Transfers Tomorrow I'm Outta Here! :( off to a New and Different Area

From July 28th

 -- It has been a really good one and as always, love being out here on the mission. 

This has just started week 6 so this coming Saturday will be the day we find out if i stay in Newport First ward another transfer or if i get moved around. I am hoping to be staying here in the ward again, I really love it and I feel like there is still stuff to do out here that isn't finished yet so we shall see what happens this coming week.

Church yesterday was really good. In PEC we were talking about how to get Home and Visiting teaching up and help the members realize the importance of it. One guy (the HPGL) said just to pull everyones recommends that are not currently doing home teaching/coming to their meetings. A little harsh I thought but understandable amidst the frustration. Then we came to the idea of why don't we just put up a list of everyones home and visiting teachers so everyone can see who they are supposed to be taught by and everyone knows who they are supposed to teach and post the list outside the chapel for everyone to see. So we all loved the idea of this and it will be implemented this next Sunday, I am excited to see what will happen in regards to this and if this actually gets people up and moving and working on a problem that clearly has a huge down play in all wards in the church, every ward I have served in has low home and visiting teaching reports so who knows maybe this works, maybe it lights the fire underneath some people. I love the accountably of it all.

Other than that no real cool stories at all to share with the family. We are doing great, I love it out here. It is exciting to see the Lord working in my life so that through me he can help other of His children that are in need of help. I hope you all have a great week ahead. I love you so much and thank you for all that you do!:) Have a great week!

4 August ....

So Sadly today I report;

•  I am getting transferred...
• also sadly my companion is as well. Yep! they are moving both of us and bringing in two different elders to fill our spot. We are pretty bummed and sad and so is the ward. Church yesterday was a really sad day. Six months in a ward and you really come to love the people and feel part of their family.
• Another thing that is upsetting is for the last 6 months I have been here not one ward activity, nothing. :( Guess what? in a week and a half they are having their annual ward summer party...  :( Super sad, but whatever!  I have realized that the Lord puts you where he needs you when he needs you and for how long he needs you so this is all part of the plan and we need to just accept it and move on.  Nothing I can do about it and it cannot really change at all. 
• The week has been a good. We taught more than normal which was fun and made the week go by really quickly which is a blessing in disguise because week 6 usually goes by really slow so it was nice to see it go by quickly. 

We had a really cool missionary themed fireside last night with members from the stake and it was really nice. President Orgill and President Silve (Stake President) talked and the mission choir sang, so good.  Anyways so it was a fun experience to get go to that and listen and just feel of the spirit. I think that is the most interesting thing being out here, I have grown to truly notice the Spirit when I have it and when i do not have it, it is an interesting thing and hopefully something i can continue to develop and keep as i go home.

Another cool thing that happened at church yesterday was a lady came up to us and she said "I forgot to get money out (She usually gives us $5 every time we see her) and she was like I'll will just double it next week". We responded with "oh it's no problem but we wont be here next week we are getting transferred".  Gotta love Newport and the giving attitude the people have and the fact they give and help out here so much. So that was just an interesting thing, not something I will miss, but it has been a blessing because it always helped out in the long run, tender mercies and lots of blessings, all of us should continue to give, what goes around comes around. DO SERVICE, whatever you can when YOU can.

Anyways that is all for me this week. Hope to catch you all online and catch up and I probably wont be on Facebook for a while now because of the transfer. I will update it tomorrow and then be off of it until we get permission/get ipads we shall see what happens. I love you all so much and thank you for all that you do! have a great week and talk to you later!!

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Reunions, Concerts, Service and Proselyting - the Life of a Missionary

GROUP PICTURE TIME!

Well this week has for sure been a good one. 

It started out on Wednesday when we went over to Tiffany's house for a lesson, it was a really good time and we had the opportunity to share a message with her about how to gain answers to prayers and what we need to do when we get the answers. She liked it and informed us that she is still reading from the Book of Mormon, in the beginning stages of Alma and taking notes as she read, so that is awesome to see that she is still doing that. We are planning on meeting with her this wednesday and hoping to get her more open minded towards baptism and coming to church. She really likes the whole "Easy Religion" of Mariners (Born-Again) and so it is a tough battle to fight but in the end, the truthfulness of the gospel should win out. 

Elder Sobczak carries Cholula Sauce in his backpack, and used the last few drops at dinner and so we replaced it today at church

The concert thing that we had this last thursday and friday were awesome. Had so much fun, the fun was mainly from getting to help set up all the light and sound stuff for the show, the show was fun but all the other stuff was way more fun. I had fun doing it and all but I realized that if i was to do that as  a career I would always be on the road and never at home, which would make it hard to have a family. And so it just kind of solidified the fact I would love to do something like that but I want to be stationed somewhere, not moving all over the place and so a full on career in theatre would not be my cup of tea. But we had a fun time and the concert.

Proselyting has been going really well. People are asking questions, taking notice and seeing the stuff my comp and I put up so it is interesting to see who does what and who actually pays attention. We shall see what happens these next few weeks as we close up the transfer and head into August. 

Yesterday something cool happened were a guy named Steve, randomly walked into church and then stayed for all three hours. We taught him a lesson about the Book of Mormon and set up a lesson with him for tonight at 8:00 so we shall see if that actually happens. Really cool guy and it was just really cool to see that miracle happen.

Well I hope all is going well and that miracles are happening in your life. Glad to hear settling into the new house is going well and hope all of your travels are done in safety. Thank you for all you do, I got the package of yarn and knitting loom and the needle threaders, I appreciate that and have been using them in my free time.

I love you all so much, Ayris by the way those chocolate cookie/brownie things you sent  a few weeks ago were amazing, never told you that so i thought i would mention it. 

Love you all and thank you for everything you do. Have a blessed week and may God be with you and Bless you always!

Love Amric Sobczak

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

March 10th

Elder Bosley and Elder Davis

Floating dock of a members house where we had dinner last night - Super Awesome!

Well, this week has been a pretty good one I would have to say. It is starting to settle in that - hey I am living in Newport Beach California which is pretty awesome!!!!  This past week was even better because we had zone conference which was great!!

 

 

Had exchanges with my Zone Leader Elder Epperson, he was in the MTC with me so it was really fun to go out and work with him and learn from him. A lot different going on a exchange with someone who has been out the same amount of time as you so we had some good talks and learned a lot from each other as we went out and worked. 

We met with an RM who is in LA and is currently working on coming back to church. He served in the Tacoma Washington mission, knew where Elma was at and served in Shelton for his last area. So it was cool to talk with him and see his desire to draw closer to Christ and admit that he needs to get better at doing the basics. Always cool when people realize this for themselves. It was funny he was like look guys I served a mission I know what you are trying to do. The missionaries before already tried that and it turned me off, I know the doctrine and I know the church is true, I just want you to come over sit down and talk with me, go over some scriptures and answer any questions I may have.  It is always weird dealing with people who actually are aware of what you are trying to do so it should be pretty fun. 

Along with that we met with a lady who is Romanian. We went over the Book Of Mormon with her and asked her to read it from the beginning all the way through. It was so funny she saw the pictures at the front and was like  - "I didn't even know these were here, I guess thats what I get for only opening up to random pages and not at the beginning."   She is really excited and is looking forward to reading it.

 

Zone conference was good, had it on Thursday and basically we were RE-trained on a training we got about 6 weeks ago on how to more effectively teach, you know the church always trying to find that more effective way. So it was really good, President Orgill gave this awesome training on inviting the Forces of Darkness and Light into our lives. How we can be more obedient and more consecrated and what we need to do to have the forces of light in our lives to help us overcome sin and temptation .

 

Oh as well, President Orgill submitted my Ecclesiastical Endorsement to Provo, so I am just waiting on my high school counselor to send in her recommendation to the school. Anyways, hopefully I can get a hold of them today and get that straightened out. Good thing I have 6 months to get it in. Just need it done because summer is going to happen really quick then I have lost her.

 

Hope all is well, the companions are going good. Still prideful and love to talk about themselves and have an experience for everything that is always better than your experience, always. So that is fun to deal with. Hope you have a great week and cannot wait to hear from you.

Love you all lots keep up the awesome work!!!:)

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

The Mission has Started up!!! and I am moving FORWARD....

Hey hey Family of mine, and the rest of you...:)

So the work out here in Foothill Ranch is moving right along. It has (in the past) had a string of misisonaries not working the area with the numbers to show!   We are picking up and moving forward though through the good graces of the Lord. This last week has seen some funny things happen and some amazing things at the same time which has made this week fly by.

Start off with the cool stuff...

• Sunday Tyler Feist a YM in the ward whose family are amazing missionaries went out with us to teach a lesson with a Former Investigator couple.   They love the missionaries and the sacrifice we make to come out and serve and just are interested in general with the church. We started talking with them just getting to know them and they led the conversation into how are we called as missionaries, who are our leaders, and how are they called?   We answered their questions well and they understood it. They got who apostles are, the revelation behind sending out missionaries and how a new Apostle/Prophet is called. They were pleased with our answers and then the Mrs. brought up a concern of her sons, which was "With all these Christian religions preaching Heaven Hell only in their doctrine". They know good people - and the question is; "just because they dont believe "The Right" way are they are going to hell?  It concerned them and thus presented us with the question. So we answered that from the scriptures with Tyler reading in Corinthians 15:11-13 about the degrees of Heaven. We even talked about JST (Joseph Smith Translation) and they accepted it and didn't bash with us at all. We ended the night with a prayer and set up a lesson for next Sunday at 8:00pm.  Yes we did!!!! -We had just picked up 2 new investigators! It was a really cool experience because looking back on it I can see the Spirit that was there leading the conversation, it wasn't any of us, it was the Spirit. 
  
• We have developed a solid relationship with a guy named Ethan who we found knocking on the wrong house of a referral we could not find. He liked us stopping by and told us to get a hold of him to set up a lesson in the future with him and his family. So that will be awesome if he becomes more interested. 
• Lastly, a member family we had dinner with gave us the name of their next door neighbor who are about as golden as can be. The mom has told them that she wants her and her children to be members. They come to all the activities, daughter is participating in Activity Days and they attened church when people they know are speaking. The problem is the dad is not as sold, which is always the case. I have come to realize on my mission as much as I hate to say it, Women are just way more in tune with the spiritual side of things then men. It is just a gift they have for some reason. So those are the cool stories. The ward is crazy, no bishopric in town on Sunday and everybody else it seems is out of town too. But hey it is July, we cant all be full time missionaries. 

6 months in the book! Easy as scoring a try from the 5 meter line. The mission is going quick and bringing miracles. I can tell everything is changing and only hope I can hold on and remember. The Irvine mission has started!!!

• OH I totally forgot one more cool thing:

We had a "Mission Kick-off" conference the other day where we got to meet the missionaries from Anaheim and President and Sister Orgill. They are so funny and completely different than President and Sister Cook.  This will take some adjusting!!!   They have that "Islander Swag" so to say. And I mean how could you not, after serving at the PCC (Pacific Cultural Center) for 12 years. The PCC Traveling dance promo team has made a deal with President Orgill that anytime they come to the states to do a promo tour they will always stop in his mission somewhere to do a show. So for the next 18 months I might get to see the PCC people a lot which i am super excited for and all the members are exstatic about. We told our members this and they were like "That will be perfect to get non members to!"




Deep Thought:
Does Faith precede hope?  hope precede faith?   or do they work in harmony in each other? through all my studies on Faith and Hope I cannot find a defining answer to settle this for me, only close one for me is Hebrews 11:1.... FEEDBACK and / or CONVERSATION is a good thing ?!?!?!


So there we go, another week in the books and in the memory. Time goes quickly when you stay invested and stay consecrated. I love you guys so much, thank you for all of the things you have done for me since starting the mission. We will all be blessed for this great sacrifice. 

Stay amazing and stay classy, the Lord is always there if you just ask:) Until next time!:) 

Love you all :) 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Missionary Work and the Atonement

It's me, TheMOM!

Mom and Amric

I am having an especially hard time today, with the absence of my youngest son :(

ASU! Amric and DAD!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am pleased as punch (what does that mean anyway) that he wanted to and is serving a mission, I am proud (in a humble way) that he has given up this time in his life to go and serve the Lord and the fine upstanding people of Southern California.

But i find myself sitting in his room.  Wearing his sweatshirts.  Making posters to count down the days til his return!  Hunting for information about his area, pictures of his Temples, Flags, oceans, trees, boundaries - you name it I'm wondering!

• Does he have his sunglasses?
• DId he buy or does he need an umbrella?

• WELL, Lets face it - TODAY I AM WONDERING WHERE HE IS!  

• WHAT IS HE DOING?  WHAT IS HE EATING?  DO HIS FEET HURT?

• Is he shaving every day? 

 has he got a hair cut yet??

• Is he being the BEST companion EVER?

• Is he being a thought provoking prayerful young man or the wise aker he can be???  

•  Is his trainer treating him good and kind and patiently?
•  DID HE GET HIS ONE SUIT CLEANED YET?
• HAS HE HAD TO SPEAK SPANISH TO ANYONE?  ( I hear it's a spanish speaking state!!!)  BAAAhaha as Ayris would say ;)

•  DOES HIS MISSION PRESIDENT AND HIS WIFE KNOW WHO HE IS ARE THEY PRAYING FOR HIM AS I AM?
•   DO THEY KNOW HOW HARD HE WORKED TO BE THERE RIGHT NOW, AT THIS TIME?
• DO THEY LOVE HIM??  Oh man now I'm going off in song in my head it must be time to Quit!  

Miss you Elder Sobczak 
Remember who you are and the family you belong to
Love, 
ksmsTheMom!

http://youtu.be/_di6aAq4AB4

greatest experience of my life....

So today is day like 16 out in the mission field, not like im counting or anything. So far the days have felt like an eternity but the weeks have flown by. I love it here in the MTC but there is something about living behind a "Fence" that doesn't strike my fancy, for sure never want to go to prison haha.

A quick update on the week other than the obvious ringer of the week;

• We got our travel itinerary for next week
• With that flight information I will be leaving Tuesday morning
• Mom that day I got the Chips and Queso was a great day...The whole day I had been in a funk because it was a monday and I realized I had not any Tacos in like 4 weeks!!! So the whole day my whole district had to hear me whine about not having tacos and how badly I wanted them...So when I opened up the box I was SO HAPPY!!! It completely made my day. I opened it up and enjoyed and it was the best thing i had in a long time. 
• Im getting better at 4-square, but for sure not living up to Austins skill...All the people that are good right now are the ones going to Norway,Sweden,Denmark, and Italy  ...So the people that have been here for 8 or 9 weeks! I am keeping up with them though and they give me props for doing it. Every sport at gym time has its own family that has its own connection So its pretty neat to make friends with people I have known for about 10 days.

And now for the awesome story...

     So, last Tuesday,....We all knew the MTC Mission Presidency was getting released and we knew that a General Authority had to set apart the new mission president ... so we knew something was going down...The devotional started at 7 at night and at 6 there was a line out of the building we were standing in... When they finally let us, We all rush in to the gym which has now been turned into a conference center - just like every talk and get seats about 10 yards to the right of the pulpit.  I was right there to see whoever was going to speak. 

And then it happened...at 6:55 Elder Jeffrey R. Holland walks into the building and everybody stands up as soon as they see him. It was a crazy spiritual experince because I could just feel his presence. His talk was awesome!!! 

He talked about the second coming, and that it started in the spring of 1820 in Palmyra New York (when Joseph Smith restored the Church of Jesus Christ), He said that this is the dispensation that will see Christ and hand his church over 

to him...

Yeah how intense is that?   I had never thought of it that way before.

 He talked about how there is no better time to be on a mission than January 2013 and to be a part of all the changes the church is making. 

He said Preach My Gospel took 8 years to write and that it was started when President Hinckley said in a meeting, "There is something wrong with the missionary program." Elder Holland said "Thats something thats scary to hear when you are the head of the missionary program." HAHA!

He told us "If you come home and become an inactive returned missionary, you wouldnt want to meet me in a dark ally, I'm a little unstable about this issue." HAHA!!! It was pretty funny...He said in his "Holland Voice" "I command you to come home with at least one convert and that convert is YOU!!!" He said "You can't expect the investigators you to teach to believe the things you are saying or keep the commandments you are telling them to keep if your self dont follow them or believe what you are saying." 

You have to be obedient and teach His gospel THEN you will have the Spirit to teach. He was joking around saying how he wanted to "revoke free agency" then said he felt like he was going to get struck with lighting and asked if the podium was grounded? hahaha! 

At the end he gave a dedicatory prayer for 3 newly renovated building on the MTC Campus...The Anston Pratt, Matthew Cowley, and Dan Jones buildings. The first two are residence halls and the Dan Jones one is a Class building...my class building so that was awesome. If you can find the prayer I would highly recommend reading it. 

Hearing Elder Holland was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I know he said lots more but I forgot my notebook in the classroom and cannot go in there in P-Day Clothes.

Parents I love you and thanks for everything. 
I would recommend not sending letters or packages unless you know for sure they will get to me by Monday (DearElder) for example, letters written today will et to me tomorrow and then ... well wait til you get a california address to write, but then please...keep writing!
I will be sending a letter on Monday to the Parents which will have my MTC memory card on it so those pictures will go up by the end of next week. 
I will send an email or letter next week as soon as I can so you guys have my new address in California. 

Be safe I love you all...Have a blast of a week and Be safe.

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

"That's What's Up"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

Holland is AMAZING!!!!

This email is just to tell you that last night ELDER HOLLAND spoke at the MTC. We got a new Mission President So he came and spoke and it was AMAZING!!!! I'll give more details tomorrow but send this to people just to let them know. 

Tomorrow for sure i will have details of his talk and what he said. 

Quick excerpt...  "The Second Coming Started in the Spring of 1820 in Palmyra New York and this is the Dispensation in which we WILL SEE Jesus Christ and Hand his Church over to Him and we WILL Succeed in the battle against Evil". 

I will give more tomorrow!

Slogan for my mission: "Fourth Floor Last Door" Dieter F. Uchtdorf old talk i watched  You should watch it too....

https://www.lds.org/youth/article/print?lang=eng&url=/youth/article/the-restoration

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1617