"This place is like a buffet full of people from all over the world!"

Friends and Family,

What a week it's been! I'm loving the Buena Vista YSA Ward, and just my mission overall. It would be a lot harder without the support I'm receiving  from all of you. I couldn't thank you enough! It's always good to know that I have support from back home! Thanks again for the emails and letters!

Last week I talked a little bit about how we mainly work out of 3 apartment complexes that are all very close to each other. The people that live in these apartments are only College Program employees at Disney. There are busses that come by and pick these employees up every half hour, so there are always students walking to the bus stop.

This is like a buffet full of people from all over the world. We have to get a little creative on ways we can contact these people because most of them are away from home, and don't want to have anything to do with religion. This makes it pretty fun and really challenging for us to get their attention!

One of the best things about serving in a YSA Ward is that college students are always open to playing ping-pong or basketball Wednesday nights with other college students their age. For Night Games Wednesday night, we had 30 people show up, and only  21 of them were members! It was a great way to get non members to a friendly, non-stressful environment where they will hear about the gospel. It's fun to do missionary work his way. Before, a lot of the work was tracting and ways to find. Now, it is so important for us to gain the members trust, so they can give us referrals.

It's so different then what I did in Palm Bay. There is nothing about these two areas that have been similar.

Palm Bay:

- 80% retired

- rural area next to the beach

- a lot of door knocking and finding

Buena Vista YSA:

- only members between 18-29

- Southern Orlando, right next to Disney

- a lot of referrals and gaining the wards trust

As you can tell, it's a whole lot different between one place and another, but my purpose hasn't changed. My goal is to invite others to come unto Christ. No matter where I am, that's what my focus will be, and I'm loving every second of it. There isn't really a way to describe "missionary work" because it's unlike anything else I've

done, and will ever do in my life. It's great! Im grateful for this opportunity!

So Saturday before Conference, we had a breakfast and lesson with one of our investigators. (General Conference doesn't start until 12 here, so It was weird to actually do something before.) She heard about the church from her good friend "Tigger" at work, and agreed to hear what we had to say. This investigator has a very strong Catholic background, and her family has been this way for multiple generations.

She attends Mass every Sunday, and has for her entire life. She was very defensive through out the first of the lesson, and really was disengaged in the lesson. We thought It really wasn't going anywhere. We asked if we could come back a better time, and she said she'll just call us if there is a good time. If anything, we thought we could leave a Book of Mormon with her just in case, and drove off to Conference.

We were doing our P-Day shopping earlier today and we get a call from her. She said that when she was at Mass Sunday, she didn't feel like God wanted her to be there anymore. She didn't feel welcome, and was really uncomfortable. She walked out during the middle of the service and went to sit in her car. On her passenger car seat, there was the Book of Mormon. She said she was really hesitant to read it, but something motivated her to do it. (the spirit of course!!) when she started reading she said she felt 100 times better and very calm. She said she wanted to meet with us again, and actually pay attention this time.

I think that is an awesome experience for both her, and me. It made me know that if I do everything that I can to bring others closer to Christ, I will be blessed and my efforts are never wasted. It's so easy to get frustrated here on a mission with all of the rejection, but when you have an awesome experience like that, it makes the rejection seem like nothing.

Man, General Conference was fantastic! I could talk about it all day, and share quotes and those fun things, but I hope each of you received inspiration you were able to take away from it!

Well, It's been almost 4 months out now and for me, it's only felt like 4 days. I'm excited to have a lot more time to be on my mission, because I still,don't think I've fully comprehended that I'm a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Thanks again for all of your support, and if you want to hear anything more about what I'm doing let me know! Have a great week!

Much Love,

"His path will take us safely home"

- President Thomas S. Monson

Elder Doman

I've been lucky enough to get text messages this week from some of the people in Brock's ward when he's hanging out with them, I absolutely love it!  They usually send a picture too, these are some of the pictures I've gotten this week.

Brock helping to make lasagna soup and cinnamon rolls between conference sessions

Some of the members of Brock's ward

Brock and Elder Fullmer, his new companion.  They're getting along really well!

Playing ping pong on Wednesday night with the people in his area