The atonement is truly our greatest gift.

Emailing Elder Sed was weird this week, because we weren't getting our emails in order when we tried to chat back-and-forth. Hopefully it's better next week! 

 

hey dad! so this was a pretty good week. we did find a new investigator from a referral who lives downtown, he is a older man named LC. he is super solid. he has already read over 150 pg's of the Book of Mormon. we have a follow up appointment on wednesday, i am excited for him. the other new investigator, p, we took a member with us to see him on saturday and he bashed us! hahaha he wants concrete evidence that the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith story are true, so we told him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. he was just like"i won't find if it is true just by reading it, because i read the Bible and i believe it is the only true word of God." so yeah, I was just trying to bear a simple testimony and invite him to read it, so he said he would read a little. hopefully he gets a witness of it by our next appointment. so yep that is the news for 'gators this week. the others we are just trying to get them to keep commitments. i like the thought you shared about helping people see they are needed. it is true though about that. the latest mission training was good. we had to do a few role plays. i am excited for the Broncos, hopefully they play well, then payton can get one more under his belt before he retires. i am sorry you are so swamped at work, it is good that you are feeling better though. i will pray for you! it will all work out. i am glad brother allred is doing well, i wish i could visit him myself. it would tough to be lonely like that. that is good you were able to help everyone with snow removal. i loved doing that as you know hahaha, that was one of my favorite parts  of the winters in utah. here the snow melts off in a few days and we only get about 2 inches on average--it is nice. i am glad about the family history work, i am excited to get into it when i get home, and thank you for the talk this week! i will keep all that in mind, that definitely helps! well thanks for emailing me dad! i love you so much! good luck with work and have a great week! i will talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

 

hi mom! so this week was good. it went kinda fast except for the last few days. the meetings we had this week with the broadcast and the training you got a pic from were awesome, i love those types of things. the hardest part of the week was yesterday, my comp was feeling sad the whole day. to make matters worse, i went through a less active list to visit a few of them, and we spent all afternoon trying to contact those and not one was a legit address! it was a rough day hahaha. 

 

LC was my fave person of the week, his lessons were awesome! you can read about him in dad's email. i am sorry about your tooth, that must have been severely painful! i am glad you are feeling better, i prayed for you, hopefully it helped. that is funny about what libby said about your numb face. she is hilarious, she is my young humor padawon! hahaha that is awesome you relied on the atonement like that, it truly is our greatest gift, the only way i have survived thus far is with that power of the atonement. you can literally rely on the atonement to help you with everything, the savior really did truly suffer for everything and he DOES know all of us way more than we can even comprehend! it is mind boggling and amazing! 

 

i have 4 vials of insulin left, and a lot of strips as well, so if you could wait like a week or two longer before sending them, that would be great. thank you though mom! that is cool Jessie got her mission call, you will have to wish her luck for me, she will do great. that is really crazy, it has already been 6 months! wow!

 

Mom: You sure I should wait on sending your stuff? If you get transferred next week it'll be another week before I have your new address.

 

Elder Sed: i have a lot of extra strips and i knew you would not know until the week after.  i already have a lot of supplies, so if i get transferred i don't want as much to pack up haha.

 

Mom: Any thoughts on whether you might be transferred? I loved the picture Bro. P sent of you from your mission conference, that was really nice of him!

 

Elder Sed: i think i might be, but then again, anything can happen hahaha. yep, bro.p is nice! love the guy. well, i have to go now, it was great to hear from you mom! i love you mom! love all you guys! hopefully the email works better next week. talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

 

If you bundle up enough, it is just your face that turns to ice.

 

hey dad! so this week went by a lot faster, it was a good week. we had a lot of opposition in the mission though, but that is a good sign. the adversary is aware of all of us and we are scaring him! so this week, we lost s*** as an investigator :( he chose to go with his Jewish religion.  we KNOW we fulfilled our purpose with him because he told us specifically that we helped him come closer to god and that we helped him become better. we were sad to lose him because we saw a lot of potential in him. hopefully he will have the desire to learn more later. we just have to wait it out the while the spirit works on him. well, we had our follow-up lesson with p****. he was busy again, so he is going to call us soon. other than that, it has been the same old-same old type of stuff, just trying to get new people to teach and getting less-actives out to church. one cool story with p**** though, we went to his door and knocked and he did not answer. i had the thought to leave him a card, so we took the time to leave him one and it worked out perfectly.  just as we were about to walk away, he pulled up and started talking to us. so i know that was  a prompting so that we would be there to talk to him. it was sick! i am sorry you have had a head cold dad, that is good you are feeling a little bit better.  i wish you luck running everything at work. that is cool with all the family history work you have been getting done, nice job! i bet that was fun to go to the theater with mia and mom, that will be cool if mia does do a non-musical play. brother taylor was so anxious for the steelers' game hahahaha.  i love those two thoughts you shared, the latter one applies to my whole mission right now so well. at the specialized training we had this last week, that is pretty much the sum of what president was talking about.  thank you so much for those dad! well as usual i will write more in mom's email, i love reading your emails each week! thank you so much for all you do dad! i hope you feel better, love you dad, so much! talk to you later! have an fantastic week!

-Elder Sedlacek

 

hi mom, so this week was faster than last week, and it was pretty good.  we found one new guy that seems promising, we will have to see. we can always find new people to teach here, but the question is if they are going to stick around, which they usually don't. everyone is willing to talk to "the Brothers" about Jesus, but not about new stuff. it makes me frustrated sometimes. 

 

the best part of the week was the specialized training, and i have a funny story about that for later in the email. the hardest part was when s*** dropped us. i wrote about that in dad's email. 

 

i am sorry about your tooth trouble, that really stinks! i pray for you all at least once a day, and i am glad it worked, what day was that? i am glad you had FHE and that the girls' rehearsals are going well, that will be fun to see those plays. Cincy has gotten a few flurries--here they call it snow, but yeah, it is just a flurry. it has been very wicked cold! it has been somewhere in the 15s and 20s all week,  but for two whole days it made it to almost 50, it was so nice! that is how the weather is out here, it goes in super cold cycles and then warms up for a few days. i live for those warmer days! hahahaha. it gets so freakin' cold! it is unbelievable what the humidity does to the cold! my coat is nice and warm though, thanks! 

 

that is super funny about dad getting baby T a little UTE shirt! hahahaha that is awesome, i just started laughing when i read that haha. wish Nicole a happy birthmark for me! that was a cool message from sis. murdock, about how the spirit seems to wait til the last minute to help out sometimes. i feel the same way sometimes, and i have been definitely been getting more promptings now than i ever have. it has been wicked awesome! but yes there is no growth in a comfort zone, that is so true. that is why i have to rely on the atonement so much, because I am constantly either exhausted, stressed or feeling the spirit--and then sometimes just normal hahahaha. i am glad Dr. T liked that--you will have to tell him hello for me. 

 

so now for that funny story: so at the end of the meeting, we were waiting around to get a ride from the APs and some elders were just messing around and shooting half court shots. they could not get one, and so the ball bounced over to me, i grabbed it and with one arm just launched one in and it swished and everything! everyone was watching and they were like screaming and just like OOOOOOHHHHH!!!!!! it was so funny hahaha!! so how is everyone doing?

 

Mom: Nicole says we best believe that you’re going to tell that funny story in your homecoming talk. That is so funny that you made that shot like that!

 

Well my tooth still hurts, unfortunately. The last two nights have been the worst. So I’ve called Dr. T, also because it feels a little swollen, to see if I need an antibiotic. Hopefully something will help!

 

Mine and Dad’s phones say that you are 8 degrees right now, with a “real feel” of –6. How accurate is that? I hope it’s not that bad!

 

Whatcha going to do for p-day today? 

 

Elder Sed: yep that sums up the weather, hahaha. it sounds worse than it is, because if you bundle up enough, it is just your face that turns to ice. my eyebrows froze last night hahaha. i should tell that story hahaha i am sorry you still have that pain!

 

Mom: I’m glad it sounds worse than it is. How did your eyebrows freeze? haha So you will be having transfers next week? Do I have it right? What are you doing for p-day?

 

Elder Sed: first week of february is the transfers, so not next week but the one after that. it was  a 7 week transfer this time, and same with the next. so yep they are coming up. as crazy as it sounds, i have lived in Cincy for 3 months! well, my eyebrows froze because the wind was blowing in my face (as it always seems to do hahah) and the wind chill got my face to numb up and then BAM! my eyebrows wouldn't move separately from my face hahaha.

 

today we have to buy some food and then maybe i will take a nap, depends on what elder holman wants to do. with the mtc changing back to 3 weeks for english speakers, everyone who was already out gets a week long extension. so with christmas they have to do 2 7-week transfers. that is way cool about tara and the new baby! you will have to tell her congrats for me!

 

well, i have to go now mom, it was great to talk to you! i love you guys all so much! the picture is from the specialized training hahaha.  have a great week! i love you all so much!

-Elder Sedlacek

 

Suffice it to say I will no longer accept rides from just anyone haha!

Busken's Bakery Bengals cookie

The mission pin Jared has earned by memorizing verses of scripture

 

hey dad! so this week went pretty slow for some reason, but i had a pretty good week. yesterday we had a stake conference and since batesville is in my stake right now, i got to see some of my old batesville peeps. it was awesome! so the less active, a****, i have been working with, is finally coming back to church and his little brother is getting baptized! it is nice to see some success from something i helped to achieve--with god's help of course! so we were not able to get any investigators to show up to stake conference yesterday, since it was in kentucky. only michael  showed up, it was kinda sad. it was a really good meeting though. we also found some new investigators this week. one day we were on the bus, and the spirit just all of a sudden washed over me, and like 5 minutes later, this guy named peter just started talking to me from the row behind me. we got an appointment with him. unfortunately he was kinda busy when we went, so we talked for a few minutes and gave him a brief rundown of the restoration. we made another return appointment, it was awesome! yes, it has been really wet here, but what you saw on tv during the bengals game was very little compared to how hard it really rains here! it is crazy, it is like sheets and sheets of rain so hard within seconds you are soaked to the bone! it is ridiculous! luckily, it usually doesn't rain quite that hard. that is an interesting thought about people always going "up to Jerusalem."  i will have to focus on that when i start the BOM over again next week. good job on the family history, you are getting a lot done. i will have to get into that stuff when i get back.  i love the temple, i can't wait to go at least once a week when i get back. yep, i knew about the bengals game the next day. the ward mission leader is a huge steelers fan and even has a sticker on his car.  we always joke he is going to get keyed around here, because they are SO SERIOUS about "WHO DEY!" i am serious, you could walk up to someone and tell them that who dey sucks and you might get shot hahahaha! he was pretty happy to see the steelers win. hopefully denver can pull through. "Opposition in all things"  is a sad fact of life, but it helps us grow. i like your quote, it seems like i am almost 90 percent relying on the atonement now to be able to keep going. this work is so hard and so tiring you cannot do it alone.  i know for a fact the savior has been with me the whole way. my love for the savior has grown exponentially! it is amazing to see. and i definitely feel your prayers! thank you so much for all you do for me Dad! i love you so much! keep up the good work, i will talk to you later! have a great week!

-Elder Sedlacek

 

 

hi mom! so this week was kinda slow, for some reason or another, but it was good, there are no bad days on the mission. yes, i am keeping a good journal and i start everyday with "today was a good day..." hahaha. 

 

so you can read a little more about new gators in dad's email and what went down for the week, except i did save what happened with patricia for your email. so patricia, michael's wife, we read the BOM with her and the spirit was so strong, and so at the end we asked her to be baptized on feb 6th and she said she would definitely pray about it! i will take what i can get, because she is close to being on date! i am excited to see what happens. 

 

as for the other gators, we are still in the grind with them, just trying to help increase their faith, but if you could pray for s, he is a noahide, which is another philosophy-based religion. he  might fully commit to that one. he is thinking about it, but if he is happy then i am happy.  we will see what happens.

 

 i did find out the new president's name on lds.org last week, but we can't get any beef on him, i only knew he is from texas and is a salesman. if you could find some things out for me that would be sick! i will definitely miss president porter, he is awesome! 

 

that is good you are having FHE lessons.  i miss those, i haven't been able to have one since like sept. it sounds like you had a fun week. my week should be pretty good this week, we had a lot of opposition so we should get some miracles going! and i am going to norwood on exchanges tomorrow so i should get to go to a gym! yeah! by the way, i am up to doing 150 pull-ups a night! that is funny about your job, it sounds like fun! that is a really cool experience from the temple that is cool! 

 

 i definitely know it to be true, that if you just keep pushing forward the miracles and the grace will come and same with blessings. that is what i live for out here, is making it through the trials, becoming a better person and the man i want to be and then getting some serious blessings from it! heck yeah! the gospel is true!

 

oh yeah! so a funny  story from yesterday--we were waiting at the bus stop and this random guy pulled up and offered us a ride. we hopped in and he had been hot boxing! which means he smoked a crap ton of weed! so we instantly started to get high hahaha and so then he starts talking to us about nauvoo and was like "yeah joseph smith and the bros man!" hahaha it was funny, but we quickly had him drop us off and he left. suffice it to say i will no longer accept rides from just anyone hahaha!

You asked about my insulin, but i don't need any yet. i have like 3-5 vials still.

 

well i have to go now, it was great to hear from you mom! thank you so much for all you do. i will talk to you later, i love you all so much! love you mom! have a great week!

 

Elder Sedlacek

For New Year's, I read the entire Book of Mormon in 15 hours.

Elder Sedlacek after reading the Book of Mormon in one 15-hour period.

 

hey dad, so this week was pretty good. for new year's we had to stay in from thursday at 6pm until saturday at noon! i will talk more in mom's email about what we had to do during that time, but it goes along really well with the thought you had about the Book of Mormon. so we were not able to contact the nigerian man this week. hopefully we will in the next few days. we are still seeing g*****, m.j our less-active and s***. there are a few others that we see, but we haven't seen them long enough to know how they will pan out yet. we are still working with a lot of less-actives. we got s*** to come to church yesterday and he really liked it. he fits in pretty well and his off-the-wall personality makes elders' quorum fun hahahaha. then we got another less active named j*** to come back to church yesterday. it was a good sunday. my new year's eve was pretty good, you will hear more about that in mom's email, it is worth the wait haha. i am glad that you had a good one as well. i figured the snowman would end up as another snow zit without me there hahahaha--just kidding. the snow always seems to not want to cooperate these days. we got a light dusting of snow here last night so there was some snow on the roofs and on the cars, but no where else. it was nice to see at least a little snow. that is really awesome about your experience from fasting. fasting really works. i fasted to help me recognize the spirit faster and stronger this week and i immediately saw results--it was cool. yesterday we were walking along this super busy road to contact a referral, and this guy drove past us and was making fun of us. in my head i thought, "this is it, the trial of my faith before a miracle" and  about 10 minutes later this random non-member pulled up and gave us a ride to the referral's house! it was awesome, the driver wasn't even interested but it was great to have that miracle. that always happens, after the trial of our faith, we receive a blessing. thanks for the awesome thought this week dad, it will tie in later in the emails. i hope you have a wonderful day and week. I love you dad! thanks so much for all you do! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hi mom! so this week flew by! i did get the package on new year's eve, thank you so much for it! i LOVE those paisley ties that you bought for me! they are awesome! thanks mom! 

so for new year's we had to stay in from thursday at 6 pm until saturday at noon. it was a long time. we had to do some packet work and part of the packet was to read the Book of Mormon in one day--on new year's day from 6 am to 10:30 at night! i was so drained mentally by noon hahaha but i finished at 9:05 pm. it was so hard hahaha. when i finished, i was talking to my comp (who is a speed reader and finished at noon!) but i started mixing up words because i was so tired hahaha. then i went to bed. other than that we did the packets which were really good. one made me cry hahaha i am becoming  such a baby when it comes to spiritual stuff hahaha.

as for church this week, i wrote all about it in dad's email. i also wrote about all the 'gators so you can read about that there. we did get s*** and one of our less actives to church. it was great to see the fruits of your fast! thanks so much!

i agree with your view on new year's goals, they are great and all but i too want to continually improve, so i am always working on something hahaha. that is good bro A is doing well, he is a cool guy. it is sad about sister A, although i am sure she is happier where she is. i am glad you did the traditional stuff for new year's, i could picture you guys doing all that stuff, good news is there is only one more to go hahaha (not trunky hahaha). that fruit "salsa" & chips sounds good that they made. maybe i will make some haha. that is too bad jake and jeff were sick, that is no fun. 

my blood sugars have been good. i loved how in the package you wrote the amount of carbs in the chocolates hahaha. i was like "mom is going through diabetes withdrawals" hahaha. that stinks about the 1-4pm block. we have the 9 am block now, we did have the 11. what are you talking about i never even said a word about being hungry when we'd get home from church after 4pm! hahaha jk. i did not know what having no food meant back then hahaha. that is cool you are still teaching piano, and the tutoring too, good luck mom! 

for today, we have a zone fun day at the church, so it will be fun to hang out with elder nielsen and huemann again. me and my comp are getting along, but as always when one obedient missionary and one that is not quite as obedient are put together, there are usually some disagreements. he wanted to start p-day early today and i told him no, so he yelled at me at the top of his lungs hahaha. things are going well though, and we do have fun together.

Sedlacek, Jared Logan

Hey President, sorry i didn't email last week, there really isn't an excuse, but the computers at the library had a malfunction so I was not able to get all my emailing done. this week was awesome, it was probably the best christmas I have had in my whole life. it was so awesome to be able to talk about christ for his birthday. I felt the spirit so much, it was great. we found a few new investigators this week, and so hopefully we can stay in contact with them and help increase their faith. My comp isn't the easiest companion to get along with, but he is a great elder and he knows a lot. he may not be the most obedient, but I am trying to work on that. I have already learned so much from being with him and I know i will learn a lot more. Well, I hope you have a great holiday this week. thank you for all you do, president! love you!

-Elder Sedlacek

03 Jan 2016

President Porter

That is why you are there. Help him become who he can be. I am proud of you

-that was my email to president last week, and his answer.

well , i have to go now mom, it was great to talk to you. thank you so much for all you do for me! i love you so much! have a great week and day! talk to you later! love you all!

-Elder Sedlacek