A record-breaking week!

This is Elder Sed's 1/13/14 email to his Dad. He seems to write more details of his daily experiences to Dad, while he answers Mom's questions about whether he is staying warm and if he needs anything. :) 

What up "grandpa!" haha {This must be Jake's idea of a joke because there are no grandbabies on our horizon!}

How was your week? It sounds like it was a pretty good one to me. I had a great week. You said you wanted to hear about the investigators we have. I will just say, we taught 25 lessons this week! That is a new record in Sunnyside for all that I know. I wish I could tell you guys about all of them but I don't have the time to do that. I am doing really well on my journal from what I think. It will be fun to read through it with you guys after I am done. I am halfway through the first one so in another 5 months or so I will need a new one haha. I write down the spiritual stuff along with the stuff I want to remember. 

Well, the coolest thing that happened this week was with our investigator Cheyenne. She is a 14 year old girl. Her mom is a less-active member and they want to get back into church. I really love their family. They are awesome people. They have a little daughter who reminds me of Libby. It is crazy how much they are alike. Anyway, we had a great lesson with Cheyenne at a member's house on Monday for FHE. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ (which is my favorite lesson to teach) and the spirit was super strong. It was an amazing lesson--probably one of the best of my mission so far. We put her on date for the 25th and she is super excited for her baptism. It is going to be awesome to see her get baptized. The member is going to baptize her, but at least I get to be involved somehow! 

Jose has been working on some stuff and I am confused about him right now. He texted us last night that he wanted to talk to the bishop and he had some "bad news." He has not told us what it is yet so I am a little concerned. I am sure we will find out soon enough. We taught him and his family a lesson this week also. He wants all of his family to find the gospel, not just him, so he is being a missionary and he doesn't even know it. It was cool to hear him testify to them of the Book of Mormon, and he isn't even a member yet. He is a great guy, who happens to have some struggles, so I don't know when he will be baptized yet but we are working on it.

Another investigator we have is Marie. She is an African American woman with kids. She is an awesome mother who wants to find the best for her kids because she had a messed up childhood, and she doesn't want that for her kids. She came to church yesterday and she really liked it. She wants all of her family to come along with her next week. By the way, we had 10 investigators commit to coming to church this week, which would have so been so amazing if it had worked out that way, but we did have 5 actually make it, which is still amazing. It is the most investigators I have seen come to church in one week.

It is crazy how things are working out missionary work-wise. We never have to go finding ourselves. They just keep on coming to us, which is awesome. This week we dropped three investigators, but we picked up five. We have soooooo much work right now. It is so freaking (pardon my language dad haha) AWESOME!!!!! I know the Lord is hastening his work of salvation because I see it every day. People who  I would think would never accept the gospel are very interested in the church and want to be baptized.

It is great that you guys are seeing miracles because of my service as a missionary. You guys deserve every single one. I am so grateful for all that you sacrifice. I truly am.

It sounds like church was great for you. I bet ward conference was good.

I love the sports updates Dad. I already knew the score of the Seahawks game because everyone in Washington is crazy fans of them. If it was up to the state of Washington the Seahawks will win. I bet they will, though, just because they have an awesome coach and an amazing team with lots of talent. It sucks that the Chargers lost, but oh well. I still like the 49ers so I hope they beat the Seahawks haha. You asked me who I think will go to the Superbowl, and I am betting it will be the Broncos and the Seahawks, sadly enough. I hate both teams haha.

Well, it was great to be able to write you guys with a lot of info on our investigators. Thank you for all that you do again. I love you guys so much!

-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

Anyone can change

This is the pic Elder Sedlacek and the other Ellensburg Elders used for their Christmas cards. How could they leave out Elder Oso (Bear)?

Email to Dad 12/30/13

What up Dad,

It was awesome to talk to you guys. I was sad at the end but I got over it and am back to normal now. This week has been good. I like your suggestion that I need to love the people more. I think that is one of my struggles--Loving the people as much as the Savior would love them. That is one thing that I am always working on--Loving the people more. It is true that if you love everyone just as much as you love yourself you will have much more success. I will definitely work on that Papa. Elder J is a great missionary who loves the members. Maybe that is something I can learn from him. It will be fun to have companions live so close to me when I go home. All of my companions so far are going to go to Utah State. Pretty crazy, huh? I guess tons of people are planning to go there after their missions. They are a pretty good school. Sounds like they did awesome in their bowl game which is good. That is too bad that BYU lost haha. That is funny about the Jazz. At least they aren't the worst team in the NBA! They will hopefully get better within a few years of rebuilding. 

I am sorry that you haven't been feeling well this week. I hope you get over it soon. Head cold crap sucks. Did you end up going to church?

It is crazy that 2013 is pretty much over. I am glad that I am serving a mission too. My testimony is so much stronger than it used to be. That is really cool about how much our second areas have in common. I hope I can have the success you did in your second area. I am sure I will. We have lots of investigators and I mostly know all of them. We have one named Cheyanne who is a 14 year old girl who the missionaries have been working lots with over the past year. She wasn't really that interested until just a couple weeks ago. She told us that she is interested in being baptized. It was really a miracle that she is so interested. It was something we weren't expecting to hear from her. We are also teaching a guy named Jose who also goes by Joey. Joey just got out of prison at the beginning of the month. He is making so much progress! He has some commandment issues, but he is working through them. He is a pretty sweet guy. He is a former drug dealer and was pretty much a gangster. It is fun to teach him because he accepts everything about the gospel. He will probably be baptized sometime in January or February. They are just a couple of our investigators right now. You guys can pray for Jose and a lady named Emma if you want. They really are in need of spiritual support. They can use all the prayers that they can get.

I love you guys so much. I love being able to email you every week. Thank you for all that you and the rest of the family do for me! Talk to you soon!

Love, Elder Sedlacek

The force is with Elder Sedlacek!

Email to Mama 12/30/13

How is it going Mama!

This week was really good. I really enjoyed talking to you all but I realized something that I forgot to tell you guys and grandpa and grandma. Thank you for the gifts! I felt pretty stupid that I didn't even say thank you the first time, so I am doing it now. I really enjoyed every one of the gifts. I love the Santa mug too. I was a little trunky I guess you could say after I hung up the Skype call, but I got past that and now I am back to normal. You guys are awesome! Tell Bro and Sister B thank you for the money.  I will send them a thank you card. I am glad you guys liked my pictures haha. Me and Elder C were taking lots of light saber pictures that night when we took that pic. It was fun. JP I am sure did great on his talk. It would have been cool to hear it but oh well. I am trying to enjoy every moment, even the harder ones, just like he said. That is a cool story of his about the ward mission leader though. Re-activations are the same as baptisms in the eyes of the Lord.  It is fun to see people change like that.

For 5th Sunday yesterday we had the same kind of deal. They talked about missionary work and they had me and Elder J say some stuff too.

Thank you for all that you guys do for me, especially praying for me. I pray for you too. I am staying warm and am learning to like Elder J. We get along fine, it's just we have total opposite personalities. That is the hardest part, finding stuff in common with us haha. We work really hard though, and get lots of success which is a good sign. He is a great missionary.

Merry Christmas from Sunnyside, Washington!

Email to Mama 12/23/13

What's up, Mama? 

I am doing good. This past week was good. I got all my stuff moved to Sunnyside. Transfers were good. We live in a little house, just me and Elder J. I like Sunnyside. It just smells all the time everywhere you go because of the dairy.  I don't know if I like that about this place but our teaching pool is huge! I am so overwhelmed in trying to get everyone's names straight. That is the hardest part right now.  It is a nice place. Elder J calls himself a geek, and I am getting to know him. The members here are great! The ward gives us tons of referrals. We had did have a Christmas program, but let's just say some of the musical numbers were a lot better than others. 

I have heard lots of good stuff about that movie Frozen. I will have to see it when I get home. It stinks that Mia didn't make it into the Sound of Music. She can try out next time though.

That is cool that Brother J is still our home teacher. I bet Grandpa H's was fun. I love his clam chowder. I . That is exciting about the bathroom. Be sure and take pics so I can see it.

For Christmas Eve, I will be calling home sometime around 8:30 here so 9:30 there. We can finalize any plans then. I will be Skyping from the ward mission leader's house. It will be sometime around lunch time in Bountiful. I don't really know an exact time, but it should be close. It will be soooo fun to talk to you guys. I am super excited. Thank you, Mama, for all that you do for me. I love you guys sooo much.

Email to Dad

What up, Dad!

Transfer week went well. I got to Sunnyside and went right to work. The mission has two main meeting points in Richland and in Yakima, so we go to the closest one to our area and then meet up with the new companion and go to the new area. It would be crazy to have it be like you had where you just go by yourself haha. We just hop in a car and drive to a meeting point. Not as exciting as you had it haha. Ellensburg to Sunnyside is only a 45 minute drive so it wasn't that far to begin with. I am looking forward to talking to you guys on Christmas too. It will be super fun.

That is okay that you didn't get to see any games yesterday, but try to do better haha. Updates are fun but not a necessity. 

Sunnyside is a crazy place. It is 90% Mexicans who speak only Spanish and a little bit of English. It is lots of dairies and vineyards. It always smells like cow dung everywhere you go haha. My new comp is Elder J. He has served in Sunnyside twice on his mission for a total of 10 1/2 months! That is crazy so I think he is going to leave at the end of this transfer. He has been out pretty much 18 months. He is very good at member relationships. I am learning how to best work with him and have fun with it. We have tons of people in the teaching pool, so much that I am overwhelmed just thinking about it. I am just trying to learn everyone's face and who they are. It is great being so busy with teaching though. I wish I could tell you more about our investigators but I don't know much about any of them. It is crazy haha. We get tons of teaching though. It is great!

That would have been sooo cool to have been at the Christmas devotional for your work. I bet it was super sweet to be at. That is good that work is keeping you busy. I am looking forward to talking to you on Tuesday and Wednesday! It's going to be sweet! I love you guys and am so grateful for all that you do for me. Talk to you tomorrow!

Love- Elder Sedlacek

"The mission is what I want to be doing right now."

Transfers are this week, and Elder Sedlacek is going to be transferred to Sunnyside--known for 300+ sunny days per year, the heart of wine country, and the annual Christmas light parade with farm vehicles, which he just missed. He's looking forward to a new area and hopefully will enjoy his new companion!

What's up!

This week has been slow but great. The last week of the transfer is always slow it seems. Well, I am getting transfered on Wednesday to Sunnyside Washington, serving in the 1st ward with Elder J and I have no idea who he is. I think he is an older missionary. Supposedly Sunnyside smells pretty bad all the time so it should be fun. I am excited to go see a new area. 

 

Thank you for the Christmas packages you sent. Yes, I did get them on Thursday. I haven't opened anything except for the envelope and the tree. I did laugh at the Ensign that was pretty funny. I didn't even think to switch the covers. I will do that. Good idea mama! Tell Bro. H thank you for me. I love him too haha. He is awesome. 

 

I am glad you liked my Christmas card. It is great that JP is home. You will have to tell him hi for me. I am sure he is having lots of fun being home with his family. That will be cool if he plays football at USU. 

 

Sounds like stake conference was a good one. They usually are though. It's fun to go to the big doughnut building. 

 

 For Skype I think I use my own account, so I will set that up. I get to call home on Christmas Eve for a couple minutes and then Skype or whatever on Christmas Day for an hour. I am so excited! I'ts going to be fun to see you guys again. I don't know what member home we will be Skyping from, but I will figure that out and what time. I can tell you that on Christmas Eve when I call. 

 

It is awesome Libby and Mia's friends got baptized. I am sure it was awesome to see. So were they being taught by the Elders then? The gospel WILL bless their family. I know it will. 

 

Haha Mama, you cried reading about Vince? You are funny haha. He is a nice guy. I like him. He is going to be bummed when I tell him I am leaving. He doesn't know yet. It is only going to be a matter of time before he is baptized. 

 

Thank you for everything you do for me. To be honest, the mission is what I want to be doing right now. It is a great experience. I love it. You guys are awesome for supporting me. All the support is great to have! 

I like the Christmas card by the way. Looks good.

 

Love, 

Elder Sedlacek

Hey, somebody has to plant seeds!

It's really great to think that Elder Jake left in July and now it's December--going on five months out! He's sounding fantastic, more and more mature with every email and letter. Having a missionary out is such a blessing, even though we miss him tons! 

Email to Mom 12/9/2013

Howdy mama,

How is it going back at home? I am doing good. We didn't teach many lessons this week but it was alright. Funny how you ask me about the Google + thing, and I honestly have no clue haha. I am no help haha. I have just been told that you can set it up with my mission email and it works. I have no clue where I will be face timing you from. It will be from some member's house wherever I am at. Transfers are next week and I am probably leaving Ellensburg. I really have no clue where I will go. Vince fell off date because of smoking issues, but it would have been cool to have convert baptisms here and in Bountiful. That is awesome about A & H. Tell them I would be there but I have some things I am kinda busy with haha. Ohh--thanks for the packages. I'm excited to get them. You are the best!

That is crazy that JP is practically home. I bet he is also excited to go see his family. It would be cool to hear him speak. When is David coming home? That is nice that the P family sent me a letter. Tell them thank you for all that they do for me. I assumed there would be lots of snow where you guys are at. There was a big rain storm that passed by here a week and a half ago.

I bet Mia did great on her audition. You will have to let me know how she did or if she got called back. She is probably so excited to find out.

We were allowed to watch the Christmas devotional, but Elder S and I forgot about it and scheduled an appointment for the same time it was airing. I heard it was good though. I always liked watching that.

Well, how are you guys doing? Can I get addresses for Christmas cards? I will probably just send a couple home in the same envelope if you could get one to the Bishop for me.

Email to Dad 12/9/2013

What's up Papa!

I had a good week this week. We kinda had a slow week again lesson wise but we taught Vince twice. He is progressing right along but has some Word of Wisdom stuff that he is working thru so he is off date for now. That was kind of a bummer but he is very sincere and really trying his best. Besides the new investigators we found last, we haven't found any new ones yet. We are still working on trying to find people who are ready to hear the gospel. Our other investigators we haven't been able to contact, but I hope they are doing well. I pray for them everyday so I would assume they are doing good. It kinda sucks when it is like this but hey, planting seeds is a job somebody has to do. 

It sounds like the meetings were good. That is funny that they had the Bar J wranglers come to the care center. I bet all the old farts loved them haha. They are pretty funny. I didn't get to see the Christmas devotional because we had a dinner appointment at 5:00 which is when it started here. Kind of a hard time to have it start. I really wanted to watch it but I hope I will get to see it soon. We were allowed to go watch it though, which was good. It is nice getting to have most of that stuff even while I am here in Warshington haha.

I am working on getting info for the members who I want to stay in contact with. There are only a couple people that I would though, and Vince, who said he treats me and Elder S as his sons. He said he wants to be there when we get married and have our 12 children haha. He is a great guy. He calls us homies and we really are haha. It will be nice to stay in contact with members and investigators when I go home. 

Things are really going great. The wards are trying to figure out ways to hasten the work within the wards and it is going along slowly but surely. It's only a matter of time before Ellensburg is on fire!

It is crazy that JP is almost home. He is a great example for me. I really want to work hard everyday of my mission too, and I try to do that even now. What I do today affects tomorrow--that is what I have learned. It is great being a missionary and feeling my testimony grow. It really is great seeing people change their life for the gospel. I love you guys lots and am thankful for all that you sacrifice for me to be out here. I love you guys!

Love, Elder Sedlacek

Dad's White Christmas Challenge---looking good!

Today's email session was great! Elder Sed had a good Thanksgiving and a much better week than the one before. Getting good news is the best. 

Email to Mom 12/2/13

How are you doing today!

I am doing great. This week was lots better than last week. Last week kinda sucked. This week didn't though. Thanksgiving was fun. We went to two houses. The H family and the P family. They are both really cool families. We also had lots of food. It was really good. We just had the traditional stuff it seemed, although we had fried shrimp too with the H's. It was really good. I didn't take any pics but I guess I should have haha. It was super fun to go to the members' houses and just kinda relax for a bit. I really liked Thanksgiving. Thanks for the pics--I like the blue on the Christmas tree. I was pretty surprised to not see it red and gold haha. That seems like what it was all growing up for me. The blue looks really good. Are you still keeping the super big tree? I really liked that one. Wow, you went shopping on Black Friday?! That is a first haha. Was it the early time or later in the day? I bet it was later that you went. I bet my Christmas package will be awesome. I will save some stuff to open on Christmas--it's more fun that way. Just wrap up some of it and I won't open it till Christmas. I will love it I am sure.

That's great church was good. Brother P did send me an email. I haven't read it yet though. He is awesome, I agree.

That is so many indexed names! The wards out here can barely hit 100,000. Oak Hills ward way to represent! haha You will have to let me know how Mia does in her audition. I wish her luck. That is great Lib is doing the choir. Did she do it because of Mia? 

Thank you for all that you do Motha. I am proud of you too haha. I am going to be making a Christmas card and sending it out.

I pray for you guys too, just so you know haha.

Email to Dad 12/2/13

Dear Pops a lot!

This week was great. 3 NEW INVESTIGATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wrote about it a little in a letter I just sent, but we found three new ones and one is on date for the 14th of December. That is a WHITE Christmas if I say so myself haha. Challenge: Check! It is right, I only have 2 Christmas' in the field. I am sure it will be one of the most memorable. It's great to be serving a mission. Honestly!

That would have been fun to go to the Utah game. Who did they play? They do need a new quarterback. The one they have now sucks it seems. Kyle better not leave while I am gone! It is good that Utah State  won. They sound like they are doing great still. It does not surprise me one bit about the Jazz. Rebuilding  years are no fun for the fans.

I saw the new tree in the pic mom sent. Looks really good. We haven't had snow up here yet. Just rain and lots of it. I would rather have rain though. Our car probably wouldn't do so hot in the snow haha. The "maliboat" (chevy malibu) kinda sucks. Oldest car in the mission. It's just nice to have a car though. It is sure nice to have when it is 7 degrees outside haha. I wouldn't doubt it if the storm we just had gave you guys snow. It's a pretty good one. I am sure Jared will love it though. I am doing alright. I am staying warm too. I am looking forward to the letter you sent. I haven't gotten it yet but probably soon I will. That is good that work is going good for you.

Dang, I was hoping you had some pranks haha. Elder S is just a prankster haha. Sometimes I just have to set him straight haha.  It seems that is all I can remember really well too--the people and the experiences I am having. I guess that is what matters most. It's what you learn from. 

Our investigators have been doing much better this week. Vince, the one we have on date for the 14th, is really excited to get baptized and he really wants me or Elder S to do it so he is trying really hard to get ready for then. We have a couple others who are doing great. Tomara, Lizzy, and John are doing good. They are just trying to work toward baptism. John is a boyfriend to a member so that is how he got interested. Lizzy is a 9 year old daughter of a less-active member who really wants to be baptized. We are working with the family and her to progress towards coming to church again. Other than that, those are really our main investigators for right now. It's been a much better and successful week. It was super nice to have. We will get to talk on Christmas but it is just figuring out where I will be and when first. Transfers are on the 18th and I probably wont stay in Ellensburg for too much longer. Only time will tell. I will let you guys know as it gets a little closer. 

Thank you for all that you guys do for me. I love you all lots! 

Love, Elder Sedlacek