You can't take away anyone's agency {although it might be nice sometimes haha}

June 12, 2017 Emails

hey Dad! it was a good week. we did not actually find anyone new to teach this week, it seems that everyone we talked to did not keep the appointments we set, so that was kinda lame hahaha. that's work though haha. you can't take anyone's agency away, although it might be nice sometimes hahaha. we had to push B's date back, because he has been drinking and smoking quite a bit, and he was quite sad about it. he expressed that he still wants to be baptized, and he is going to come up with a new date for himself that will work with his family too. he will make it eventually! 

as for the W family, we have not made contact with them lately. they have been super busy. a bunch of our teaching pool has been dropped or is now avoiding us, so we have had some opposition there and so we have been working on finding--the eternal work of missionary work, finding. our mission is coming out with a new way to seek referrals from members. it is basically just focusing on following the Bishop's council to visit members and increase their faith to have quality gospel conversations with people they meet to prepare or bring them into the gospel for us to teach them. we call it priesthood directed finding, it all starts with the stake presidents and they push it to bishops who push it to members, so in turn we have more people to teach. it is supposed to increase the statistics to new investigators who are baptized to like 1 in 10 or something like that high. it's really cool. i am very excited about it, and we are meeting with the bishop and the sisters on Tuesday to get it rolling. 

C is doing really well, he got to pass the sacrament yesterday and liked it quite a bit, same with W. he is coming out with us on Friday to teach with us. W is probably one of my favorite converts hahaha he is super funny. i don't have much more to update you about, but it was a good week, we got to give a blessing to one of the people we have been teaching, and we had a really good lesson with K last night. we showed one of my favorite Mormon Messages, "spiritually fit," it's super good and since K likes to workout too, it helped him pretty well. 

that is super cool you got to go to Chile, that is a very long flight haha. now we are all visiting each others' missions it seems like, you to Jeff's, Jeff to mine, you to Jake's a while back.  how you spelled the Spanish made me laugh pretty good hahaha, you almost got it all right haha. sounds like you had good church meetings despite the language barrier.  we had ours about forgiveness, it was super good, one lady talked about a girl that was hit by a truck, and killed. the parent immediately forgave the driver. it was cool to think of that and how much more Christ will forgive us. it was a cool experience. that sounds like you have a bunch more traveling to do. that will be fun. 

it really is so important to keep an eternal perspective on things; if we do that, it is so much easier to keep the commandments. the  gift of Christ's atonement is all-encompassing, and it makes it all possible. i have strengthened my testimony of that lately. i know that i am changed through Christ, he can change our hearts and desires, and he will, if we have desire and if we pray to him in faith. i am so glad to have a mission experience that teaches me so much. thank you Dad for your testimony and your example! i love you Dad! i hope you enjoy the rest of your trip! have a great week! talk to you next week!

Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom! it was a good week! we did not find anyone, and Billy did not make it to church. he had some issues with the Word of Wisdom, and he is working on it, so we are pushing the date back. i wrote a bunch about our teaching pool, but in short it's time to find a new one hahaha, or add to it i should say. although we have some cool potential sprouting up lately. we got 2 referrals the past 4 days, that is pretty unusual. we have yet to contact the first one. he is a super rich guy, lives in a HUGE house. big for the Midwest at least, not always Utah though. i am excited to meet him. 

we have a lady we met last week when we passed her taking a bed off the top of her car, so we got out and helped her. she invited us back, so we have an appointment in a few days. should be exciting. L is still excited, but we need to get his parents into it more, or i won't be baptizing him. he needs support to stay active, or he won't be. 

my favorite part of the week was probably my birthday. it was a good day, just the same as the rest of the week, but we took our sorry selves to Burro Loco, a way good Mexican place that serves the dankest food! it was awesome. then we got ice cream haha. thank you so much for the gifts too, they are aweome! i ate the cake, it was pretty good for my cooking hahaha. Elder Mitchell also made cherry pie for district meeting too, it was really good. 

my favorite person was probably B, i am feeling a lot more love for people lately, it's a great feeling to have that Christ-like love, it boosts you up! we have really liked playing with the magnetic Thinking Putty hahaha, we make faces and have them eat the magnet haha. 

that is good you're staying busy this summer, and all that, it's nice to stay busy. i bet it's weird having Dad gone, i bet he is having a good time though, you will have to do something fun for yourself too hahaha. that is cool you had the people from India speak at stake conference. that would be fun to hear. sounds like you had very good meetings. i wrote about our sacrament meeting in dad's email. it was super good. a lot of people think that we try to "earn" our way into heaven, or "earn" blessings, but that is not the case. we qualify and will be more open to the Lord's blessings as we are obedient. if we are not doing our part, he can't bless us as much as he would like to. obedience shows the signs to God that we love Him, and are seeking to become like Him. the commandments are simple, but not always easy. we have a simple path to follow the Savior to be able to live with God again, and it will get us there. he  will make it "easier" for us to make it there, by lightning our burdens because of the atonement he performed. i know that because of Christ, we can be changed, we can be joyful, and we can become better. we had a great week!

you asked how i'm feeling about coming home? it's just the paradox of leaving behind something i have looked forward to my whole life, and now it's almost over. it's weird. and being able to feel the Spirit so much and then...i also am just excited to be done, since i am sooooo tired. it's constant battling thoughts and feelings. i just ignore it, and Elder Mitchell is a good help for that! what Jeff talked about when Jake was coming home is all true hahaha! it was a good warning. if i think about it too much, it just makes me sad.  

well, i have to go now Mom, i do need test strips this week, i am on my last vial, but good on everything else. well love you mom! i hope you have a great week!

-Elder Sedlacek

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