Friends and Family,
Another up tempo week here in no mans land a.k.a. Useless a.k.a.
Eustis!! A lot of missionaries don't really like it in this area, but
I'm really enjoying it. We had a "stuffed" week full of fun. Hopefully
everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to enjoy the time spent
with families. Holidays are pretty rough on a mission, but I guess
that's just how the cookie crumbles! We still had a lot of fun in
thanksgiving, and I was grateful to spend it with Elder Chidester. Me
and him are getting along really well and I'm loving this transfer.
Monday we had a lesson with our investigator Sherri. A week prior to
this one, we had an awesome lesson with her and we were planning on
setting a baptismal date on Monday! The results were pretty different
though... She had talked with her husband about possibly joining the
church and I guess things just took a turn for the worse. She still
wants to meet and learn, hoping that things will change. A little bit
discouraging, but I'm coming to find out that it's all a part of the
work. Some prayers sent her way would be great!
On Tuesday I had an Exchange with Elder Pearson! He was a part of the
back to back to back sleepovers a couple weeks ago. Me and him are
good friends now too, and had a lot of success on the exchange! It was
filled with some good service as well. After that, we went to another
one of our investigators who happened to be totally drunk when we
showed up. When he walked out of his house and down the front steps to
the porch he actually ended up falling over! We did all we could to
help the guy, but we were thinking maybe he just needed a Care Bear
and some more sleep or something. That's one thing I've definitely
learned on my mission, is that the commandments aren't just
restrictions holding us back, but they are safety barriers which are
made to keep us happy and protected! Good day overall!
Wednesday (preparing for the feast) was pretty crazy too! We drove an
hour or so to a District Meeting in Lecanto... This place, honestly is
way out in the boonies. Further out than Eustis! It was a cool drive
and we both realized that we definitely weren't in Utah anymore. There
weren't any mountains, freeways, cars, or much people in that small
town, but it was kind of nice. After the meeting it was one of the
missionaries birthdays in that district, so of course we had to go
grab some lunch. Once we got back to our area, we visited some less
actives, part member families, and other potential investigators until
we had a baptismal interview that night! Doing Baptismal interviews
has to be one of the most spiritual experiences on the mission. I'm
pretty sure that it's impossible to do one and not feel the spirit as
the soon to be member bears their testimony.
Thanksgiving!! TURN UP! Hahaha Thanksgiving was an up and down day. It
started off as one of the best days of my mission! We went out to the
Ward Turkey Bowl in the morning and played some 7 on 7 football for a
little bit. It was a blast playing some football again and being
active! That's one thing I definitely miss. After our legs felt like
jello, we headed back to the home and decided to head out. Our first
Thanksgiving dinner started at 11 Am and boy, it was a lot of food. We
ate with a Less active family so that was pretty cool! Elder Chidester
and I called it our "Soul Food Thanksgiving Dinner" it consisted of
ribs, grilled chicken, fried chicken, watermelon, cornbread, sweet
potato casserole, collard greens, and so on and so forth. I guess we
could just say it was a lot of food and we didn't think about having
to eat more meals throughout the day. We were already full to the
brim... After that meal, we had some downtime where we didn't have
much to do. We headed over to Lake Eustis and walked around trying to
find some people to talk to, but didn't have too much success. We
ended up making a friend with a squirrel after feeding it some bread,
so I guess you can say that was our success for that period of time.
Hahah! we had another Dinner at 4 with a family we didn't really know
much about. It was pretty interesting to eat a big Thanksgiving dinner
with a family we weren't too close to, but we made some good
connections and are good friends now! By the end of the dinner, we
were pretty sure we walked out of the door walking like penguins do
because we were so full. Our bodies dreaded going to into our 3rd and
final dinner appointment for the day. We buckled down and it done
though. Thank heavens that the members we ate with were merciful and
understood that we were full, so they only MADE us eat one plate. All
in all, It was a pretty good day. Definitely missed family and friends
at home, but still a good day.
Friday, Weekly Planning (good thing because we were in a food coma!!)
it took up a big chunk of the day. Later that night the city of Eustis
had an event called "Light Up Eustis" which the Reisings (Nana and GM)
took us to. We walked around all of downtown Eustis looking at the
Christmas lights in the city and checking out the different vendors.
Saturday we had exchanges Pt II for the week! I served with Elder
Thornock from Ogden, UT who is serving in the neighboring Ward
currently. In the afternoon, we were walking around Lake Eustis when
we came across a young dude named Jacob jamming on his guitar in the
park. We sat and talked with him for a little bit and he was really
interested in the Gospel! Hallelujah! He hadn't ever gone to a church,
but thought it would be sweet to go check it out one day. I was blown
away. I figured everyone has been to A church at least ONCE before. He
was busy this week, so he wasn't able to make it out, but he sounded
really promising and we are excited to teach him this week!
Sunday was great. Earlier in the week we got a text from the Relief
Society President asking us and the other Elders in the Ward if we
could teach her class on Sunday. We said yes and thought it would be
no big deal. About a minute later, we get a reply from her, telling us
we can teach on whatever subject we wanted, but she insisted on us
singing "Called to Serve" at the end of the lesson. Our hearts both
dropped. For anyone that knows me, I'm definitely not the next Michael
Buble or Frank Sinatra. We said that we would and "couldn't wait for
the opportunity to sing." We were hoping she caught on to our sarcasm.
The lesson went great throughout the hour. The Spirit was there and
and all was going well. Meanwhile, all 4 of us were shaking in our
boots because we knew we had to sing at the end of this thing.
Anyways, we stuck to our word and sang our little hearts out to the
Eustis Relief Society. I'll close the story in the Relief Society
Presidents final words in the meeting. "Now it doesn't matter if the
Elders sang good or not, the only thing that matters is that we felt
the missionary spirit." :)
Well, believe it or not November is all finished up, and this has felt
like the fastest month the of my entire mission. I don't know how it
happened, but it came and left before I realized it was here. Thanks
again for or all of the thoughts and prayers sent my way. I can't tell
you how much it's appreciated. I know I'm out here for a reason and
there is a purpose behind everything. I no longer believe in just
coincidence or chances, because I've seen too many perfect things
happen at the perfect timing for me or these people we are teaching.
I'm grateful for this opportunity I have to serve!
Much Love,
Elder Doman
D&C 101:36
Another up tempo week here in no mans land a.k.a. Useless a.k.a.
Eustis!! A lot of missionaries don't really like it in this area, but
I'm really enjoying it. We had a "stuffed" week full of fun. Hopefully
everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to enjoy the time spent
with families. Holidays are pretty rough on a mission, but I guess
that's just how the cookie crumbles! We still had a lot of fun in
thanksgiving, and I was grateful to spend it with Elder Chidester. Me
and him are getting along really well and I'm loving this transfer.
Monday we had a lesson with our investigator Sherri. A week prior to
this one, we had an awesome lesson with her and we were planning on
setting a baptismal date on Monday! The results were pretty different
though... She had talked with her husband about possibly joining the
church and I guess things just took a turn for the worse. She still
wants to meet and learn, hoping that things will change. A little bit
discouraging, but I'm coming to find out that it's all a part of the
work. Some prayers sent her way would be great!
On Tuesday I had an Exchange with Elder Pearson! He was a part of the
back to back to back sleepovers a couple weeks ago. Me and him are
good friends now too, and had a lot of success on the exchange! It was
filled with some good service as well. After that, we went to another
one of our investigators who happened to be totally drunk when we
showed up. When he walked out of his house and down the front steps to
the porch he actually ended up falling over! We did all we could to
help the guy, but we were thinking maybe he just needed a Care Bear
and some more sleep or something. That's one thing I've definitely
learned on my mission, is that the commandments aren't just
restrictions holding us back, but they are safety barriers which are
made to keep us happy and protected! Good day overall!
Wednesday (preparing for the feast) was pretty crazy too! We drove an
hour or so to a District Meeting in Lecanto... This place, honestly is
way out in the boonies. Further out than Eustis! It was a cool drive
and we both realized that we definitely weren't in Utah anymore. There
weren't any mountains, freeways, cars, or much people in that small
town, but it was kind of nice. After the meeting it was one of the
missionaries birthdays in that district, so of course we had to go
grab some lunch. Once we got back to our area, we visited some less
actives, part member families, and other potential investigators until
we had a baptismal interview that night! Doing Baptismal interviews
has to be one of the most spiritual experiences on the mission. I'm
pretty sure that it's impossible to do one and not feel the spirit as
the soon to be member bears their testimony.
Thanksgiving!! TURN UP! Hahaha Thanksgiving was an up and down day. It
started off as one of the best days of my mission! We went out to the
Ward Turkey Bowl in the morning and played some 7 on 7 football for a
little bit. It was a blast playing some football again and being
active! That's one thing I definitely miss. After our legs felt like
jello, we headed back to the home and decided to head out. Our first
Thanksgiving dinner started at 11 Am and boy, it was a lot of food. We
ate with a Less active family so that was pretty cool! Elder Chidester
and I called it our "Soul Food Thanksgiving Dinner" it consisted of
ribs, grilled chicken, fried chicken, watermelon, cornbread, sweet
potato casserole, collard greens, and so on and so forth. I guess we
could just say it was a lot of food and we didn't think about having
to eat more meals throughout the day. We were already full to the
brim... After that meal, we had some downtime where we didn't have
much to do. We headed over to Lake Eustis and walked around trying to
find some people to talk to, but didn't have too much success. We
ended up making a friend with a squirrel after feeding it some bread,
so I guess you can say that was our success for that period of time.
Hahah! we had another Dinner at 4 with a family we didn't really know
much about. It was pretty interesting to eat a big Thanksgiving dinner
with a family we weren't too close to, but we made some good
connections and are good friends now! By the end of the dinner, we
were pretty sure we walked out of the door walking like penguins do
because we were so full. Our bodies dreaded going to into our 3rd and
final dinner appointment for the day. We buckled down and it done
though. Thank heavens that the members we ate with were merciful and
understood that we were full, so they only MADE us eat one plate. All
in all, It was a pretty good day. Definitely missed family and friends
at home, but still a good day.
Friday, Weekly Planning (good thing because we were in a food coma!!)
it took up a big chunk of the day. Later that night the city of Eustis
had an event called "Light Up Eustis" which the Reisings (Nana and GM)
took us to. We walked around all of downtown Eustis looking at the
Christmas lights in the city and checking out the different vendors.
Saturday we had exchanges Pt II for the week! I served with Elder
Thornock from Ogden, UT who is serving in the neighboring Ward
currently. In the afternoon, we were walking around Lake Eustis when
we came across a young dude named Jacob jamming on his guitar in the
park. We sat and talked with him for a little bit and he was really
interested in the Gospel! Hallelujah! He hadn't ever gone to a church,
but thought it would be sweet to go check it out one day. I was blown
away. I figured everyone has been to A church at least ONCE before. He
was busy this week, so he wasn't able to make it out, but he sounded
really promising and we are excited to teach him this week!
Sunday was great. Earlier in the week we got a text from the Relief
Society President asking us and the other Elders in the Ward if we
could teach her class on Sunday. We said yes and thought it would be
no big deal. About a minute later, we get a reply from her, telling us
we can teach on whatever subject we wanted, but she insisted on us
singing "Called to Serve" at the end of the lesson. Our hearts both
dropped. For anyone that knows me, I'm definitely not the next Michael
Buble or Frank Sinatra. We said that we would and "couldn't wait for
the opportunity to sing." We were hoping she caught on to our sarcasm.
The lesson went great throughout the hour. The Spirit was there and
and all was going well. Meanwhile, all 4 of us were shaking in our
boots because we knew we had to sing at the end of this thing.
Anyways, we stuck to our word and sang our little hearts out to the
Eustis Relief Society. I'll close the story in the Relief Society
Presidents final words in the meeting. "Now it doesn't matter if the
Elders sang good or not, the only thing that matters is that we felt
the missionary spirit." :)
Well, believe it or not November is all finished up, and this has felt
like the fastest month the of my entire mission. I don't know how it
happened, but it came and left before I realized it was here. Thanks
again for or all of the thoughts and prayers sent my way. I can't tell
you how much it's appreciated. I know I'm out here for a reason and
there is a purpose behind everything. I no longer believe in just
coincidence or chances, because I've seen too many perfect things
happen at the perfect timing for me or these people we are teaching.
I'm grateful for this opportunity I have to serve!
Much Love,
Elder Doman
D&C 101:36
Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world
your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full.
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