Oh my goodness! I miss you all so much and at the same time I am so busy that I have pretty much 5 minutes a day to think of all of you! ( not including prayers of course) Which now my prayers are completely in Tagalog...which makes for some pretty simple prayers! HAHAHA! Good thing Heavenly Father knows the desires of my heart! This week has been such a roller coaster of emotions!
Pressure! Ok..So now the spiritual stuff. I'll answer other personal questions in a letters.
HOLY CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!! Was it not??? I swear everything related perfectly to what we have been studying here. I have been focusing a lot on being in tune with the spirit and listening hard to its promptings. There is no reason to even go on a mission if I'm not working hand in hand with the spirit. And Holland's talk?? Can we say inspired and powerful?? We have been focusing a lot on power too in class and that was an ideal example. The whole room was absolutely silent. That never happens with 2,000+ missionaries! Amazing! So back on the spirit topic. I have been thinking a lot about how we pull ourselves away from the spirit on a daily basis. There are SO many distractions in the world! To all those friends who are reading this, as well as siblings. Let the distractions go! Pick one thing today to get rid of in your life that is just "froth" and get rid of it! Whether it is a song you love to listen to that is pointless and has no depth or if it is a show that you LOVE LOVE LOVE watching that has filth in it or if it is texting or reading things that are of no importance... let it go!!! If it is a phrase you say often in your speech or thoughts you have of someone you don't really care for.. let it go!!! Why do we give in so easily to distractions and allow ourselves to compromise our standards for a show or a movie? I have been such a bad example of that in the past. Not that these shows or movies were absolutely terrible, but I'll tell you they were definitely of the devil. Satan is so alluring! He is a sneaky man I tell ya! I love how Dallin H. Oaks said in conference, "God's choicest blessings are reserved for those who obey His Laws." So true! I have seen it in the MTC! You can see a huge difference between those missionaries who are obedient in all ways and those who think the rules are a hindrance and are silly. I want to go up to them, shake them and say, "You signed up for this willingly! No one forced you to make these years God's time!" I feel the same way about our existence here on earth. We didn't come to this earth blindly, not knowing what would be required of us! God would never do that! Agency is such a huge part of this plan. We knew, full well, that we would be tempted here and that we were going to suffer and go through strife and hardship, but guess what??? No one forced us to sign up for this mortal journey! We signed up for it ourselves!! So step up to the plate. Let us all find a way this week to perfect ourselves. Drop a bad habit and never, NEVER look back! Move forward being perfected through Christ.
I was impressed with how many topics in GC were based on Love and service and missionary work, which I think go hand in hand! I don't know if you have kept up with the news lately, but the Philippines was hit with another hard storm. Hundreds of people have died and thousands of families are homeless. My companion's mission is the place that got hit the hardest. Our teachers told us that the area of the city that was hit was actually the drug area! Coincidence? ...I think not. We are so excited to go and serve and love these people! We already have an amazing love for them, even before we have met them! God is humbling them as we prepare to go and serve. So many hearts will be softened by the time we get there. I guess although the Philippino's are very kind and loving people, they don't like to commit to anything. They will take a Book of Mormon from you and then use it to prop up their coffee tables instead of reading it. So our teachers talked about how if they don't read it, we have to ask for the book back. Interesting huh? They said if we ask for the book back, and say it is our own personal copy they can "borrow" if they want to read it, it pricks their hearts and makes them wonder what they could be missing out on. Anyway..I feel this whole letter is a little jumbled. I have so much I wish I could tell you right now!
Mom, you asked for me to say what I need you to pray for, so here it goes. I have had more opposition while I have been here than ever before in my life. Satan works as hard as he can to get us to feel that we can't do this work, that we aren't cut out for it. Well...too bad for him, because I'm here and I'm staying. BUT..I need your prayers now more than ever. Our experienced district is leaving our zone next week and we are getting 60+ missionaries coming into our zone and we will be the leaders in the zones at that point. Well, we really need to know the language before we can do that effectively. The language is so hard. I feel like I'm struggling to keep my head above the water. Pray for me to be able to receive the gift of tongues. I will do my part and study it out and then I know the Lord will bless me. But i need those prayers. For me to be able to specifically remember the things I learn and that my memorizing skills will greatly increase. there is so much to remember. Anyway, that's about it. Life is so good! The church is so true! We watched the Joseph smith movie last night. I was reminded of what an amazing man he was! Truly a prophet of God. You know he has to be looking down on us and rooting for us! In conference they said the missionaries that were out right now were the fulfillment of prophecy! How exciting is that? We truly were born to be the armies of Heleman and to go forth bringing families to Christ! Pray for the prophets, pray for the Philippinos and their families during their trials, pray for the countries to be opened to the work. There are thousands of Philippino young men around the age of serving missions!! Think of where they could go and the effect they could have! The church is true! I love you all more than you know!Buhay Tagapaglitas ni JesuCristo! (Christ, our Savior, lives!) Write me! Letters bring much more joy that I could ever have imagined! Sometimes I need that mid-week pick me up!

All my heart and love,
Sister Ashley Stadler