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

Time is Relative...

What in the world??? It is April already I cannot believe it at all. Time is moving so quickly which is becoming a curse and a blessing as well. Its weird to think I have been in Dana Point 2 and a half months and that I am in the last week of my training transfers. Time, it is a crazy - it'a a funny thing too when you get really busy and start to think. In my free time, yes this is what missionaries do, I broke down time - trying to relate God's time to ours. You know the whole 1000 years to us is one day to him. Lets just say, never try to do that because you will lose yourself and your brain will hurt! I kind of figured a little bit out where when we see Him again in Spiritual time it will only have been like 10-15 minutes we were gone even though physically we were gone 75-95 years. Like I said, super weird thing and it is probably never to be meant to be understood in this lifetime so I will just have to wait until all will be made known unto us! So think of me being gone in that way, like I said kind of difficult but just think, 2 years of time with no real physical face to face contact but think of the millenium, think of the eternity, 2 years of time is like 1 minute or so in a spiritual sense. So if you think of it that way 2 years is not that long and we will have literally = FOREVER to catch up, so dont be saddened by the time -- I will be back before you know it! 

DEEP THOUGHT:  from again Brother Mollenhauer, a man of much knowledge.  We talked specifically about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden they were in a perfect state in a Terrestrial world. They werent in a Celestial world because they were not resurrected he said a little more but I will explain more later (wish I had a recorder to "talk" it through!  When they partook of the fruit of the tree they ate a Telestial thing and brought that into their Terrestial Body/Spirit. There was way more said, I dont know I probably missed some key parts I hope what I have said made sense. All I know is that it was a really cool conversation we had at church.

Lets see, investigators...

M - Doing very well. Starting to understand and have his own experiences reading the Book of Mormon.  He will read and comprehend what the scriptures are telling him.  He is taking his time.  Really cool to see the growth he has gone through over the two months I have been here teaching him. This week sadly we will not get to meet with him because he is traveling to Alabama with a stop in Salt Lake along the way. We gave him a CD with some talks on it and some scriptures to read while he and Sister Melville are driving cross country. He is progressing very well and is a very humble man who just wants to learn and understand all he can which is a very good thing for a person investigating the church to have and want.

E - is a busy busy lady who is currently working for three other people due to quitting and vacations of coworkers which has made it that much more evident she wants to learn because she keeps meeting with us no matter how busy. She is slowly starting to see the picture of the Gospel but is still a little skeptical about some parts. Which is perfectly okay. We are not out here to baptize people. If you ever get a missionary in your ward like that correct him. We are out to teach people guide them down the path and make sure we do all we can so they can make their own thought out decision. If that decision is - "no", then if we have done all we can do.  If they want to move forward and get baptized thats great. It must be done in their own time. We explained this to her and she was relieved because she did not want to let us down by not getting baptized in three or four weeks like she thought she had to do. She is a good sport but like M she is out of town this Easter week and the week after.

K - They are getting ready for the 18th of May. They all know it  is the right thing to do but they want to do it all as a family on the same day, in time she will make choices that need to be made I just know it. So we are being patient teaching her and helping her build tup her faith to know that through doing what Heavenly Father asks of us He will bless us in more ways than we could ever imagine. It is crunch time for them, I feel.  If it goes longer than the end of June I feel we might lose them because they will keep putting it off and off until Satan grabs them. keep them in your prayers as they are needed greatly for all aspects of their lives. They all know Baptism is the right thing for them to do and they need to have the Spirit consistently in their lives. She is just trusting to much in the arm of the flesh. Satan is a deceiver and wants us to think we have all the time in the world.

Things going on for me;

• Transfer planning is going on and we will know for sure by Saturday if Elder Armstrong or I are leaving on the 9th. Hopefully we do not. But hey if one of us does or both, then obviously God needs us in another area at this time and we have done our part in Dana Point ward, we have fought a good fight and exerted ourselves everyday using our time wisely.

• Dad- Way to Testify of truth to the J-Dubs. When I return we shall take the time to have pleasing and long conversations about bashing situations and testimony bearing with the very opinionated people of the County of Orange =the J-Dubs, Born Agains, some of the people - they hate us! Nothing like someone trying to run you off the road while you are riding your bike. People don't understand and without the right information they just hate us. The only thing you can do is bear your testimony and bear truth. God will judge accordingly.

• Mom and Ayris Too! -You rock and thank you for the Easter box. Really appreciate it a lot and all the other things you take the time do to make sure I am being taken care of. LDS Living magazine was a hit in the apartment and we all read it. keep on keeping on and trust and love the Lord in all you do :)  Ayris thank you for the boxes you send and the money you donate, especially as a college student!  It's humbling and very COOL. This time for you will prove to be quicker than you think now and profitable temporally and spiritually in the end.

• Glad you have the countdown Mom. Glad someone is counting because I am trying really hard not to count down time - haha! Somedays are harder than others to stay focused. Dad is getting old  you need to find that episode of KOTH and watch it before he goes in. Dont worry about an Easter tie - I have ties! Easter was great...spent like four hours at a family home. We had a huge dinner and lots of fun. Nice break and I knew you would love knowing I was being taken care of and having family time. Hey there is a guy in the ward who works for with theatre unions in LA and is going to give me information and contact stuff that I can look  up when I get home. Also, I now know an author and her book is being turned into a movie and she said to look her up when I get home and she might have work for me but for sure she would take me on set and walk me around!!! Hey it might all work out in TIME!

The Gospel is true and always will be. There is nothing anyone can say to prove us wrong.  We are the TRUE church! In time all will know that too. Stick that in your back pocket!  I love you all so much and thank you for your prayers, letters, packages and all you do. Stay safe and keep the faith.  Endure to the End. 

Until next TIME!

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

"That's What's Up"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-January 2015