Here in Hoosier land it is cold, then hot, then freeze-your-skin-off-cold!

About to enjoy some white tail deer meat.

All bundled up for those 21 degree, 90% humidity days.

hey Dad, it has been a pretty decent week this week. we did not see a whole lot of success, but we did find someone new. on Tuesday, we had a referral come in for a Bible, so we had a member drive us out since it was in the middle of nowhere hahaha. but the lady, P, wanted a Bible to give to her friend. we gave it to her and chatted for a bit, and we got onto a gospel topic and then bam, she said something that triggered an impression to share a certain scripture with her, so we shared a scripture  from the Book of Mormon, and she loved it. that was super cool! she owns a business and said she would call us for another appointment. that is not ideal as you know, but we will see what happens i guess.

as for the other investigators, we did see B, he had finally read a little bit, but still didn't make it to church. SD we saw last night and he had not read, so we had a commitment lesson with him. we will see what happens. if he reads, then we will continue with him. the W family just about came to church but the mom was feeling ill. they are also struggling to read, so we have read a bit with them lately also. there is a less active family, the B family, and they have been getting back in contact with us, and  they will be coming to church. they did not make it yesterday because of car trouble. satan is the worst! hahaha.

there was not a lot new this week, unfortunately. everyone is struggling to keep their commitments, and we are doing all we can to find. it is just not working out like we hoped. we were planning the other night, and i was thinking silently, "what am i doing wrong, Heavenly Father?" and i felt an assuring feeling for a moment and then bam! a media referral came in. so it IS working for us to ask literally everyone we see for referrals. eventually the work will take off, we just have to hold faithful.

we have noticed the Book of Mormon supply is behind too hahaha, they are in very short supply for us haha. i bet that was super fun to help with all those service projects Dad, i wish we had more service projects to do ourselves.

yep, it has been cold and windy the past few days, but today is warm enough for just a sweater. that is the way it goes here in Hoosier land, cold then hot, then freeze-your-skin-off cold! haha

sounds like you had a busy Sunday, we always have PEC or ward council each week at 7:30 am. sounds like you gave a pretty good lesson today too, that was what we talked about as well. that stinks the teams lost, come on! hahaha i guess your Cowgirls do know how to play football after all! did they wear their tough makeup? hahaha just kidding Dad hahaha!

thank you for that thought Dad. i really like that, we are all out there searching with lights and looking under rocks--it's the latter days, it won't be easy. but that is what makes us stronger, if we can search hard enough and long enough, and follow the Spirit, we will find those needing rescue. we may find some along the path that don't want to be helped, but eventually they will and they will remember the times that God has reached out to them, and they will gain a testimony of God's love for them. all things testify of Christ, we just have to have the faith to look for those and find them. i too, can testify that Jesus is the Christ and this is His gospel, He is in charge.

thank you for raising me right Dad! it was great to hear from you again, i hope you enjoy your fave pie on Thanksgiving, have a great day! love you Dad! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom, so it has been a good week. it's always a good week hahaha. i did get the package from you, thank you so much! i am good on all other supplies, and i thought of stuff for the Christmas package. can you see if you can get me more of those Dickies slacks i wear? mine are gonna wear out soon, i can't believe they lasted this long anyway hahaha. they have to be the 30/30 slim strait, or they will not fit. the other regular 30/30 are too big, i tried them hahaha.

i got an A1c taken the other day, i should get the results soon. oh, and there is a senior Sister in my district who takes pics of us, look on her Facebook for pics of me. the week went ok, but we did not hit our 20 lessons, which was sad. we did all we could though, i am just tired of things not working out. we have exhausted our area book, and so it's tough to find people with nothing to go off of. i wrote about the 'gators to Dad, and that pretty much sums up all that happened.

a funny story--we did meet this super old guy, he had a DUI cause he rides a scooter, we call them "Deweys" cause they are driven by people who got their licenses taken away from too many DUIs. he was the typical Hoosier, he had all the signature hick sayings and we could hardly understand him. it was super funny to me. i love Hoosiers, they are crazy funny. 

those service projects must be fun, we are in need of doing service but no one lets us help. i am actually emailing Elder P lately, he sounds like he is still adjusting? but maybe not, because training takes some time to get used to. a greenie breaker will help him out. 

i do remember the trees at our old house! that is funny they got rid of the fence and stuff.  congrats on the writing Mom, i bet it is fun to write all that stuff. that is what you love hahaha. we got special permission to watch the Cokeville Miracle with the W family, and man, that movie had me tearing up at the end! me and Elder Nelson are such babies with that stuff hahaha.

God loves all his beloved children. he is saddened by how the world is going right now, but he trusts each of us to make the right decisions and to follow through with his teachings and the gospel. i am so thankful to be a part of this glorious work. it is hard, and we are not seeing all the success we desire right now, but the Lord will bless us for our efforts and make small things become great! thank you for all you do Mom, it means so much! i love you Mom!

well got to go now, thanks for everything! i love you all so much! have a great Thanksgiving, i will see if they can send pics for yah! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

Adventures with fire

hey Dad, it has been a good week. we did not really find many new people to teach, but we were able to have some good experiences. there is not a whole lot new with the investigators, which is the sad part. T** has been busy, but we finally got back in contact with him last night, so that was good. his work has taken over his schedule. A has been avoiding us for sure. i'm not sure what happened, but we will try to see if we can get in contact with him again. it's always tough when that happens. T couldn't meet this week, but hopefully she will be able to in the next few days. as for T***, the less-active member we've been working with, we had some pretty powerful lessons with him this week. i think he is right on the fence about coming to church though, because he struggles to get there. we are re-going over the missionary lessons with him and we taught the plan of salvation and the impression came to me to relate it to boot camp hahaha, so we had a good lesson in that way, like earth life is like boot camp, where we get to try our hand at what kind of soldier we will be in God's army. it gave me some new insights on the plan. we were able to meet with SD, but as with all the 'gators right now, he is struggling to come to church. he did read out of the Book of Mormon though, so there is some progress there. The part-member family we're working with did make it to church, so that was super awesome. we had some good lessons with the mom, and we just need to help her with a few concerns. we were also able to get back in contact with another family that wants to start coming back to church, so we will be teaching their kids soon. 

i really like what you said about starting off your day and week just trying to listen to the Spirit, that is something that President Welch is having us focus on, by reading the Book of Mormon again by the end of the year. it has really helped me to feel the Spirit more. it truly is the Spirit that helps us with everything, not just gaining knowledge, but with every aspect of our lives. that is so true about feeling it, rather than hearing it, a lot more often. i find myself receiving very subtle promptings and i barely recognize it, but when i don't listen to them, it always comes back to me, and it is usually for the most obscure thing, like, "hey, maybe you should grab this right now and take it with you," and then bam! i need that thing later. the Spirit is such a great help and we really can become a tool in the Lord's hands when we listen to it promptly. 

that is super cool that Seth is leaving on his mission, he will do great. i am excited to get into family history when i get home, that will be awesome. that is super cool that all the Utah teams played well. and that is great for the Utes' win. hahah there is a member in our ward that just loves me and Elder Nelson, he is a young guy who graduated from USU and he heard that we are both going there and was like "yes!" he did mechanical engineering as well. that general conference thought is a good one, thanks for sharing. i find that it is the most testimony strengthening thing to share the gospel. i always, without fail, come out happier from a lesson then when i went in, the Spirit comes to testify in such a way that brings so much joy to my life. the gospel is meant to bring us a greater sense of joy. that is why the members out here love to have missionaries over, so that they too can feel of the spirit of missionary work. there is no greater call than to share the gospel. i know that as all of you try to be the example to those around you, that you too can see the joy of missionary work. not just missionaries can feel it, but you do have to share it to feel it. do your best to share your testimony through thought, word and deed, and pray for missionary experiences with the intent to act and they will come. thanks for all you do Dad, I love you too. have a great week, talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom, it has been a pretty good week. i wrote all about the 'gators in Dad's email as usual. i could use the test strips soon, but not sure about anything else. 

we had a really good Zone conference this week, and i had some good questions get answers, and a new thing that i am working on right now. President Welch no longer wants anyone to get up early to do extra exercise anymore, so that was tough news for me hahaha. and we can't do any working out before bed anymore, either. i guess a lot of people were doing that (me included, as you can probably guess) so that was something that hit home, because that is what i love to do, as you know. i know that was for a reason, because i have noticed that instead of the extra exercise before bed, i can now spend more time doing better things, like writing a little more in my journal hahaha. that really strengthened my testimony that the Lord WILL show us our next steps, even if we don't want to take them, but i have already seen the blessings for being obedient. 

we got to meet with a bunch of people this week who have been tough to meet with, so that was super cool. although we did not find as many people as we would have liked, i know the Lord sees our efforts. it seems some days like we work so hard for nothing, but i know that there are people out there who may not accept the gospel now, but they will later. all we can do is give them a chance. i love being able to contact as many people as i can, it helps me to feel the spirit of missionary work burn a little brighter. 

that is awesome that Seth is leaving on his mission, he will do really well. that is crazy that Trump won, i was half hoping he would, because he can at least make a business decision hahaha. that is a good campground, that will be fun to be there for girls' camp. BTW, are we going camping or anything when i get back? just curious hahaha. 

that is good that your knee is doing so much better, that is awesome. funny you talk about TVs burning up, and raking leaves. so a little back story on the pictures I sent: the lady that is on the Mormon Message, "Refiners Fire" is in the ward here. we help her and her teenage son with some service sometimes, they live in the middle of nowhere hahaha. we were helping them rake some leaves on Saturday and her son was mowing them up with the riding mower. he had just finished the last pile when i looked over at the mower, and it was sitting at just the right angle to me so i could see flames under the hood, so i yelled and he jumped off, and then the mower burst into flames! it was crazy! we called a fire truck and they came out and put it out, but hey, we got lots of footage hahaha. i am putting the video on the Google drive so you can watch it on your account. luckily, they were already planning on buying a new one. 

some members took us to dinner this week at a restaurant that happened to have a magician in the house. he tied a gorilla balloon for me and did some really cool tricks. yep, what Skyler talked about has to become second nature, and it is imperitive that you do ask for phones to be shut off before teaching hahaha. the Spirit is the real teacher, missionaries are just there to create an environment that the Spirit can come into and teach everyone present. not just the investigator should be learning, the Spirit has also taught me so much! i know for a fact that as we listen to the promptings of the Spirit we will be able to be an instrament in the Lord's hands. that is the greatest gift i have been given in serving a mission, it is a wonderful opportunity. thanks so much for all the support and prayers you send my way!

oh Mom, i figured out i want some more blades for my razor for Christmas, it's the Gillette Fusion Pro-Glide flexball.

well, got to go now Mom, i hope work is going well. enjoy the pics i sent! i love you Mom! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

We have to convert ourselves before we can convert others.

Showing me that he bought new pants and hemmed them himself :)

hey Dad, it has been a good week. it was slow, but we got to work hard, which was good. for the investigators, A was bumming out on us so we were not able to meet with him. he was avoiding us, so we wonder what happened. then T has been doing the same thing--sleeping every other time we did not have something set up. we were able to receive some referrals though, so that was super cool. sadly, none of our 'gators made it to church. B is doing about the same, and also S. as for the other new people, we were not able to meet with them either. it was a slow week! 

we have been making an extra emphasis on asking for referrals, and it helps to receive media referrals, which is what we got, so that was super cool. last night a member family gave us a referral for one of thei kids' teachers to teach him in their home. we will do that on Sunday hopefully. we got Elder Nelson's bike, so we have been biking like crazy for the past few days and that has been nice. other than that we have not had much happen. 

sounds like work is going well, it is nice to be busy, i wish we were a little busier hahaha. sounds like you have graduated to full on Grandpa-Dad, haha! well done, just kidding, i bet that was fun to hand out the hot chocolate, you better be careful or Bonnie will put you out of business if  you get too big hahaha. YEAH! the Cubs won! that is super awesome, i was happy to hear that haha. that is too bad the Aggies lost, good that BYU beat Cinci hahaha, although i don't care either way for that, probably lean towards Cinci haha. 

i loved having the time change, it was super nice to have the extra hour of sleep, that was awesome! we had a good fast and testimony meeting too. there was a guy who walked in and was wearing a white "veterans for trump" t-shirt with an "i voted" sticker and an American flag pin with his suit slacks--it was so funny, i almost lost it. that guy is notorious for yelling at children in sacrament meeting hahaha. 

i did not see the worldwide training, we don't get to be part of it. that is interesting you share that scripture, cause i have created a lesson plan that i give to members, which consists of that scripture and a quote about helping others and whatever the Spirit directs in between. it is really a nice scripture, because it is so true--we can apply that to anything in teaching the gospel, we have to rely on the Holy Ghost to direct our thoughts and actions. it can help us in any part of our lives to do better. i know how much of a blessing the Spirit is in my life. i am so grateful to be on a mission to help others feel that guidance as well. thank you so much for all you do to help me keep serving. thanks for emailing me Dad, and i hope you have a great week! i love you Dad!

-Elder Sedlacek

p.s. my ward mission leader gave me some white tail venison, and man, it tastes like beef compared to muley, it is so good.

hey Mom,  i did get my insulin, thanks! it has been a good week, but a slower one. we did not get anyone to church despite our best efforts, and we were not able to find anyone. it was as if the adversary was working super hard to just kill all of our efforts. we worked super hard and did not have a whole lot of awesome success. i feel bad for my comp, he is how i used to be and does not quite understand what is a successful mission, so i hope i can help him with that. it was hard to feel like that, but we just have to do our very best. i wrote about the rest of it in Dad's email. 

to answer your questions: what built my faith was getting some more referrals--that in itself is an answer to my prayers, that was awesome.  my fave person was probably a guy named T. we got him to come back to church, so that was good. the most frustrating thing was having appointments cancel so many times, that was terrible, and it makes planning stressful. the best thing was the member referral we got from our dinner appointment last night. 

i bet Halloween was super fun, hahaha you are gonna have to compete with Bonnie! sounds like a success haha. that sounds like you have some good movies coming out too, keep the list, because i will want to see them. i did not get to see the training, that is cool though, it is true we have to convert ourselves before we can convert others. we cannot convert them beyond our own conversion. i always feel the need to strengthen my testimony, it can never be strong enough if you know what i mean. it can be so hard to try and bear testimony to someone, and you know things that they are not ready for, so as you keep it simple enough, because you just want to help them understand the blessings they can have in their lives. 

that is too bad you did not get as much of a fast as you wanted, i did not get to fast either, because i woke up low [low blood sugar], so that was kinda crummy. i had a lot to fast for too, but the Lord knows our hearts and our desires, so it does not matter, as long as we do our best. that is good about your knee, i bet you feel so much better. i love getting to exercise (as you know) it helps with everything. that's why i do pull-ups every night before bed, it relieves a lot of stress hahaha. i am doing 300 each night by the way hahaha. i am not sure about voting day on Tuesday, we will see, the lines outside of the judicial center in town have already been crazy enough with early voting. hahaha Brig sounds like a really funny kid, that's my nephew! hahaha 

Mom: Do you still try to fast one meal? I sent you a picture of Brig at church after the time change. He didn't like it too well. :)

yeah, i do fast when i am not low. Brig is a funny kid, i bet he did not like the time change! haha

well, i have to go now Mom, thanks for emailing me. it was great to hear from you, thanks for the pics of Briggy, especially the one with the costumes, i am lucky i did not laugh out loud at that one because we are in the library! well have a great week Mom, love you!

-Elder Sedlacek

We just have to do our best to be our best

hey Dad, it has been a good week. we were finally able to find some new people to teach. we found a single mother named T, and she is very nice, but has a difficult situation that might make it hard for her to come to church. she is a good lady though. we also found another lady who has gone through a lot in her life. Her name is A. she just told us about all the terrible things that happened to her, and that was tough to hear. it was kinda hard to get her to let us answer her questions, because she kept interupting right when we were about to make the point. so that was kind of a hard lesson to teach hahaha. we found one other person, a guy named A,  and he is super awesome! at first he did not show a lot of interest, but we were able to make it back to teach him about the restoration, and that went really well. he is a  cool guy. we will soon see where all of these people end up i guess haha.

T is doing well, although i think he has lost a bit of steam, because he did not come to church and has slowed on his reading. he is still reading, but not as much as before. we have been trying to focus on helping him to keep the determination going. he also said he will marry his girlfriend so he can get baptized, so that was some super good news. D has been kinda hard to contact lately, so we will be trying more this week to contact him. we are not sure what is going on. B is doing well too, he has been busy with a trip out of town, so that is why we did not see him much lately, but we got back in contact with him and had a pretty good lesson. we are still trying to get him to commit to church, but his Dad's situation makes that difficult unfortunately. we also had some pretty powerful lessons with T*** as well, the last lesson we were really trying to help him understand how much God really does love him and how important his choices are. the spirit was pretty strong, and so hopefully we will be able to open him up more. we are helping him to recognize the spirit more in his life. 

the other day some lady in a gold mustang stopped us and called us over to her car. she explained that she was catholic and that her uncle just passed away. she was asking us to pray for her family, because her uncle was a Mormon in Utah. fast forward to yesterday morning, she called us and told us that she wanted us to come over for dinner. this was just out of the blue, so went over and while i was washing up in the bathroom, my comp told them our first names (uh oh! haha) because they insisted, so they started calling us by our first names (never ever do that--i have learned a long while ago) and to make things weirder, i walked around the corner and out popped a catholic priest (this just sounds iffy doesn't it? haha) he was nice luckily, no arguments or bashing or anything came up, but they did ask questions cause they have family members who are on missions. after we ate, and were just weirded out by being called by our first names, we left and that was that. sadly, they were not too interested in investigating the church, but they did offer us help if we ever need it. so that was really nice. who knows? maybe something will come of it. that sums up the week.

that is good your work is going well Dad. that is crazy about the world series! i would have expected Cleveland to get killed, not so i guess hahha. that is also too bad the Utes lost, and the Aggies too, the teams need to play better hahaha. that is funny about my trek Ma. they are pretty cool, i loved going on trek with them hahaha. that is a good thought from general conference.  it is so true, we will be able to make it. i was just thinking about this this morning, we just have to do our best to be our best. we are learning how to become like God, this life is a learning experience. we have to learn to progress in order to be able to have all the blessings of the celestial kingdom if we are going to abide there--which we will if we follow the Savior's instructions and rely on his infinite mercy. we can learn so much from the gospel and the temple. everything we have is to help to teach us how to become more like the Savior. i am still figuring out exactly how the spirit speaks to me completely, but i am so grateful for the guidance from the Spirit that comes from our loving Heavenly Father. i am so grateful for this gospel and i know how many blessings it will bring to each of our lives. thank you for the support you all give me, it means so much! i hope you have a great week Dad, and a happy Halloween. i love you Dad! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom, it has been a good week. to answer your questions, i did get the pump supplies a day early, so that was awesome. thanks Mom! i do need insulin soon, i have a vial and a half left. i did not get a flu shot, so we will see what happens hahaha.

today we just have our regular p-day, and then we have to go in as soon as it's over. then we have some stuff to do that President Welch wants done. sadly, no one showed to church this week, although we had several who had committed. (satan works extra hard when you are trying to build up a teaching pool haha). that was frustrating. Elder Nelson is a boss, he is a great guy and we get along pretty well. he loves to work hard, so that is nice.

the best part of my week was sacrament; the Spirit was super strong and i was reading the Book of Mormon during it and it just really made a difference. it was really nice to just sit and feel the Spirit for a while. the hardest part was probably a few days this week where we just spent finding, and no one was letting us come back or was letting us in, so it felt like getting nothing done. we just have to remember that the Lord does not control people into accepting the gospel. we all have agency and if they accept it or not, that does not determine our success. those days were full of hard work, so they were good days anyway.

a miracle was having one person let us come back on a day when literally no one was wanting to listen, so that was one of the "4th floor last door" experiences. that was A, who i wrote about in Dad's email. i had an impression on one of those days that really just reminded me that the Lord was proud of us that day.

i bet that was super fun to help with the street Halloween party, i loved doing that. hahaha Bonnie and Stewart  are the best!! i bet that was a fun party. the DI has everything, i miss that. Goodwill is just not the same hahaha. that is awesome that you found a new exercise bike! i hope it helps you more than mine did--i think we each paid half or something, i just remember it was cheap too hahaha. i still do want that bike, yes, thank you for saving it! i will use it when i get home for sure. speaking of, i am almost back to my pre-mission weight, so that is good. i gained a bunch in Englewood hahaha. that is good to hear your knee is doing better and better, soon you will be all healed up. hahaha i am glad you like some of my quotes, once in a while i will come up with something good like that hahaha! well that is about it for the updates of the week, how is your Halloween?

Mom: Halloween is good. We are going to have the fire bowl and some hot chocolate in the driveway tonight for trick-or-treaters. That should be fun.

so you are turning into real grandparents, huh? haha you're going to be like Bonnie & Stewart.

is it cold there yet? we are still getting the usual Indiana weather, it changes almost daily!

Mom: Yeah, it is starting to get colder around here. The fire bowl will feel pretty good tonight I think!

well, i have to go now Mom, it has been good talking with you! thank you Mom for everything you do! it means so much! i hope you have a great week! love you Mom! you're the best!

-Elder Sedlacek da third.