It is completely normal to have a tough week, I have them all the time; I won't tell you when though.

hey dad! this has been a great week. even though J** was not able to make it to church yesterday because of health reasons, we did have T** and M**** and her kids show up, so that was super awesome! M**** is gaining more and more traction in the church. we taught her about the temple and she wants to be sealed but she found out you need a husband to do that, so she was kinda sad not being able to be sealed to her kids as her situation goes right now, but we just told her the Lord will provide a way, we just have to trust him. 

one of my favorite verses--it applies to everything--is Psalms 34, i think  verse 19, it says "O taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in him." it is a great verse. as we really rely on the Savior, and taste of his gospel, we will be able to see that the fruits of the gospel will be great blessings to our lives. 

T** has some problems with chew and alcohol, but he committed to work on those things, so we will see how that goes. as far as we know, J** is still on date for the 3rd, but we need to check in with her today on the smoking. it really does help our testimonies to grow as we share the gospel, it is a great principle of missionary work. i love it haha. 

man that is so crazy, i can't believe that Sarah is a senior and Mia almost in high school, and Libby in jr. high, that is crazy! it's cool that the girls are finishing their hunters safety stuff, hopefully they did well. that sounds like a very good talk, amazing how a mission changes your speaking capabilities so drastically, i know i can speak way better than i used to, rather than just reading off my talk, i just speak what the Spirit gives to me along with bulleted points i have prepared. 

i really like that analogy with the fence, that makes total sense to me. we must stay grounded with our faith on the Savior, just like Helaman 5:12, the Savior truly can become our rock if we let him and he is our salvation. the atonement is so amazing to me, i wish i could comprehend it all. that is so cool about the medals the US got. i saw a brief glimpse of part of the ceremony last night when we were walking out of a house we visited, it looked pretty sweet. that is funny, i thought the Dodgers lost, i was so stoked! hahaha but I guess not hahaha. oh well, they will play good some day hahaha. that is not fun to be the bad guy, hahaha, dad hahaha.

thank you for your testimony, i know that a mission really is the place for me right now at this moment. we are all foreordained to do a work that the Lord has for us individually, this is mine, if i will rely on him, i will see success, that is desire D&C 138:56. well thanks so much for all you do for me Dad! i love you so much, have a great week! i will talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom! it has been yet another good week. that is ok you didn't send my strips yet, just send them today please hahaha. i wrote about the investigators in Dad's email, so you can read more about them there. 

me and Elder Erickson get along pretty swell haha. he is a funny dude and we compliment each others' strengths and weaknesses, it works out well. we did have a zone conference this week, there should be some pics up on Facebook, Cinci North zone, can you email me those today? please? thank you mom! 

it was a really good zone conference, i really enjoyed it. President talked a lot about our conscious and subconscious minds, and teaching more about repentance. the Spirit let me know I should stop thinking negatively about how well i can do missionary work, because i am doing a fine job. so that was a good tender mercy. 

the most inspirational investigator would probably be M****, though she has so much to deal with, she still just keeps trucking and is very Christ-like to her kids and everyone else. 

it did rain a crap ton this week, so that was fun getting soaked just about every day hahha. yep, we all go through a lot of crap hahaha, but just remember when all is said and done, it will all be worth it. it is completely normal to have a tough week, i have them all the time, i won't tell you when though hahahaha. you will get the knee back in order eventually, it will just take some work. hopefully the twice a week stuff will help with that. just remember the Lord told you specifically to get it done now, so i know it will all work out. 

i shared my fave scripture with Dad, Psalms 34: 19. you just have to keep going, and trusting in the Lord, and then eventually you will be able to say as Paul does in 2 Timothy 4:7. (now don't think i am some scripture wizard because i am not in the least hahaha, i have so much trouble memorizing scripture references, so i have to tab my scriptures so i can follow promptings in lessons hahaha!)

that is so crazy to think that Sarah is a senior this year, and same with Mia and Libby growing up. that is weird. hahaha yes, chubz! i am proud of that kid, he will do great as a missionary! and that is super cool R went too, that is awesome. hahaha i hope Nicole and Jeff had fun down back east, i can imagine the flight was cancelled, the rain out here has been a mess lately, i am sending a video of it today. it is insane compared to Utah. Utah doesn't know what rain is hahaha. well, that is pretty much all i can remember for the week, feel free to ask questions. 

well i have to go now Mom, thanks for emailing me! especially the pics, thank you! and i hope you have a great week! good luck with work! i love you Mom! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

We ate some cactus and it's a miracle we found some, cause, well hello! It's Ohio!

August 15, 2016 Emails

hey Dad, so it was a good week. i have never thought about praying for a good week in particular, just a good successful day, but i will try that. so J** fell off date of the 20th, so she is moved to the 3rd of September. hopefully she can do it sooner, but unfortunately she had a small relapse on smoking. we will see how that works out. M**** is doing well, she is now thinking about being baptized in September so she is working towards choosing a date--she should have one soon. she is fixing a lot of the issues that she has and is showing a great amount of faith. it is great to see! T** was not able to make it to church this week because he was working. he works at a grocery store chain out here. we had a really good chat with him about why he meets with us, and he really is working towards making his life better, and has really felt closer to God as we have been meeting with him. he is doing better at keeping his commitments now, which is good. the others we have talked to are making their way along. one of the new investigators we found last week, asked us to give them a blessing and that was a cool experience. 

one miracle we had this week, was when M**** wanted to move up her prospective date from Januray to September. that was awesome, the Spirit can do amazing things! we also did a fun service project hauling loads of mulch up and down a hill in to a guy's backyard and dumping it back there, it was super fun. 

that is good you had a good week at work Dad. although not good with the demand, i remember with having to deal with min-max's at Hobby Town, that stuff is a pain to me. hahaha hopefully you will be able to catch up now. 

that is so crazy that Jeff's brother is home now, that is weird. it is so crazy to see the pics of the girls! man, have Mia and Libby grown, holy crap! it is even more weird that i will be home in a year! gross! hahaha. 

here in the greatest OCM, we teach about the Spirit, before anything else. i like the scripture Moroni 7:13, it talks about how the Spirit invites and entices us to do good continually. that is one of the major blessings that we can receive, is the will and desire to do good, as we listen to the Spirit. we were talking to a guy from downtown yesterday and he was asking me if i had ever seen a man "receive the Spirit" and i knew instantly he was another Pentecostal. i said, "that depends on what you call receiving the Spirit", then i explained Galatians 5:22 to him. the Spirit really does bring peace to our souls and our minds when things are not going well, or when trials and challenges stand in our way. we turn to the lessons we have been taught that we truly are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and he loves us enough to speak to us through the Holy Spirit. we truly can rely on that influence to guide our lives, and i know that is true. thanks for all you do for me Pops! have a great week! i love you Dad! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom, so it was another good week as usual. the days are long, but the weeks fly by like days, and the months turn to weeks. it is weird, i remember Jake saying that. i just remember sitting in ward council each week, and suddenly i am there again, it is crazy. 

i did get the package, thanks so much! the steak strips are so good, they are always a special treat! thank you! and the speaker is a nice tool, i knew i should have just taken it anyway. i will keep looking for a blue & white paisley tie, hahaha, you just keep recovering Mom. 

probably the hardest thing that happened this week was showing up to a baptism and having M**** not be there, but then the next day we took her to another one, she just forgot about the first one. one tender mercy was having an awesome meal appointment last night. i told the member about Dad's bear rug fever and they liked that! hahaha it was just a fun meal appointment, it gave us some time to relax for 45 mins. 

i am really happy about your knee becoming more and more mobile, that is really good. that is good you are starting to sleep better too. you will eventually get there. that is weird that Jeff's brother is home now, that is crazy. good that he was able to get a little taller, i have been meaning to measure myself but i keep forgetting haha. there is a reason that they say patience is a virtue. i am working on my patience right now too. i was reading about it this morning, and patience is so important for us, we not only have to be patient with others but with ourselves. i am working on being patient with myself and others. we can often get caught up in the fact that we are not good enough, or our other faults, when we really have to be focusing on improving those things. doing the opposite will only tear us down and make life harder and more miserable. if the Lord can be patient with me, than i can be patient with me hahaha. well, sorry there isn't much else to update, do you have any questions to ask me? feel free to ask, it is hard for me to spit out a whole week on a page, so i do miss stuff that happened hahaha.

Mom: What did you do for p-day last week? What was your really good dinner appointment?

we actually went to Get Air last week, that was super fun. the Get Air they have out here has a bunch of American Ninja Warrior stuff on it, and it was super fun! the members fed us some really good green beans, which i absolutely love now! hahah also some sweet corn and pasta with a meat sauce that you pour on top, it was really good. then he showed me his Mormon Doctrine book. i need one haha!

we ate some cactus we found this morning at the other Elders' apartment, which is a miracle we found some, cause, well hello, it's Ohio!

Mom: Cactus? I didn't know you could eat it. Is it good?

Elder Erickson had eaten some before, and it's good. it tastes kinda like kiwi. i like it!

well, i have to go now Mom! thanks so much for emailing me and for all you do! you're the best Mom! i love you and everyone else too! talk to you later! i just remembered i forgot to answer Sarah, sorry Sarah! next week! i read it though! bye!

Elder Sedlacek

We all have our own purposes, and when you figure out why you are where you are, life becomes a whole lot simpler.

A golden camel marked Elder Sedlacek's "hump day"

August 8, 2016 emails

hey Dad, so this has been another great week. first off i have a funny story about J**. so the other day we got a text that two Baptists showed up at her door with tracts, a particular church that hates Mormons, and they tried to bash her. she went off on this guy and totally disproved him to the point of him putting his head down and walking away! hahahaha i know it is bad to tear someone down like that, but he tried to bash our promising investigator, who is so excited to be baptized that she announced it at church to everyone she saw, so it was super funny to hear that, all she says is, "i won" hahaha. 

J** quit smoking and is living the Word of Wisdom as of now, so she can be baptized. she tried to smoke a few days before she quit, and said that as soon as she tried she couldn't even breathe, so she ripped up the cigarettes and threw them on the ground. that was an awesome miracle. i am so excited for her. M**** is doing well, she is still just as committed as ever, she actually took us and her boys out to eat at a restaurant, Mexican food, that was super cool. she still won't commit to a specific date for soon, but wants it to be a few months down the road. so we have been fasting and praying for her to pick a date sooner than later. her boys all want to be baptized, and she has quit using coffee at work, just brings milk and hot chocolate. 

we also found a few new 'gators and had some good lessons with them. one a new couple, they really seemed to like the Restoration lesson, so we are bringing them a Book of Mormon tomorrow, and another young guy, A***, that lesson was so powerful, let me tell you! the spirit was so strong when he read James 1:5 to us that it felt like it was going to knock me on the floor, it was awesome! so we will continue to stop by with both of them and assess their commitment level. that is mostly it for gators, we finally were able to make some contact with a few less actives we have been trying to meet recently. so it was a super good week. 

that is a super cool story from Bro W., that is awesome. it is cool to see the Lord's hand in our lives like that. seems like you had a meeting focused on love, that is good, because love truly is the one of the most important things in the work of salvation. the plan of salvation is completely encompassed in love. it does make a better world to live in that is for sure. that sounds mushy but it is true. that is super cool that mom is doing so well with her recovery, that is awesome. it sounds like fun with the Olympics, and with the Red Sox, hahaha you like both teams i forgot, well that makes it easy. that is cool about the girls and getting into shooting, they must like it. precision shooting, that sounds like my kind of event other than the Olympic lifting hahaha, that is cool too. that's so cool the Philly temple is going up, that is awesome. that is so true about leaders. a leadership calling does not make you a leader. you must live worthily of the priesthood authority you carry and you must love the people you serve and be focused on how to help them learn and grow. a leader is someone who changes patterns for the better and leads by example in a way to motivate and lift, just like the conference talk, lift where you stand. and the scripture that talks about presiding well over a few things and then the Lord will give you the stewardship over many things. i like that thought. thanks Dad, for all you do, i say it all the time, but it means so much to me. you're the best Dad! i love you! have a great day! and another great week! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom! so it was a great week, i wrote all about the 'gators and teaching pool in Dad's as usual, but suffice it to say, it was a spiritual week, so you will have to read through those. hey a package! thanks Mom! that will be awesome, i will look forward to it. 

i love the new apartment, it is nice and spacious and plenty of room to jump rope! hahaha although we usually go outside, but then i do it while Elder E showers hahaha. there are so many people from India here. oh my gosh! you would think i live in the Middle East. they don't believe in Christ as the Savior, so it is super weird to teach them when they let us in. It is a big change from teaching Catholics and Baptists my whole mission, who already believe in Christ.

i wrote about some tender mercies in Dad's email and the miracles that happened. but i guess one specifically for me would be being able to get back into good shape again, my six pack is back, jack! hahah More important, being able to feel the spirit testify through me to touch the hearts of others. i received an impression that part of why i am still in this area is to help J** specifically. 

it sounds like you are making a lot of progress with your leg, that is awesome! hahaha that workout dialog of what you do in PT made me laugh out loud. hahaha that was funny, thanks for that hahaha. now you know how i felt after lifting and why i would eat so much just before i left hahahaha. 

it sounds like a good lesson in YW, i am glad you got the help you needed and that it went so well. isn't it amazing to see how the Lord impresses people and uses their experience to bless the lives of others? when the Savior is giving the sermon on the mount, and he is talking about he salt losing its savor, and then it is cast out because now it is worthless and of no use, we are like the salt. all of our unique personalities and traits that we all have, they are all very vital to the Lord's work. that is what makes up our savor, or flavor hahaha, in other words, we have to be ourselves and the Lord will place us where he needs us and can use our gifts and talents best. he didn't put me on the earth to be the highest baptizing missionary, or the best teacher, but to help motivate and to lift others, to help others be themselves, and to help comfort others. i have thought about this a lot and i really do believe that is what the Lord wants me to do. we all have our own purposes and when you figure out your purpose for why the Lord sends you to where you are, life becomes a whole lot simpler. all we have to do is follow Him. i know that is true. thanks for raising me right Mom and Dad! thanks for all you do for me! you're the best! 

thanks for the pic of your knee! it looks good though, i would not have thought you had gotten surgery a few weeks prior! my blood sugars are doing well, i have had to do a whole bunch of adjusting on my basals at night, but they are doing well now.  i should get another A1C within a few weeks, the mission doc will have to order me one soon.

well, i have to go now, thanks for emailing me Mom! you're the best! i am excited for the package! thanks for that in advance! today we are going to get air! yeah! well i hope you have a great week! i love you Mom! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

The humidity is something I won't miss!

August 1, 2016 Emails

hey dad! this was a good week as well, it is always a good week hahaha. our investigators are so promising right now, M** and her kids have said they want to be baptized already, and she is progressing so much, they read the Book of Mormon everyday as a family, and the Book of Mormon story book for the kids. we extended a date to her of the 13th of Aug, but she was  thinking along the lines of January. Nah! haha so we still had her pray about the 13th, and we have been fasting for her to move up the date. hopefully she can realize how important it is for her to do it as soon as possible. she is so solid! she signed up to feed us this Friday, and i was looking forward to some authentic Mexican food, but she texted us and told us she is horrible at cooking so she is taking us out somewhere, which is good too. hahaha. J*** is still working towards the 20th, but she has to be living the Word of Wisdom by this Saturday. she still has a little to go before she is fully living it with the smoking, so we gave her a blessing and she is still 100% committed to it, so we also fasted for her. keep them both in your prayers. we have been teaching another guy named T**, we had a chapel tour with him this past week, sadly he did not come to church though. i think he might have been working, but he is a pretty cool guy. we are still deciding his commitment level, so we will see where he goes. we were also able to find a few more new people, so we will be stopping by to see them this week, and we will see how they turn out. no word from P**, although she is still keeping in contact with one of the members, so there is still some fellow-shipping going on there, which is awesome. i am sure she will be baptized some day. 

we have a few members that help us out pretty regularly, there is a guy, Bro Darling, he is awesome. he helps us out a lot. then J**'s brother in law, that she lives with, loves to help us teach M** and her kids. he is an older gentlemen, and loves kids. he is awesome. there are a few more that help us out regularly, so it is nice. 

that sounds like it was a good sacrament, that is awesome. good job on the family history stuff!  i hope the court of honor went well, hahaha i don't think you will ever get away from the scouting program hahaha. sounds like you are going to be swamped at work pretty soon hahaha that stinks, but that is also good, it sounds like you got all caught up with the quietness. i bet that will be fun to watch the Olympics. wow, so the girls are going to actually take hunter safely? who knows, i could see Mia hunting a little for some reason hahaha, maybe they will, that is cool. 

yeah, the Reds are doing terrible, hahaha there was a lady that was like, "of course they are losing, they are terrible!" hahahaha that made me laugh. that was a good conference talk, i read a talk titled "why 1820?" and it really explained why the restoration happened when and where it did. the Lord knew that was the perfect place, a perfect evironment to have a young man grow up in, so he could ask the right question at the right time, and do what was necessary with the answer he would receive. it is truly remarkable that the plates were buried in a specific spot, just behind where a young man would live more than a thousand years later. that is amazing. i do know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that because of what he did we truly can live with God and Jesus Christ again as well as our families. what a promise to be able to live as a family for forever, that is perhaps what i look forward to most in the eternities. thanks so much for all you do for me Dad! i love you so much! have a great week, good luck with work! talk to you later!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom! so this has been a good week. i have written about all the 'gators in Dad's email for the week. but hey, we had six gators at church this week, it has been awesome! i can believe i've been out a year, and yet i can't, it is weird, it doesn't seem like a year and that i should not be able to say that yet, but it has at the same time. weird feeling. that is crazy i fly home on the 31st, weird, so that means that 4 years from when jake left, both our missions will be over! aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh! that is gross! terrible! haahaha. 

we have been seeing the success lately, we had a bunch of members out with us this week and we on average hit about 7 member-present lessons, it's awesome.  we work hard together and we get along well too. it has been super hot lately, been around 95 or so, and with 80-90 percent humidity, usually 90, it feels like over 100, it is weird. the humidity is something i won't miss! hahaha it feels like a rain forest. 

one tender mercy we had was being able to do a chapel tour with T**, i wrote about it in Dad's. that was cool, we knew we needed to do a chapel tour, so we just altered our appointment with him and it worked out great. my favorite investigator is probably M**'s five year old son, he is hilarious, he was hanging around me the whole lesson we had and was trying to show me stuff while we were teaching, he is a little ball of energy! hahaha they have some sheep in their yard that their Grandpa takes care of, and he ran up to one of the sheep and it butted him and knocked him so hard one of his shoes came off. he just got up like nothing happened and started chasing after it hahahaha it was so funny. 

my favorite part of the week was getting to help at the food pantry on Friday. i heard Bro. P was heading to the temple soon, so that is awesome he made it! that is so cool! good for him! 

it is good you have been getting better sleep at night, but i am not surprised the tourniquet area is sore though haha. it sounds like you have a full recovery ahead of you then, that should be fun (sarcastically). i will keep you in my prayers for sure! that is awesome you were able to make it to church, that is sweet. i am glad you got to hear Madi speak and get to take the sacrament. i find the atonement more and more amazing everyday. it can help us do anything, even if i get bored in studies, i can pray to have the motivation to keep studying hard, and He will give it to me. the atonement truly does make everything possible, all because of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He can command the winds and the rain, the mountains to move, and He listens to our every cry for help and is there at every step, helping us along the way, because He made it possible to return to his presence. i am so grateful for our Savior, i know how much we can do if we just rely on his infinite mercy and his guiding hand, we truly can accomplish everything. the mission is a gift from God, and i am so grateful i chose to open that gift, because of my mission and the Savior, i am changed and i am a better person. 

well i have to go now, have a great week as well, good luck with the PT! i love you so much! i shouldn't need anything else, thanks Mom for all you do! talk to you later!

Elder Sedlacek 

Staying in West Chester

Emails from July 25, 2016

hey Dad, so this has been a good week. we got a wonderful surprise on Friday.  M**** no longer likes being taught by the Spanish Elders, so we are teaching her and her kids again, and she is just as excited as ever to learn. she was so happy to have us back teaching her, that was awesome. so all of her four kids came to church, as well as her and J**. it was a full Sunday again. 

we really struggled with finding this week, but we are still working hard, so they will come. we moved into the former Sisters' apartment on Friday. that was super stressful cause Elder Erickson was sick with the stomach flu on Thursday, so i had to pack up all the stuff myself. the move still went great nonetheless, and the new apartment is super nice! sisters live in high class! haahaha it kinda sucks we don't have our track to run on anymore, so we can't run like we used to, so i have been doing pretty much football conditioning in the parking lot for my exercise. it is fun haha. 

i had the Liberty Elders give me a blessing when Elder Erickson was sick, to help to keep me from catching it and it worked, so that was super cool. {Note: stomach flu and diabetes is a tough combination to deal with, this is why Elder Sedlacek was so proactive}. there was some cool stuff said in the blessing. the miracle for our investigators is how M**** is still interested, i am so mad still that the Spanish Elders took her in the first place hahah, but when they took her over, it offended her and they really did not teach her. it really made me mad, but all is well now! haha she is happy to have us back to say the least. 

P** talked with her husband who is overseas working with the military, and he does not want to have us teaching her, so we can't stop by anymore. she was really sad, i felt really bad for her, so we have been fasting for her, keep her in your prayers. i did get the message from the office about Mom's surgery, thank you for that! it was good to hear! and i did get the strips, thanks! that is so awesome that her surgery went so well, i liked the note she put in the box. hahaha 

you've been cooking? so you didn't poison them hahaha just kidding, you're a good cook too. hahaha that is good you have been getting fed so many meals, it's like you're a missionary again Dad! hahaha just kidding haha. we have a joke in the mission from a funny video we have and there is a coach always yelling "one more! one more!" in it, that is you Dad. hahahaha that is super cool you have a good directer, hopefully he gives you that growth that you desire, that is awesome. 

i heard the Dodgers are playing the Reds in a few weeks, sounds like they are going to get killed hahaha NOOOO!!! thats too bad. that is so crazy that Antelope island is on fire, i bet there was a lot of smoke every where, that is crazy. i bet the Olympics will be fun to watch. 

it really is the atonement that makes everything that we have possible. the atonement even covers the effects of sin before it was performed. Alma was able to experience the healing power of the atonement before it happened, that is so amazing. the atonement is all-encompassing of the plan of salvation, what a gift that is! i know that because of what the Savior did for us, we are able to accomplish everything. we just got the transfer doctrine {news}, we are both staying, we will baptize! yeah! well, i will talk to you later Dad! i love you so much! have a great week Dad! love you!

-Elder Sedlacek

hey mom! so this has been a good week. we are both staying in West Chester for another transfer. as you know we moved this week. President Welch has not made a lot of changes, but we will continue to see. i wrote about the investigators in Dad's email, so you can read it there, but suffice it so say we are teaching M**** again and they are all doing well. 

i am glad you are recovering well, that is awesome! It was nice to hear that message. hahah--Dad is your coach! haha. i am glad you are getting your meds under control.  that is also really cool that you have been blessed with those meals, that is really cool. 

yep, i love the Doctrine & Covenants, they are so awesome. we have like five baptisms lined up this transfer! heck yeah, me and Elder Erickson have each only baptized twice and been out pretty much the same time, so we will end our "fast" together hahaha, this will be the first area i have been in more than three months, that is weird. 

well, i have to go now Mom, thanks for all you do! i love you so much! you're awesome! have a great week! i will talk to you later! love you Mom!

-Elder Sedlacek