First Baptism Scheduled!

Email to Dad 11/11/13
What's up pops?

My week went great. Kind of a cool story for the week: So you know Isaac had been kind of apprehensive about the church? He had been praying for an answer to know if the church was right. He finally got that answer at the beginning of the week and since then we have met with him 5 times this week! We assigned  him a chapter in 3rd Nephi 11 (where the savior comes to the people) and he read it and he said he jumped around in joy haha. He is super awesome. I also gave a copy of the article that Brother H. gave me and he loves that too. He couldn't put it down he said so tell Bro H. that I have been able to use his article lots. It is awesome. Well anyway, we have him on date for baptism on the 30th and he said he cannot wait. We might even move it up. We will just have to see. As far as our other investigators, we have another named Tomara. I might have already told you about her. She is a grandma who is interested in religion. She loves Jesus and will do anything to follow Him. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to church but she didn't show this week so we will keep trying. That is pretty much the really solid ones we have for right now. We are doing a lot of tracting where all the red necks/ hicks are at so that is kinda fun haha. Kittitas is a crazy place haha! I love it though. Never would I live there, but it's still pretty funny to see some of the stuff that goes on. 

Dang, that sucks about the sports teams. I really wish Utah could win some more. Utah ST seems to be doing pretty good then. That's good for Nicole. I bet the Utes will get whomped on by Oregon. Just have to see what happens though.

As you know, Sunday is not a day of rest for missionaries haha. It will be weird to go home and be able to rest haha. Meetings all day then pros at night. Sounds like your Sunday was like mine. Lots of stuff going on but hey that's everyday out here haha. Me and Elder S. get along great. We haven't even argued once which is nice. We have good lessons and have lots of fun other times. It's nice to have a good companion for once haha. I love the wards we cover. In other words, I am doing great. Ellensburg is starting to grow on me you could say. I love the people, especially all the red necks in Kittitas. By the way, I have a dang good fake hick accent now. I will have to crack it out sometime haha. I did get to see the pic of Elder K. That would be so cool to pet an elephant. (Too bad there aren't elephants in Ellensburg). All my friends are doing well. I hope you guys have a good week. I love the Book of Mormon and I know the church is true! My testimony is definately growing! I love you guys! Talk to you later!

 

Love, 

Elder Sedlacek

A confession

Letter dated 11/4/13

Dear Family,

I figured that I would write you a letter now that I have time in the day. Things have been going good up here. As I said in the email, they split this area. We are now working more focused on the wards now, which is good. They really needed to do it officially and they did.

One thing I realized this week is that I have been trusting myself to know when people are ready for the gospel, not the other way around like it should be. I need to put my trust in Heavenly Father, who knows each of his children perfectly, to know when his children are ready for the gospel. I came to realize that in training this week. That is the big thing I am focusing on this week. We are going to try to visit all of our potentials, regardless of what I think. I don't know everything, but Heavenly Father does! Well, there's my big confession for the week haha. There is always room for improvement, and I'm going to improve on that this week.

It's crazy that I'm at three months now! I'm 1/8th of the way done and it feels like I got to the MTC yesterday. I can definitely do 7 more 3 month increments. Living the mission one day at a time really helps.

What's new about you guys? Enough talking about me haha.

Coming on a mission has really strengthened my testimony of the Book of Mormon. Reading it every day for an hour is great. If only there was time for that in normal life! (There is I guess, but it's so hard to make it.) It's great serving a mission. I would recommend it for all the younger kids. It's hard, but it helps you personally so much and others, too.

Thank you for everything. Every single one of you! I love you all. You should write letters more often haha. I love them. Talk to everyone later!

~Elder Sedlacek

Switch ups, but no transfer yet!

Elder Jake is hitting his second transfer staying in Ellensburg, but we expected it since he just got a new companion a couple of weeks back. I think he is happy to stay where he is for now. 

11/4/13 Email to Mama:

What's up? It is crazy how fast October went. I've been out three months, but trust me, I will always be a greenie in some way haha. I still have my dork dot from the MTC to prove it. Pres. Ware is an awesome guy. One of the guys from the Seventy that came with Elder Ballard said we aren't assigned to a mission area. Missionaries are assigned to a president. Wherever the Pres you need is serving that is where you go. I thought that was kinda cool. 

I am trying to stay warm haha. The heater in our main room won't turn on so we just wear coats all the time, but I do stay warm. We are in the process of getting it fixed. It hasn't snowed here yet but I have seen snow on peoples' cars so it is snowing somewhere. Probably up in Cle Elum. Oh, Christmas shopping already? Fun. A good quality GPS would be nice to have but you get whatever you want for me. I will like anything you guys send. 

I did get the package of cookies. They are so good. I liked the package. The cookies are perfect mama haha. That clown pen was funny. I don't know how Lib knew that I hate clowns but I do. That pen was the first thing I saw when I opened the package haha. I was like "what the heck is this?" then I read the letter that she threw in there and I got why. Libby is funny. 

I also like the story of Aaron and King Lamoni's father and when he values his life at half of his kingdom but then later on a couple chapters he values the gospel at all of his kingdom and whatever else it takes to have the gospel in his life. You're right, it would be awesome to see someone change like that.

The transfer news is Cle Elem is getting their own set of Elders now, which is just crazy. They are a branch now but I am sure they will be a ward in not so long. They also split Ellensburg into two areas. One of the areas is 2nd ward only, and the other is 1st ward, and 3rd ward. Me and Elder S cover 1st and 3rd. Other than that nothing really exciting happened. Pretty boring transfer call. I am sure splitting the area will help it so much once the members trust us a little more. Before, they didn't really have that much communication with us. It was hard to focus on all the wards at the same time while doing a free-for-all type thing. I am glad they actually officially split it now. I am happy covering 1st and 3rd. I love both wards. They have awesome members. 

I am getting enough to eat. I wish I could cook something. I want some recipes out of that "A Man, A Can and A Plan" cookbook from Aunt Mo. I don't want the whole book though. I don't think I need anything from home in particular. I am doing pretty good. Thank you for all that you guys do!

11/4/13 Email to Dad

What up Pops!

I am doing good. By now, I am sure you have heard the news that my area split and I cover 1st and 3rd ward now with Elder S. It was a slow week honestly. Isaac is being kinda stubborn. He went to a gospel principles lesson, but the teacher turned it into a gospel doctrine and went super deep with doctrine. It really screwed up his progression so now he just says he is going to pray for an answer for our church to be true but he doesn't want to meet until he gets that. It just really frustrates me when people do that. Kayla moved to Othello so we lost her. We found another investigator named Desirae. She is a college student just interested in learning about the church. Her dad grew up Mormon and won't talk about it so she is just learning from us. Other than that, we are just trying to find some new people to teach. We got a bunch of referrals from the other Elders so we are going to check those out. We have a bunch of new investigators from them that they were working with that I haven't met yet so I am excited to meet with them. 

I only heard about Boston winning from the gym we go to every morning. I saw the celebration. It looked pretty crazy haha. I am glad Boston was able to win it this year. Hopefully Utah State can keep up the winning. I bet they can make it to a bowl game pretty easy. 

That is crazy it is snowing already. Seems like yesterday I got dropped off at the MTC and it was super hot. I am at my 3 month mark too. It hasn't snowed here yet but I have seen snow on peoples cars, probably from up in Cle Elum. It is like Park City up there but not as big or nice. It snows a ton just like Park City does. We split the area so I don't get to go up to Cle Elum anymore. I loved it up there. It's really the only place I have seen in Eastern Washington that looks pretty haha. I have heard Wenatchee is just like it so I hope I go up there sometime.

Good luck on your talk. I bet its so fun being a high council man and getting to talk a ton in a year (NOT!) haha. You do good at it though. Just sayin. That is sweet that Sister T has been learning sign language. It would be cool to see a testimony done in sign language. The Bishop is awesome. Give him a hard time for me haha.

Did you have lots of fun trick or treating? I bet you did. I bet you couldn't wait to get up to go walk around the neighborhood haha. It is fun though to go around and get doughnuts from Bonnie and stuff like that. We didn't have any trick or treaters come to our door. Probably because they know we are missionaries haha. We were going to hand out pass along cards instead of candy if anyone knocked on our door. It is crazy how old you and mom are getting haha. You mean you are getting old. Mom is staying young haha. Life goes too fast sometimes haha.

I hope you have a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Sedlacek

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