Thanks for the emails and the package! Amanda, Sean and Mom...you are amazing!!! The Jody's fit perfectly and they are already my favorite things to wear. It's so much cooler to wear a Jody! The photos I sent last week I forgot to explain, but the house shots are our home we're renting to stay in. It is literally a mansion! haha! As for the one with the baptism, that was Sister Ball's baptism, the one we filled up the font with..none of our investigators now.
This week has been amazing. We have mission tour right now, which is where one of the Seventy comes and tours the mission. We had conference yesterday, which is why we're emailing today instead. We have Elder and Sister Ko here, they are Korean. They are amazing! The spirit was so strong yesterday in our meeting and I'm excited to start using what we've learned in our ward. I talked with President at the meeting and requested to stay here one more transfer, and he sounded like that was already the plan, but he said we'll of course have to wait and see what the Lord wants to happen. :) That would make it 6 months in my first area and 6 months in my 2nd area! ah! I love Victorias, despite the lack of help in the ward. Pretty much, they said they need to start reactivating or the ward will dissolve. It's...insane. But...ALAS...I have faith! It will work out.
This Saturday we're having a 1 day mission and we're excited to see how the ward members will step up and fulfill their duty with the work. We are here to help them, not for them to help us...which I think they have the wrong idea about sometimes.
As for health, I'm doing great! This week we didn't even buy any snacks.. I'm going healthy gid...and by gid I mean....haha...how does that translate???AH! As in....I'm going to be really healthy. ha! Oh boy.. I'm going to be such a weirdo when I get home. haha!
We had the most amazing lesson with Recarido this week about the Atonement. The spirit was so strong when we were teaching. He was crying as I asked him who Jesus Christ was to him, and to testify about why He was important. I was amazed, sitting there listening to him explain and thinking back about how this man was contacted by the missionaries on the street, and then when the missionaries went to his home he hid, and he used to lie to us all the time and say he just wanted to get showered first and then he would listen to our lesson, but then he'd just leave out the back yard..and now..here is is sitting and testifying and feeling the spirit incredibly strong, witnessing to us that the Savior lives, that he is important. I love the gospel!!!!!!!!
This week's email is going to be a bit shorter. Just to let you know, next week it will definitely be longer. The work is good, my companion is amazing! I love this girl! I continue to put her in situations where she's stretched, and she continues to amaze me. She teaches me things..I'm pretty sure she's training me now! haha! The language is great! I'm still not perfect, I have SOOOOO much to learn, but conversation flows and the lessons are being taught! ha! The gift of tongues is real and the spirit is so real!
I hope all is going well for each of you. Sean, man I love getting your emails! Your talking about building the traditional gravy dam me laugh way hard! The thought of having a meal without rice is absurd to me now. haha! Definitely miss corn on the cob though. Mom, once again, don't send that other dress. It's way way way too expensive...(also..the Liahona has ALL the conference talks in it. I love that talk you brought up. My goal is to read all the talks again before conference.)
I'll share one more experience really fast. The new curriculum focuses a lot on having investigators find for themselves the truth and importance of the Book of Mormon. We were trying to teach Reneboy, but he wasn't there, so I saw an old investigator that we taught only once. I asked him where he was going..he said to town, I asked if we could teach him really fast before he left. He said yes! That never happens. So he's 19, lives right by MeiMei, Annalyn, Emalyn..the whole gang. Well we start teaching about the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong! I've never taught it the way we did and after Sister Polido finished the intro to the Book of Mormon I stopped and asked him what he was feeling. I've started doing this immediately when the spirit touches my heart while teaching, to point out what the Spirit is and how it feels. As I asked about how he felt, he looked up at me, his name is Roel by the way, and said, "I feel like I want to change. I feel happy. It just feels good." So then he committed himself to pray and read the Book of Mormon that night and tomorrow we have an appointment with him. We're really excited. At the end of the lesson we taught him to pray and he reluctantly prayed....as he prayed he had to stop for awhile..his voice was shaking. Sister Polido, being amazing as she is...asked him after the prayer how he felt while praying..what his experience was. He stopped and looked up at us, smiled and said, "My heart was pounding, I don't know why. It's not because I was just a little nervous." She explained about the spirit again and I explained that if the things we taught weren't true, the spirit would not be felt. I LOVE THIS WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never want to stop teaching and sharing and helping people come to Christ!
I love you all and I pray for you daily. Keep up the amazing work. Look for opportunities to serve. Christ lives! I will never deny it! He's already paid the price for all of our sins, all of our faults, just turn to Him. Until next week, God Speed!!!
All my love,
Sister Stadler

P.S. Paul..your line in Ilonggo made me laugh way hard! It said the mountains loved the birds. hahahahaha! And the black dog...yep..that was right! ha! Where on earth did you find it? Dad, awesome with the Book of Mormon reading!! Keep it up! I'm coming up on the 4th time I've read it since I've been out. Uncle Dale...HOW ARE YOU? I need your info so I can write! I hope you're doing well! You're all amazing! love you! Thanks for all the emails and letters permi..and by permi I mean always! AH! I don't know if I'll ever get these words out of my vocabulary. haha!