Friends and Family,
How was everybody's week? For me, I can't believe
it's already the month of September! It seems like I left 5
minutes ago, but at the same time, it also feels like it's been 2 years
already. Weird, I know. It's crazy that I'm almost 1/9th of the way
done with my mission!
Well this week had its ups and downs for sure!
Tuesday we had exchanges again which was definitely a blessing.
Elder Willard is great and all, but exchanges are nice. It's good
to get a break from your companion and connect with someone else for
24 hours. I went in the other Elders area this time which was good!
On exchanges I realized that Florida is just weird. There are
Cubans, Americans, African Americans, Jamaicans, And a ton of
retired people from New York that live here. You never know what you are
going to get when you knock in a door. This makes it kind of fun
though. We made a game out of it and if one of us guessed who would behind
the door, we'd get a point. I know, it sounds like a boring game. But
as missionaries, we were loving it!
There was a constant thunder/lightening storm
Thursday through Saturday, which makes makes biking kind of tough.
We had to stay in for a lot of the day and was only able to go out
for about 4 hours! It was very frustrating because we had a lot of success
the previous week, and we were looking forward to seeing the
progress of our new investigators. There isn't really anything we
could do about the weather other than try to stay positive and busy
in our apartment. Our apartment now very clean, and reorganized! When
Saturday came around we both couldn't handle being cooped up any
longer. We came to the agreement that God would protect us during the
storm, and we were going to face it. It was one of the wildest
things I've ever done. It was a total downpour, but there wasn't any
lightening. It was raining so hard it felt like I was biking in the shower!
it was incredible. The important thing is that we were able to get
to all of our appointments and teach some lessons. When we
arrived home, we were just soaking wet. Our notebooks, pass along
cards, shoes, socks, just everything was drenched! It was a great
experience!
I realized that I failed to talk about how the
other planned baptisms went, and why they fell through. We had a baptism
planned about a month ago. This investigator had a slip up on the
Word of wisdom which
then got delayed. The investigator then got
offended by this and no longer wanted to be baptized. The other
investigator with a planned
baptism was offended by a question In the
baptismal interview, and
didn't want to be baptized anymore either.
However, Sundays baptism was great!! Everything
went perfect. It was
incredible to look back and over the past 2 1/2
months and see the
changes Kathy has made. She's accepted Jesus
Christ and felt his love
so strongly each and every day as her desire to
follow Him has grown
as well. I was nervous all day and just kept
telling myself, "don't
mess up, make sure you say the ordinance
perfectly, and the classic
'no pressure.'" I knew if I were to ask our
Father in Heaven for comfort and peace, I'd feel a lot better. It was
in the middle of church, so I decided to step out and go into the
bathroom to be alone. As soon as I started to pray, the very second I
said "Dear Heavenly Father" all of the stress, nervous, and
anxiety was gone. I knew that everything would be okay. For the rest of the day
I had a smile on my face and felt 100% relaxed. The baptism went
smoothly and Kathy was so happy. She just kept saying "I feel so clean
and pure now!" Ahh, I love it!
Things are going great here for me, I'm still
loving it, and my testimony is growing each and every day, There
are definitely some struggles, but that was expected! Let me know if
you'd like to hear about anything else that I've left out or if
you've been wondering something and wanted to ask! I miss you guys and
hope all is well wherever you may be!
Much Love,
Elder Doman!
Here is a picture of Me, Kathy, and Elder Willard
just before the baptism!
 |
| Kathy is the lady that calls Brock "Elder Handsome," and his companion, "The other one." This cracks Brock up every time! Brock also said that his area hadn't had a baptism in over a year, so he was thrilled! |
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| The "Cocoa Zone" at their zone conference this month |
A few things from Brocks letter's home this week:
This was what Brock sent to Britt for her birthday this week. When Britt emailed him and said, "What is the purpose of this present, I don't get it!" Brock responded with, "hahahahaha, I hope you liked your present. I just thought you'd like it because it was a guy with his shirt off with a pet sheep! Hah, and it's my favorite story in the Book of Mormon. It's found in Alma chapters 17-19."
"I am now finally realizing what I am actually going to be doing
for the next 2 years, and I definitely have mixed emotions. Mainly happy ones though :) it's exciting and pretty fun to see these investigators make progress. I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing, it's just going to be hard for the next little bit to get used to some of the
"boring" aspects of it! I'm in need of some confidence! I'll
get there! I know that I can do it. I just have to accept my "new
life" and be happy with it. I'm fine, I think I’m just ready for transfer."
"But overall,
I'm doing great. When we are working and busy I'm loving
it. Talking
with everyone makes me so happy. Even if I sound completely stupid
and
don't make sense sometimes, at least it gives me a good laugh! It's so
much
fun to just talk to people! Also, my voice has been gone the
entire time! It's
sounds totally raspy! I don't know what to do about
it! Any ideas? I mean, I
sound like I'm going through puberty again! I
hate it! Hahaha"
"So can you believe it's already been a year since I tore my calf up at
West?! If my mission goes by
that fast, it will be crazy! It seemed
like that was just yesterday!!"
"Mom, I sure do miss home, but this mission thing is a good for me. It
would have been really hard for me if I went straight to college. I
think it's a blessing in disguise that I can't communicate with home
as much as I want to. It would have been hard for me to stay in Ogden
hearing from you guys each day. This will be good college preparation."
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