Biking in the rain in Clermont

It's Brock's birthday this Saturday, February 6th and he'd sure love a letter or an email.  His address is:  Elder Brock Doman

Florida Orlando Mission

10502 Satellite Blvd Ste. E

Orlando, Fl 32837

His email address is brock.doman@myldsmail.net

Friends and Family,

Here we are again! I realized today that time is definitely ticking
with it being the first of February today. Man, crazy stuff! This is
now week 18 here in Eustis for me. It feels like it's been a while,
but I'm liking it out here in the country side. It's the last week of
the transfer, so we are really going to work to finish it out strong.

Tuesday the week started off well! So to back track a little bit...
last Sunday, Sister McFadden (the chicken lady) said the opening
prayer in Sacrament Meeting! She's now fully reactivated in the
church! It was so cool to see. It's been a good time working with her
and seeing the change that's taken place in her and her family. I've
learned and noticed how real the gospel is, and how it changes people.
It's awesome! Anyways, we stopped by her and let her know that we
won't be coming by as much now that she's rekindled her testimony. We
then headed out to our quarterly interviews with President Berry!
Everything went well, and I left feeling the spirit, and more
motivated! The night ended with us lacing up our sneakers and playing
some elders quorum ball!

*miracle of the week*
So, to be honest, I sometime question how effective playing basketball
with the Elders quorum Tuesday night are. Out here in Eustis I think
it's been the most effective with there being on average 13 people
out, and only 5 are members. This week, I no longer question if it is
effective. Wednesday morning we received a Media Referral from church
headquarters to go and drop of a copy of the Book of Mormon from a guy
named Ray. When we met him to drop of the Book of Mormon, we found out
he was a younger brother to a non-member that comes out to basketball
Tuesday nights! Way cool!!! He ended up being way down for us to teach
him. He also is going to start coming to play with us on Tuesdays.

The focus of the Leesburg Zone this week was to find some new people
to teach!! Everyone is in need of some rebuilding their teaching pools
through out the zone. A lot of people in the zone dropped or asked to
stop meeting with some of the missionaries. This is probably one of
the hardest things to hear as a missionary. The good news, is that the
missionaries in the zone right now are just awesome. They have some
good attitudes as they are back in the everyday grind of finding some
more people to teach. This was where we spent a lot of our time this
week. After some long days and quite a bit of rejection, Heavenly
Father blessed a couple of fellers with some people to teach!! We
stopped by former investigators, less active members, and just went
out and contacted some more people!
For me, one of my favorite things to do is to talk with people. I love
getting to know peeps, I think it's fun! So it was some what of a
tougher week teaching wise, but we were able to have some fun talking
to random people.

*funny story of the week*
So Thursday we had exchanges with a set of missionaries down in
Clermont. Now, if I were to move to Florida I'd move to this area. It
has a lot of nice middle class neighborhoods and the scenery is sweet.
It has a lot of hills and the people are awesome! Always, this area
was all out of miles to drive for the month, so we hit the hit the
pedals on the bike! It's been a good 7 transfers (49 weeks) since I've
been on a bike... Let's just say I was pretty sore walking around the
next day. Anyway, we forgot to check the whether before we left for
the day. At about 3:00 we found ourselves in the bottom of their area
as we noticed some pitch black clouds coming our way! We were stuck.
After contemplation, we decided to have some fun with it and bike back
to the apartment. We were SOAKED! It reminded me of the days when I
was serving in Palm Bay at the beginning of my mission biking around
in the rain in the summer time. We had good attitudes and made some
fun with it! It's a memory I don't think I'll ever forget.

Our investigator Jim is a stud! He asked us what he needed to do
before he could be baptized because he knows this is what God needs
him to do right now! He's meeting with Bishop this week!

Sherry.... Now sherry was sick this week! I know keep talking about
her, but we still haven't had any luck meeting with her ahh!!!
Anyways, what do you do?

We're staying positive out here in the F.O.M! I'm excited for this
next week on my mission. It will be tough if I have to say bye to the
peeps here in Eustis, but it's part of being a missionary. I'm down to
the final 2 1/2 transfers of my mission... Wow. Like I've always been
taught, the 4th quarter needs to be your strongest. Thanks again for
all of the support and encourage I've received recently. I love you
guys! Have a great week!
- Elder Doman

Mosiah 2:22
"And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments;
and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye
should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he
hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you
and prosper you."