A testimony of a missionary and the Atonement

Another week down, things are plugging along with only two weeks left in the transfer things are starting to fly by. We reset our baptismal date with our investigator and that was reset for June 15th. So that is really cool. Hopefully that all works out and gets together. Other than that, no groundbreaking information from the area.

This last week I had amazing study on the Atonement and how it can be applied in a temporal sense just as much as it can be in the spiritual sense. It was amazing. One of those experiences where I wasn't writing or taking notes, it was like I was in a third person experience watching myself write things down. 

It started with the Question "How can the Atonement be applied in a temporal sense?" 

• This led to the definitions of Atone and the suffix -ment. Atone: At one, in agreement. -Ment: Result of action or process (Advancement).
• The inspired definition for Atonement revealed to me "Being reconciled in agreement with the result of an action or process." 
• Dictionary: (Theo) The reconciliation of God and men thus brought about by Jesus Christ. 
• So, we are at the point where the Atonement allows us to be saved but only saved according to (In conformity with) the actions or things we did here on this life.
• Wickedness never was happiness. Corruption cannot bring about incorruption.
•  This led to reading Article of 2 which led to Article of 3 and that is where the magic happened. 
• Break it down: Through Atonement we will be saved (promise from our Heavenly Father).
• How are we saved? 
• Obedience to laws and ordinances of the Gospel. (This is why we need to make covenants. They are a result of the process of being obedient to laws and ordinances.) 

• Remember President Monson at conference? He taught - "The toughest test in this life is obedience." 

• Ordinance meaning "A custom or practice established by long usage". 
• Ordinance comes from ME ordinance which comes from (<) OFr: ordenance < MED Lat: Ordinantia < Lat: Ordinare, to ordain < ordo, ORDER.
• Ordinances provide ORDER. 

1. Think of it, every ordinance that we perform in this life is built off of each other. 
2. We cannot repent if we do not have faith. 
3. We cannot be baptized if we do not repent.
4. We cannot receive the gift of the Holy Ghost if we are not Baptized.
5.  We can not endure to the end (Priesthood, Temple, and marriage in temple) if we do not have gift of the Holy Ghost. 
6. And if we are not OBEDIENT to those ORDINANCES and LAWS we cannot be saved through the Atonement, God cannot save a man in ignorance.

Joseph Smith said "When a man works by Faith (1st Principle of the Gospel) he works by mental exertion and not by physical force." Step one connecting Faith in Jesus Christ to temporal, Mental Exertion. We must exert force in our mind to find out what we must do. This leads to reptence. In the Greek Bible "Repentance" is used as "Mettanuao" (Met-ta-new-ay-o). When you translate that back into English it means "A CHANGE of heart and mind." So there you go, Repentance is change. When we mentally exert ourselves we gain a knowledge of what we need to change in our lives to become more like Christ. What happens when we Change? We must evaluate ourselves. Thats the temporal application to the spiritual principle of Baptism.  We hold ourselves accountable by physically performing the action that we have come to the knowledge of through mental exertion and the change is solidified. To continue to mentally exert, change and hold ourselves accountable, we must be inspired (Or have the gift of the Holy Ghost) to continue to gain what we must do. When we Do that we internalize it and it becomes a part of us. We endure to the end.  "Salvation in not east we must work at it.  How can we bear testimony of the atonement if we have never known anything of it." - Holland  We come to a knowledge of everything we need to do to stay worthy in the site of God(Priesthood, Temple, Temple Marriage). THE GOSPEL IS PERFECT. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKiNVbw3Y  missionaries and investigators have to pay a token of that price to know the atonement.

Pants before I tailored them

I don't know how much sense this made but to me through the Spirit it made absolute sense. This Gospel can be applied in Business,  School, work, family.  If this Gospel wasn't perfect in every aspect that would make Heavenly Father not perfect which would make him cease to be God. Its all there.

Pants after I tailored them!

Okay, so that is it for now. We had Zone Conference yesterday Got to see Elder Armstrong so that was good. President Cook told him that "I was more impressive than Elder Armstrong when he was out this long."  thats nice to hear!

Sheets bite the dust

The work is going great. I have to end this shortly because like always my companion is super strict on the 1/2 hour rule and I wont have time to email president if I dont hurry.

Sheets I mended with my sweat shirts

I love you all so much.  I havent figured out what we are doing on Sunday (Mother's Day - I can call Home) yet so just be signed into Skype/Facetime all day. My companion has been lazy and hasnt put any effort into figuring anything out for us, since he is going home 10 days after Mothers Day :)  Wish we could all go for Pizza!!! 

Anyways,

Pizza is perfect!

Love you all so much. hope everything is going great and that all is well. 

keep it classy and true to the faith. 

Love you so much :)

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

"That's What's Up"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-January 2015