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, March 28, 2016

Cancelled baptisms and spending my last transfer in Waterford Lakes!


Friends and Family,

This week was definitely one I'll never remember. Both Chris and
Nicholas' baptisms were canceled. I'll explain more later in my email!
On the brighter side of things, I found out I'll be staying here in
Waterford Lakes for the last 7 weeks of my mission. Elder Terry will
be transferred, and my new companion will be Elder Hummer! This will
be his his first transfer as a Zone Leader, so I'm pretty excited to
work with him! I don't have too much time to email today, because
there is a lot of people Elder Terry would like to say goodbye to
before he leaves tomorrow morning!

So the bad news first. Yes, the baptisms were both canceled. Chris
texted us Tuesday morning informing us that his mom isn't going to let
him be baptized. We were really confused at this point because we sat
down with his mom just a few weeks ago to explain our beliefs and what
Chris would be committing to. She was fine with it then, but changed
her mind as time continued. Her biggest worry was the Word of Wisdom
and she didn't feel like Chris needed to live it. Unfortunately, this
prohibited Chris from being baptized. We were all pretty upset, but I
knew Chris was feeling bad when he texted us apologizing for his
mother. He's a great kid. The good news here is that in a few years,
Chris will be 18 and he can make the decision for himself.
Nicholas texted us Friday afternoon unsure if he was ready to join a
religion and to commit to Baptism. We tried explaining to him that it
was okay if he was a little bit nervous, and that it was normal. He
still just wasn't budging.
At this point I truly felt how much I love this gospel. Elder Terry
and I both had some sunken spirits because knew how much this gospel
could impact their lives forever. After calling a lot of the members
to inform them of the day before cancelation, they boosted our spirits
and helped us out a little bit. One member replied, "Well, you can
lead a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink." Another one
replied with a quote, "We are all pretty good at this whole life
thing. We are 100% at getting through bad days." We were pretty upset
that these baptisms fell through, but we committed ourselves to find
some more people to teach this week.

Now for the good news. We ended up having a really successful week!
Our car is running low on miles and we wanted to conserve some for
this upcoming week. We hit the bikes hard ready to catch some rays
down here in the Sauna of Florida. We talked to A TON of people this
weekend all about Easter and what this holiday is all about. One cool
miracle went like this...
*Elder Terry and Doman riding their bikes*
*Some guy then drives up real close to us*
" Hey! You men on the bikes!! Are you preaching the 'good word?'"
"Uhhh yeah, you could call it that!"
"Awesome. I'll pull over in that shopping mall, then teach me about Jesus!"
Hahaha way funny! Alex ended up being really interested in the gospel
and was excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon!

Easters was great. Singing "How Great Thou Art" during church was
awesome. It all just kind of clicked for me again. We are all here and
this life is possible because of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is the
key, vital, necessary action needed to return to live with God again.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is what bring us joy in life knowing
that we to will be resurrected, and live with our families once again.
I love this gospel!

Doctrine and Covenants 35:8 says "For I am God, and mine arm is not
shortened; and I will show miracles, signs, and wonders, unto all
those who believe on my name." I definitely faced a trial this week.
It was full of some ups and some pretty down downs, but I've gotta
keep my chin up and keep pressing forward. This week I enter,
"Missionary Hospice." My final destination before I "die" as a full
time missionary. Wow. These 2 years have gone by quickly. I'm grateful
for all of the prayers and support sent my way! I hope everyone has a
great week!
Much Love,
- Elder Doman


1) A picture of us killing those rats at the service project last
week!! #nastay #c'monman
2) standing in the pouring rain
3) An exchange picture from earlier in the week! #reallifeFrogger
4) A member gave us some real carrots and radishes. Kind of random,
but we thought we'd take a picture.
5) This family of 4 fellers almost killed us one night
6-7) Florida is pretty awesome








Monday, March 21, 2016

Rats and cockroaches, lessons in vietnamese, and perfume and BO

Friends and family,

Hopefully everyone had a great week! I know down here in the O.R.L
things went great! From "Tip off" to the "final whistle" this week, we
had some fun and experienced a lot of miracles. Hitting my 21 month
mark this past week was pretty surreal, realizing that I don't have
too much longer out here in the field. With this being an extended
week 7 of the transfer, this Saturday I find out where I will finish
up my last transfer here in the Promise Land. Fortunately no one puked
or felt sick this week, so we made sure to have a "no huddle offense"
paced week!


For service this Tuesday, I'm pretty sure it was the nastiest service
project I've ever done. I know I said this last week, but this one
takes the cake. Hopefully I haven't just turned into a baby out here
since week after week I say we do gross service projects, but I think
I'm justified on this one.
So we get to the "UP" center Tuesday morning and the manager takes the
Zone to the door of the back warehouse. She then supplies is with
masks and gloves and then we know we are in for something good. The
Warehouse was filled with boxes filled with gallons of water, and
Gatorade bottles that haven't been touched in over 6 months. There
were comforters and bed sheets that had holes all throughout them from
the rats and mice that created a home from them. Our job was to throw
all of the old boxes into the dumpster, and trap all mice on sticky
pads/traps that try to escape.... As we picked up some of the boxes,
cockroaches would flee away, run out of the boxes, and scurry into
safety. Stats for the day- 14 mice trapped, >1,000 cockroaches
revealed, 1 gallon Gatorade that smelled of rat feces smelling on our
clothes.
The manager greatly thanked us, and is rewarding us with some pizza
next week! We walked away feeling pretty accomplished!
After we freshened up, Tuesday night we were called to give a blessing
to an older Sister in the Ward who has been returning to activity in
the church! She was grateful to see us when we walked in and said she,
"instantly started feeling better when we walked in her home."

Wednesday after District Meeting, we were stopping by houses of some
less active members when we saw this couple who looked like they were
in distress. We started a conversation with them and they were very
prepared for the gospel. The husband, Billy is attending a church
right now but isn't liking it at all. He has a lot of concerns with
religion in general, but said it would be fine for is to show him and
his wife Brandi a Easter Video! After the video, they both said they
felt a lot more calm and relaxed. We shared with them part of the
Restoration, and they were loving it! They didn't have too much time
but we are meeting with them Tomorrow! Definitely a cool experience.
Wednesday evening, we met with Nicholas and Chris who baptismal date
for the 26th! These kids are awesome. I've talked about the, before in
my email and they are studs. We reviewed Temples and Baptisms for the
dead and they were both pumped to go after their baptism!

Thursday exchanges with Elder Chugg! Yes that's his real name too. We
are teaching in Investigator named Hai (Hi), and she is from Vietnam.
She doesn't know too much English, but this week we were able to give
her a Book of Mormon in Vietnamese! When we started talking with her,
she told us she thought the story of Jesus Christ was very sad and
depressing because he died for all of us. When we explained the
Resurrection, and bore testimony of how Jesus Christ gave us the
opportunity to repent, she understood it a lot more! It was a good
reminder to always stick with the basics of the gospel. You know what
they say, you can't eat an elephant in one bite. At some points I kind
of felt like the communication between each of us flowed about as well
as Taylor Swift trying to rap (not good) but we think she still felt
the spirit, so that's good! We also saw a less active member who was
literally blown up 3 times in 30 minutes in the Vietnam war! Pretty
interesting story there!

Frideey we went and prepped Nick and Chris for their baptismal
interview! We knew they were ready and excited for their interview
Saturday. We had a few minutes before our member showed up for the
lesson and we were all just standing outside of their trailer, when we
decided to channel our inner March Madness and play a quick game of
P.I.G. before the member showed up. It was fun to relax for a few
minutes and have Nick and Chris see that we are actual people and not
just some robots!
*Miracle of the Week*
So it's a requirement for investigators to come to church twice before
they are able to be baptized here in the F.O.M. Nicholas and Chris had
only been once prior to this Sunday, so it was vital for them to come
to church this week. Anyways, Chris and his family had planned a
get-together in Palm Coast this weekend. We were devastated when we
told us, but then he said he knows God wants him to be baptized on the
26th so he's just not going to his family party!! It was pretty
amazing. I mean, this dude is 14 years old, and he's showing some
pretty solid commitment to the church! Way cool.

TURN UP FOR SATURDAY
I love Saturdays on a mission because there are always tons of
hoodlums running around to talk to. Well, it was another "different"
exchange as I went into a Spanish area again... Not much to really
talk about on Saturday because of that reason, but I spent the day
with one of my good friends Elder Harmer! He's like 6'6" and loves to
ball on Mondays, so we get along well :)

Sunday
CHRIS AND NICK rolled up to church having passed their interview and
also got some classy haircuts. Pretty fun to see those guys there! I
think they were just as hyped to see all of the Young Women as they
were to see us! They'll be baptized this Saturday! Woohoo!! Church was
crazy though. We started by teaching the first 1/2 of Relief Society
and left the room dying from all the perfume smells. We hustled and
bustled over to the Deacons class to finish up teaching their lesson!
We went from too much perfume to too much B.O. real quick!  It ended
up turning into a Q and A for us to answer questions about our
missions for some of the Young Men. The first question asked to us was
"So, what's the grossest thing you've had to eat on your mission."
Followed by, "what do you miss about home." Very spiritual lesson as
you can tell ;) Sunday finished pretty cool by stopping by some Recent
Converts named Brittany and Bianca. When we arrived there tonight,
they had a gift bag full of brand new ties for me. It was a late
"welcome to the ward" gift. Honestly, way cool Converts. They were
baptized back in December and they help come out with us to a lot of
our lessons with investigators to be good fellowship!

All is good down here in the O-Zone! I'm excited for this Easter
Sunday we have to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. He lives
today. He broke the bands of death so we can live again, as families,
forever. I'm grateful for the things I've learned out here on a
mission! They have impacted my life and I'm glad I'm a missionary!
Thanks for all of the support and prayers sent my way! Have a great
week!!
Much love,
- Elder Doman

Elder Harmer and I

Ballin today!! Elder Terry and Elder Rindlisbacher! My good friends
here in the mish!






Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Stomach flu and allergic reaction to cat hair, but lots of success too!

Friends and Family,

What's up everybody!? It's another great day down here in Waterford
Lakes! Elder Terry and I are happy, energized, and loving the work! We
saw a lot of really great things happen here in the week and are
looking forward for this week to come! The sun is definitely shining
today with not too many clouds in the sky so it's destine to be a good
day! When the sun is shining, people are happier, and it makes all the
difference in the world! That was kind of random, but we are riding on
good vibes today!

The week started off a little rough with Elder Terry feeling like
someone took a cheese grader to his throat, so we decided to let that
feller rest and recover while the rest of the Zone went to do some
service for United Against Poverty! I put my Tetris skills to test
while E. Terry was sleeping and decided to organize the apartment! It
was nice to freshen everything up and get organized. Plus you know
what they say, with a clean apartment comes.... Yeah I can't really
think of anything clever right now, so.... I cleaned the apartment
while Terry was sleeping.
When he started to get feeling better in the evening we went and saw
our investigators Nick and Chris! These guys are awesome to teach, and
I love seeing them. Nicholas is 12 and his friend Chris is 15. They
live in the same neighborhood, and Nicks mom and older brother are
both members. Prior to this week, we were contemplating how much
desire they actually had to be baptized. We read through 3 Nephi 31
with them and it changed everything! Nick said, "oh man, I really need
to be baptized, huh?" It's a pretty simple quote, but it speaks for
itself! We walked away from the lesson knowing they felt the spirit
and have strong desire to move forward! We set a date for baptism for
March 26th! Things are looking good for it too!

Wednesdeey:
District Meeting, lunch, stopping by and reaching out to Less-Active
members, and some miracles! I don't have too much time to email, but
I'll make sure to give the best highlights of the week!
I've talked a little bit about our "Gator" (Investigstor) named David
whose dad is a member of the church! He's 16 years old and has a
baptismal date for the 30th of April! Woooo! The date is a little bit
further out, but we we're confident he'll reach it! We reviewed a
couple of commandments with him. It's always a little bit scary moving
forward into teaching the commandments with investigators because it
requires a change of lifestyle to take place, and I've come to learn
that a lot of people don't like change!! In this lesson, we really
tried to help him understand that commandments aren't restrictions,
but rather they are given to us as a way for Heavenly Father to bless
us! ^^^^ definitely something I've learned on my mission!

Thursday we were on Exchanges! I went to an area where we biked around
and talked to so many people for most of the day! We had a couple of
solid lessons in the evening, and that was nice! It was fun to get my
tan on though biking around!

Friday was good ol weekly planning! Afterwards, we went and helped out
the Vega family that we've been working with since I arrived here in
WL pack up the U-Haul and move! The whole family has recently
converted to the church, other than the Mom who was going to have her
baptismal interview next week! It was sad to see them go, but there
wasn't anything we could really do about it! We ate dinner Friday
night with a family in the ward named the Hawkes! They invited a
nonmember to join and it was awesome. We taught him the restoration,
and he was so down to learn more! Way cool.
Friday night we had an exchange planned with the Assistants! Elder
Johnson went to Alta High School and was good friends with my Boi
Elder Crismon! It was fun to share some cool stories and talk for a
little bit. Well for most of the night, I wasn't feeling very good at
all and had a major stomach ache! It was about 11:30 when I ran to the
bathroom and puked my brains out. It happened again at 2:30, and then
once again at 4 and I was convinced there was nothing left in me!
Elder Johnson gave me a blessing and then I slept like a baby for the
next couple of hours. I felt a little bit better on Saturday and we
decided to go out and teach some peeps!
I found out Saturday I have a slight allergy to cat hair... A lady
invited is in who literally had 13 cats running around her home. She
asked us if we could clean out the filter to her vacuum for her
because she didn't know how too. (She had been around the block a time
or two...) well, it was filled with cat hair! Hahah ahh after cleaning
it out my that felt really itchy and I was coughing up a storm! I felt
like I was going to die with my upset stomach and my throat was
swelling up! Anyways, I survived and we ended up having a great day!
Pretty random, but still saw some miracles!

Sunday we had a lot of investigators come to church!! We were as busy
as a bear hibernating for the winter time! Other than that we weren't
really like a bear, I just feel they'd be really busy preparing for
the winter season! Pretty fun stuff!

Well we only live about 15 minutes from UCF so we decided to go drive
around the campus today for P-Day! Our car happened to not be sounded
too good right by the football stadium.... So we decided to hop out
and take a walk around it! It was awesome. It made me pretty excited
to get back into football! Here are some pictures below! I'll send
another email just of pictures of this week!

Another week in the books, chalk one up on the chalkboard, however you
want to say it, it was another great week in the mission field. I'm
happy and enjoying this time I have to serve! I have a great companion
and am learning what it truly means to become a disciple of Jesus
Christ. Thanks for the support that I receive weekly! Ya'll are the
best.

- 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."

I had to laugh when Brock sent me his brackets!  hahahaha.  That would be hard to fill out since he hasn't seen one game all year!