Dearest family of mine!
My goodness time is flying! What is going on? This week I hit my 7 month mark on the mission and I am turning 23!!!!!!!! AH! The whole birthday thing isn't that big of a deal..just another year of experiences and happiness. Everyone is magically finding out about my birthday..and I'm not really ok with that. Luckily, it lands on a Wednesday and so we will we working full day with appointments! hooray! Also..I'm pretty sure I have my first wrinkle! hahahahahaha! We were riding in a trik a few days ago and some of the triks have these little mirrors in them, well I was looking in the mirror and I just started laughing and Sister Flores asked me why I was laughing...to which I pointed to my eyes and said.."Is that a wrinkle????? I'm falling apart in the Philippines!" It was quite funny. Well..I'm passing up milestones in life like there is no tomorrow. haha! Two weeks left of this transfer and we're determined to make the most of it! This week we were blessed to witness Sister Irene Valdevieso enter the waters of baptism! She was one of those golden/prepared individuals who just ate up everything we taught her and asked for more. Love it! We had a little mini miracle happen for the baptism though. Turns out basically every worthy male priesthood holder flaked on us and couldn't make it to the baptism. So we had one man, President DelosSantos, who was conducting and speaking, and our 2nd counselor of the bishopric was presiding, but we didn't have anyone to baptize her. Her father in law was suppose to do it, but he was called in to work last minute. So we called everyone we knew, and no one could make it. We even called our DL and ZL...they both had their own baptisms. But they said if we could not find anyone else, they could come later and do it..but that would mean they would have to cancel their other appointments for the day. So I said a prayer and kept praying. We contacted a few other people, still no one was able to help. Sister Flores turned to me and said, "What are we going to do?" To which my response was, "Satan, I know you just don't want her to get baptized today. That would make you soooo happy! But look, she's worthy and excited to be baptized, and it is going to happen! So Thanks for playing!" She just laughed. But I felt I needed to make that clear to the devil himself...he wasn't gonna slip this one past us. So I prayed again and we prayed together and we took off to our other appointments, acting in faith that Heavenly Father would provide someone to baptize or at least another witness so President DelosSantos could baptize too. Well we walk in and prepare for the baptism a few hours later, still not knowing how our prayers would be answered, but having confidence that they would be, and of course Heavenly Father pulled through, like He ALWAYS does! 2 minutes before the baptism started, in walks the hero of the day, JAPHET VILLARTE!!! (Our righteous warrior...who had been ordained a priest only 2 weeks before). I am constantly impressed with this young man. So I looked at Sister Flores, and she looked at me and we both knew we were thinking the same thing. So I grabbed him and whispered, "Brother Japhet, pwede ikaw magbunyad ukon magsaksi sang pagbunyad ni Sister Irene subong?" Meaning..."could you either baptize or witness the baptism of Sister Irene right now?" He just stared at me like a deer in headlights and said.."Sis??" Like..."um...what?" haha! So I smiled and said again, "Would you be able to do this for us today?" I will never forget his response.. now when I asked the question I meant, would he be willing to do it...his response was.."Sister Stadler, I am worthy." I immediately got the chills. I love that he interpreted the question as "Brother Japhet, are you worthy to perform this sacred ordinance right now?" AH! I love what the Atonement does for these powerful young men of our Heavenly Father! SO ..Sister Flores grabbed her missionary handbook and we went with him into the hallway to demonstrate how it was done and to let him read in the handbook what he would need to say. (Everything they do here is in English, so it's hard for him of course because it's not in his native language.) So he studied it out for about 3 minutes and then changed into the beautiful whites! LOVE IT! The spirit was so strong and he was just glowing when he was done with the baptism. It was a beautiful service. There was the smallest turnout I have ever seen for a baptism, but there were the EXACT amount of people to perform what needed to be done. Absolutely amazing! We truly have miracles in our lives daily IF we do our part and act in faith. I sang a song and played the guitar..it turned out pretty good! I combined "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee" and "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" (which is very quickly becoming my favorite hymn). Life is good. I am so ridiculously happy. The gospel is so true! Our Heavenly Father answers prayers and He is Ever mindful of us. He never gives up on us. Never! He never forgets us. He loves us so much, I know it is true! I have felt the power of His love for His children and have been moved to testify of His love for them as individuals on numerous occasions. Even to the most vile of sinners, He has unconditional love and wants then to turn and come to Him. And they can!!!! That's the beauty of the Atonement! They can be made clean. Right now, I can feel the spirit as I type these words, and I'm surrounded by a bunch of gamers in a computer cafe with sounds of gun shots and random music playing and yet...I can feel the spirit! haha! The gospel is true, point blank. I will never deny it. I could never deny it because I, like many before me, have received a witness from the Holy Spirit, through prayer, directly to my heart. Life is good! I love you all and I can't wait to see what other people I have the blessing of meeting these next 8 transfers or so. You're all in my prayers, each one of you. Stay strong, Love the Lord and know that He is watching over you. Until next week, God Speed!
All my love,
Sister Stadler

P.S. Sister Flores and I are teaching this 9 year old boy, Reuel, he's a genius! He is so darn smart it amazes me. Well, we were teaching the plan of salvation and we got to the part about the resurrection and she was teaching. HAHA...I guess there is a cartoon here called "Volt In" where right before they change forms into their super hero selves they say.."Let's Volt In!!!!!!!!" So she's talking about how the body and the spirit reunite and she says, "Lets....Volt....IN!!!!!" hahahahaha! I was so confused, but the little boy just started laughing! Then she explained that it didn't really happen like that, and brought in the spiritual aspect of it. I was dying..Our ward missionary was laughing way hard too. It's now our companionship motto! Along with our Zone Motto...which I love: "See it, Own it, Solve It, Do it!" See the problem, own it as your own and take responsibility for it, find a solution to the problem and put the solution to action! It as worked wonders. I have a whole new testimony of faith by action. Faith IS Action. So here is my challenge this week. Act in Faith and witness the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord!