An Apostolic Blessing

Elder Sed on the right, his trainer in the center, and his trainer's trainer on the left.

Emails from October 28, 2013

 

Hey mama,

The mission conference with Elder Ballard was pretty awesome. I got to shake his hand along with all the other missionaries. My clothes are fitting. I am doing good. Elder Ballard gave the mission an apostolic blessing that if we talk to 10 people everyday we will find, teach, and baptize more people. That was pretty cool and its easy to do. Sunday was good. It sounds like you were kinda like me. I get to go to two blocks of church with an extra 3 hours of meetings. Fun fun fun. Sundays on the mission don't have much rest involved haha. That is good that the other missionaries from the ward are doing good. Cafe Rio sounds so good right now. Too bad there isn't any anywhere close by. The weather is good. It gets pretty cold in the night and so it's cold in the morning but it warms up to like the 50's so it's nice in the day. The tree outside our apartment is all empty too. I love the fall! One thing I could use is some homemade pumpkin cookies if you want to make some for me. Those sound good. On Halloween we go inside at 6:00pm and plan for the week for the rest of the night till whenever we get done then just have fun I guess. It would be allowed but I don't know if we will carve pumpkins. I will have to see on that. I love you guys too.

 

Dad,

This week was good. We were able to get a hold of Isaac and Kayla and had lessons with them. We haven't found any new investigators this week. We split the area between our 2 companionships so we can divide and conquer. It was a free-for-all basically before, so hopefully this method will work way better. We are just trying to find some new people to teach. It's not that fun but rewarding when you actually do find someone. 

Up here there are a lot of trucks I have been seeing with deer in the back so I guess it was good hunting up here. It would be fun to come back up after the mission sometime and do some hunting haha. I sound like a red neck!  Sounds like work is going good for you. That is great. That sucks about the Utes. They need to get it in gear if they want to go to a bowl. Sounds like the world series game would be fun to watch but I have more important things to do right now haha. I actually don't have to wear suits like anytime. Only for special meetings and ordinances. Pres Ware doesn't like them so we don't have to wear them very often which is soooo nice. I have gotten used to the shirt and tie though. I am staying warm enough. I will get a better coat if worse comes to worst and I do get cold. I will probably buy a hoodie though for service. I am 1/8 of the way done with my mission! Its crazy! It feels like yesterday I was riding go carts at Boondocks with Jared and Michael. Time flied, but it also seems slow at the same time. It's pretty weird. I have been keeping a journal everyday. I will try to write more of the spiritual stuff. It could probably use a little more of it. I have been trying to do it though. For Halloween here I go in at 6:00pm and plan for the week. Fun stuff. Then whenever we finish that we get to just hang out. Probably a wrestling tournament or something like that. We have a lot of fun up here. That is what makes it fun to be a missionary--doing the Lord's work and hanging out with other missionaries. We saw a pretty good bonfire the other day. The people were smoking weed I think. They were going crazy haha. We stay away from that stuff though. Really the only cool place I have been able to go see is the cabin in Natches. I want to go see some sights, but really in Ellensburg there is nothing to see but farms so I will have to wait for another area to see some interesting stuff haha. I love you guys too. Miss you and I am thankful for all that you do for me. You are the best.

Love

Elder Sedlacek

 

Meet Elder Oso

Hey everyone! Elder Sedlacek is doing very well these days...even better than we thought, as you will see. And, meet Elder Oso--the "traveling" Elder now staying with Elder Sed and the other missionaries in his apartment--at least until he gets stolen away!

Elder Sed and his comp kidnapped Elder Oso from the APs.

I am doing great! I had a big surprise this week. On Wednesday Elder R got transferred up to Wenatchee, and so I now have a step-father (mission lingo) Elder S. He is awesome! It's so much better now than it was with Elder R. Me and Elder S get along alot better than me and Elder R. I liked the package you sent me. Thank you for that. I like the sweater too. The little insigna doesn't even matter. Well, our investigators
have been really hard to get a hold of. I had been praying that we will be able to get a hold of them. We then called an investigator we have named Kayla who never answers her phone, but she answered this time and we got an appointment set up. Issac has been having some phone issues I think so we haven't talked to him this week. He didn't come to church so I don't know what's up. We finally were able to contact a media referral we had up in Ronald, Washington. Her name is April and she is a high school junior. She got interested because of her previous boy friend who was a Mormon. We got two new investigators from that. Her and her friend Alex. They are both cheerleaders so they are really talkative. It will be cool to
seem them progress. They are really interested in learning more about the church. I love teaching people who are genuinely interested. It makes it more fun. If any one asks what they can do to help, tell them to pray that
we will be able to have better contact with our investigators. That is really the big problem holding us back right now.
Sounds like church on Sunday was really good for you guys. Church was good here too. I don't really remember what was taught but it was spiritual if that counts haha. Our family has awesome neighbors, really though. They give the missionaries so much support. It's awesome! Dad, I like the sports updates. You had said in the letter that you don't want me to get homesick from it. It doesn't make me homesick. Don't worry about that. It is actually a help to know whats going on so I can bring it up to talk to people. Then we seem like we are more normal than they think we are haha. You really can relate anything to the gospel. Sometimes its trickier than other times but it usually works. I like to hear about the sports anyway. It would be so fun to come back up to Washington to do some hunting. I already have some good spots in mind. Trust me! haha.
It's not that bad though seeing all the animals. Really, serving a mission is the most important thing I could be doing right now. It has already helped me grow. It will be crazy a year from now to see where I am at.
I saw the picture of the front yard. It looks so weird with out the big tree. That will be a big change when I get home to not see the mushroom tree. The maple tree will look much better than the mushroom ever could
though haha. It will look so pretty in the fall I am sure of it. I really like the fall colors too. They are so pretty. It's good to hear what has been going on at home. I am keeping busy here too. I love you guys too.
Thank you for all that you do for me. You are one awesome family!
Love, Elder Sedlacek

You don't grow from a walk in the park

Last Thursday, we got a quick email from Elder Sed saying that he would be emailing on Tuesday this week instead of Monday. We assumed it was because of Columbus Day, but we were wrong!

Elder Sed: It wasn't because of Columbus day I couldn't email. It was because they changed p-day for this week so we could go to the temple this morning. The new video is so cool. It made everything so much easier to understand. I also liked all the pictures in it. The earth is a beautiful place that is for sure! I LOVE the temple! The next time I get to go will probably be January sometime which kinda sucks. I wish it was more often, but oh well.

I am doing good. The week was good. We found a new investigator named Issac. He had met with missionaries in Pennsylvania and they gave him a Book of Mormon and he has been reading it ever since. He loves the Book of Mormon. He spends so much time reading everyday that he chose the Book of Mormon over his girl friend haha. He also loves church so much that he came to two church blocks, not just one! He is pretty much golden. It is awesome to teach people like that. It was nice to actually find someone who is solid with meeting with us. The rest of our investigators have been dropping us like flies, or we can't even get a hold of them. That is one thing that made this week kinda hard. It sucks when the teaching pool is basically nothing. The big problem is that they mostly are college students and meeting with the missionaries isn't their highest priority in life. So it is really off-and-on with meeting with them. We have been focusing on meeting with members, as you know, and it's going good. We teach them how to use the missionary pamphlets and then leave them with a challenge to use them in their own missionary work. They are going good but haven't gotten any referrals from them yet. I don't really know if I have favorite members. I really like them all but since I cover a whole county I don't really know them that well.

Things with Elder R are going alright. I wrote alot more about it in a letter I sent the other day so you should be getting that pretty soon. I will be happy when the transfer is over though.

That is cool that you guys were able to clean the branches up yourself. I bet it sucked though for dad and jared haha. I always hated cleaning up branches. I bet the yard will look awesome when I get back.

Mama, I did get your letter the other day and I liked it. If you could, can you send me some long sleeve black v neck sweaters (the ones that are approved)? I wrote that in the letter but email is faster so oh well.

I love you guys too! Thanks for all you do for me.

Mom: I am so glad you got to go to the temple this morning! That is awesome! Happy to hear about Isaac! How old is he? Has he been in WA long? Yeah, it was real fun cleaning up branches, lemme tell you. We all helped, but that got it done faster. I will work on the sweater situation. I was actually thinking about it the other day and wondering if you had changed your mind about wearing them.

Elder Sed: Yep, I did go to the temple. It was a long drive, but worth it. Isaac is 30-something. He hasn't been in WA long, but I don't know long. He is German Baptist too. On the sweaters, just make sure they aren't vests. Vests are stupid haha. Thank you for all that you do for me. You guys are the best family! It's nice to have such good support. It's what keeps me out here haha.

Mom: You being out there is the best thing for you and for us. We still get soooo many blessings from it, and you will get blessings for the rest of eternity!! We miss you, but we are happy to support you and see you doing so well. We love you very much.

Elder Sed: Thank you. It's really nice to hear that. I am glad that you guys can see the blessings. I miss you guys too, but am happy to be having a growing experience. It can be really hard sometimes but I realized the other day, you don't grow from a walk in the park experience. It has to be hard to have the most growth.

Mom: You're absolutely right! You don't grow as much when things are easy. You grow the most from resistance. It's like the year Dad planted carrots in the hardest soil in the garden, not expecting much, but when we dug them up they were HUGE! We were surprised at first, but then I realized it's just like life. We grow the most when it's harder. Keep up the great attitude. 

Elder Sed: That is one thing I always try to keep is a positive attitude. It sucks even worse when you're depressed. It's like the Tree of Life vision. The people "cling" onto the Rod of Iron, continually pushing forward against the attacks of Satan. We all can apply that. We need to just cling to what we know is right and push forward through the sucky parts of life. I have to go soon, but it was really nice to email back and forth. You are the best! I love you all, by the way. Talk to you next week, on Monday.

Doing my best everyday

Emailing back-and-forth with Elder Sed went a lot better this week. He sounds good, is finally getting over the cough from bronchitis and is learning a lot about dealing with companions who might not be your best friend outside of the mission, but through compromise you make it work. We are really proud of him. As for The Fast and the Forty goal of 40 new investigators by the end of September? They beat it by 10! 

 

I am doing great! General Conference was awesome. I loved all the talks. We watched all the sessions at the church and it helped me to focus and I took a lot of notes. I am just starting to re-read them. I was kinda bummed though that Elder R wouldn't let me continue our priesthood session tradition and go get some ice-cream or something because he didn't want to. Elder C wanted to but we just got too busy.

 

We really aren't teaching that many investigators really solidly. They are all so hard to get hold of so its kind of off and on. I really hate that. President Ware wants the mission to focus on member teaching visits so we go teach the members and get feedback and ask for referrals. We haven't gotten any referrals yet, but we just barely started doing the member teaching visits. Member teaching visits are kinda cool. All the rest of the numbers usually drop, but baptisms don't. I just found that kinda interesting.

 

{In response to Dad's story about doing his best everyday}I really do try to do my best everyday. I am sure you do too.

 

Dad, I saw the pics of the yard and it looks really different without the tree. It looks good though. What kind of chain saw did you get? Does it run really good? I bet you had a blast cutting it down. It always seemed you like being a lumber jack haha.

 

That sucks about the scores of the football games. That is also too bad about Chuckie Keaton!  I wonder if they will medical redshirt him and give him the year back? I will ask Nicole about that.

 

We haven't gotten any snow in the valley yet, but the tops of the hills were snow-dusted. The weather has been really nice. Cool in the day and cold at night. Its not too cold anytime though, at least yet. All I have is my coat so far, but if I ever need the other stuff I will go buy it.

Thank you for your prayers for me. It means a lot. I love you guys a lot. I will be sure to share my testimony with everyone, Dad. Testifying is really important. I hope you guys have a great week too.

 

Love, Elder Sedlacek

 

 

The Fast and the Forty = Mission Accomplished!

Well, emailing back and forth doesn't seem to be working out too well still, but at least Mom, Dad and big sis each got a nice email from Elder Sed today. He is doing well! His mission Grandpa lives in the same apartment with him now. For those not fluent in "mission lingo," Mission Grandpa = the trainer of Elder Sed's trainer.

 

To Mama:

My week went by normal it seemed. Not too fast, not too slow. It will look really different without the big mushroom (pine tree) in our yard haha.

I got to see two primary programs too. They didn't seem as good as ours did though. The kids weren't funny so that was different haha.

I did get your letter with my SD card. Thank you for sending me a letter. I like letters. I also got the insurance card too so I can use that if I ever need to. Hopefully I won't anymore.

I am still in Ellensburg with Elder R. He is my trainer and this will be the last transfer with him. I am kinda happy about that. We kinda butt heads on some stuff, and he likes to focus on the things I do wrong which kinda annoys me sometimes. We get along most of the time, though. Elder P got transferred to Kennewick and we got Elder C. I like him a lot. We have a lot of fun. He is my grandpa out in the mission field but he has only been out for 9 months. I allways call him grandpa though haha. With all the new Elders that came in they made a new zone in the mission. It will be exciting to see what else happens with the mission.

The bronchitis I had is almost gone. I feel much better than I did before. I just have the usual cough that stays around after its gone for a couple weeks.

The members are feeding me well. We have dinners a couple times a week so I get some variety of foods there which is nice. I don't really get to see President Ware very much. Only like once a transfer. I email him weekly though. I don't know if I need anything at the moment from home.

It sounds like things are going good at home. That's great. Things are going good here. We met the goal of 40 new investigators as a zone so that is awesome.

 

To Dad:

That is a cool story about your job. (They had visitors from Africa!) It would be awesome to work with the church. That talk at the care center I bet was really good. (A story of Michelangelo and his angel sculpture--he saw the angel in the marble and carved "until he set it free.") It sounded like it would have been cool to hear. That is really the purpose of life. Heavenly Father loves us so much that He wants us to be like Him. All we have to do is follow the Savior, and we can. That is what my purpose as a missionary is. To invite people to follow Him.

Sounds like it was a good week in college sports. How close is it to the world series? I literally said "oh my gosh!" when I found out WX beat BHS again. That sucks soooo much! It better not start a losing streak.

Thank you for taking care of my bike. Did it start up ok? It should have, if it didn't.

I bet the yard will look really good with a maple tree instead of the mushroom haha. That tree was ugly but it kinda grew on me haha. A maple will look much better though I am sure. Don't have too much fun cutting it up haha. At least its right next to the curb so you don't have to haul the branches up the hill.

I really have grown up a lot. I still like to have fun though. Its fun to tease some of the other elders. They like to be really serious so I try to keep the fun still. Elder C and I are accomplices. The other day we tied a door shut with ties and that was funny haha. That is one story I have for when I get home.

This week we got a media referral for a college student named Paeton. We went and taught her and we had a great lesson. I got her to pray at the end of the lesson, and I committed her to baptism the first meeting! It was awesome she said she would. The other day I had a weird experience too. We were tracting and we came to this Indian guy's home. He opened the door and let us in. He walked us to the back door and led us into his back yard, then he went back in and just left us. A couple minutes later he came out  and was wondering why we weren't fixing his outlet yet. He thought we were electricians! I think he was a little high though, because his house smelled like marihuana (that stuff is legal in Washington so we smell it all the time). He didn't speak good English either so it was kinda interesting.

I am getting to know a lot of the Elders in our zone. It will be interesting to go down to zone p-day and meet the new ones. I like the ZL's and the AP's. I don't really know the AP's that well yet. Elder C is the DL and I already talked about him. He is my grandpa in the mission too so I always tease him that he is my grandpa and I call him grandpa too.

I study the scriptures and Preach My Gospel everyday. I have started to re-read the Book of Mormon. I love the read the Book of Mormon. I learn a lot when I pray before and after I read. I would challenge all you guys to pray as a family before and after you read the Book of Mormon at night. You learn so much more and can feel the spirit stronger when you do. That might be something you guys can try as a family. Just a thought haha.

Well this week was great and thank you for all you do for me. I love you guys a lot. Talk to you later!

 

Love, Elder Sedlacek

 

A visit to the doctor

This is the birthday cake made by the other Elders in Jake's apartment from the mix and frosting I sent in his birthday package. They did it up right! They even got the right number of candles. :)

Here's Elder Sed cutting in to the amazing cake. He looks amazing himself!! I miss him so much.

This is the praying mantis that is a "guest" in the Elders' apartment, since they "can't have pets." Elder Sed says he can't believe it's still alive.

Monday 9/23/13 Email

The weather has been NICE this week. It's just cool enough to not be hot, but not too cold.

I went to the doctor down in Kennewick for my cough. I have bronchitis and swollen sinuses. I am doing good, though. I got a couple samples of an antibiotic but I don't remember the name of it.

It is really important that we pray everyday for missionary experiences. That is one thing we are challenging the members up here to do for 21 days. We call it the 21 Day Challenge. They read the scriptures with missionary work in mind, and then pray for missionary experiences. Trust me, the Lord will give you them if you ask. I have seen it bunches of times already.

It would be awesome if you guys did buy a cabin sometime--hunting land!! I'm glad you had fun and Craig and Shannon's cabin. It sounds like a good time.

Our investigator Jim drives a truck as you know, and he is really busy til Christmas, so he can't be baptized until after Christmas. There isn't a good chance of me still being here in Ellensburg by then, but it could happen. It really sucks though because he is sooooooo ready!  He was really excited, and then his work got crazy. He works two jobs.

We haven't met the 40 new investigators goal yet, but we have reached 28. Almost there! I know we can make it though. With God, nothing is impossible. We as a zone just put our faith in God and trust Him that it will work out, if we do our job.

I went to a member's house yesterday who are really big hunters. They have 4 Labradors, 3 whites and 1 black. They looked so much like Duke and Molly! It was fun to be able to pet them and pretend they were Duke and Molly haha. The dogs were so funny. They live on a big ranch, so the dogs just run around, swim and play in the mud. It was fun to watch them. I love Labs!

Well, I am doing good up here in Ellensburg WaRshington (everyone up here pronounces Washington as WaRshington). I hope you guys are doing good too! I love you guys!

Love,
Elder Sedlacek

Elder Sedlacek's Birthday and The Fast & the Forty

Happy Birthday, Elder Sed! Sadly, it was not a very good day for emailing back and forth. For some reason, the connection was veeeeerrrrrrryyyyyy slow. But I'll still count my blessings: I heard from him, he's doing great, he's having a good birthday, and he got his birthday package. All in all, it's a win.

Elder Sed: How is it going Mama! I am doing good. I still have a cough which I am tired of. I have had a good morning. The other elders made the cake for me last night {a red velvet cake mix I put in his package, along with frosting and candles}. I wanted to make it myself but they wouldn't let me. We are going to have a party after we get shopping done. After the party, we are having a zone p-day and going to a cabin to hang out and play games. It should be fun. I got the package on Friday and I opened it then. I like everything in it. Thank you very much! The package I got from Ann had some goodies and notes. Grandpa H threw in a visa gift card. I can email back and forth now.

One thing I need is a copy of the new insurance card, and if you could please laminate it but you don't have to. Do whatever is easier for you. I just need one because they want us to use the family's if we have it before the church's, so if you could send a copy of it that would be awesome Mama. 

Mom: Awesome! You will have fun. As long as someone baked you a cake, I don't care if it was the other Elders. :) Do you think your coat will work out okay?

Elder Sed: Yes, my coat will work out perfect. Thank you for sending it.

After a loooonnnnng time.....

Elder Sed: It doesn't seem that we could email back and forth very much today. I am doing good and am focusing on finding new people to teach. It's a lot of walking, tracting, and just talking to people which is fun if it isn't 100 degrees outside! We found two new investigators this week which is exciting. I hope they keep with it. I hope you guys are doing good at home. I am doing good here. I love you guys. I sent some more info back to the other email so hopefully you can read that. I have to go now, but I love you guys. Talk to you later!

In response to an email Jeff sent him:

I am doing good, but still have a cough. This week in zone meeting, we set a goal for finding 40 new investigators by the end of the month. We called it The Fast and The Forty, because we fasted as a zone yesterday in hopes of the goal. It was cool because Elder R and I went and found two new investigators that night. It was really awesome. Right now, we are really focusing on finding new people to teach because a lot of people are moving in and out and we have lost some 'gators. The work should really pick up with school starting on the 25th. The students are starting to move back, which is awesome. 

That is great that D.H. got some playing time and Bountiful won. I heard the result of the Utah game yesterday from people talking. It's too bad they couldn't finish it off. It would be awesome if they won it.

Jim, one of our investigators, really wants to get baptized so that will be great. As I said before, we are focusing on finding so that means a lot of tracting and OYMs. It is good though. It can suck at times when it's really hot. They say the winter will suck up in Cle Elum. It will be hard to get up there because it can snow 13 feet in a night. Crazy! In Ellensburg, they say the winter isn't that bad but the wind just kills you. Hopefully I won't be here when it gets super cold, but I'm sure I will stay warm. Thank you for sending my coat. 

I wish I could see the colors change! I love that time of year. I probably won't get to see much of that here. It's the "never green" side of the "evergreen" state haha.

Tell Nicole congrats on her half marathon. She is crazy haha. I would never do that. 

I am doing great up here in Ellensburg and I love you all!

Love, 
Elder Sedlacek