Brock's Orlando Mission: "A baptism, a palm reading, and one of his best weeks so far!"

Friends and family,

Happy late Halloween everybody! I hope you stayed safe, but had some

fun as well! Thanks for all the emails and letters! It's always nice to hear from a loved one back home! This week has been a good one! It was great to see our hard work pay off at the baptism yesterday! A lot went on this week, and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

Tuesday- Tuesday was one of the most successful days of my mission so far. Elder Fullmer and I wanted to make sure to end this transfer off on a good note, so we set some high goals and were determined to reach them. We found a new investigator (someone that wanted to learn more after the first lesson.) It came in a situation when we were about to leave an area, but then decided to stay for another couple of minutes. As we were walking back to our car, we saw a young man, and explained what we did, and who we represent. He wasn't busy at the time and invited us over to talk some more. We went through the first lesson with him and really enjoyed the spirit we brought into his apartment. We will meet with him again next week! What a cool experience that was. Right when we were about to give up and leave, the Lord blessed us.

After that, we went to a member’s apartment and they had their friend who was a non member there! She just moved down last Thursday and had been looking for a church to go to. We shared the fist lesson with her, and she was really thrilled to hear that we have a modern day prophet. We set up a return appointment and are excited for her to start reading and praying. Tuesday night, we went and visited some members who had been going through a hard time, and had asked for a blessing. Blessings are always the best because the spirit is so strong and present in the room. Man, I love it!

Wednesday- Wednesday we met with out investigator that was baptized Sunday. Again, she was nervous about telling her parents but decided now is the time to tell them. She called her parents while we were there! Let me tell ya, I was so nervous for this time to come. I thought her parents were going to be so disappointed in her, then she would want to back out. But the call went well and her parents were okay with it! They said as long as this is what she really wanted to do, and she wasn't doing it for a boy she was dating, they'd be happy for her. This was a relief for all of us. We all took a deep breath, then started to get the baptism arrangements going!

Wednesday night was the ward’s Trunk or Treat. Since it is a YSA Ward, we were able to join up with the other wards around us. It was fun to see little kids running around again, having the time of their life.

Thursday- We went on exchanges. Exchanges are always a little awkward, but a good break from your companion too. I went over to the Olympia area where the Temple is, and spent the day with Elder Perez. A lot of appointments fell through, but we were able to do a lot of contacting. Doing the 3 straight hours of it, I found myself repeating the same conversation starters over and over again. So it was a blessing in disguise to have those appointments fall through because I was able to learn some new ones from Elder Perez, and put them into play.

Friday (Halloween) - Good ol' weekly planning came around again which is the weekly struggle. It's probably the hardest day of the week, just because of this 3 hour planning session. I used to look forward to Friday's prior to the mission, but now Friday's are like Mondays and no one likes Monday's. But you've gotta do what you've gotta do. We got it done and saw a lot of success from it. Not much changed from the mission life since it was Halloween, we did the same thing as any other day! Elder Fullmer and I matched ties, and that's what we "dressed up" as. We couldn't do much Friday night because everyone in YSA was at a Ward party, so we went finding and looked at all the kids and their costumes walking to Disney! It was fun to see how excited they were for the Disney Fireworks.

Saturday- We were studying in the morning and we got a call from the Zone Leaders saying Elder Fullmer will be transferred out Tuesday at our transfer meeting! He was pretty upset because the YSA Ward is where it's at! I'm blessed to stay and am looking forward to another transfer here.

Sunday- Today was the big day for Our investigator Liz! We scheduled the baptism time for 8:15 which gave us just enough time to hold it before sacrament meeting, when she'd be confirmed. The Baptismal font takes about an hour and a half to two hours to fill up, so this means we had to get to the church at about 6:15! We had to leave our house at 5:50. Luckily, we had the time change, so that helped out! We were both pretty tired in the morning, but Elder Fullmer takes the cake I inserted a picture in the bottom of this email so you know what I mean! Hahaha but back to the baptism, Liz was really nervous, but also very excited (it seems like I say that a lot.) Everything went as planned and she is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Woohoo! It's awesome to see your hard work and determination bless not only your life, but others around you as well. Liz was just happy after. She had a smile on her face for the rest of Sacrament meeting. This gospel will make you happy. Bottom line, end of story, and Liz was definitely able to know for herself what "true happiness" feels like.

Well, that's the weekly roundup here in Buena Vister! I'm picking up a little southern accent here from Elder Fullmer, and I guess that's alright. Transfers are tomorrow and I'm staying in this area! Woohoo, another 6 weeks in the Buena Vista YSA Ward! Unfortunately, Elder Fullmer will be headed to a different location in the mission. I learned a lot from him and we got along well. I'll have a new companion the next time you hear from me, which is a little bit scary. I'm sure it will be great, and all will be well!

Much love

Elder Doman

Here's a funny story that Brock wrote about in his letter home this week:

We were contacting Thursday on exchanges, Elder Perez and I were walking around the WalMart parking lot looking for people we could help out or talk to. We came across this really old lady, like she had to be getting ready to kick the bucket or something. Anyway, she was riding to her car in a little Jazzy with the basket stuffed to the top. We approached her and offered to help load her groceries into the car, and then return her scooter thing back to the front of Wal Mart. She happily accepted our invitation and was glad to see two young men help her out. As we loaded the last bag into her car, she looked me and stared into my eyes for like 20 seconds straight without saying a word. I felt extremely awkward and didn't know what to do, so I just stared back at her. Finally she said, reached out and said "give me your hand, Mr. Doman." At this point I was creeped out and thought she was some witchcrafty person and was going to cast a spell on me. But I extended my hand and she grabbed it quickly. She told me she was going to "read my future" from my palm. I was trying so hard to be polite and to not laugh! Like, Women, I don't even know you! What are you doing?! Hahah after about 10 seconds of her feeling my palm, she only said one sentence, "you will live." She then let go of my palm, and scurried slowly into her car laughing! I think she must have just been pulling a joke on us or something! She drove away and now I'll probably never see her again. Me and Elder Perez were dying of laughter for like 10 minutes straight!! Maybe you had to be there, but it was one of the funniest things in the world! It's something I'll never forget! It was sooooo stinkin funny.