mow-tuh) and so after the prayer he said "Sister wise you prounounced my name wrong....." hahaha and I said "Eh.....tomato to-MOTTA!) hahhahhahahhahahahahahahhaha" It was SO funny...anyway....just a little slice of Ashton in this email! hahaha

and the other one! I TOTALLY COOKED and I feel so cool! THANKS FOR THE RECIPE for the energy bites ken! They were a hit! I shared some with the other missionaries and they approved!

the other pic is sister green in front of a quote I made up and put on our wall haha

these streets man! hahaha I knew I was ssupposed to come here!

we got cool Wisconsin jerseys for 50 cents