Working Together to...

LISTEN * FIND * TEACH

Would you like to hear about a missionary who was prompted to make a wise choice? He was new in the work and was assigned to labor in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, with a veteran missionary as a companion. They called at the home of a family by the name of Pollard. They knocked, and Mr. Pollard let them in. He invited them to present their material. After he had heard their message, and after he had prayed with them, it seemed as though the spirit of the adversary came over him, and he became angry with the elders and told them to leave and never come back again. As he showed them to the door, he said, “You can’t tell me that you really believe Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, anyway.” The door slammed shut. The two dejected missionaries walked away.

This young missionary turned to his senior companion and said, “We didn’t answer Mr. Pollard’s question.”

The senior companion explained the futility of attempting to return. But the young elder said, “I’m going back. I won’t feel right until I do.”

They returned to Mr. Pollard’s door and knocked on it. He opened the door and said, “I thought I told you fellows to leave.”

The next decision took all the strength of character and all the fortitude that this young man could muster, for his senior companion did not give him much help. I heard Mr. Pollard himself describe the experience. He said, “That missionary looked me in the eye. He hesitated for a moment, and then said, ‘Mr. Pollard, as we left your home, you made a statement that we really didn’t believe Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Mr. Pollard, I want you to know that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that this work is true.’”

After this declaration, the missionaries departed. Mr. Pollard later told me that all the rest of the day and that evening he kept hearing those words echoing through his ears: “I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know it. I know it. I know it.”

The next morning he telephoned the missionaries and asked them to come back. They returned to his home and taught him the gospel. They taught his wife the gospel. They taught his children the gospel. All became members of the Church. If you could have accompanied me to the district conference I attended a few years back and heard this man stand on his feet and thank his Heavenly Father for the choice that a young missionary made to return and to bear his witness, you, my brothers and sisters, would be forever anxious to “choose the right when a choice is placed before you.”

We need not feel that we must be without fault in order to receive the blessings of God. He will take us from where we now stand if we will come to him. He will build us up, spiritually, and he will build us up with confidence in ourselves.

I testify that when we choose to do that which is right, the results of our choices will bring joy and happiness to our souls, for the Lord has told us,

--Elder Monson April 1973 New Era

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

Patterns of Light: Spirit of Revelation

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

I am a WitNess...

Let's start the letter with some interesting news:
I am being Transferred. 
Today is my last day in gorgeous Dana Point. 
Hard to accept, but hey! the Lord knows more than I do so I know that I am needed at this point in time to go to another place the Lord needs me at.   We have a thought, as an apartment that I am going to get assigned to the Temecula Stake because in 4 weeks Murietta (Mur-e-etta) Stake is becoming a part of Carlsbad mission from the Riverside mission.
No missionaries from the Riverside mission are staying so they are going to be whitewashing a whole Zone. Thus we think a lot of us will get assigned out to Temecula, then moved into Murietta in four weeks. I will go and do but dang ...

1. It is HOT out there in the summer like 115*! 
2. Whichever I get assigned tonight will probably determine the mission I get assigned to!
3. If I get assigned out there I wont be able to come to any baptisms in Dana Point because I will be to far away. So who knows???   but I will let you guys know next week where I am located. Mail still goes to same place so dont worry about mail you have already sent, I will get it, AND keep sending them!!!

Okay, now for some area news from the past week of being here in Dana Point. We have been crazy busy in getting the area ready for new missionaries to come in and that has taken a lot of time out of our week - because of all the stuff we needed to do (Planners, Map, Appointments, different things like that). But hey! it has made the time go crazy fast. Weird to think that it is the 9th of April already. Time is moving so fast and I am sure every transfer will just get faster and faster throughout the next two years. 

http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng

Elder Henry B Eyring 

Elder L. Tom Perry

Elder Fallabella

Elder J R Holland

Conference was amazing. First off, did you hear President Eyring Basically say out loud he has seen Jesus Christ "I am a witness of the resurrection of Christ" and "I know as surely as Joseph Smith did in the grove".  All the missionaries were freaking out that he said that. I mean we already know they have, cuz really they are apostles! but still, when they say it like that it just gives you goosebumps.   Also, It looks like Elder Perry has been taking Pulpit Pounding tips from our boy Elder Holland. Man, didnt Elder Perry throw down? It was AWESOME!!! SIN WILL ALWAYS BE SIN!! THE blessings of God are IMMUTABLE!! Yeah, I will tell you what, I totally felt the power dont know about you but hey! that was one of the best conference sessions I can remember.   Did Elder Fallabella come speak in Omaha? I know his name and could have sworn while he was speaking that I had heard that voice at a stake conference adult session. Let me know if he did...What about a temple in Cedar City huh?? The conference crowd gasped when he said that, who would have thought another Temple in Utah. 

Lets see what else???? 

K and her girls are doing good. We had an AMAZING lesson with them last thursday night. It was so cool I can't really explain what happened, just that the spirit was so strong and I could feel it testifying of truth to her and everyone else that was in the room as well. After the lesson I had the opportunity to give her a blessing of comfort and counsel and it was super cool. I seriously cannot remember anything I said, but when Sister T was telling about what she was feeling during it she said in her "50 odd years of life that was one of the best blessing she has ever heard". That it was so well worded. 
She and Brother T said I remind them of Nephi, Large in stature and spirit hahaha! That was really cool to hear that from them. They said I will be a great missionary and affect a lot of lives with the way I teach. I wish I could remember what I said but thats the thing, I didnt say it, the Spirit said it through me, those words are not for me to remember, They were meant for K and everyone else and are for them to remember. Our new investigator S and her less active boyfriend J are doing amazingly well! They are both honest seekers of truth and just want to know if God is really there and what He wants for them in their lives right now.

I got to say my goodbyes last night to the Rubalcava's, Tomlinson's, and Keli and her family. It sucked to say goodbye but i know I will be back to visit when the mission is over so this is not the last time I will see all of them. Brother Rubalcava told me I had to come and visit and he would take me out on his sail boat and we could go to Catalina Island. So parents, put that in your planners for April 2015. Coming back to visit Amric's mission!

Tell Dad this, Sell the Mazda  I love the car but its just a possesion and we do not need it right now. I love the car but we dont truly need it.  In this three months I have seen a single mom with a 3 year old child with severe ADHD be happy living in a 300 SQ foot flat paying 900 a month for rent. I have also seen people driving Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Aston Martin's, and all sorts of other exotics.  People living in Ginormous 6,7,8 thousand sq foot homes be happy as well. The Mom has the Gospel and the others do not. Who will be happier in the long run? The mom with the Gospel and her child. Family and religion are two things that dont mix well here in So Cal. all you need to know is that I could have a 30 year old Lemon car or a Aston Martin. I will be happy no matter what because I have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and a family that loves me no matter what. The car is a possession that will go away. The family - the love and faith we have, that won't go away and thats what makes everything worth it. Sell the car, its just a possession! 

I know you are probably like who is this and where is my son? But this mission has changed me a lot up to this point and will continue to change me over the next two years so WATCH OUT!

The experiences that I have been able to have these past three months have shaped me and molded me onto the path of who I need to become. Heavenly Father has a specific plan for me in whatever mission I end up in. I know that I have had experiences and a certain testimony that is meant for at least one person in every area I serve in. With that Knowledge I close my time in Dana Point, I did not die with knowledge left in me and I will never die without my testimony out on the table. Stay strong to the faith, know that I am out here because I have a testimony that I was selected by revealation to serve in this part of the Lords vineyard for a specific task or reason. I love you all and hope all is going well. Stay true to the faith and do all you can to do the Lord's will.

I love you all...Peace Out!

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

"That's What's Up"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-January 2015

When I became a man I put away Childish things...

Mom and Dad - Empty nesters
 in their "rented" convertible appraising Dairies in Arizona!!!

So Elder Sobczak has a family at home supporting him and there are changes all around these are a few of them,

The Rens -
 I like this one cuz it's the world
 today everybody on their phone!!!

King Benjamin: “O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, and you little children who can understand my words, for I have spoken plainly unto you that ye might understand, I pray that ye should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those that have fallen into transgression.” 

For me, the power of that warning is the picture it forms in my mind of that time when we will each stand before the Savior after this life to be judged. When King Benjamin speaks to me of shrinking from the presence of the Lord, it puts fear into my heart. I can see myself standing in that day of judgment before the glorified and resurrected Savior. I want with all my heart not to shrink, but rather to look up at Him and see Him smile and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter in.” 

King Benjamin makes it clear how we can earn the hope to hear those words if we find the way in this life to have our natures changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That is the only way we can build on the sure foundation and so stand firm in righteousness during the storms of temptation.

Matthew and Matt

Papi and Matt

Olaf and Dania

Mom makes a fire before the snow comes.
I'd rather be on the beach when it's cold than when it's hot!!!

Out with the old 

In with the new! 
see Col Chapter 3 things to "Put On"
 [hahaha! finding a "priesthood purpose"!]

King Benjamin describes that change with a beautiful comparison, used by prophets for millennia and by the Lord Himself. It is this: that we can, and we must, become as a child—a little child.

For some that will not be easy to understand or to accept. Most of us want to be strong. We may well see being like a child as being weak. Most parents have wanted their children at times to be less childish. Even the Apostle Paul used these words as he was about to urge us to incorporate charity, the pure love of Christ, into our lives: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 

But King Benjamin, who understood as well as any mortal what it meant to be a man of strength and courage, makes it clear that to be like a child is not to be childish. It is to be like the Savior, who prayed to His Father for strength to be able to do His will and then did it. Our natures must be changed to become as a child to gain the strength we need.  

these are those Mats
Amric said to order - 
they are SUPER INTENSE!

Flat Amric with Dad! 
supporting Moms Shrine! to Elder Sobczak 

Amric "go to bed!"

Amric let's relax!!!

Amric I love you!  Dad made me cry and laugh
at the same time presenting "Flat Amric" (or rather "Flat Elder Sobczak"!) to me for my Birthday!!!

To keep the blessing of that change in our hearts will require determination, effort, and faith. King Benjamin taught at least some of what that will require. He said that to retain a remission of our sins from day to day we must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and help people spiritually and temporally.  He warned that we must guard against even the feelings of contention entering into our hearts.  He made it clear that the mighty change which comes through the Atonement working in us can diminish if we are not on guard against sin.

We come to love those we serve. If we choose to begin to serve the Master out of even a glimmer of faith, we will begin to know Him. We will come to know His purposes for the people we serve for Him. Even when they do not accept our offer to serve them, we will feel His appreciation if we persist.

As we persist, we will feel the need for the influence of the Holy Ghost because our task will seem beyond us. Our humble prayer to our Heavenly Father will be answered. The Holy Ghost has as a major purpose witnessing that Jesus is the Christ. As we plead for help in His service, the Holy Ghost will come and confirm our faith in Him.    

                                                       --taken from a talk given by Elder Henry B Eyring. April 2006

HAPPY EASTER