Hey Mama,
I am doing great! I will be emailing from Milton-Freewater about this time, I
would suspect. We email from the church clerk's office because there is
literally nowhere else haha. Milton is pretty dang small hahaha. It's really
weird for me to be going from a place the size of Kennewick to here. It was
honestly kinda of a culture shock, but the people here seem to be pretty
nice.
Thanks for sending me a package! Glad the box got to you guys all safe
and sound. I really didn't want to lose the stuff in there. Yep, the temple
envelope was made by Mama Splatts. She is awesome! I loved living in her house.
It's like the coveted spot in the whole mission, and I got to spend 6 months
there. Lucky me huh?
Yep, I wore down those shoes haha. Believe it or not I will have two more pairs
of shoes like that when I get home. I have a really nice pair of new shoes that I picked up at goodwill in Kennewick that I will wear @ home.
I didn't remember that Elder J served here a while ago, but now that you
mention it I do remember him saying that he served here.
I am DL here over lots of sisters haha. I have 6 sisters, and three other Elders in my district. It's been really fun though, because they are all good
missionaries. I am really looking forward to serving them this transfer! I
really love to feel the love the Savior has for all his children, including
missionaries in my district, so any chance I have to feel more of the Savior's
love, it's amazing!
Elder G is a really great missionary. He is super humble and
willing to learn. He is just awesome! Willing to work hard and everything. He
doesn't really know much about what to do and all that, so it's kinda like I am
training him at the moment, but it's good. If I get to help him like that, it's
fine with me. I remember when I got Elder R, he was kinda the same way. He didn't have that much confidence, but by the end of
our companionship he was doing GREAT! It's nice to help the younger missionaries
out. I really enjoy it.
So I live in an apartment with us and 2 Spanish-speaking Elders. It's a pretty nice
place. I was kinda nervous when I found out it was a four-man but it's turned out
really awesome! They are all great missionaries!
Oregon is super weird haha. Just a dumb law they have is that we can't pump
our own gas. They have people that do it for you. You can't even get out of the
car to help them. But the good news is that I AM IN A CAR!!!!! It's super nice to finally be back in a driving area haha. It's been a long time. It had been such a long time since I had drove last that it
was weird driving again but I am used to it now. We have the car to ourselves.
The Elders we live with walk. They have a tiny area.
It is different to be in Oregon but it seems
really nice. My area covers some other small towns, like Athena. We also have a small town of Weston. My
district covers Pendleton, too, so I went down there this week to do a baptism
interview. That looks like a cool place.
Utes lost!!!! Oh no!!!!
I am doing great! I have really liked Milton-Freewater so far. It's a pretty
nice place. The people here are super. It's just a typical small
town environment I am sure I will have the
chance to meet lots of interesting people.
The ward is really really huge, but a big percentage don't come. President Ware always
tells me to go catch the ward on fire whenever I get transferred, so that's what I am trying to do. I fasted
yesterday to know what to do, and I felt like we needed to have our Bishop study Preach My Gospel ch 13. So he is going to read over that and we are going to have a
discussion of how to apply it to the ward. It's amazing how much I have learned
on my mission. I have learned what helps and what doesn't, so I
am just doing what I know worked, and we will see how things improve. I would assume this ward will be my dying area so I'm going to make the best of
it!
The teaching pool here is alright. We do have
an on-date for baptism who is super cool. His name is _____. He's a senior
in high school, and is pretty interested in being baptized. He just struggles
with coming to church. He is on date for the 25th of April so pray that he can
hit that date! I will let you know more about the teaching pool when I know
more.
One thing I love about being transferred is that it teaches me to be
patient with myself. It's kinda frustrating for me to not know where I am or who
so-and-so is, so it's good to just re-focus myself and work on where I know I can
improve.
With being called to DL again, I am really realizing the importance of
Christ-like love. I mentioned it in my email to mom, but I really love feeling
the love of the Savior for all of his children. Being able to serve as a DL just
enables me to feel that even more. It's going to be fun.
We had a cool experience yesterday that reminded me of how God leads us to people who are
prepared.
So we were in Milton-Freewater and were just trying by people who the
missionaries had taught before, and inviting them to take the discussions again. All of a sudden I remembered that we had a referral for a guy way out in a
small town called Athena. It's about a 20 min drive to there, and so we went out
there to contact that referral. When we got there, the guy that we had wanted to see was outside so we started talking to him. Turns out he wasn't wanting to
talk to the missionaries personally, but he intended for us to come up and visit
his friend who has been asking about the missionaries. I thought that was kinda
interesting, but he gave us his friend's information, and we went to find him since
we had already driven up there. When we got to the other guy's house, he wasn't
home, but right when we knocked on the door his neighbor pulled up in a car. We
started talking to her because that's what we do--we talk to everyone. Turns out
she had never seen missionaries before and was interested in learning more
about our religion. How cool is that?!?! We have an appointnment with her this Friday so I really hope it goes well. We really need some more YSA investigators, and that
is what she would be. I'm super excited for it.
The name of the sister who brought you my package was Sister N. She
just lived down the street from us and had asked me if I had anything to send
home, so I put together the package of stuff I had inherited. Glad it got home
safe. Yea you can bet that I got every last buck out of those shoes that I
could. I wore them until they hurt my ankles to walk in them haha. The giant Rubiks
cube I can't solve. It's pretty dang hard. It is fun to play with though. I just
didn't have room for it, but I wanted to keep it. Another Elder gave it to me
when I taught him how to solve the regular one. It's just something that I try to
do with my comps. Teach them how to solve a Rubiks cube. I have been pretty good
at it too.
It's too bad that the Utes couldn't pull off the win against Duke. I was
hoping they would be able to do it. I knew it was going to be tough though.
That's exciting that the Jazz are winning now. I was hoping that would happen
sooner rather than later.
Good job on work stuff Dadio. Sounds like things are going super well
right now.
Sarah driving? Sounds like I need to be praying for the innocent people of Bountiful Utah. haha.
I like your thought on the what and why Dad. Ironically enough, I was
thinking about that same thing but only with my investigators. Lots of missionaries get
caught up in teaching the what about everything. Over the course of my mission, I have come to realize that it's not the what that is important in the end.
It's all about the why. If an investigator understands why we go to church every week, the
simple fact of them possibly not wanting to go to church every week isn't going
to matter if they truly understand the doctrine behind it. It's really something that Elder Arnold stressed when he visited the mission. Teaching doctrine (the
why), and letting the Spirit teach the what. It's pretty cool how it works out
like that.
I know that the gospel is true. It is so amazing how it applies to our lives. It makes me SOOOOOOO happy just thinking about it.
I really do have such a love for the gospel. I am super pumped to listen to President Monson this weekend and all the other general authorities. It's going
to be SWEET! I know this church is true. I know the Lord loves his children in
Washington and Oregon!!!!! It's amazing to feel it. I know Christ lives. I know
our Heavenly Father loves and cares for us as his children.
I love you guys! You guys do so much for me. I hope that the vacation down south will be a blast for you guys. I'm sure it will be!
Love ya Dadio, and all you other hooligans,
-Elder Jake Sedlacek
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