Oh how I have missed you all this last week. This week has been filled to the brim with blessings and humbling moments.
SO..some things I have found out about the country. Mom, you will be gleefully happy to hear that eating dog is illegal in the Philippines! Apparently only the drunkards eat it, and I don't see the drunkards having the missionaries over for dinner often. So no worries there. Also, the partially fertilized egg thing...Sister Rather (who is a native Philippina) said that her mission president told them not to eat it and that it isn't impolite to reject it because it is known to make many missionaries sick! AH!
Paul and Holly, how is Kaitlin doing? How is the trimester going for you? What about the pregnancy? I assume all is well since I haven't heard anything...either that, or everything is terrible and no one wants to tell me! haha! Amanda, I love to hear from you each week. Those letters and quick emails mean more to me than you could ever know. Also, reminiscing about the Olive Garden experience the night I went through the temple made me laugh harder than I have in a long time. haha! Josh, how is school going this semester? Are you still working to set up events? Sean, are you getting enough hours at work? Did you get my letter? I hope to hear from you soon! Robyn, I love your cards! The pictures you send were amazing and everyone in the district was super excited to see "little Ashley". :) Shelley, I don't know if you read this ever, but I love you to death and I love all of my adorable nieces and nephews as well. I pray for each of you nightly. I have never realized how powerful prayer can be. True I have had the occasional truly meaningful prayer in the past, but now my prayers are longer than ever, and I realize I wasn't praying for hardly anything before!!Make sure you are all spending time on your knees. I hate to sound preachy in my e-mails or letters, but I'm finally beginning to realize the power that comes with complete and "strict obedience" (in Alma 56-57..read it..it is amazing!) I only want to share what I have learned with you.
As for my lovely friends who have written, good grief I love you all. I also pray for you and hope you are doing all you can to grow closer to God and to learn more about the Atonement so that you can use it even more effectively in your lives.
Mom, you asked for what you could specifically pray for. So here it is, I have been giving a lot of thought to praying for the language and the gift of tongues and have come to the conclusion that I have been channeling my energy in the wrong direction. Instead of praying for the ability to get the language, I have been praying for the spirit to be my personal tutor in this work. It is impossible for me to learn this language academically, but I can do it spiritually, according to the will of God. So, don't pray so much for the language, but more so that my faith and my ability to recognize the spirit will be greater so that I can then call upon the powers of heaven for the gift of tongues. But..I must be personally prepared first.
Sister Ball and I had a beautiful experience in the Teaching Appointment last Thursday. We started out with our language task of picking up an investigator to go to church and ask if they were able to keep their commitments of reading 3 Nephi11 and praying to know about Joseph Smith as a prophet of God. The language part went pretty well, we were working with a native Philippina, Charlene. We then had to go back to the room and teach her the 2nd lesson in English. So we went back to the door and my heart was pounding like crazy. Earlier in the day we taught a 15 minute lesson with a teacher here and we got demolished. He stopped us halfway through and said, "you are giving me so much information and yet you haven't related it to me personally at all...i have completely shut you out. Now fix it..Go" It completely through me off guard and I prayed like crazy and it did get better, but i was thrown off. So I didn't want to repeat that experience that night! I had been praying all day and pondering on the things we had been taught and I have been really trying to be as in tune with the spirit as I possibly can be so I can EASILY distinguish it's promptings. So we start to teach this lesson. Ask her if she had the chance to read the BofM and she says, "Oh yeah, I actually finished it this week, but I do have some conflicting thoughts about it." I was impressed she had finished it and asked more about her concerns and she said it was about baptism, she had already been baptized as a child in the Catholic church. We ended up talking about baptism the entire time and explaining authority and how the baptismal ordinance needs to be performed in order for it to be accepted of God. Then I felt that I needed to share from Alma 7:11-18 where it talks about our Savior's Atonement and what is required of us. As we read this with Charlene and asked her questions about it the room was thick with the spirit. One thing I have learned about Philippinos is that they are so hard to read with facial expressions! I had no idea what she was feeling, but I knew that if I was feeling the spirit, she was feeling it too. After reading the scripture I felt impressed to invite her to be baptized. For a split second I thought, "are you crazy??? She just said she wasn't sure if the book of mormon was true in it's entirety!!" Which then immediately I felt the impression again. So.. I did! I asked her if she would follow Christ's example and be baptized through the proper authority. And guess what???? She said she felt she should be! Tears started to poor down her face and I, of course, lost it too. I have never felt Christ's love so strongly for an individual like I did that night with Charlene. Later that night Charlene spoke with some of the Tagalog teachers and explained to them some things that they later shared with us. Apparently Charlene comes to volunteer in the T.A. because she likes to feel that spirit that she did when the missionaries first taught her family. She had been having a really hard time lately and was beginning to doubt some things. Our lesson was a direct answer to her prayers. Alma 7 is her favorite chapter in the book of mormon and having us read that without knowing that testified to her that her Savior did know her as an individual. She went home that night and talked about the experience with her husband and said she wanted to come back again and soon! That right there testifies, yet again, to me that this work is true! We have these opportunities to practice, but they aren't just practice! We are teaching truth! The experiences people share are real! The Atonement is real! This week read about the Atonement in all 4 gospels. It takes about 40 minutes to read all of them in depth. Pay attention to the details in each. Mark's is my favorite. Remember that what we see in movies is a version that is G-rated ...it was far more violent. Christ loves us so much. I'm running out of time. I love you all so much! The church is true! Joseph Smith is indeed the prophet of the last dispensation! What are we doing with Christ's sacrifice? What are we doing with the sacrifices of Joseph and other wonderful prophets on the earth? We cannot afford to be casual about this work, about the gospel! Raise the bar! I love you and pray for you! May the Lord bless each of you! Until next time--

GOD SPEED! We are the armies of Heleman and we have been taught in our youth!! Be firm in your minds and trust in God!

All of my love,
Sister Ashley Stadler