Learning some new tricks

What's up Mama,

I didn't get your letters yet so maybe today I will. I did have a good week. Sadly, J.D. can't be baptized for a couple weeks but Becky is having an interview for baptism tonight and Sydnee is still on for Saturday too. It is going to be at least two baptisms on the 10th hopefully. That will still be awesome! 

 

The ward is great up here. Sunnyside, for me, has been very successful. It has been great! Things with Elder A are doing good. He is stubborn, so it's his way or no way, but I just cope with it and we get stuff done. It is not easy, but we have to get along if we want success. I have just been working on my individual relationship with the Savior, and it has been helping a lot. 

That is awesome Nicole is graduated now! You guys need to watch the Princess Bride soon. That seems like a good movie to watch right now for you guys haha. 

 

That is crazy that Alyssa and Liz are getting married and are. That went fast!

 

On Mother's Day I will get to call home. I get to call on Saturday, too, to set it up with you guys. It will be in the evening, probably around 7:00 Utah time. It is going to be fun!

 

I do like the pics you sent. Thanks for all that you do, Mama. You da best!

 

 

What's up Pops,

I didn't even realize that date yesterday haha. {May the Fourth be with you!}  Being on the mission just makes you forget that stuff haha. Oh well, it is Cinco de Mayo here and Sunnyside has had a big party the past couple days. It was fun to walk around and talk to people. There is good food there too haha. Sounds like you had a good week though. I did too. 

 

For this Saturday, we have two people on date for baptism. Sydnee and Becky. Sydnee is really pumped to get baptized and so is Becky, she just needs to have her interview tonight. I am sure it will work out for the best. It is going to be awesome to have multiple baptisms on the same day again. I really love when that happens. The rest of our teaching pool is doing okay. Only Eric came to church so he is doing good, he just won't commit to a date yet. Marie is doing good too. She wants to come to the baptism on Saturday to check it out. I think we can get her baptized this transfer, hopefully. We have been working to find some new investigators and have some good potentials because of it, but I will tell you about them once I know a little more. That is really our focus right now is finding new people who are solid to teach.

 

With planting season going on up here I have been learning some tricks for gardens, one of which I think we could use on our fruit trees. They have what they call bird scare tape that you put in trees, and the birds don't eat the fruit because of it. It is pretty cool stuff. It just is super shiny and that is what they use on all the fruit up here. It seems to work well, too. Another trick is when you pick the apples, make sure that the stem is on the apple, otherwise it hurts the tree and it won't have as much fruit the next year. So there's a couple tricks that I though you would like haha.

 

That is funny that they have you doing the food for Dirt and Dogs! You must be good at it or something. You will have to let me know what new calling you get when you get one. 

 

You will have to get your head in the game haha. Geeze dad, haha just kidding. You're doing fine with the updates. It's fun to hear the latest news on the sports stuff.

 

Sprinklers are a pain and believe it or not I have done some on the mission haha. Lots of fun every year. I bet you will have loads of fun mowing the lawn. You should get a riding lawn mower and then it would be super easy.

 

Today for p-day should be pretty fun. We are going to a member's place up in Yakima and playing all sorts of games. It is going to be awesome. They have all sorts of stuff like air hockey and ping pong, really just a ton of stuff to do. It should be fun.

 

I hope you guys have a great week. You are seriously the best. Thanks for all that you do for me! Keep praying for our baptism goal of 15 baptisms before May 31st too. Love you guys!

-Elder Sedlacek

"My testimony is stronger because of my mission and the hard times I have had."

Elder Sed and his comp on Easter Sunday.

What's up Mama,

It sounds like your week was really good.  Mine was too. After all, it was Easter and we had a baptism for Eva! The baptism went really well. She is already doing missionary work with her family so we will see if we get some new investigators from her. We need all of those we can get right now! That is the problem with baptizing haha. I guess its a good problem to have.

Funny that you mention transfers. I think I am going to be stuck in "the Sunnyside hole" haha ( the joke is that's what Sunnyside is for missionaries. You come to Sunnyside, you don't leave for a long time haha) It's alright though because I really like it here. 

Looks like coloring eggs was fun. It sucks Dad had a kidney stone! He needs to drink more cranberry juice and water haha. Hopefully he gets feeling better from those "rocks of hell" (that is what the members up here refer to them as sometimes haha)

I did get the package on Friday. I like the tie. It is a very bright blue haha. People commented on it so I guess it looks good on me. Thanks for the tie. I really like the socks too. They are good ones. They should last a long time. You also put all my favorite easter candy it too. You know me too well haha. There wasn't one piece of Easter candy that I don't like so that's good. Good choices Mama!

That's cool Sarah is doing well in track. Hopefully she keeps it up. 

I want a pic of Jared at prom. I want to see this haha. This is one of those things you have to see to believe.

For the goal we have 3 baptisms so we didn't hit the goal but I think we didn't hit it because HF wanted us to learn some other things. I am still trying to figure out exactly what that is but I will figure it out haha.

You guys are awesome! Love you family!

-Elder Sedlacek

What's up Dad,

That sucks super bad that you had a kidney stone! Those are super painful I have heard. Drink some cranberry juice everyday and more water and you won't get them again. That is the trick that I have been told. Hopefully it goes away! Sounds like the blessing really helped you. That is super cool. Power of the priesthood is awesome.

This week for me was pretty cool. We had a really good lesson with the D family, with one of the members up here and she was the key in the lesson. Because of her the D family are on date for baptism! Both of them too. They didn't come to church yesterday, but they are doing much better. I think they both know the church is true now it's just a matter of time before they are baptized. We taught them about the priesthood and it really helped them. B really liked Elder Oaks' talk from the priesthood session of conference. It helped her a ton with some of the concerns she had.

Like I said in my email to mom Eva got baptized. It was great! She is working on her family to get them into the gospel as well. She is going to do great things as a missionary if she keeps it up.

M is doing well too. She is going to come to a FHE with a member tonight and hopefully come to church on Sunday. She really has opened up huge to the gospel and I know she's going to accept it. She really liked the plan of salvation so I am sure she will like the family history idea you gave me as well. 

Carlos went to the temple to do baptisms on Saturday and he really enjoyed it. He also had a super cool experience. He is just doing awesome. He is also working on his family as well. I think that is how we are going to find new investigators is thru our RCs. We are kinda struggling with that right now so we are going to see if it works better through our RCs. I believe it will.

Sounds like you have had an eventful week though. Life is never boring for you it seems with work and callings haha. Now that you are released though maybe that will change. We will have to see what calling they have for you up their sleeves haha. 

That sucks that that Jazz didn't get last place. I was really hoping they would haha. Hopefully they get a good lottery pick and are able to do something with it and not blow it. That is super cool thought that there are that many Utes going in to the draft. I hope they can do really good next year. They need a really good QB is what I think they are missing. They can get one and I think they should do fairly well.

I am doing great on my journal. I write in it every night and I try to include those experiences. I don't need a new one quite yet but I am getting close haha. I will let you guys know when I am almost done with it. 

As we hold strong to the rod and the gospel we can stand strong through any trial that comes our way. That is just the way the gospel works. We act in faith, even when it's hard, and we will be blessed and protected. I love the gospel. My testimony of it is so much stronger because of my mission and the hard times that I have had. That is why missions are great though. They help so much with life.

Thanks for everything you guys do for me! You guys sacrifice a lot for me to be out here, and I am so grateful for that! I love you guys!

-Elder Sedlacek

Thanks for allowing me to serve a mission!

Letter dated 3/24/14

What's up family?

How have your past couple days been, even though you can't respond to this immediately haha? Hopefully, they have been good.

This past week has been great. There were some good meetings, like Zone Meeting, but we also had Stake Conference. It was cool because Elder Pieper of the Seventy came and spoke at all the meetings. The Saturday meeting was cool. They had a couple 3 panels of people come up and answer questions that Elder Pieper would ask about missionary work. So in the middle of the meeting, President got up and announced that they wanted to have a missionary panel. They hadn't planned on doing it until the last minute, so the missionaries weren't warned ahead of time. Of course, I got called up haha! It was interesting because I was the only missionary called up who is not in leadership. So I got to go up in front of the whole stake and answer questions from Elder Pieper. Kind of nerve-wracking, but kind of fun too! haha

As far as cool stories go, this week I have a good one. The ward was able to get back in touch with one of our recent converts. He is going to start coming back. He's been struggling lately, but he decided that he needs to come back. That was a miracle!


We have also been trying to do some finding. We want to rebuild our teaching pool to where it was before we baptized 8 of them haha. I've also been able to give lots of priesthood blessings, so I'm much more comfortable giving them now than I was before.

My mission is helping me so much! Thanks for allowing me to go, family. You're all the best!

Love,
Elder Sedlacek

Praying for charity and patience

What's up Mama,

I am doing pretty great. This week has been good. We taught lots of lessons to our investigators. My comp is difficult at times. There are times we don't get along that great but we do try our best. We are just so opposite. Guess what President said during interviews? He said he was nervous putting us together because we are so opposite, but he felt directed to do it so here we are haha. I just hope I can become a better missionary because of our companionship. Yep, I guess I am going all Warshington on ya haha. I think I meant to put "couple 3" in that letter, but I am not sure at the moment haha. Maybe it was an accident, who knows haha.

Sounds like St. George is pretty fun for all you guys. You will have to keep track of everywhere cool so I can see it too haha. That sounds like lots of fun after the mission. It would be super cool to see all those  church history sites, even though it's not Palmyra or something like that--but it would still be awesome. You took Duke and Mollie to the boarders? I bet they do like it there haha. They will have lots of friends to play with.

How long have you been in St. George?

I am so excited for General Conference this weekend. I bet the Women's Meeting was awesome if it made you cry the whole time haha. I hope all of conference is that awesome. It usually is, so I am happy it's this week. It's going to be sweet for our investigators too. I am sure they will really like it.

I hope the email works while you are having fun on vacation. I don't know why it wouldn't though. I love to hear from you guys too.

Like the pictures too. That looks like an awesome hike!

What's up Dad,

Sounds like you have had a fun week. I hope you guys have had lots of fun, it sounds like you have. We will have to go visit St. George when I get back huh. Sounds like it would be fun to do that.

We had our fast and testimony meeting yesterday too. It was hard to hear everyone because the speaker system went out and they were just using some portable speaker that didn't work very well. It was a good meeting though. We had E and her sister come to church along with J! We had not seen him in almost two transfers, but he finally decided to start coming again. He brought along with him pretty much all his extended family. It was great. There was lots of non member attendance. E is doing great! She is on date for the week after conference. She is thinking about moving, which would suck, so pray that she will stay in Sunnyside. She is doing missionary work to all her family though. She has taught all the lessons to her family while we are gone. She really wants everyone to feel what she has felt, which is awesome. The D family are still doing good. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with them and it seems to be working really well. They weren't able to make it to church, but J is on date for April 12th.  B is still working on getting that specific answer that she needs to be baptized a Mormon to make it to heaven since she has been baptized twice in her life already. We need to teach her about priesthood authority. That will really help her. We have just had some of her concerns we needed to resolve first, so that is what we have done so far. The rest of our investigators are doing pretty good. We have had trouble meeting with a lot of them, which kinda is sucky but just pray that we will be able to get in contact with them. That is really the thing that is holding us back right now. It's just hard to get hold of people. The goal is coming along pretty slowly, but there is progress. We are at 2 out of 14 baptisms so far, so there is progress being made haha. I am expecting some big miracles in the future! We have been praying for them, that's for sure. Keep praying for the goal also. Dang, I have given you lots of stuff to pray for haha. Don't forget to do it.

I like that story from the guy that you work with. That is something that I can probably work on this week. It was fun to have interviews with President Ware this week. He said that I am one of the best teachers in the mission in his opinion. It was a really nice compliment from him. He said that as long as I am praying for that charity and patience towards my comp and the people I serve with, I will be able to become better at that. I think that is one thing I struggle with and the thing I can learn from my comp. To be more charitable and patient towards people who are different than myself. It's hard, but that is something that I am working on.

From what I have heard from members, my bracket is ruined haha. I guess the mission did not help me at all to pick better haha. You will still have to let me know how I did.

Thanks for all that you do for me dad and family. It's fun to be able to serve and watch you guys be blessed for it. I love being a missionary, even when it gets tough. Believe me it did this week, but I got through it with prayer. I hope you guys have a great time down in St. George chilling in the warmth. Remember to pray for the goal and my investigators. It will help them a ton. You guys are awesome! Love you! Thank you for all that you do!

-Elder Sedlacek

Praying for miracles

This week I've had two calls from people in Sunnyside, both so grateful for Elder Sedlacek and all he has done for their area. One was from the Bishop's wife and the other was the President of the Columbia River Temple. Both expressed their love of Elder Sedlacek. I am so grateful they took the time! In other news, Elder Sedlacek is struggling some right now with his new companion and could use all the prayers he can get. Please pray for his companion too! 

What's up Dad,

This week was awesome and pretty tough at the same time. We had the baptism for Steve on Tuesday right before Elder J left. The baptism was super good, and the most attended baptism I have seen on the mission thus far. It was a super good service, too. Transfer day was super fun. I got to spend some time with other missionaries that I hadn't seen in a while. I took some pictures so that was fun. My new companion though is going to be tough, I can tell you that right now. I am going to have to look for the best in him.

Like I said in the letter, our teaching pool is getting smaller each time we baptize somebody haha. It's a good problem to have. I am just trying to keep up the teaching pool with new investigators so we can keep up the same success. That is another reason why I am stressed out. I want to have the same success and it doesn't look like we can right now. I am just praying for miracles. I am working my hardest to go out everyday and find those people who are ready to hear the gospel. 

Sounds like you did really good on your talk on Sunday, both you and mom. I like the quotes you used so the talk was probably even better. Good job Papa!

I will let you know how a couple of our investigators are doing right now since I don't want to write about them all in the letter. The D family is kinda struggling right now. B has been having back problems and so they didn't come to church. That is the biggest problem with them. They just need to come to church. A lot of our investigators are in the same boat. It was cool though because yesterday E came to church for the first time and she really liked it. I hope she starts progressing super good now that she has come to church. We hope to put her on date this week. Well, that is some of our main investigators at the moment. I will write about the others in a letter hopefully haha. I really enjoyed getting your letter this week also. Thanks for sending me one.

Well, it sounds like you have a pretty busy week this next week so good luck on all that. Enjoy the caucus meeting haha. I bet those are no fun. Thanks for all that you do for me Dad. You're the best! I just want you to know that I look up to you and your example even more when times get tough. I know if you did it, so can I. You're the best! I love ya!

I will try to sit down and write a letter to you guys again today. You should get one this week.

I love you guys! Make sure to pray for our goal of 14 baptisms for my district by April 22nd at 9:00 pm. We need all the prayers we can get to help us out.

-Elder Sedlacek

What's up Mom,

Happy St. Patrick's Day haha! I didn't even realize it was St. Patrick's Day, so I am not wearing any green haha. Hopefully I don't get pinched.

 It was a pretty good week. Transfers was super fun, getting to see some missionaries that I hadn't seen in a while. Getting a new companion was, sadly, a different story. I'm afraid he is going to be a test of my patience. But I am going to learn to love him.

Tuesday we had a baptism for S. It was amazing. Probably the biggest miracle that happened this week. We also had four investigators at church so that was a pretty big miracle too, since we had all the baptisms we haven't had many investigators at church. Hopefully, the number stays up.

Sounds like you had a pretty busy week. The house looks super nice by the way. I like the gray paint even with the carpet. It looks really good. You are right though, this week went by kinda slow for me too. It has just been tough. I am stressed because I want to keep up the success that we have been having, and we are trying to find new investigators to teach because of all the baptisms we have had lately. The district set a goal for 14 baptisms as a district before April 22nd at 9:00pm so be sure to pray for that. Pray for us to have success in that goal. That is one thing we are focusing on--praying specifically for blessings we want to come. It really works too. So when you pray for it, make sure to say 14 baptisms by April 22nd at 9:00pm.

That is a super cool story about Grandpa V. I really like it  every time I hear it. Thanks for sharing it with me again Mama. I think that would have been so cool to be Grandpa in that situation. It would have been amazing.

That is funny about Nicole going and kissing a fish. Was it a hint? haha. I am proud of her haha! I wonder what made her go fishing like that though. Did she just go by herself? Mid life crisis haha.

I am glad that you liked my letter. I really do enjoy seeing the changes that happen. I know I have a much stronger testimony of the gospel now because of my mission. That is one of the biggest changes that have happened, and it's awesome that I still have time left to grow even more. That is why I love the mission.

Thanks for all that you do support me Mama and family. You're awesome. I love you guys!

A miracle story: 7th baptism scheduled

 

This is Jackson, the "fluffiest, most lovable dog in the world."

What's up,

How are you Mama? I am doing pretty good. This week was good. I hope yours was too. I didn't get the letter yet, so maybe I will today. It's exciting to hear about the ward's new mission calls.

This week we did have a baptism. Nick was baptized and it was great. It was probably the biggest showing of non-members at a baptism that I have seen so far on my mission. He had a ton of family there. It was great. For this week in baptism news, Carlos on date!!!!!!!!!!!! Carlos is on date!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! {Mom's note: Can you tell he's a little excited about Carlos' baptism??}

 

We had an awesome miracle with Carlos this week. We met with him and before the lesson his wife Sariah (who is a member) had let us know that she thought that watching The Testaments with him would really help him. Turns out that was VERY inspired. The video was great and the spirit was strong the whole time. At the end of the video, Carlos just sat there, not saying anything, but just thinking to himself. He was totally dumb struck. The spirit had given him a spiritual backhand to the face haha. All he could say was he was dumb for thinking the Bible was the only scripture in the world. He finally came to realize that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. That was the light bulb moment we had been waiting for with him. This is the same guy Elder J and I thought about dropping right after the first lesson because he was soooooo stubborn. Turns out he is awesome and will make a super good member. He loves God so much and will not do anything that is against His will. I love that guy!!! 

 

Well, that experience with Carlos pretty much made my week. I am so happy that he is getting baptized this week. I still can't believe it. It is truly a miracle. 

 

Sounds like you are going to have a fun week with the Blue and Gold banquet. It does seem like yesterday I was going to them haha. Time goes so fast. I still can't believe I have been out 7 months pretty much. I have to make the most of it because it goes super fast.

 

I bet Mia did great on her talk. She should consider doing student gov. I think she would really like that. Next women president of the united states haha.

 

Tell J.H. thanks for doing the pamplets for me. He's awesome. I am sure you allready told him thanks, but you should do it again for me haha. I will send him a thank you note. (Good idea Mama.) Thanks for all that you guys do for me. You are awesome. I am glad that HF is blessing you while I am gone. He is certainly blessing me as well.

 

For March 1st we only have 1 baptism scheduled. The D family would be getting baptized, but they have to come to church one more time and their grandson who lives with them keeps getting sick. It is going to be such an awesome baptism though with Carlos!

 

I am doing well. The only thing I need from you guys is prayers, like you are already doing, and a Mormon Messages DVD from Seagull book or somewhere. My face is doing pretty good. I went to the doctor this week and got some prescription stuff. Should start to really help me out. Brother J paid for it too, so he is so awesome for doing that for me. The members up here are awesome. I love them!

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