The countdown is On.... (Well Mom is counting down)!!!!

Got asked today to give a 15 minute talk on the Savior tomorrow. Took me 1.5 hours to write it!!! wish me luck! (well that was a couple of weeks ago!)

So I emailed last Wednesday, so there is not to much to update you on. We had 4 investigators at sacrament meeting yesterday (An all-time high). So that was really cool to see. Steve passed his baptismal interview on Saturday so he is all set to go for his baptism on the 22nd which is awesome!!! Not to much else to talk about. Hope everything is going well. Thanks for everything you do!!   :)

So not to much to report on. Steve's baptism was on Saturday and confirmation yesterday.  It was cool to see and he and his mom are prepping to go do Temple baptisms on the 6th, so life is going great for that. Super spiritual and testimony strenghtening for all of us involved they will be so great and an asset to the ward.

These next two weeks are loaded with stuff. I got to see lots of people from Dana Point ward yesterday b/c companion sang in choir at a ward in the same building Dana Point meets at so that was fun. Set up a party thing with the Rubalcava's on the 8th so that should be great. (It is my birthday, if you remember!!!)  

I am thinking of sending my bike home next week so the 1st of December, just so you are aware. Well not home but to Austins.  I'll be off to Salt Lake for school and all in Jan - It's pretty unbelieveable!!!!

Hope all goes well, have  a great Thanksgiving!!! Can you believe that this is the last week of November already?? How crazy is that. Have a great week I love you both so much!!! :)

wrong date right Temple!

Well Now it's December We went today to the Temple with Steve and Angie - How awesome is that!!!??   I had my departing interview today.  President said Good job on taking 17 credits first semester back.  He said that in his first year of graduate school he had kids, a job, and was called as the EQ president, AND was taking 17 credits Plus he got all A's!!! He said that as long as I do the right things and DO the things necessary the Lord will bless me in my efforts and that he has full confidence in me successfully completing 17 credits.  

REMEMBER

Oh man it is November already!!! Where is the time going???

So this past week or so (I guess it's more than that) has been awesome!! 
We have been teaching our investigator (I will forward you a picture of us and him and his mom) and that has been going great!!! He is so ready for this message and is soaking everything up like a sponge. We have been meeting with them almost every day and he is getting ready for baptism.

He is wanting to go to the Temple as soon as possible and Bishop said that he could the Priesthood within in a week and so it is looking like I will be able to go with him to do baptisms in the Temple before I go home!! Which is super awesome. His mom is coming along great. We had lesson last night with the Relief Society President Sister Nielsen and it was great. She talked about Visiting Teaching and she accepted to be a visiting teacher and to be visit taught!! How cool is that!! This family is so ready and they want to be involved and stay involved...so cool to watch them grow and learn and have things brought to their remembrance...

Other than them there is not to much else to talk about. We had a mission conference on Monday with Elder Andersen from the 2nd quorum of 70 and his wife and that was so cool. Really long day but there was a lot talked about and a lot that was learned. I was going to bring my notebook to share some quotes from the meeting but alas, I forgot it, and I have a companion otherwise I would just go and grab it but oh well...I will just share it in 3 weeks or so haha :)

SO not to much going on. Studies are going great. I have started going through the Seminary Teachers Manual for The Book of Mormon with a clean copy of the Book of Momron and writing in all of the notes and descriptions from the manual into the book, which is helping a lot better understand what is going on and the meaning behind everything that is happening. 

Also!!! I am going to LDSBC - I start 14 Jan 2015!!!  Hello UTAH!!!

Thank you both for everything you do, I truly appreciate it. 
Hope the next couple of days go great and you see miracles!!!
Keep up the awesome work!!! Don't break any more 400 dollar phones ;)

Love you so much

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Missionary Work - Preach My Gospel 101

Hello everyone out there!!! So we had an amazing week this week and the reason of the amazingness is outlined in the stories below.

So this week has been an amazing one!! 

• We are still teaching the same young man and we had a couple great lessons with him this week. The coolest one was the fact that we had a Temple tour and a baptism to attend planned out for him on Saturday and he came to both of them with his mom too - and they had a blast going! They loved the spirit they felt at the Temple and the same with the baptisms. He said that the baptism took a lot shorter than he thought and that he was looking forward to his on the 22nd of November. We mentioned that we needed to get a certain amount of lessons in before his interview and baptism and they said to have us come over everyday!! So we have a set lesson with them Tuesday-Friday until his baptism. His mom is so excited he is wanting to do this. She wants him to go on a mission (We will be discussing it after his baptism, and she wants him to get to the temple, get married in it and have a happy Mormon family)!!! It is so awesome to be apart of it all and to be able to close out my mission with such a solid person being taught, baptized with someone else coming back into the church. He is integrating perfectly with the Young Men and even helped set up and run games at the ward Halloween party!
• Last night we went over to a members house who said one of the kids living with them had a lot of questions about the church and was interested in talking with us. He is interested in anything about God.  We talked and taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he loved the sound of not just a Heaven and a Hell, but that there are "More options" to make sure everyone is happy and where they deserve. So the work is picking up and going great, it is an amazing opportunity to be a part of it all. 

So as you can see great things are continuing to happen here in the Lake Forest Ward!!! I am excited to say I will be staying here for my final 6 weeks of my mission which will be so awesome!! I will have the blessing to continue to work with people that I have mentioned and other people that the Lord has in store for us to find. It is always a long road on a mission, but it is people like these that make all of the tough times worth it. 

In my talk yesterday, I must say, as far as Church sacrament meeting talks go, It was pretty much awesome (Said with much Humility)!!!!  I went a little over my time (20 Minutes, not 20 over, total of 20 assigned 15) so yikes! Lots of people came up and said how good it was and how much they enjoyed it. I had 2 people ask for copies of it!!!   One girl came up after 2nd hour and started talking about how the week was. How she found some stuff out that kind of just make it tougher to go through each day. She mentioned she did not want to come to church today. She then said how glad she was that she came because of the fact that she "felt" my talk was given directly to her. She said she could truly feel that Christ was capable of being in her life and that He knew exactly how she was feeling and was there for her. It was one of the most powerful moments since being out, actually have someone tell you that you answered a concern they had because you had the ability to follow the spirit and be guided and directed to put the things in and talk about and elaborate on the things the spirit guided you to. So that was just a really awesome moment and one that I for sure will not forget...

#challenge completed! #StartingStrong #CaliforniaIrivineMission #FinishStrong

Anyways there is not to much to report on. I hope all is going well for all of you and hope miracles happen for you this week. I started this thing to help keep me focused this last transfer called the 42 day countdown.  I had missionaries write down a challenge for me to complete everyday (Missionary related or not) and today was the first day. The first challenge (Actually applies to every monday of the transfer) is to get up and study from 5:00 am to 6:30 work out from 6:30 to 7:00 get ready from 7:00 to 8:00 then normal studies from 8:00 to 10:00. I did it this morning and I actually really liked it. I am so awake right now and I got awake super quick. I am going to try and do it every Monday Wednesday and Friday, and hopefully by the time I come home I am doing it everyday. My goal with it is 5:00 am to 6:00 am work out 6:15 to 6:45 Shower get ready 6:45 to 7:00 make breakfast and 7:00 to 8:00 eat and have studies. So we shall see what happens and hopefully I am in the habit when I come home. 

Anyways thank you for all you do and hope all is well. Thank you for everything !!!! :)

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Teaching Serving and missin family birthdays

Happy Birthday Father!!! hope your day is going somewhat a little better...

Football Fans from the beginning  pretty funny note here
Amric came home from the hospital
 in a "COWBOYS" sleeper and supported ASU the next day~~~~

now all the sports and Rugby too!

Anyways this week was awesome!! We picked up a new investigator and set a baptismal date with him for the 22nd of November, so week 4 of next transfer, so if all goes well! He is such an awesome kid. It's a Mom and Son - He loves it all and is soaking it all up. More updates to follow and hopefully all continues to go well!!!

From an excitement stand point that is about it. Not to much else to say.

In response to fathers email, I am freaking out a little bit so thank you for the email, it really did help a lot. I know how much you have done for me and I know how much will continue to do, so Thank you so much for all of that. My plan for school is as you know end up transferring to a school with a good business program, so I have 2 years to think about it. We will cross that bridge when I get there.  I miss you a lot and cannot wait to be able to watch sports and stuff with you!!

Mom response- I feel like something weird is going on and you have something planned. Let's make sure it isn't to crazy :) I like your counsel about not using the phone in sacrament meetings, I really do. There is a guy in our ward who is a regional manager over Vivint, covers the whole western part of the united states, and he turns his phone on Airplane mode (Can use scriptures and all of that but no txt or calls) and he keeps it like that all Sunday so no one from work can get a hold of him, then he just goes in 2 hours early on monday to address anything he needs to. Thought that was a really cool thing to do, you not going to straight up not ever use it, but use it wisely. Glad to hear all is going well and that you sound happy. :)

All in all things are going great. I am loving the missionary and the area. Transfers are a week from tomorrow so we will find out on Saturday night if I stay in Lake Forest for my last transfer or if I get moved somewhere for my last one. So we shall see. Anyways I love you both so much and thank you so much for all you do. I really do appreciate it so much!! Love you always!!

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Teaching the Gospel is a Miracle happening...

Hey family hope all is going well for you this week and that you had a wonderful Sunday experience yesterday!! :) This week ended up being really good for us and we had a lot of fun and saw of cool things come about. 

http://meetthemormons.com/post/99500117644/meet-the-mormons-new-movie?cid=HPWE100814481

We spent the first few days of the week going through and sharing the flyers for the Meet the Mormons movie to the members in the ward, it was really fun to see how excited a lot of the members were for this movie to come out and how excited they were to share it with their friends, it turned out being an awesome experience and one that I am sure will help bring a lot of people into the church at least give a better understanding.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-08-013-daily-bread-experience?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng

Friday we had a cool experience stopping by former investigators.

• We stopped by and he was super excited to see us and ask us to come in to his home. We sat and talked for a little bit got to know each other and he said he would love to have us over for lessons, so we set up that appointment I am grateful and super excited to discuss the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. He was raised Roman Catholic and in his religious journey, he has come back to this faith as his true religion and in that religion it is written down the apostasy didn't happen and is having a hard time accepting that it truly happened, so we shall see. 
• The other cool experience was this former member. We stopped by her house and she was super excited to see us too.  She still remembered the missionaries that started teaching her like 5 years ago, so that is impressive. She told us that she wanted to have us over and set up an appointment for a lesson.
  

The ward is going good, we are working hard and doing all we can to work our butts off to show the ward we are working and doing the things necessary to bring our own people to church and into the waters of baptism. So, hopefully as we pick up our own work the ward will start to come out to play too and help us, but we wont be waiting for them, we are just going to go and see great things happen I know it!!!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-128-obeying-spiritual-promptings?lang=eng

Example of giving a priesthood blessing to someone who is sick

• Last night we had this awesome experience, we were walking around at about 7:30 and as we were going back to the car a thought ran through my mind lets go see someone and the name was specific.  It is night time on a Sunday good criteria for at least a "hello!" - we have not been able to catch this guy for 2 months almost. While we are walking around we come across a man with 2 kids walking around and so we go and talk to him, and offer him a Restoration pamphlet which he takes and we continue on our way. We see the door to this guys house that we have been prompted to go see and it is open, we knock with no answer, we then ring the door bell and about 25 seconds later (we usually leave at 30) a girl comes to the door. She's like elders how are you? we are like oh hey we are looking for so and so. She is like "Oh yeah he is my Father-in-law, he is out walking my 2 kids (remember the pamphlet guy, that was him) but you have the right house." Thank you for coming and She goes on to say "My husband has been really sick all day and I have been asking to get a blessing but he hasn't accepted, but now that you are here could you give him one?" We of course respond; we can, so we go in, give him the blessing, after we are done he says to his wife, How did you get a hold of the missionaries? She says honestly I didn't,  they just stopped by looking for your dad. So he said "elders tell your families thank you for supporting you because you are answering prayers and helping a lot of people." It was a really cool experience especially after a testimony meeting talking about following promptings, it was just so awesome to see it all play out and to look back on all the things that had to happen to get us to where we were at that time. 

Anyways not to much else to report on for the week. Miracles are going to happen I just know it!! You FAMILY are the best and I know Heavenly Father has a work for me to do as I close up my mission. Have a great week and know how much I appreciate all you do for me!!

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Oct. 6

Conference and Family Everywhere this weekend!

So this week has been a fun one, that is for sure. We did lots of service this week and that was really nice helped the week go by really quickly. We showed up at a members house and said hey another member told us you might need help with some house work so we are here, and oh man did we have fun, we ripped up the carpet and padding and tack board, oh before all of that we moved the furniture. So that was fun.
 Lets see what else happened....

OH Yeah Conference!!

So conference was really good!!!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/approaching-the-throne-of-god-with-confidence?lang=eng

The only talks I remember out on the frontal lobe of my mind is the Elder Jorg Klebingat

he was so good, he totally took his 1 opportunity to speak in conference and called out the whole church for being disobedient in some way or another. I loved it!!! 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/choose-wisely?lang=eng

Quentin's talk in Priesthood was really good. I love that he said "If you delay getting married because you want to finish school or get a good job you are not showing sufficient enough faith." that was hilarious! I thought of all my mid-single friends in my last ward and how they were feeling when he said that. 

I like that President Monson is sticking to his guns about not announcing any temples, good for him! Dean M. Davies, cant remember for sure what he talked about, but I can distinctly remember having a prompting to go back and study his talk once I can, so I will be doing that as soon as I can. 

Hmmmm....As always every talk was good, the foreign language ones were difficult to pay attention to; 1-because I wanted to hear them talk in their own language and just let the spirit teach me, and 2- I thought we would have captions not a voice over. But it was still really cool to see that the church is letting everyone have that option now!!!

I got my toe nail partially removed on Friday, that was fun so I am still feeling that a little bit. So the whole in grown and hurt edges are going away so we shall see what it looks and feels like in 2 weeks when i go in to get the other toe removed. 

We went on a hike this morning, realized how out of shape I am even though I have lost a lot of weight, but that was really fun this morning. It was the comp, 4 sisters and myself, so it was all good. These pics are of what it look liked at the look out point (1600 ft ). 

An elder and 2 sisters and I are starting a weight lose competition where we are going to track % weight lose and the person that wins (loses most % of weight between now and the 9th of December ) will get 10 dollars from each of the other 3 that don't lose the most % of weight so we shall see how that goes for all of us. 

Thank you both for all that you do, I forgot my atonement study binder so I do not have my challenge for this week.

Hey! I met Anona's sister. So I walk into my Relief Society Presidents house to drop some stuff off and this guy says to me; "Is your name really Elder Sobczak (said it correctly)"!     I reply yes - he says do you have a brother named Austin? I was like yes. He was like that is crazy My wife's sister is married to Austin. So then in walked Ana Hardin and it was really wierd and cool, super small world. AWESOME!

Anyways, that is all for the week. Go see Meet The Mormons this week  http://meetthemormons.com/post/99500117644/meet-the-mormons-new-movie?cid=HPWE100814481 if you can, it is such a good movie!!! 

Love you both so much!!

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Well this week was a rough week with not to much to report on.

We spent a lot of the week in a new development called Baker Ranch. A really nice community that had about 100 new families move in in the past 2-3 months, so we decided to go door to door and offer a Book of Mormon to everyone who answered the door and wanted one, we ended up placing about 10 to the roughly 30-40 housesthat had someone answer the door, so a pretty good ratio.

Afterward we found out Last night that the Aliso Creek ward (a ward in our stake ) split and with the split took Baker Ranch (even though the stake said nothing from our ward boundary would be affected). So that is super frustrating mainly because that was our biggest hopes of new ground that no body as a missionary had been on before, so thats a bummer.

The calendar we pass around got zero sign ups for dinner or lessons so we are on our own this week ( excluding Wednesday and Thursday ). So we shall see how that goes...

In our WC meeting yesterday we talked for 20-30 minutes about how the members need to have the missionaries over in their homes once a month, what happens, no body from WC signed up to have us over in the next month with the exception of our RSP, Bishop, and WML. So again, frustrated with the work, myself, and the ward. We shall see how the coming weeks go. Dont want to complain to much though, really at all, I have no reason to so I shall move on. 

We went with the sister last night to a LA / PM family named the Ogden's. We had a fun time. The dad is a Non-Member and he and I hit it off pretty great, he loved that I love sports and we talked a little about how I handled watching sports and having to go to church on Sunday when I was home. So I told him how and he thought about it, told me that he and I are on the same page but that I needed to stay there cause I was starting to "float up a little bit." 

Conference is this week though and I am super excited as always for that!!I

t is always fun to see how the members react to the "Call to do missionary work." We are doing a missionary miracle week this week. We started with a stake fast yesterday and are ending on Sunday by having a testimony meeting sharing the miracles we had seen this week. So hopefully we have miracles to share, just have to look deep I guess. 

Challenge for this week from atonement study:

Memorize "Gethsemane" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (posted below). Contemplate the "purpose of Gethsemane" in your life. Write down something that you can do to better submit your will to Heavenly Father. Do "in the garden" scripture chain.

Quotes from 

The Atonement of Jesus Christ

BY ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND

"every other principle, commandment, and virtue of the restored gospel draws its significance from this pivotal event (Garden of Gethsemane/ Atonement)."

"This infinite Atonement of Christ was possible because;

 (1) He was the only sinless man ever to live on this earth and therefore was not subject to the 

spiritual death resulting from sin, 

(2) He was the Only Begotten of the Father and therefore possessed the attributes of godhood that 

gave Him power over physical death, ⁶  and 

(3) He was apparently the only one sufficiently humble and willing in the premortal council to before

ordained to that service. ^7 "

ALSO

“In a manner to us in comprehensible and inexplicable, 

He bore the weight of the sins of the whole world; not only of Adam, but of his posterity;

and in doing that, opened the kingdom of heaven, not only to all believers and all who obeyed the law of God, but to more than one-half of the human family who die before they come to years of maturity, 

as well as to [those] who… [die] without [the] law.” ^28 "

Gethsemane

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

In golden youth when seems the earth
A Summer-land of singing mirth,
When souls are glad and hearts are light,
And not a shadow lurks in sight,
We do not know it, but there lies
Somewhere veiled under evening skies
A garden which we all must see --
The garden of Gethsemane.

With joyous steps we go our ways,
Love lends a halo to our days;
Light sorrows sail like clouds afar,
We laugh and say how strong we are.
We hurry on; and hurrying, go
Close to the border-land of woe,
That waits for you, and waits for me --
For ever waits Gethsemane.

Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams,
Bridged over by our broken dreams;
Behind the misty caps of years,
Beyond the great salt fount of tears,
The garden lies. Strive as you may,
You cannot miss it in your way.
All paths that have been, or shall be,
Pass somewhere through Gethsemane.

All those who journey, soon or late,
Must pass within the garden's gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there,
And battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say,
Not mine but thine, who only pray,
Let this cup pass, and cannot see
The purpose in Gethsemane.

and from The Infinite Atonement...

For those few moments in the eternal spectrum called mortality the Savior yielded to the mortal plight; he submitted to the inhumanity of man; his body longed for sleep; he hungered; he felt the pains of sickness.  He was in all respects subject to every mortal failing experienced by the human family.  Not once did he raise the shield of godhood in order to soften the blows.  Not once did he don the bulletproof vest of divinity.  That he also had godly powers did not make his suffering any less excruciating, any less poignant, or any less real.  To the contrary, it is for this very reason that his suffering was more, not less, than his mortal counterparts could experience.  He took upon him infinite suffering, but chose to defend with only mortal faculties, with but one exception - his godhood was summoned to hold off unconsciousness and death that would otherwise overpower a mere mortal when he reached his threshold of pain.  For the Savior, however, there would be no such relief.  His divinity would be called upon, not to immunize him from pain, but to enlarge the receptacle that would hold it.  He simply brought a larger cup to hold the bitter drink.

Elder Tad R. Callister, The Infinite Atonement, 119

I invite you to tune into the General Broadcast of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints annual conference coming up this Sat Oct 4th and Sun Oct 5th streaming online (link attached) or on the BYU channel.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/prepare-for?cid=HPFR100314460&lang=eng 

Anyways that is all and I will stop rambling, hope this week goes great for you, Thank you for all you do and I appreciate everything you do for me. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you!!

So, that is all for the week, not to much else to add, it had been slow one. 

With Much Love and Appreciation,

Elder Amric Sobczak

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014