Sister Stadler-A Prompting in the Dark

Sister Stadler-A Prompting in the Dark

During my mission we had a few opportunities to hear from visiting seventies. Elder Teh and his sweet wife visited us near the end of my mission. He first met with all of the missionaries and shared a powerful message of obedience bringing safety and blessings.

Later in the evening Elder Teh had a fireside scheduled for the district we were currently serving in. I was assigned to play the piano for the fireside. While I was playing prelude for the fireside everyone was busy talking to their neighbors and chit chatting, not being reverent, which happened often where I was serving. Then, suddenly, we had a black out. No electricity meant no piano since the piano in the building was electric. I wish you all could have heard the reaction of the congregation when the lights went out. Black outs happened often in the area where I served. Though they happened often, everyone, no matter where or when we had a black out, would gasp in unison. So as you can imagine,  the congregation gasped and then immediately started talking louder. I was sitting at the piano, in the dark, thinking, "how can I help these people prepare spiritually for this message?" Then it hit me, the prompting was strong and clear. "You have a loud voice. Grab your hymn book and your flashlight and go invite everyone to sing with you, even though its dark, most of the members have flashlights or they have music memorized."

I hesitated for a moment, but my heart was racing. It was one of those do or die moments. So, I did.

I asked the chorister if she felt okay about it, she readily consented and I jumped up and said, "brothers and sisters", there was still loud talking so I spoke louder, "brother and sisters!" There was a slight lull in conversation. "Brothers and Sisters, hopefully you will listen to me right now." Finally, they were silent. "Thank you. It is important that we prepare spiritually for this fireside. Would it be okay if we sang some hymns, even though we have no light, to prepare us?"

I don't know what reaction I was expecting but there was a unanimous and loud "YES!" from the members in attendance.

So there I was, a little Arizona girl in the middle of the Philippines, using her diaphragm and lung support to belt out the melody for others to follow in the middle of a dark chapel.

The music was beautiful. The spirit was there. We sang "Nearer My God to Thee" and by the end of the song the room was silent and the lights came back on. I returned to the piano and the room stayed silent for the remainder of the prelude.

The fireside was spiritually powerful. It was evident that Elder Teh loves the people of the Philippines. I was so grateful that my fear didn't hold me back from following a clear prompting in that dark room that night.