Whoa....... March 24th

Woah, it is the last week of March, a quarter of the way through the year what the heck is going on with time!?!!?!?!

So this week, have a couple funny stories, the main one is last Thursday I auditioned for choir, mainly because I am pretty confident I am going to be a "tech" person, so I figured what the heck! why not? get involved see both sides of the audition... it would save travel stuff. 

Anyways in the audition and the guy running the whole mission choir thing is some actor who has been in the Bible videos. He has us all warming up and after about 10 minutes he looks at me asks me what my name is I tell him and he has me start the song, I didn't do to hot because the bass part was high, anyways after like 10 seconds, he asks; "Is your name really Elder Slapcheck!?" Everyone of course starts laughing and I am like "No it is Sobczak" and he says; "You see elders and sisters - singers must be able to sing as well as properly pronounce things (Making a crack at himself) then says; "Elder Sobczak we are going to invite you not to audition for choir"! 

Oh man it was hilarious! ;) 

Then for the rest of the time I just got to sit in there and listen to everyone else auditioning and some good, some terrible and listen to the guy just beat up on the people singing.  It was not to good of an environment for a missionary to be in, you spend all day getting yelled at then you get picked on at choir by a church member so it was for sure a laughable, awkward non productive experience. 

Another funnny story was on Saturday night we went to a social gathering for old singles that were on the ward and in the stake. You see us as missionaries will go to any activity on the grounds there will be people there that will be nice and food to eat, maybe even people to connect with to eventually teach!  So we go, it is at someones house, actually the home of an ex-communicated member, who loves the church. The food is eaten and then all of a sudden a Karaoke thing is turned on and everyone is singing oldies from like the 60's and 70's. It was so weird ... weird I tell you, seeing 45-60 year olds singing and dancing in someone's living room singing to old songs with Karaoke machine!!!!

Those are my funny stories, the work is going good. This is the last week of the transfer so on Saturday we will all be finding out who is staying and going. Should be fun and exciting to see what will happen. 

Yesterday had the opportunity to interview a lady for baptism that is always a fun experience. Her husband has been a member for about 3 years and she is now making the decision to enter into the waters of baptism so it is always awesome to hear people's stories on how they got to where they are, experiences they have gone through, and lessons learned. 

Glad to be out here on the mission. Life is good and miracles really do happen every single day. Keep your eye focused on the little tiny blessings and IT WILL never seem like life is difficult hard or tuff!   Those things do happen, but it is dwelling on them that makes it all worse.

Keep up the good awesome work and do all you can to be guided by the spirit. 

Love you all so much and again thank you for all you do for me. 

Have a great week :) 

-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

Grab the Tissue!

 Well, well well....My how fast this past week has gone. It doesnt seem like its been 7 days since I last checked in. This has been a good week but it has been hard at the same time. 

We are teaching the "word" to the people of Dana Point and some are accepting of it...

   Im slowly but surely becoming a better teacher to the investigators and to the members. This family that we are teaching moving closer and closer to baptism as a family. Keli told us that if we ever needed a place to stop in to eat, say hello, or just talk her house was always opened  to us. She has her own business. She said after we are done with our missions to come back and she would teach us the basics of surfing. She's a total surfer chick.

   Well, we are part time bikes and I dont know if you have read anything about Orange County but the hills here are AWFUL. Really makes me appreciate having a car on the days we have it. I am becoming better at bike riding though and I can feel my legs toning up since we run for thirty minutes up and down hills everyday and we ride bikes every other day. Our mission area is huge.

Sunday we had a cool experience with a member family. We show up after stake conference to have lunch and this girl and guy are there...Assuming they are members we ask if they go to singles ward they laugh at the question say they should and that they are engaged. Cool cool all normal...well midway into lunch we start talking about how kids these days dont know the 'WHY' and that is what leads them to drink and smoke because they dont truly understand why they arent supposed to. At this point, the girl who was there says "Actually, I'm not a Mormon and I want to know why I cant have the occassional drink cause I dont think it is bad."  We were caught off guard because we thought she was a member. Turns out shes a non member renting a room from the family and she got engaged to a less active member of the church...
Well we answered her question helped her know how to talk to friends about her thoughts and then she asked "Why do you guys think you need a prophet?" We answered back with a question! We can come back and have more discussions with you. Long story short we got her number and picked up a new investigator. Pretty awesome how that happened.

My first Sunday in the ward I sang in the Ward Choir...Stake conference adult session I sang in the choir!  At our Zone Training meeting I was called to lead the music!  Some lady in another ward in our building said she wanted me and Elder Armstrong to sing a duet in her ward!  I think the Lord might be trying to send me a message that I need to pick up singing again!. Starting to get my singing voice back.  It is like the LORD taught if given a talent and it's not used - You'll have it taken away!

Thank you all so much for your letters. They are really inspiring and make the week better. There is talk my mission will reach the 250 missionaries by the end of the year...if that happens they will split the mission into two. So who knows I could  serve in 2 missions while i am gone for 2 years!  So keep that in mind.

I have the family picture on my desk and it keeps me going everyday. Im writing in my journal so that i will always remember these times. In my prayers I always - no matter where I am  ask - "Help us to always remember who we represent and who we are" (Grab the tissue box mom!). Ill send you more in a letter

I love you all so much. I have been out for six weeks already I know weird to think.

 Keep on Keeping on...Again I love you all so much

--

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

"That's What's Up"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA