Meeting the Mormons

 So one SWEET thing that went on this week is Janice watched meet the Mormons with us!!! :) it was wonderful! She loved it! and was just eating it up!!! and then after said "you guys are the mormons???" ....keep in mind she's been investigating for like.....8 months!!! hahaha as i picked my jaw off the floor is said "yes! Yes janice we are mormons!" haha and she said that it was really nice to watch the movies because it cleared up some misconceptions people have about the mormon people! So THAT was so so so great! but then she actually got to MEET some Mormons! some Mormon dancers that is!!!! so BYU DANCERS!!!!!! YEP! we got permission to go to a show and watch the BYU folk dance team! and It was PHENOMONAL!!!!!!!! I just loved it! the whole time my smile was ear to ear!!!!!!!!!!!! so great to watch the art that i LOVE!!!!!!!! and janice got to meet some dancers afterward!! its amazing that we can praise the Lord with both song AND Dance!!!!!!! so fun!

     It was beautiful beautiful beautiful weather this week! you know what THAT means!!!!!!!!!! STREET CONTACTING! hahaha it has been so so so so so fun just talking to people on the street and acting like your best friends!! that is something i have learned! if you compliment them and then let them know you are genuinely interested in them...THEN they respond to you!!!!!! it is so cool! and i have also learned that EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! connects back to the restored gospel!!!!!!!! it is so cool! I can be saying "oh where do you get your hair done?" one minute and "hey joseph smith is a prophet of God" the next! just lets me know that this work is true! it applies to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

      The cutlers had a missionary fireside that we brought janice to on sunday!!! it was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!! they are stellar individuals and will be so missed! I know that they have testimonies of Christ because they act like Christ! i also saw SISTER TENNEY for the last time (shout out!) I love that girl and am sad she is going home! she has served so well here in milwakee! our weeks together as companions were definitely cherished!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

       But i also saw SO MANY People from the muskego Lakes ward that i LOVE and ADORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i saw earl!!!!!!! Earl is a guy that sister palmer and i found on the street and he was baptized! so good to see him again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyway...this email is special...kind of all over the place!!!! hahaha

      Quick story: I am one of those people who will do crazy things to save a relationship or to get one started! And we were visiting with a less active woman! we want to start meeting with her less active daughter! She doesn't really care when we come but she never listens! so i said "Hey quanesha! when we come back and give a lesson...will you braid my hair and then stay for the lesson???" and she said "TOTALLY" because she is into doing hair! SO PUMPED!!!!! so thats the sad part....i agreed to get dreads next week...bye bye hair! hahaha KDDING! but she is doing corn rows so i fit in the hood better! hahahhahaha

"Because I have been Given Much I too must give"

"you are not called to a mission! But it is a mission president you are called to"

HOW TRUE THAT STATEMENT IS!!!!!!!!!!! I love my mission president!!! because he truly believes that he doesn't run the mission!!! The Lord, Jesus Christ runs it! He is but a servant! As am I! He is so humble! A scientist/professor by training but a Mission President by revelation! He has been called by apostles! I know it! if someone as intelligent as he believes in the book of mormon, shouldn't we all consider it truthfulness?? I love learning from him! He and sister cutler and megan leave in 10 days!!! they will be DEEPLY missed here! all of the members adore them! and investigators always remember "that cutler fellow!! Hes bold!" haha THAT he is!!!

     But a new mission president will be so good for the mission! We are excited to see what we can learn from President and Sister Williams! From California!! can't wait!!!!
     

    As for the work this week! We had a good week!!!!! the work is CRAZY IN MILWAUKEE!! hahaha we teach many many people on the street! common problem? Law of Chastity! Are people married? no... hahaha never! we taught the law of chastity to our investigator and invited her to either marry her boyfriend who she lives with...or to encourage him to move out so that she can keep this VITAL commandment of God! She said she would because she wants to be baptized!

      we got a call 2 days later from her boyfriend....who was....not happy! but HEY what are you gunna do??? so he let us know that he wasn't happy that young 20 year old girls would come in and tell her what to do with her relationship!..and he said "when Jesus tells me to move out i will! NOT YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and I thought! WAIT!!!! I represent Him!!!!!!!! Did i really believe this??? I think i DO!!! I felt it when he called!!! So when I invite it is actually Him inviting! when i pray for investigators...it is as if He is praying for them! THAT was cool to see this week!

     as I read in the book of Mormon i am filled with hope in the atonement!! I am currently in alma chapter 60! War chapters through and through! but it is interesting! the war chapters consist of possession of land and losing that land and then repossessing it! its interesting! Satan would have us follow himmm...Christ? have us follow Him! so who are we going to let "possess" us? sounds creepy but essentially that is what it is! there is no gray! Either its the spirit within us! or a lack of the Spirit! Which allows the devil to sneak in there! JUST EVIDENCE That the Book of Mormon, as Rick Mortenson would say: "Exposes Satan!" and for THIS I am grateful!!!!!!

        OH AND P.S. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE MY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has taught me to lOVE MY GOD! and to love my family! To love my country.....i think the most treasured words from him that have really resonated with me throughout my mission have been "Ashton! A Job Worth doing...i worth doing well!!!!!" HOW TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU DAD!!!!!!!!!!! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you fam and friends! GOD BLESS!!!!!!

"Because I have been Given Much I Too Must Give"

-Sister Wise

Sister Cutler and I and Megan! Got to stay with megan several times and the mission home when the cutlers were out of town! GOOD TIMES! WILL MISS THEM!!!!!!!!!!

and sister palmer! (aka "mission daughter" haha)

sister mansfield and I! START THE DAY WITH A SELFIE EH?

ELLA ENCHANTED!

 OH MY! So I already emailed Pday last week (friaday) so there hasn't been too much that has gone on in the past 3 days! BUT on sunday we went to go see a husband and wife after church! the sisters before i came tracted down a street and knocked on this couples door and they wanted to know more! Their names are mark and ella! They are SO COOL! so Ella just had neck surgery! A pretty rough one form the looks of it! and so the elders came with us and gave ella a priesthood blessing! We explained before hand what the priesthood was and then the elders explained what the anointing is and what the actually blessing of healing was! SO after that the elders left and we taught the restoration to mark and Ella! IT WAS SUPER POWERFUL!!!!!!! I was thinking about it and i never want the first vision or the message of the restoration to be plain or boring! BECAUSE ITS NOT! It is so exciting! I have never taught with SO MUCH excitement!!! i kept saying "How COOL is that????" "We have a record of Gods dealings with His people HERE! how COOL is THAT!?" haha and they agreed! They also agreed to be baptized on July 15th!!! We are SO EXCITED FOR THEM!!!!!!

      this week i also went on exchanges with sister kirchhoefer and we got to go to dinner with KEALEY!!!!!!!!!!! I taught Kealey in my last area and she is a dream!!! I dental student at Marquette! She is just WONDERFUL! the definition of a true Christian for sure! She has changed her life and gives it all back to Christ! I love her and consider her like a sister! Have missed not getting to teach her regularly so THAT was a blessing!!!

       ALSO!!! i love repenting!!!! It has become something that is hopeful and not scary or sad or depressing! It is such a joy to see others repent and find joy from repenting! and i have to remind myself that repenting doesn't necesssarily happen on my knees at night, but a major part of it is what we do with our life the next day! I know that Christ awaits those who repent and he longs for those who don't! He loves all! I know this!!!

Tiny tim said it best..."GOD BLESS! Every one!"

LOVE YOU ALL!

"because i have been given much i too must give"

-sister Wise

pics: took tiffany (Recent convert) tracting with us! She wants to serve a mission!!! YAY!!!!!!

Lesson with Sara and her cousins! 

me doing what i love! Studying,,,though it doesn't look like it...haha

"Mam!!! I am so so so so sorry! My name is Sister Ashton Wise! Can you tell me your name?...wait what?...You're a sister TOO???"

Welp...life...it happens...So sister Mansfield and I were driving to go and do service at a senior place, and i was driving downtown with all of the crazy milwaukee drivers...and well...yeah...got into a car accident! ALL IS WELL THOUGH! no worries!! got everything figured out with the police!...but HERE IS THE CRAZY PART!  I go to the window of the woman i crash into and said "Mam! Are you okay?" and i learned in EMT that you ask if they know their name and stuff like that..so i asked for her info! She said "Yes. i am sister Marilyn" and i said "Huh??"...SHES A NUN! I RAN INTO A NUN!...not that this was a funny situation....but come ON! WHAT are the odds that a sister would run into ANOTHER SISTER??...interesting!

    but besides that little incident this week...It was a really great week!!! MIRACLE IN MILWAUKEE! we were walking on the street and saw this cute family! And so we go and stop them and start talkin to them! they were interested in what we had to say and we asked if we could come back the next morning and they agreed! so we went and taught the whole family about the book of mormon and restoration of Christ's church! The mother offered a profound testimony on the power of prayer! It was INCREDIBLE! I love teaching about Jospeph Smith! Something sister Mansfield has told me is "Everytime I tell the story of the first vision...i tell it how joseph himself would say it!" I LOVED THAT! I have begun to change and be more bold when i give his personal account of what he saw that BEAUTIFUL day!!!!

      We were at a restaurant getting something to eat and this guy came up to us and asked what church we were affiliated with and we told him and then taught him! For his sake i won't use his name but lets call him JAck! We went and taught Jack at his place and taught him about the book of mormon and showed him on a map where everything takes place book of mormon and bible-wise! He loved it! he explained to us that he was the youngest person in the state of wisconsin to be federally-imprisoned at the age of 15...he's done some bad but haven't we all??? he said that it was the word of God that fixed him! Prison helped him grow and the word helped him change !I am grateful for the word of God! SPECIFICALLY the book of mormon!!!

       I love you all!!!!! Thank you all for your emails and love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Because i have been given much i too must give"

-Sister Ashton Wise

ps. new address: 2525 S Calhoun Rd. Bldg. 7 Apt# 110

New Berlin, WI
53151

PIC 1:got a watermelon from some members in the brookfield ward!!

PIC 2: Met this woman at church! She was visiting from Idaho! Went to Girls State with her daughter 3 years ago and she knows my friend Katriina who i roomed with at Girls state! SMALL WORLD!

PIC 3:#tilttuesday with the book of mormon!

PIC 4: pday with some sisters

PIC 5: reunited with sister Kirchhoefer!!!