Let Christ Be that Friend...

I learned the powerful effects of using the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can be made clean yesterday while at a painting project. So I went to go clean the paint bin and brushes, I forgot however to notice that we were using an Oil based paint, so when the paint hit the sink (and my hands) it was there to stay. I scrubbed and soaked and clean for probably a good 30-40 minutes, making sure to not let any one see the disaster that had been done. But then, when someone came to help, another person gave the appropriate tools to clean (Goo be Gone) within minutes and following the proper process the sink was back and shining brighter than before the paint had spilled on it. The lesson: sometimes, even doing all we can to get clean is not good enough, we must ask for help, use the proper tools and proper process, and then continue working just as hard to get clean. Then we must do all we can to stay clean. Let Christ be that friend who helps you become clean and shows you the way to become "white as wool" (Isaiah 1:18)

Atonement better understood thru study and service

September 22....

Oh man what a fun and crazy week....

On Saturday we showed up to help this member family pack up their double wide and help them to get on their way to Idaho. Well, it was us and the sisters and the moms sons who is not a member or just not active??? Anyways, after we got the boxes packed, well lets just say they used really big boxes, then packed them so that they weren't full, thus when we stacked stuff on top of them, no support, and they crushed and the wall of boxes fell over! So that was fun had to re stack the stuff. My companion cannot lift anything, so it was the son and myself lifting everything for 6.5 hours which was really fun, got a good work out in. 

(this is not the real carpet -
borrowed from a carpet cleaning site! thus the date is misleading!!!)

During the move we were loading out their master bedroom, and the dad was like everything  goes except the rug, the rug stays. We were like okay sounds good, he then says "Someone died in this house 2 years before we moved in so we keep the rug there. We started laughing because we all thought it was a joke. Nope it wasn't, he said that there is a giant brown stain on the carpet and a 93 year old man died there, and then said "I will leave the rest up to your imagination", so that was crazy. They just did double sided gorilla tape on the under side of the carpet instead of replacing the carpet. SO hopefully that is not a selling mishap ... hahaha!

To answer your question mom, yes there will be "Classes" in the celestial kingdom, no one really talks about it. It will not create contention however because people will be in a place where they are most comfortable. If there is contention then that is the state that they are in (Meaning a state of Hell. This happens when you know what you did that prevented you from being with God). So the people that we should aim to be are the Exalted beings, being with God in a family unit for eternity organizing worlds. We do not create matter for that cannot be created, we simply organize the matter that is already there. Hope that makes sense.   Deep Doctrine!  This is one reason we all need to study the scriptures diligently and read Good Books for better enlightenment and understanding.  Remember;  Doctrine Understood Changes Behavior!

Fun for you parents to go to FloridaI am sure Pops will do great in his seminar class on his way to achieving an MIA designation. 

Mom I am sure you had a blast with your babygrands and children in Utah.  

Not to much else to report on. Still in the finding process, I feel like that has been my whole mission, finding people, not to much investigator teaching. I am pretty sure in my setting apart President Bartlett blessed me with the ability to be happy.... oh wait nope that is in my PB blessing telling me to avoid discouragement, that is true and I must because trust me if I didn't have that direction then this mission experience would suck because I have every right to be discouraged :(  

Anyways, there is not to much else to report on from the week, a couple of quotes I leave you with from  my atonement study:

• "The Son gained the title of Father because those that accept Him are adopted into the church of the Firstborn (Christs' church - he is the Firstborn of the Father), and thus by adoption He becomes the spiritual Father of those who accept Him." Harold B Lee 

• "The Fall of Man" CES Summer School Lecture June 23rd 1954 Same talk later quote "She (Eve) feared no evil, for she knew it not." Think about that one.

• "Sadness, heartache, and disappointment are events in life. It is not intended that they be the substance of life." Richard G Scott "The Atonement Can Secure Your Peace and Happiness" Ensign Nov. 2006

• "How we treat our family members, our neighbors, business associates, and all we meet will reveal if we have taken His name upon us and do always remember Him. How we conduct our lives, all we do and all we say, reflects on how we remember Him."   "May all who profess to be Christians, all who know and testify of Jesus, come unto Him and follow His teachings and example, being one as Heavenly Father and Jesus are one in purpose, to unite ourselves, to lift and strengthen each other, and take upon us one another's burdens as our Savior has taken our burdens upon Him..." Robert D Hales "In Remembrance of Jesus Ensign Nov. 1997

• Speaking on the sacrament "Do we see it as our passover, remembrance of our safety and deliverance and redemption...? This is the real purpose of the meeting. And everything that is said or sung or prayed in those services should be consistent with the grandeur of this sacred ordinance...the...passing of the sacrament is preceded by a hymn which all of us should sing...Sacramental hymns are more like prayers anyway - and everyone can give a voice to a prayer...Pain in this world is not evidence that God doesn't love you." Jeffrey R Holland "This Do In Remembrance if Me." Ensign Nov. 1995 (The whole talk is amazing you should just read the whole thing)

This weeks challenge from my atonement book -

"Arrive to church 10 minutes before church and contemplate the meaning of the sacrament. As you look at the sacrament table, remember that it represents the body of Christ. Imagine that you have come to a memorial service for the Savior. Sing the hymns from your heart as you unite with your brothers and sisters to honor Him. Worship, don't just attend the meeting. Reflect on how His atonement has affected you during the week. Keep your mind focused on the Savior and His atoning sacrifice as you partake of the bread and water and through the rest of the meeting."

I am inviting you and whoever else reads this to take this challenge to heart and really GO AND DO IT!  
Well I'm out. Love you all thanks for your support and prayers I am grateful.

--

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Serve and Forget yourself!

Sept 15th ...

Sorry not to much to report on from this past week. My companion is getting moved so that should be interesting to see how this next week ends up. We had a cool experience on Saturday where we went to go help this member family unload their daughters stuff into a storage unit because she and her husband are moving into the area and don't have a house yet so they needed to store their stuff. 

That only took about an hour, and after her we noticed this one lady, not having any help, unloading a 26' budget truck (the kind that have a super high tail gate and heavy ramp ) well she couldn't get the ramp out herself because of the weight, we went over and asked if we could help, and she was like "oh you know I have help coming at 11:00" (It is 10:30) so we were like how about we help until 11 when your help shows up?!!!
well wouldn't you know it, people are lame and her help never showed up, so we helped her out til the job was done and it was a blast. 
We had a member lesson set for 12:00 but called the dad of the family and asked if he could help us, he glady came and said he would have much rather have done that service than of had a lesson, so it was so cool!!! The family that we had helped from 9:30 to 10:30, well the dad and son came over and help from around 11:00 until 11:30 /11:45 so that was cool too, and we got 3 other elders to come and help and we got her whole truck un packed and storage unit loaded in about 3 hours, it was so awesome to see how the opportunity to serve and be served ended up blessing everyone that day. 

Well, not to much else to report on family, hope everything is going great and great to hear from all of you, have a great week!!! :)
-- 

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Be PrePared, Do Your Research!

September 8th

So good week, had a really fun week so it was nice.  BUT... seems like there is not to much to report...

Okay so funny story,

My peers are planning to go on a hike, I looked into it to be prepared!  That is how I was raised; BE PREPARED!  I relayed some of my concerns to the elders that were planning this 15 mile hike, and they responded with; "If you don't feel comfortable doing the long hike, we would advise you not to attend."
So that made me a little upset, but alas, I didn't go. They met at 5:45am, they had to do 1/2 hour of dirt off roading to even get to trail head (in mission cars mind you) so not good to start with, when they got to the trail head at about 6:30am, they were already 30 minutes behind schedule.
We received a text from another companionship and they said "we got there and found out we need parking permits to leave the cars and it is a 300. dollar fine if we get caught (per car) so we just are going to go on short hike."
So it's my opinion that they clearly did not do all the research they said they did, because if they did parking permits would have been one of the first things that popped up! So I felt really good about the research I'd done, I got to get normal amount of sleep, another elder and I went a different direction and had such a good mountain biking trip, so much fun, we got back to the apartment, dressed, and back to starting point, at the same time it took them to do the hike, so we for sure got the better end of the deal.
After we heard about the parking permit thing, the first thought in my head was to text the elders that advised me not to attend and say "If you need a Parking Permit, I would advise you not to attend the hike." but alas I chose not too!!!

So not to much else to make known, This is week 6 so transfer calls are on Saturday, and so by Monday  I will know if I am leaving or not, pretty sure I am staying here, so stay tuned. And Stake conference is this week and a new ward is going to be made we are pretty sure of that, so that will be awesome. It will be the 3rd new ward made in the Mission since I have been out, so the church is for sure growing out here in So Cal. 

We had a lot of member lessons this week which is always good. 

That is crazy about Zane, I am pretty sure every time he has helped us with something he has gotten hurt in some way, he probably should stop doing things for us. But glad dad found him and that all is going well. Sorry to hear about the rain, it seems like that always happens.

Oh, Brianna, wants to fly out for my homecoming, so mom you might want to talk to her about that, she emailed me and said that could be her Senior Trip, so we shall see what goes on.

Exciting news about another girl for Austin and Anona, a little frustrating though for Austin I can image!!!   That will make for lively teenage years.

Diet is going good, not insane amount of weight lose but I feel healthier, all the veggies and natural food kind of threw me under the bus the first few days of the diet as my body had to adjust but I feel way better now along with the consistent working out and multi vitamin I should at least be healthy, maybe not thin by the time I return home, but as long as I can fit into the pants I have on I will be fine. 

The ward RS Prez is going to teach me how to use  a sewing machine and how to taper a pair of pants next thursday, so hopefully I will have tapered suit and proselyting pants by the end of the week. 

Anyways, not to much else to update you on. I don't have a cable and so no pictures as of right now, but I will get you  some. Thank you so much for everything, Also, I might disinvite that no tv on sunday thing, as long as all necessary church stuff is done and all of that it s okay hahaha!!!

Well again thank you for everything, have a great week!!!

--

"Fourth Floor Last Door"

Elder Amric Zane Sobczak

California, Carlsbad, USA

January 2013-June 2013

California, Irvine, USA

July 2013-December 2014

Service Atonement and Teaching

Again, not to much to report on from this last week. The companion is going okay, lots of stuff going on but I don't want to bag on it to much. Uhm....We are teaching members and that is fun! Always a awesome chance to be in the members home and get to know them and who they are and how they got to where they are. 

“O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him will all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.” Doctrine & Covenants 4:2

Uhm...We had a service project this morning, we are in the process of pulling a stump out of the ground, it is a Palm stump that is about 2 feet in diameter and we have 4 shovels, a pick, 2 dull axes and a hack saw. So it will be a long process to get the thing removed out of the ground. But it should be fun, I miss doing manual yard work and stuff like that, something I am surprised that I miss from back home, actually getting to go out and work in the yard. 

Hmmmmmm.......

15

Yeah honestly cannot think of anything. You know whats crazy, I have 15 weeks left hahaha!!!  the only reason I know that is because I am starting my 15 week study of the atonement and so it will be done the day before I go home. So I should have a much better understanding of the atonement repentance and forgiveness when I close up the mission and come home. see - https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/yw/atonement/what?lang=eng

also note;

  https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/03/missionary-work-and-the-atonement?lang=eng

"Throughout the teaching experience, missionaries bear testimony of the Savior and His gift of salvation to us. Obviously you should bear testimony regularly of all the principles you are teaching, but it is especially important that you bear testimony of this central doctrine in the plan of our Heavenly Father.  There are several reasons for bearing testimony. One is that when you declare the truth, it will bring an echo, a memory, even if it is an unconscious memory to the investigator, that   they have heard this truth before—and of course they have. A missionary’s testimony invokes a great legacy of testimony dating back to the councils in heaven before this world was. There, in an earlier place, these same people heard this same plan outlined and heard there the role that Jesus Christ would play in their salvation".    -Holland

Yeah, nothing else to report on ... parents, again sorry, I will work on taking better notes and bringing them with me to use when I write home this next week, I just don't have anything to report on really so I don't want to bore you with a break down of each day. I love you a lot, I really do, I truly appreciate all you do for me and all you do to help me out everyday. 

Look for the tiny miracles and the opportunity to help people in any way. 

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

Social Media and the Gospel of Jesus Christ: To Sweep the Earth as With ...

I Pray When... #didyouthinktopray