Our intent of this blog is to share Brock's adventures in Orlando, Florida while he's on his LDS mission. Hopefully, by reading about how Brock is changing the lives of so many, and seeing Brock's own personal growth in the gospel, the people reading this blog will also be able to feel the spirit and be inspired to strengthen or develop their own testimonies of Christ and the LDS church.

Monday, February 29, 2016

Sickness, snakes, service and scary dogs.....






Friends and Family, 

Holy cow, we are already here in Week 4 of this Transfer! It seems like I mention it every week, but time is flying by. Well this week had its ups and downs! Last Sunday I started getting kind of sick and then it came in full swing this week. #ThePlague is real out here in the Zone too. 8 out of the 25 missionaries in the zone felt sick at some point this week... But the show goes on and the work continues! 
Monday was awesome this week. We got together as a zone at a park this week and had a good time! We spent the day playing soccer, volleyball, and so, basketball! We felt the effects Tuesday morning when we woke up with vibrant red skin from the sunshine. It honestly felt pretty good! It's been a while since I've felt a sunburn! 
Tuesday we did some more service at United Against Poverty. It is pretty eye opening to see the circumstances that some people live in. Every time I walk out, I'm grateful for the blessings I have and the people around me who support and love me. I like having the chance to serve in places like that so I can see what it's like living on the other end. I realized I grew up with great a family and great friends who have been there to help me! 
After service, we met with our Investigator Mary. She's awesome!! After tracking into her, we found she had so many concerns and struggled believing in God. When we started talking about who God is the personal relationship we can have with him everything started to change. She put us on the hot seat for an hour and a half firing off back to back, question after question. It was pretty intense, but it wasn't hostile at all. At the end of the lesson, she said SHE'D BE BAPTIZED IF SHE CAME TO KNOW IT WAS TRUE. So cool. It's awesome how the spirit works. 
Wednesday we had a day teaching all about the Sabbath! As we were making our lesson plans for the day, we decided that all of our investigators and less active members we are working with, needed to know why Church and the Sabbath day was so important. So after District Meeting in the morning, we hit it hard with our Investigators. 6 straight lessons on why Church attendance and the Sacrament are important. It was pretty sweet seeing how one topic or principle of the Gospel can be taught in different ways and can be important for different reasons. The Elders Quorum President took us out to dinner and spent the evening with us. Scary story of the week... Ever since I was chased by the dog in Eustis, I've been somewhat afraid of Pitbulls and German Shepherds. Anyways, we were going into kind of a run down, country part of the area and it was getting dark. there was a "Beware of Dog" sign on the fence, but I noticed the sign after it was too late. I opened up the fence to approach the door and then BAM! BARK BARK BARK!!! The next thing I hear are some paws pounding on the pavement coming my way. I quickly slammed the gate and hoped for my dear life the dogs didn't jump the small fence. I may have over reacted a little bit, but after looking at the Pit Bull it still looked like it could eat a small child in one bite... He ended up being a nice guy living there. He was Less Active in the church but ended up coming on Sunday! 

Thursday I was on exchanges with Elder Storm! He is from Haiti and is a Creole speaking missionary. Sak Pase?! Elder Storm woke up throwing up multiple times throughout the night... Needless to say, he wasn't feeling too great the next day. He need to rest and recover he day of exchanges. He felt bad for not being able to work, but ended up losing a few pounds that day. I spent the day cleaning up our area book and making sure our apartment was spick and span!

Fri(Weekly Planning)day! After our planning session we had a few minutes before our next appointment so we decided to go knocking on some doors. The second door we knocked on we met a middle aged man named "YOEI" (yo-hey.) He was from Japan, but was an exchange student in Washington at one point. The next part really blew me away. Yohei asked us if we had a Book of Mormon! We were stunned... totally shocked! The family he stayed with were members of the Church and he went every week while he stayed with him. He was never baptized, but liked what the church believed in and taught! Such a cool miracle. 

With it being the end of the month, our car was almost out of our allotted miles for the month. So, we lubed up our chains and hit the bikes again in the morning. Biking sometimes is frustrating, but it's also nice to be out in the sun and feel the fresh air that day. We talked with a lot of interesting people and saw a lot of success! 

Sunday we found out that our Investigator Ivonne and her two kids, Diego and Thaliea are moving sometime within these next two weeks... it definitely put a damper on the day. On a good note, we had 5 investigators come to church and all of them said they really enjoyed it! One of them is named Ashley. She just married a member of the church about a month ago, and they are such a great couple. They are so funny! They found out a few weeks ago that he will be deployed to Africa in a few weeks for the Military. Ashley completely shocked us Sunday and told us she was Pregnant!! AHH. If that isn't a crazy situation, I don't know what is. She asked us for a blessing. Elder Terry and I thought this was really cool because she isn't a member yet, but has a strong belief in the Priesthood. Definitely something I will remember!

As I've looked back at my mission this week, I realized I'm developing some of the characteristics I've always wanted to have. Now I'm not saying I'm anywhere close to where I need or want to be, but its cool to look back and see the changes that have taken place these last 20 or so months. I wonder where Brock Doman would be if he wasn't prompted to serve a mission. What my life would have been like and how the big picture would have panned out.  All I know is that I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to send me that prompting. I still have a lot of hopes and dreams and am excited for this final stretch of my mission. It's the 4th quarter, the time to really buckle down and finish out strong.  Thank you for all of the love and support! Have a great week!
- Elder Doman




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