Life flips on you pretty fast

Elder Sedlacek and his previous district. He is 3rd from the right.

What's up Mama,

How have you been this week??? Sounds like you've been very busy haha. I had a pretty good week as well. Transfers was fun. Elder Y got off to Grand Cooley and I got Elder Ro****. He is pretty cool. You can definately tell that he's young in the mission. He reminds me of me when I was out as long as he has been hahahaha. Funny thing is, he is at the exact point when I went to Elder J and I am out the exact time as Elder J was when I went to him haha. I remember thinking how "old" Elder J was, and now Elder Ro is probably thinking the same thing about me haha! Life just kinda flips on you pretty fast, doesn't it? haha. Anyway, he is a good missionary. Just kinda quiet sometimes.

Do you know if you or Nicole are going to send me some of the bridal pics??? I want to see the first look one haha. I bet that was fun to watch. That's dumb you had crappy weather for the pics! We had some crappy weather this week too. We had some freezing rain, tons of rain, and then at last the return of the Tri city sun haha. This week we had a meeting with one of the First Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Arnold. It was amazing! I will give an update in the email to dad.

 

I bet Mia did great on her play. If I had known/remembered it was her birthday I would have told her happy birthday last week in my email.

Why are they having you help out backstage though? Is that something you have to do or you're just volunteering for?

I bet your Thanksgiving will be way gooooooood at grandpa's. For Thanksgiving here we are going to at least one member's house for dinner sometime during the day. I don't know what else we will do. Last Thanksgiving was fun so I would assume this one is fun, too.

Mama: Son! :)

Yes, I’ve been very busy! I have all these little things to do floating through my head all the time, yet I don’t seem to get them all done. So today, since I am staying home until after we email, I have been making a list so I have them in front of me, and then I can check them off as I get them done. I think it will help. One of those things is to get your cutout taken care of. I decided to get a US President and then J.H. is going to enlarge your face from the professional pic you sent and put it on. 

 

They are having parents backstage for Scrooge because there are quite a few kids in it, and it just helps keep the younger ones acting like they are supposed to while they are backstage. Mia of course doesn’t need any help with backstage manners, but we still had to volunteer for two nights. It’ll be fun though. I like the backstage goings on. 

 

Sounds like you like your new comp, and you are getting along. 

 

Elder Sedlacek: You are super busy hahahaha. A list will help a ton I would bet haha.

Yea I like Elder R. He is pretty cool.  Like I said, he reminds me of me before the mission and at the beginning as well. It made me realize how much I have grown on the mission.

Oh, so you're on parent duty basically to keep the kids under control haha. Nothing more than you already do every single day of your life now haha.

Mama: A list will help. I’m already seeing it haha. It made me realize that if I’m going to cook a turkey for our own leftovers (hello tradition!) then I’d better buy one and get it thawed out! Normally I’ve done that already! It just shows how my thoughts are going in a million directions right now. 

 

 

Elder Sedlacek: Yeah, you better cook a turkey. That's important hahaha. I told Sister Sp***** that you make a really good turkey too, so I bet it will be way good haha.

So, you're pretty scatter brained right now then haha. That's how I feel sometimes too haha. Those are the days I just take out my planner and write everything down that I need to get done. Otherwise I forget stuff. There is a reason why my planner is my brain right now.

I have to get going in a minute but it was great to hear from you this week. I am so glad to be yo' son. Your favorite son, too ;)

I love you guys so much and am grateful for all that you all do for me. Love ya! Hope you have a great Thankgiving this week! Wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving for me since I of coarse won't be there. Talk to you next week though.

-Elder Sedlacek

 

 

What's up Dad,

My week was great this week. It was a usual transfers week, which means it goes by really slow. I also couldn't believe how busy our investigators are now that it's the holiday season. We didn't get to meet with lots of them, unfortunately. L***** is still doing great. He told us this week in our lesson that "everything he learns makes the Mormon church sound better and better. It feels really good." So yeah, he is progressing!  The hard part is still his work schedule and making it to church. 

 

M***** is still doing great. She is completely following the Word of Wisdom, which is great! Her boyfriend had to go into the ER early yesterday morning so they didn't make it to church. They also need to get married. I never thought I would be a missionary and a marriage counselor at the same time hahahaha. So far, the wedding is planned for April so I don't think I will be able to be here for the baptism. I am just really hoping and praying that they feel the desire to move it up and get baptized sooner than that.

D**** is doing well too. His employer told him that he can't have Sundays off right now because they are too busy. That sucked to hear. Hopefully he can get something figured out so he can start coming to church.

You can pray for all our on-date investigators, that they can get all their situations figured out and get baptized. The rest of our investigators are doing well. We are just working on finding new ones and working with the ones we already have.

Like I mentioned in my email to Mom, we had a meeting with Elder Arnold of the Seventy on Thursday. It was AMAZING! I felt the spirit so strong the whole meeting. It just so happened to be on the day when we had freezing rain too, so it was delayed a lot but it eventually happened. He talked a lot about the commitment ladder in the church. We are given simple commitments to keep, and we are blessed when we do. As we keep the simple ones we are able to take upon ourselves the greater commitments/covenants of the gospel. It made so much sense to me. It was awesome. He also talked a lot about the promises made to us when we are set apart as missionaries. He said, "Those promises are promises you can bank on. They were given through the Spirit of the Lord and the priesthood." I was just curious if Mom still had that paper where she wrote down the promises President Stuart said to me when I was set apart. I want a copy of it or something.

Sounds like work is going good for you. Hope it keeps being good haha.

That really really really really blows the Utes lost to Arizona! I really hope they aren't falling apart. They better just whoop Colorado. Are they going to be getting a good bowl game since they are 17th in the bowl rankings? I hope the Jazz can keep it up too. Sounds like they have a pretty good team this year.

Well, I had some scriptures that I read this week that I really liked for my spiritual thought this week. The first one being in the Book of Mormon. It's Alma 36:24-25. This is when Alma is talking about how much joy the mission can bring. I had never really thought about this scripture much before when I have read it, but I realized just how much joy the mission does bring to my life, and to your lives as well. I have really enjoyed every moment of my mission. I have grown so much! I can already tell that so I bet you guys will be amazed haha.

The other scripture was one that Elder Arnold shared with us. It is Moses 6:31 and 34, which is the promise the Lord makes to us. In verse 31 it helps explain that the Lord knows what we struggle with. He is talking to Enoch in this situation, but put your own name in there. I did it and it's really cool. I know I have been called of God by the authority of the priesthood to preach the gospel. I know the Lord is with me always. He is here to help us. This is His work and His gospel. I am so grateful to have the Lord as one of my companions in the mission at all times. I love my mission like always.

This week being Thanksgiving, I want to thank you so much, Dad, for all that you do for me. You're a great example to me. You're awesome. I am so grateful for the sacrifice you go through to keep your favorite son ;) on my mission. Thanks for everything you do! Love ya!

Have a great week!

-Elder Jake Sedlacek
 

I tried to redneck my shoes

What's up Mama,

Sounds like an exciting week back at home. My week here was pretty good. I will give more of an update to dad haha which I guess is both of you :).

The weather up here is getting to be more like fall. It's cold in the mornings and the leaves are finally changing. Fall just seems to come later here than in Utah. I will probably try to get some more shoes that are waterproof then. The ones I just bought almost have a hole in the bottom of the shoe and holes starting to form all over haha. Shoes just don't last as long as they need to haha.

Anything else I need huh. Let me think on that one. I don't think I need anything at the moment. I really don't know what I would want for Christmas haha. I am no help there. You should just buy clothes for me for when I get home. I am going to have nothing as of right now haha.

That service activity, was it part of Just Serve? Have you heard anything about that? Sounds like a good thing to do. That's terrible that the girls are treated so badly for something they cant even control. The world is a crazy place. Thats why it needs missionaries ;)

I bet DB's talk was great. How many stories did he tell? You will have to tell him hi back for me.

Guess what?????? Elder J (a former comp who has been home for a few months) proposed this last weekend!!!!! Isn't that crazy!!! He's going to be a married man pretty soon.

Marriage is just in the air right now haha. You will have to be sure to have Nicole send me an invite. 

Transfers are on next Wednesday so this Saturday we will find out what's going down. I don't really have a clue what will go on. I  guess I will find out Saturday. It's likely that I will stay since I have only been here one transfer.

I hope all of you have a great week! Love you guys tons!!!!!!!!!!!

I will talk to you next week Mama

-Elder Sedlacek

Whaz up Dad,

This week was a great one for me. It went by way faster than last week did. It ended up being alot better too. Updates on our investigators:

J***** we met with Monday and we meet with tonight. She told us in our lesson on Monday that she is seriously looking for a church to get baptized into. She is reading in the Book of Mormon and is really liking it. Shes doing great!

We found a couple investigators this week. One was a guy named ____.  He lives in a home with other recovering addicts. He seems really interested in the message and even is reading the Book of Mormon. He works a crazy schedule so that is the main struggle right now--getting him to church. Maybe that is something that you can pray for.

The other investigator was a mormon.org referal which we don't get very often. He is AWESOME!!!!! He works with a member who is a really good friend of his and that is how he recently got in contact with the church. He is originally from Canada and he shared with us a super sweet story of how he found the church originally and got back in contact with it. When he lived in Canada he was able to go through and tour the Vancover B.C temple and he said the peace that he felt in the temple is nothing like what he has felt before. He loved it and ever since that experience he has been searching for that same feeling. Because he works nights right now he has a crazy schedule, but one day he decided he was going to go check out the church building. It was locked because no one was in there so he just sat on the grass next to the chapel because he said it was the closet thing to the feeling he felt in the temple. His name is L**** and so far it's been awesome teaching him. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday but I really see him progressing very fast in the future.

M**** came to church for the third Sunday in a row. She really liked it as usual. It was awesome. They just need to get married before they can get baptized but the wedding time frame is looking like it's not going to happen until February. I am really hoping they can get married before that. They both want to get married in the temple really bad so it's only a matter of time before she is baptized.

Those are some of the major investigators we have at the moment. Of coarse there is more but these are the best stories as of right now haha.

It hasn't been raining as much this week but it's getting colder, which I don't mind. I just don't want it too cold haha. That is when I hate the cold. I will probably get some more shoes then. I tried to redneck my shoes this week to being waterproof by filling the soles with caulking and super glue and that seemed to work pretty well. It's just the shoes are getting holes and I can't fix those haha. I will have to save these shoes so you can see my handiwork haha. It's pretty funny.

That is crazy that DB was almost in the Boston marathon bombing haha. I bet that would have been a story to tell the mission president hahahaha. I bet he had lots of fun and success as a missionary. He is just that type of guy haha.

That really stinks that Utah lost so badly. I was hoping it wouldn't be like that but I guess not. It would have been amazing if they had kept that momentum going. Imagine what it would have done to the rankings haha. I just very much dislike Oregon right now. It's good the Jazz are doing good. Maybe they can keep it up and prove everyone wrong. 

I am so happy to be serving a mission right now, even as I say that every week. I really am! The mission for me has been so much of a help. I really feel it has and is changing my heart. When you sincerely apply the gospel into your life, it truly does change it from where it was and makes it that much better. I know the gospel is true. President Monson is a prophet of God. I know that!!!!!!!!!! God lives and loves us all individually. We can have a personal relationship with him through prayers of faith. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything you do for me! Have a totally awesome week ahead!

-Elder Sedlacek

If we don't use it, we lose it.

 Hey Dad,

Well, as usual, I will give the weekly update of my week. This week was really slow and pretty tough. Every apointment we had set up (which was a lot) cancelled. We got dropped by investigator, but we did have some other successes. We were able to have a great lesson with a new investigator.  His name is K**** and it was cool. We knocked on his door and he let us in, so we were asking why he let us in--most people don't do that right off the bat. He told us he wasn't intrested but that he was a nice guy and we seemed pretty cool. We then had a restoration lesson and the spirit was super strong. We asked him what he felt at the end of the lesson and he told us pretty strongly "I'm interested." It was just so cool to see someone change their mind in a matter of 30-40 minutes and become interested in the gospel. The spirit does amazing things. I can tell you that.

We had a couple investigators at church yesterday and it was pretty good. M***** came to church and she really liked it again. She told us something this week that I thought was cool. She has been really busy and had a hard time getting to her scripture reading. She told us that randomly while she is using her phone throughout the day for certain things, gospel library pops up at the point where she left off reading. Sounds like someone wants her to read her scriptures haha! I thought it was pretty cool to hear that happening. This week was fun with Halloween and stuff like that. I got to continue the tradition of carving pumpkins. It was really fun.

The weather this week has been Sooooooooo rainy. I have found out that my shoes aren't waterproof! That could be interesting come this winter. I really, really, really, really, really don't want to go buy a new pair that are waterproof because I just bought shoes a couple transfers ago. What do you think I should do?

I had an interesting thought this week in personal study. I have been reading the book Miracle of Forgiveness because President added it to our missionary library. It's a really good book. He talks about the saying "We are created to act. Not to be acted upon."  If you know what I am talking about, but I am sure you do. Anyway,  he talks about how if we don't use our muscles we lose them. It really solidified it in my mind that we are sent here to do things. Not to sit back and watch life go by. Even just from my knee surgery and the first day of physical therapy I remember really well how the doctor told me to flex my quad muscles and I couldn't do it. There was nothing there. I firmly believe that if we were meant to be acted upon, we wouldn't lose movement and ability if we just sat around. We were sent here to be about the Lord's work. That was just something cool that I realized this week. Hopefully it makes a little bit of sense haha.

Well, I am so grateful for all that you do for me. It is so awesome for me to see the blessings of serving a mission blessing you guys back home. I know the Lord lives and loves us. This is his gospel restored to the earth. Joseph Smith is a prophet of god! I love the mission! I have learned so much that will help me for the rest of my life. It's amazing. I love you guys!

Have a great week Dad, and everyone else!

-Elder Sedlacek