hey Dad! it was a good week. we found someone new to teach this week, a nephew of a member who was baptized a few years ago. her nephew is awesome! we showed up to our appointment with her and he decided to just step in and listen to the lesson. he is in his 20s and i think he is going to be pretty solid. we have already taught him twice, so that is going well. we are just working on getting people to church. we did not have anybody show up this past week which was sad, but there is always next week. 

we taught D again, and as you can infer, she did not make it to church again this week. the ever present struggle to get people to church hahaha. she is getting pretty far into in the Book of Mormon, and really likes it, so i am not too worried about her. she already has a growing testimony of it helping her--she even loves it more then the Bible, which is big news out here! it is practically Bible belt country. we are pretty much trying to just do all the missionary stuff--finding, teaching, getting people to church, and baptized. that pretty much sums it up right now. 

we did have some weird weather this week. it got cold for a few days but it's starting to get really warm again. we have had an extremely mild winter, which i am grateful for, it was bad enough as it is hahaha. we did get to go running again on Thursday when it got really cold, but i stayed pretty warm so it was good. i  actually did not hear about the tornadoes, and they don't happen too much around Cincinnati, though they do happen in sometimes in Indiana.  

that sounds like you're having an interesting time at work hahaha, and the hallway looks really good from the pics Mom sent, awesome job Dad! hahaha i wish i could have stayed awake during our Fast meeting, i literally could not keep my eyes open to save my life, so i fell asleep. i was pretty mad at myself hahaha. i think i have hit the peak of my tiredness, i don't drive much anymore, i just start falling asleep because it lulls me to sleep hahahaha, it's not good! haha. 

it's so true though about loving others. that stuff bugs me really bad, everyone has to be loved and know that they are loved, cause for a lot of people that is what keeps them coming to church. this gospel is based on love. the gospel is just to help us become better, and we are meant to do that together. i think that that is so amazing that Heavenly Father has designed it that way, just cause he wants us to be happy and successful. i also like the thought from Pres Eyring. i have really started learning a lot about the temple lately, not because i am studying about it or anything like that, it has just been coming to me for some reason. i have realized a lot about symbolism and a lot about the priesthood. it is really cool stuff, it just blows my mind hahaha. 

oh man, i am excited for the March Madness bracket. it will be fun to get it, thanks Dad! thank you for all you do, i love you Dad! have a great week and good luck with the living room flooring! :)

-Elder Sedlacek

hey Mom! it was a good week. read Dad's email for the teaching updates hahaha. i can't believe it's March either, but i am glad cause it will get warm really soon. out here, the bushes are starting to turn green in the clumps of trees and the trees are budding, it is starting to get really green again. i love it! it has been snowy this week, but every time it melted within a couple hours, instead of two days, so that was nice. we did not really hear much about tornadoes, but a cool fact is that in the Muncie and Anderson area, supposedly an Indian a few hundred years ago blessed the area that tornadoes will never come here, and so far it has stayed true which is pretty cool. i would love to just see one someday. 

we sadly did not have any investigators to church, but we have a pretty cool guy we started teaching this week, so that was awesome. my favorite person was probably him, his name is W. i definitely saw prayers answered with getting over my sickness. it started to get bad again on Wednesday, but turned around pretty quick after that. that was cool. i got my insulin, yes, thank you for sending it. it was funny cause we were studying and a lady came to the door, and in a really sweet grandma voice, said,"i have a box for Jared", and she handed it to me and was like "oh yes, there we go." and it just made me laugh. i don't know the Boyces personally, but i know who they are. i have stayed at the animal house on exchanges, that was pretty fun. it is super huge and really nice, and it's a four pad. it was fun. they have a super nice weight set with all the Olympic stuff, so that was a treat. that is cool you know his sister. some of my mission buddies have lived there, they would go down and play with all the animals and even bring them up to play with them in the apartment hahahaha. i am in the Muncie zone, yes. 

the floors look really nice! that will be fun for Jake, Jeff & Nicole to all to head to Zions, a fun camping trip would be nice right now hahahaha. 

it is amazing when i look back and see all that Christ has done for me and my own trials, as well as the others that i have taught. he really does love us so much. we just have to reach out for him. i have been blessed in so many ways, and when i didn't feel like it, it was because i was being ungrateful and was to focused on me. the Lord will always bless us, but sometimes it takes time for him to get everything else in place, and then it's even more amazing cause it makes it blatantly obvious. i love this gospel and the Savior so much, i have changed so much because of it. 

thanks for everything you do for me Mom!

Being transferred teaches me to be patient with myself.

Emails from Monday, March 30th. 

Hey Mama,

I am doing great! I will be emailing from Milton-Freewater about this time, I would suspect. We email from the church clerk's office because there is literally nowhere else haha. Milton is pretty dang small hahaha. It's really weird for me to be going from a place the size of Kennewick to here. It was honestly kinda of a culture shock, but the people here seem to be pretty nice. 

Thanks for sending me a package! Glad the box got to you guys all safe and sound. I really didn't want to lose the stuff in there. Yep, the temple envelope was made by Mama Splatts. She is awesome! I loved living in her house. It's like the coveted spot in the whole mission, and I got to spend 6 months there. Lucky me huh?

Yep, I wore down those shoes haha. Believe it or not I will have two more pairs of shoes like that when I get home. I have a really nice pair of new shoes that I picked up at goodwill in Kennewick that I will wear @ home.

I didn't remember that Elder J served here a while ago, but now that you mention it I do remember him saying that he served here.

I am DL here over lots of sisters haha. I have 6 sisters, and three other Elders in my district. It's been really fun though, because they are all good missionaries. I am really looking forward to serving them this transfer! I really love to feel the love the Savior has for all his children, including missionaries in my district, so any chance I have to feel more of the Savior's love, it's amazing!

Elder G is a really great missionary. He is super humble and willing to learn. He is just awesome! Willing to work hard and everything. He doesn't really know much about what to do and all that, so it's kinda like I am training him at the moment, but it's good. If I get to help him like that, it's fine with me. I remember when I got Elder R, he was kinda the same way. He didn't have that much confidence, but by the end of our companionship he was doing GREAT! It's nice to help the younger missionaries out. I really enjoy it.

So I live in an apartment with us and 2 Spanish-speaking Elders. It's a pretty nice place. I was kinda nervous when I found out it was a four-man but it's turned out really awesome! They are all great missionaries!

Oregon is super weird haha. Just a dumb law they have is that we can't pump our own gas. They have people that do it for you. You can't even get out of the car to help them. But the good news is that I AM IN A CAR!!!!! It's super nice to finally be back in a driving area haha. It's been a long time. It had been such a long time since I had drove last that it was weird driving again but I am used to it now. We have the car to ourselves. The Elders we live with walk. They have a tiny area.

It is different to be in Oregon but it seems really nice. My area covers some other small towns, like Athena. We also have a small town of Weston. My district covers Pendleton, too, so I went down there this week to do a baptism interview. That looks like a cool place.

 Utes lost!!!! Oh no!!!!

Whaz up Dad,

I am doing great! I have really liked Milton-Freewater so far. It's a pretty nice place. The people here are super. It's just a typical small town environment I am sure I will have the chance to meet lots of interesting people.

The ward is really really huge, but a big percentage don't come. President Ware always tells me to go catch the ward on fire whenever I get transferred, so that's what I am trying to do. I fasted yesterday to know what to do, and I felt like we needed to have our Bishop study Preach My Gospel ch 13. So he is going to read over that and we are going to have a discussion of how to apply it to the ward. It's amazing how much I have learned on my mission. I have learned what helps and what doesn't, so I am just doing what I know worked, and we will see how things improve. I would assume this ward will be my dying area so I'm going to make the best of it!

The teaching pool here is alright. We do have an on-date for baptism who is super cool. His name is _____. He's a senior in high school, and is pretty interested in being baptized. He just struggles with coming to church. He is on date for the 25th of April so pray that he can hit that date! I will let you know more about the teaching pool when I know more.

One thing I love about being transferred is that it teaches me to be patient with myself. It's kinda frustrating for me to not know where I am or who so-and-so is, so it's good to just re-focus myself and work on where I know I can improve.

With being called to DL again, I am really realizing the importance of Christ-like love. I mentioned it in my email to mom, but I really love feeling the love of the Savior for all of his children. Being able to serve as a DL just enables me to feel that even more. It's going to be fun.

We had a cool experience yesterday that reminded me of how God leads us to people who are prepared.

So we were in Milton-Freewater and were just trying by people who the missionaries had taught before, and inviting them to take the discussions again. All of a sudden I remembered that we had a referral for a guy way out in a small town called Athena. It's about a 20 min drive to there, and so we went out there to contact that referral. When we got there, the guy that we had wanted to see was outside so we started talking to him. Turns out he wasn't wanting to talk to the missionaries personally, but he intended for us to come up and visit his friend who has been asking about the missionaries. I thought that was kinda interesting, but he gave us his friend's information, and we went to find him since we had already driven up there. When we got to the other guy's house, he wasn't home, but right when we knocked on the door his neighbor pulled up in a car. We started talking to her because that's what we do--we talk to everyone. Turns out she had never seen missionaries before and was interested in learning more about our religion. How cool is that?!?! We have an appointnment with her this Friday so I really hope it goes well. We really need some more YSA investigators, and that is what she would be. I'm super excited for it.

The name of the sister who brought you my package was Sister N. She just lived down the street from us and had asked me if I had anything to send home, so I put together the package of stuff I had inherited. Glad it got home safe. Yea you can bet that I got every last buck out of those shoes that I could. I wore them until they hurt my ankles to walk in them haha. The giant Rubiks cube I can't solve. It's pretty dang hard. It is fun to play with though. I just didn't have room for it, but I wanted to keep it. Another Elder gave it to me when I taught him how to solve the regular one. It's just something that I try to do with my comps. Teach them how to solve a Rubiks cube. I have been pretty good at it too.

It's too bad that the Utes couldn't pull off the win against Duke. I was hoping they would be able to do it. I knew it was going to be tough though. That's exciting that the Jazz are winning now. I was hoping that would happen sooner rather than later.

Good job on work stuff Dadio. Sounds like things are going super well right now.

Sarah driving? Sounds like I need to be praying for the innocent people of Bountiful Utah. haha.

I like your thought on the what and why Dad. Ironically enough, I was thinking about that same thing but only with my investigators. Lots of missionaries get caught up in teaching the what about everything. Over the course of my mission, I have come to realize that it's not the what that is important in the end. It's all about the why. If an investigator understands why we go to church every week, the simple fact of them possibly not wanting to go to church every week isn't going to matter if they truly understand the doctrine behind it. It's really something that Elder Arnold stressed when he visited the mission. Teaching doctrine (the why), and letting the Spirit teach the what. It's pretty cool how it works out like that.

I know that the gospel is true. It is so amazing how it applies to our lives. It makes me SOOOOOOO happy just thinking about it. I really do have such a love for the gospel. I am super pumped to listen to President  Monson this weekend and all the other general authorities. It's going to be SWEET! I know this church is true. I know the Lord loves his children in Washington and Oregon!!!!! It's amazing to feel it. I know Christ lives. I know our Heavenly Father loves and cares for us as his children.

I love you guys! You guys do so much for me. I hope that the vacation down south will be a blast for you guys. I'm sure it will be! 

Love ya Dadio, and all you other hooligans,

-Elder Jake Sedlacek

It was a tough week, but I know the Lord listens to my prayers because of it.

What's up Mama,

This week for me was pretty good. Wednesday it was fun. We went with another set of missionaries to a pizza buffet for our "official" year mark. It was really good, and cheap too, so we might have to go there when we come back up sometime after my mission. 

Tuesday we had a pretty good lesson with G. He didn't come to church, but we are going to follow up with him on why sometime this week.

Up here on Saturday we actually got a thunder storm. It was nice!!! It was also fun to lay on my bed and watch it from the window, because I can from where my bed is haha. The thunder isn't as good as Utah thunder though. It has been pretty hot still, but it's supposed to just be in the 90s this week. The members have been telling us that it should start to gradually cool down now, which will be nice. I am looking forward to that.

It is crazy that it is August already. I am sure Jared will enjoy getting some money for gas. Gas is soooooooo expensive now, so I am not looking forward to that when I get home. I will definately need a job, that's for sure. I just hope it's not too hard to find one with tons of other missionaries coming home at that same time.

So Jeff likes the home theater sound in the basement then haha. It's way fun to watch movies with the bass turned up high. You should have gone down and joined them haha. Maybe it was a sign. Now for me, I can probably sleep through it. I get so tired I can sleep even when it's super noisy haha. That's a mission for you I guess.

I never did hear from the Bishop's son this week to answer your question.

That is good that you got the letter and gave it to Bishop. Did you open it and proof read it or something? I put your name on it so you could and have my permission haha.

Thanks for emailing me today. It was fun like always. I am glad everything is still going good at home. I want you guys to know that I love my mission. Thanks for all the sacrifice you guys go through to keep me out here. I really do have an awesome family. I am so blessed for that! I love the gospel! Love you guys too! Talk to you next week fam.

-Elder Jake Sedlacek

What's up Dad,

This week sounds like it was a good one for you. It was a good one for me too. It was long though. Not a lot of our investigators are home or answering their phones. We haven't been able to get hold of Claudia or Scott for a long time. Fernando works from sunup to sundown everyday, so we never see him either. We do have a progressing investigator with G. We were able to meet with him this week. In the lesson with him this week, he told us exactly how the spirit works before we had even taught it. He has had lots of experiences where he had felt the spirit, and he told me and Elder C that we are guides from the spirit to him. He compared the spirit to lightning for him personally. It comes and leaves really quick without the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said it's good though that we help direct the spirit "lightning" to him. He is just way cool. He is so prepared, which is awesome. 

We have also been working through the area book and contacting former investigators, but so far nothing has really come of that. We are just trying our best to find every chance we get. 

For personal study, I have been going through the book "Believing Christ," and I love that book. It is soo good at giving me more of an understanding of the atonement. If you haven't read it, you should. Even as a family if you guys want. It's just a really good book. I also read in the Book of Mormon every day of course, and I am in Alma with Alma and Amulek. I just love reading about the great things they did as missionaries. It really makes me want to go out and have those same experiences--except for getting thrown in jail and beaten and watching all my friends get burned! That would suck but they are great missionaries anyway.

Things in Washington have been pretty good though, and it sounds like they have for you guys too. I really don't wish that I had gone to the family reunion but it would have been cool to go anyway. I bet you had fun. That is crazy that there are 1200 descendants from Grandpa Berger. That is a lot of people!

Aww yea! Football is started back up! That is crazy that football season is pretty much here already. It will be cool to see if the Seahawks can win the Super Bowl again, even though I'm still not a fan of them. 49ers and Chargers still for me haha.

Sounds like they might as well make you a primary teacher haha. You're doing that a lot it seems. That is funny that Libby is the leader. That doesn't really seem like her to me, but I guess it could be. I always thought she was a shy little girl haha. Guess not now.

In a couple more weeks it's going to be Zone Conference, and I am excited for that. Those are always good and getting to hear from President Ware is always cool too. He is awesome.

Well, I wish I had some way cool story to share from this week, but it was really just kind of a tough week. But I do know the Lord listens to my prayers because of it. There are times where I feel like not doing anything and just feel like I wanna give up, but I pray in my heart and I have the energy to keep going. It is way cool. The spirit really does help me all the time. I feel its' promptings and I always try to follow them and things work out. I know Jesus Christ lives and the priesthood was restored. There were lots of people this week who challenged that to my face and I was able to bear my testimony to them. They didn't listen, but I hope they felt something. I just love the gospel! Thanks for all that you guys do for me to keep me out here. I pray for you every day! Love you guys!!!!

Have an awesome week!
-Elder Sedlacek

An eye of charity

This is what a lot of Eastern Washington looks like.

Monday emails from Elder Sedlacek are the best thing of our week! Here is some of his email to Dad.
1/6/14

What up Dad? (at least I think this was Dad's email haha)

Thank you for the score list. That was awesome. It was also awesome to hear that the Chargers have a chance at the Super Bowl. I hope they win it haha. I didn't know they picked up Manti Teo though so that is awesome too. They have a great defense I am sure. I bet it was fun to build the 7ft snow man too. It probably looks sweet up on the mountain with blue sky below it. Is that the tallest one we built yet? I had forgotten that we did that every year haha. That was always fun. What are you going to do when you are like 80 years old? Are you still going to build a snowman haha? It is a fun family tradition though. It will be fun to help you guys again on that when I get home. 

Hey, the Sunnyside ward has 9:00 church too haha. I don't go at 9:00 though. We are there at 7:30. Meetings before church are soooooooo fun haha.

This week was an awesome one teaching-wise. We got 4 new investigators! I was so happy haha. We had an awesome lesson yesterday night with one of our investigators. Her name is Cheyanne. I think I already told you about her but she is 14 so it is like I am teaching Sarah haha. Well, we taught her about the Holy Ghost since when she came to the last half of church, afterwards she said she felt like she needs to be baptized. We told her that was the Holy Ghost and she though that was cool. She is going to start reading the Book of Mormon and we are going to put her on date tonight. It should be awesome. We have been waiting for her to get an answer if she wanted to get baptized for a while, and she got it haha. It was awesome. That was just one of the lessons that we taught. One of the new investigator's names is Maria. She is an African American woman who has a couple kids. She hasn't had much of a religious background but she wants her kids to grow up well and not have the life she had when she was growing up. She was very interested in coming to church, but her car broke down, which seems to be a problem up here alot. Cars break down so our investigators don't come to church. (Satan must be good at breaking cars haha). Well, she said she is very interested in coming next week so I hope she comes. It was really just an awesome week for me. I have been working on loving the people more and I can already tell a difference. Thanks for the advice Dad. I love the people of Sunnyside. When you love the people, it also makes it easier to go out and serve them. Charity is very important in missionary work. I think it will always be a struggle of mine that I will have to work on, but I pray for an eye of charity everyday now, and it seems to help a lot.

Well it sounds like your week was fun and busy. I hope work is going good still. How is everybody else doing? 

It was great to get to share a little bit from this week with you guys. I love being a missionary. Thank you for the sacrifice that you guys go through to keep me out in the field. I love you all sooo much!

Love, Elder Sedlacek