Sorry about no email last week! I typed a really long one and it obviously didn't get there. I got a bunch of letters from people this week who wrote through dear elder and two official letters!! So thank you to Kristina, Brittany (I got your letter finally that you sent to the mtc where i had 22 days left until I left for the Philippines..hahaha), and dear elder emails from Taylor, Ian, Robyn, Samantha, Jacob & Alysa (which was awesome! I could totally understand WAY more Ilanggo than I thought I could. There were about 5 words in it that I didn't understand! WOOHOO!! Now to only be able to speak it fluently. haha) And...Brittany! :) Britt...I laughed so stinkin hard reading Roxi's responses again from your bridal shower. That seems like it was so long ago! You've already been married for like..what?? 6-7 months? Holy heck..where does the time go!?? I hit my 4 month mark on Saturday..and the best way to celebrate it ever..Brother Gino Villar Paras was baptized. I have never witnessed someone so prepared to hear the gospel. That man took everything we said and ate it up and asked for more every single lesson. He has said to me about a thousand times.. "Salamat po! Salamat gid! Sister Stadler, really, truly, thank you po, thank you. You will never know how important this is to me." (po is a sign of respect here). To which my response is, "Brother Gino, salamat po for listening to the message and following the commandments of our Heavenly Father! It only gets better from here! Keep living the gospel standards!" He is so sweet. His family has a huge rift right now because he was baptized. They are all members, less active most of them, except his grandmother. WHO IS CRAZY! This woman has stopped talking to him, and us, because she personally didn't feel he was ready to be baptized. I wanted to say to her, Sister Villas, the only way I could be more certain than Gino is ready to be baptized is if one of the 3 Nephites showed up and said, "yep..he's for sure ready!" Even then..I would just say, "He totally is right!" Amazing. Anyway..the spirit was strong in the service, despite the fact that only half his family was there (2 aunts that are super inactive). Sister Flores announced that I would be giving the special musical number..haha..a capella. So I sang "I stand all amazed." It was absolutely silent when I was singing. I haven't heard absolute silence since I got here on the 27th of November. The spirit was strong and I was so glad I had been blessed with the talent to sing, to invite the spirit. Sometimes Sister Flores will turn to me before a lesson and say, "if it is ok with your family, Sister Stadler would like to sing a song first to invite the spirit." hahahaa! She kills me. If it was anyone else doing that I would die and be a little bugged. But she is so sweet I just can't say no. It is amazing what the power of the hymns can do. They are truly inspired. I understand how why Brother Leslie cried when his cd player broke. Music is the ice cream of life in the Philippines! Getting home at the end of the day, listening to music just makes everything so much better! Luckily all of my companions have had sound systems so far. I'm pretty sure most people do here...so I'm hoping I won't have to buy one. Mom, I'm so jealous you got to go to the temple! DAH! I would give anything to get to go to the temple once a week. The MTC spoils you in so many ways...but the spiritual high there is amazing and unlike anything else I think I will ever experience. My language is coming along. Slowly, but it is coming. Looking back, I am definitely getting better and I understand WAY more that I used to. People are so funny here. They never expect this slightly chunky girl from Arizona to start speaking to them in their native tongue. So they will start speaking to Sister Flores to have her ask me questions and then I'll just answer them instead and they always start laughing. So I of course think I said something wrong..but then they say.. "WOW!! WOW!!!! Beautiful!!" hahaha! It makes me laugh every time. I'm so sick of being told I'm beautiful. I just want to blend in with everyone else. BUT...at the same time...my standing out makes it so easy to get people's attention and to get people to talk to us. But sometimes I hate it because people get shy around me..especially young men. We're teaching tons of young men right now, all ages 13-25ish. They literally have found us! Amazing how the Lord will bless you if you are doing what you are suppose to. Our first time meeting with each of them, they all said, "Sis, I want to change my life. I'm sick of living like this." WOW!!!! And their fellow-shippers are all the boys from Batad! We love those boys. They are solid and preparing for their missions. We're literally teaching the Armies of Heleman right now. So this week I had a bit of a cool spiritual experience and I wrote it in my journal, more of a personal enlightenment really. I want to share part of it with you. I was reading 2 Nephi 31:20-21 and I wrote: "Am I honestly pressing forward? Pressing involves great exertion and effort. I think far too often I am leaning in the Right direction, not pressing. Pressing often ends in the sweetest results in the end of a hard, and timely process. I think of the olive press. Olive oil is one of the essential oils--but the process of obtaining it isn't easy and fun. Pressing flowers results in beautiful, long lasting creations-- but it takes a long time and adequate pressure in order for a flower to reach its fullest potential for beauty. Perhaps the same is true for us. As I think back on really hard times in my life, I leaned heavily on the Savior. I pressed forward, steadfastly, to get through the trial. I knew if I just sat there and did nothing it wouldn't resolve. I would only add to the problem. The times I chose to sit and moan and whine only brought more grief and pain. Too often though, when not facing great trials I find myself no pressing myself--not challenging myself to draw nearer and to be better. Why is that? I am most certain that the Savior of the world did not spill His precious blood so that I could press forward with a "when I feel I really need to" kind of effort. He did not suffer torment and pain and unexpressible anguish so that I could casually glide through my easier moments of life being just good enough. Good enough..what a subtle and ultimately damning tool Satan all too frequently uses on us. Too often we find ourselves caught in the mind set of "I am a good person, living a good life. I read my scriptures, I pray, I attend all my meetings. I serve when asked to do so. I live the word of wisdom and law of chastity, i pay my tithes and offerings. I love my family. What more must i do?? Surely I am doing ENOUGH" But honestly, if we search our hearts deeply, thoroughly, could we give more? I am not suggesting that we exhaust ourselves to the point of illness. Life needs balance (Oaks gave a great talk about that). However-- do we have ourselves fooled into thinking our half-hearted efforts will truly save us in the end? Will we look back and say-- "yes! I gave my all to the Lord because He gave me everything! He gave ALL of Himself, and so I will give all of me for His cause." After all-- why are we here on this earth? Are we here to have the most successful enrichment meeting turnout of the century with the cutest center pieces? Are we here to have the greatest Elder's quorum activity with the most selections in potluck history? Are we here to be the greatest laurel ever--known by everyone important at school and loved by each young man in the stake? Or maybe we are here to have blast each week at young mens playing games together and making sure we look ridiculously good while doing it. No--Surely we are here to come to a knowledge of our older brother, our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. To try to fully understand just how important it must be to REACH eternal life if HE- The most perfect individual, was willing to give Everything for each one of us to have the opportunity to have it. IF we but tried our hardest, pressing forward- Pressing steadfastly WITH HIM. Having faith in Him. And if He was willing to give His all, for this purpose which I cannot fully comprehend, surely I can help others come to understand His purpose here. How sad it would be to get there and realize that we could have brought so many with us to share in the never ending joy. Who have we missed out on? More importantly, who will come into our paths in the future? The church is true. The gospel is restored. Christ lives- I know this. With all of my heart I testify of this truth because I could never deny it. I have had the spirit bear witness to me that it is true as I have knelt in humble prayer, pleading with my Heavenly Father to let me have a personal witness that it is true. He answers prayers. He loves us and He has given us every possible way for us to see Him again. The choice is ours. Do we press forward?"
I love you all so much, and as always, I pray for you each daily. Let us each do all we can to be our best selves this next week. LOVE YOU BUNCHES!!! More than Philippinos love a mid day nap! HAHAHA!!! It is insanity!
All my love-
Sister Stadler

Well hello!
Transfers have officially happened and good grief I love my new companion, Sister Flores. She is from Quezon city, where my dear sweet Sister Ball is serving right now. I miss that woman. I just barely wrote her. My companion is so sweet and kind and is loving and so willing to help me with the language and is patient beyond belief!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!!!! I love you tons and I hope you spend your birthday eating good food and loving life!
I got a mosquito net. lol..I feel like a princess each night when I go to bed. I ran into a palm reader..he asked me if I was a sickly child. Then he followed it up with.. "I don't know if your mother told you this or not..but when you were about 8 months old you were very ill." um...WHAT? MOM!!! What on earth...please tell me that I was a sickly child. Don't keep it from me! hahahahahaha! Lets see...Paul...I am trying to get protein. I eat peanut butter like there is no tomorrow and I eat tuna. Protein powder would be remarkable if you could send me that. Don't buy anything too pricey. Where are you looking for work? I pray like crazy that you will be successful in your line of work. I have faith. No worries..just keep doing what you're doing.
I extended my first baptismal invitation yesterday! I was amazing!!! This is the woman that Sister Sabasan and I found, Marygold Dulaca. We almost stopped visiting her because she would argue with us and then BOOM...she starts reading the Book of Mormon. Get this...we walk up to just visit her last week and she had a study journal out for her BofM study! She thought of that all on her own! I wanted to jump for joy. So Sister Flores knows sign language and she signs to me..."commit her!" So I invited and she said.. " I want to be baptized! So yes!" So she will be baptized on January 30th! We have 5 baptisms set up for this month. I am so pumped. Life is so good. I have a firm testimony that Heavenly Father Answers our prayers. Rarely they are answered in the way we want them to be, but they are answered. Paul...your letter was just what I needed last week. I read it on a jeepnie. I cried and cried and laughed and cried again. I'm sure they all think I'm crazy. Thank you for writing! Some of the things you said were just what I needed to get me through my last week. I love this quote. It is from a book that Elder Wirthlin wrote. This is a man who studied what causes happiness in our lives..he studied it for 25 years...here is what he found, " The best moments in our lives usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." AMEN! That is a mission! This is such a wonderful work and I thank my Heavenly Father every single day to be a part of it. The church is true! Life is good! I love you all and pray for you day and night. Keep the spirit with you in your lives. Don't do anything.. ANYTHING...no matter how small or insignificant it seems to hinder the spirit. Without it, we put ourselves in danger. Press forward, study the scriptures daily and show Christ's love to everyone you can. Life is too short to be selfish. I love you tons, write me!

ALL MY LOVE
Sister Stadler

Family, HOLY heck it is 2010! I'm in the Philippines sweating my crazy little heart out, Paul has a family, Amanda is married to a guy we all love...who would have thought that we would ever be to this point? Part of me thought we would always be pulling each other's hair in road trips and decorating the Christmas tree together while deciding who to pixie for Christmas. Forever playing baseball and riding bikes in the neighborhood. People actually grow up..and it is weird..but so good! So I have a very short time on the computer today, but I wanted to write as much as I can. Thank you all for writing! Good grief I love your emails and they make me cry every single time! (happy tears) Also, Paul, thanks for the pictures1 They are precious! You have some beautiful little children. Keep multiplying and replenishing the earth. haha! So mom..I'm buying a mosquito net today..if I can find one. First, before I forget...HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN..in a few days..haha!!! HOORAY! Big hugs and kisses send from the orient! Also, mom, the cd's I talked about, I can listen to classical and Enya and Disney stuff too. So get a good combo. Have Amanda help you with it. Maybe don't send the hard copies..maybe send burnt versions, just in case they get stolen or something. Also..I'm a big fan of the girl who sings, "I will rest in you" ..it may be Hillary Weeks. I love her voice. It is nice to listen to at the end of a long day teaching. Give me full updates on the family! I want to know details peeps! So on new years i was reading about Teancum..i died laughing. New years eve..I'm reading about Teancum killing Amalickiah....The verse says it was the morning of the first day of the first month of the year!!! HOORAY! Happy new years to me and Teancum! I loved it! This week was good. The work is slower right now, but we're trying to find new people to teach. The work will go on, and Heavenly father is preparing the hearts of the people to hear the word. No doubt about that. Transfers are this week. we have no idea who is being transferred. We will find out on Wednesday. i don't feel like either us will be transferred..but you never know. Sister Sabasan has been in the area for a long time. I have 2 minutes! AH! I had some amazingly spiritual experiences yesterday with personal revelation and bearing my testimony. I know we can help people in their lives if we will just listen to and follow the spirits promptings. I had a hilarious experience this week teaching and placing a Book of Mormon. We were sitting on a bench and sister sabasan ended up biffing it really hard because i stood up to grab a baby who was running to the street. HAHAHAHA! I'll explain more detail next week. I have 10 seconds! love you tons! you are all in my prayers. The church is true!
~Sister Stadler