Legacy of the Scriptures

https://www.lds.org/church/news/new-church-video-honors-scriptures-legacy?lang=eng

As Missionaries, as Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  ...

we ^atalk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we ^bprophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our ^cchildren may know to what source they may look for a ^dremission of their sins.  2 Nephi 25:26 in the Book of Mormon

The Savior has promised, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”² Followers of Christ pattern their lives after the Savior to walk in the light. Two characteristics can help us recognize to what extent we follow Him. First, followers of Christ are loving people. Second, followers of Christ make and keep covenants.  

see the talk by Walter F GONZÁLEZ

link;

 https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/04/followers-of-christ?lang=eng&query=of+christ

Easter Promptings Miracles and Traction

So we had a pretty good week out here in the good ole' California Irvine Mission. The main cool thing was that Elder Neil L Anderson came and talked to all of us and then on Sunday for Easter he came to our stake and did a Stake Conference. It was awesome. Some Highlights of his and others from the weekend talks are as follows:

• We are the Salt of the Earth. Salt is put into to bread to raise the bread, we are sent out to "Raise the Faith." I thought that was a really good way to look at that because I have always looked at that phrase as a negative, this is from Elder Anderson.

• Sometimes the Lord knows we have the Faith to be healed and have Faith in Christ to heal us, but sometimes what is being tested is our "Faith to Endure." How well will we continue to be faithful and obedient when we are not seeing the outcome right off the bat of doing the good things. I have determined that that is what is being tested with me right now. Will I continue to do what needs to be done even when nothing seems to be happening. Obviously tweak things that need to but ultimately will I stay obedient or will I say it doesn't matter. So that was really cool, that thought came from our stake president.

• We need to be more thinking of ways to forgive the people around us. I mean come on, Christ forgave the people that were killing Him and the people that were next to him on the cross. This came from Sister Haney I believe, wife of area seventy

• Again, Apostles have seen the Resurrected Christ. Elder Anderson read President Packer's testimony from last conference and even now, I just feel the Spirit confirm to me the truthfulness of His words, his added testimony to that of Joseph Smith. Elder Anderson then said, "I add my witness, I am His Witness, He Lives, I am His Special Witness." Oh man the spirit that was there when He said that, Oh man even now it gives me the chills.

• Elder Anderson talked about all the places he has been and will be going to and basically rebuked the whole stake with out them even realizing it, it was so subtle. He basically said that the people in third world countries are much happier because they are humble. Again I don't have the exact quote but it was much more subtle than what I just said.

Those are the things I remember. It was an awesome Easter Weekend. On Wednesday night right before I went to bed I felt prompted to start a 24 hour fast for better guidance and strength in "finding" and to know how to stay more consecrated. We had Zone Training Thursday and Elder Campbell was sitting next to me, he is another DL in the Zone. He was talking about how he just started a 40 day fast, where you give up a list of like 10 things for 40 days, in the hopes to become more consecrated and become more open to the spirit. I was like; "Oh man sweet I will do it with you". He was like; "you have to start it with a 24 hour fast". I was like; "I already am, I felt prompted to start last night". He was like; "No way, I was trying to find a companion to do it with because mine isn't".  So it was cool to see how following promptings will end up helping someone as well as helping yourself. You have to follow the prompting as they come into your mind.   Don't ever pass up an opportunity to be guided by the spirit.

Nothing really else to mention. Except Monday after emailing we saw Kobe Bryant and Fashion Island, a mall here in Newport Beach. He was getting his Five Guys. Pretty cool. So lets see....Oh so I am officially accepted to SUU for Spring 2015. I also applied for the WUE scholarship, the lady over new freshman scholarships told me to follow up in October to see if I am being considered for the scholarship. Still waiting to hear back from BYU so we shall see how that works out. Really would love to go to either one,  so we shall see what happens???

Nothing else to mention. Transfer is going good, already week 4 cannot believe it. Hope all is going well, the loneliness is kind of going away, my comp just goes to bed super early so I never know what to do from 9:30 to 10:30, but I do have stuff to do. But it is going better so I am doing all good. Being on a mission is hard in alot of different ways, even though it is so awesome too.

Love you all so much Hope everything is going well. I have a package to send, but it can wait until I have a new address to send it too. Love you all so much, Thank you for everything you do. 

Oh quick side note, could you send me my cleats? The orange/yellow ones I wore in rugby? we do a lot of outside sport (soccer rugby ultimate Frisbee) so it would be nice to have some traction.Love you all so much keep up awesome work!

 Love you all so much :)

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

14 April 2014

So, this week has been a good one, but not to much to report on.

 

Main thing to report on are from a dinner we had on Thursday night, oh man it was so funny!   We were at a members house and the member had ducks, as you can see in the picture. We had a blast there, her boyfriend is not a member and her son is kind of deciding if he wants to serve a mission or not, so we had a good time there.   Now they have a tiny back patio that is on the peninsula with lots of people around. We had a fire the whole time we were there and then at about 8:45- 9 at night the neighbors behind them and above them just started yelling at them about how they have been gone all day with their windows open and now their house smells like smoke and they cant even stay in their house. Just called them the worst neighbors they had ever had and all of these things that just were rude, all of us were trying not to laugh because of how ridiculous they were. So this went on for about 10 minutes, they told us to practice what we preach and do something about having the smoke in their house. The member was like why didn't you just close your windows, this fire pit is completely legal. They said get out your rain jackets. Like the guy was actually going to pour water all over us. hahaha!!! So we all went in and then what did we do? Well, he wanted the fire out cause he hated the smoke so we dumped water on it. What does that do? Cause much more smoke which kind of made them more irritated. WOW! it was such an interesting very awesome night ;)

 

Later in the week on Saturday I was on an exchange with Elder Peterson and we were down by this surfing spot;  the wedge. We were contacting people ad started talking to this girl. She was interested in what we had to say and was actually becoming a Christian herself as she is attending Vanguard University. So we taught her the first lesson and she loved it. She said we could come back and that she was interested in hearing more of what we have to say. She is out of town for this  coming weekend and so we set it up for two weeks. Sadly she is YSA so we had to give her up to the YSA elders but she will be going places she is totally ready to hear the Gospel.

 

Yesterday at church was for sure interesting. My companion had to go sing in the mission choir so he bailed on helping me teach the Gospel Principles class. So I pulled single missionary status at church and just bounced from person to person who held the priesthood. It was super weird. Taught the lesson myself which was fun, a little harder without a companion but that's just because I am so used to teaching with someone.

 

Anyways, not to much to talk about. This weekend will be an awesome one. Neil L Anderson is coming and doing a mission conference on Saturday for 4 hours and then on Sunday he is doing a Stake Conference in our stake so we will get double dose it is going to be awesome. I am super excited to hear from him and what he will say.

 

I hope this coming week will be a good one for all of you. Thank you for all you do and hope you see miracles in your lives this week. Keep up the awesome work and always remember pray and read your scriptures.

Love you all so much and appreciate all you do. Keep up the awesome work.

 

With Much Love and Appreciation

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Because of Him

Great Great Week

Oh Man what a good week!   So for sure conference was super awesome - I loved it :)

I will list some of the highlights from it  (from memory for as again I forgot my notebook so I cannot really remember what 100% happened:

• President Packer. Such a simple powerful testimony that he knows God lives, that the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit, and that Christ lives. I felt as he was talking that it was the last time we would be hearing from President Packer. It was so good, just short simple and to the point as always it was really good.
• President Uchtdorf's talk in priesthood was hilarious talking about the airplanes and all of that. He is hilarious but has good insights to the funny stories he tells.
• I thought it was interesting Elder Bednar's talk about the load. It helped me better understand trials and work load in the mission field. You want it to be simple but you wont see anything come from it truly if there is no load, you will get stuck and wont be able to move forward. You must have weight on you in order to move forward.
• Elder Richard G. Scott story from his childhood about having an example in his life to explain to him the importance of having a good example and providing the importance as well of being baptized. 
• President Henry B. Eyring hit on this as well as he talked about the examples in his life of how to be a good man. It made me want to be that kind of a leader when I continue forward in my mission and in life. Always be that example that will help others strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ. 
• Lastly I thought the most interesting thing was the difference between KEYS and AUTHORITY that they hit on during the priesthood. We all have the authority to use it but not all have the keys, and everything must be done in regards to the keys. I have noticed that much through out my mission, you must work through keys because that is the only way the RIGHT work will get done. But you must have the authority to work with the keys. I just thought it was good that they hit on that so much because it is a problem right now in the world the outlook people have on women and men in the church.

Also from this week I replaced a light switch in my apartment. I through a picture in that shows what i did. Had to shut off the power to the apartment so i could switxch it out. It was bugging me that a light switch was there but did not turn on anything, so i went to home depot to pik up anew switch and now it works. Glad I know how to do common electrical fixes in my house.

My old neighbor Lane Valentine from Elma Wa -
(4th one up on the right) sang in the choir that was fun to see! 

The rest of the week was just a build up to conference that ended with just complete satisfaction. Conference is the Superbowl for missionaries!  Everything is going pretty well. I have learned that I do not want to be trunkie when i get to my final transfer or two out here on my mission. I want / desire to push myself until the end and not give up at all. So that is a lesson I have learned, push to the end and do not give up. This whole ENDURE TO THE END principle is the hardest one to apply in this religion. The only ones are pretty easy to know what needs to be done, enduring to the end does not have an exact checklist of what needs to be done, you have to pray and come to know what needs to happen for you in your life. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints preaches true doctrine, continue to do all you can to better understand it and better know what the Lord would have you do in your life.   

Thank you for all you do, I got your tapes, thank you for that, I will have one done this next week, so more of my thoughts for conference will be on that. keep up the awesome work you do and look to Christ in all you do. He is the only one who knows what you are going through. 

Love you both so much. You are the best and i truly appreciate you and all you do. Until next week :) 

P.S. Elder Holland's testimony at the end of his talk about priesthood ordininaces

FYI;

media links -

#LDSConf   @LDQuotable  @MORMONorg  @LDSMessages   Mormon.org   and 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 

Earthquakes last week

Oh man has this past week been a good one.

So as I am sure you all heard there was a 5.1 earthquake in La Habra California which is about 20 minutes or so away from where we are here in Newport Beach. The quake started at about 9:09 and at like 9:10 9:11 we felt in our apartment. We were planning and all of a sudden literally the apartment started shaking so it was pretty intense. Our complex actually got pretty severly damaged and we have been at the church for the past couple of days helping with the clean up. Some missionaries got injured but nothing severe. So I trust President Orgill will be keeping you updated as to the condition of the me and all the other missionaries.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/29/magnitude-53-quake-shakes-los-angeles-area/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/29/us/california-earthquake/

Jokes :) Love you all April's Fools :)

 Continue Reading all is well :)

 The whole building itself moved but luckily, unlike up in La Habra no damage was done here. It was for sure fun and made me well aware of the power that Earth has.

Anyways, we have gotten transfer cals, I am not moving! Staying here in Newport Beach which means this is where I will call home from on Mothers Day!!!! 

Guess what?  this is fun news ...okay so for about three weeks we have known that on Easter Sunday we had a special stake conference but only the Stake President knew what was happening. It is the 20th of April. on the 19th of April we are having a mission conference combined with the Anaheim Mission so we have all thought that whoever was coming on Sunday for stake conference would be coming for the mission conference. Well we know who it is...Neil L Anderson is coming to do a special stake conference and potentially mission conference on the 19th and 20th of the month of April. No Idea why he is coming to either one but it is so exciting to have him coming. It does not happen that a member of the 12 comes to a stake conference often, so it will be interesting to see what he talks about and what is going to happen. So stay tuned for that email as I am sure there will be some exciting news in it!  :) 

Other than that not to many exciting stories. Had a cool mission conference yesterday where the Orgill's daughter came and spoke to us about overcoming adversity and pressure and not give into Satan. It was a really powerful message and whole thing was recorded so it will be awesome to be able to watch it again.

Uhm, what else, my companion and I (Elder Davis) made this drink that has ben named "DaCzak" Combination of Davis and Sobczak. What happened was that He had bought a Papaya last P-Day. It turned out to not be so good so he threw it in a blender with milk and ice, still not to good, well 15 minutes, 14 fudge cookies, 1/4 cup of hot fudge, 1/4 cup of PB,  and 1 red velvet cupcake later we had "DaCzak"!!!   It was the single most sugar filled thing I have ever had, and it still was not to good. Food creations like that happen when boredom sets in.

Good to hear the house situation went well. It will be exciting to mail somewhere else now, when do you move in and don't do anything with the "man Cave" until I get home, I will help plan that, maybe that can be the Sobczak Family Christmas 2014! Got Ayris's and Shawn wedding invite they look so cute, wish I could be there but You know I will be in spirit!!! :(haha!

Thank you again for all you do for me and the prayers that are sent. Keep up the awesome work and doing what the Lord would have you do. I appreciate everything you have done and it means a lot so keep up the awesome work and I will keep up the work on my end.

Have fun with conference this weekend. Dad and Austin ... Watch Priesthood at the stake center, not at home. Again not at home :) GO TO THE CHURCH it will be much more meaningful. 
Thank for helping me out with school, I should know ... I am assuming in the next month or two,  at the latest what the decision is but who knows?????
Anyways, keep up the faith and the good work. I love you all so much :) 
Talk to you next week :)

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014