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!

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!

Hoarder, United Against Poverty, Tri-Zone conference, and running into Mike Dansby!!

Friends and Family,

Things are going great here in O-City! If I had to describe this week
in one word, it would be exhausting. Every single day of the week we
had an event that was a little bit different! It was nice to make sure
that Elder Terry and I didn't fall into a regular routine of "doing
missionary things" instead of "being missionaries." I realized this
week that it's definitely starting to heat up again down here. I took
my backpack off after biking one day this week, and my shirt had a
dense sweat outline of where the backpack was on against my back!
#turnup

When we do service for United Against Poverty every Tuesday, it is
always a good reminder of the need to have a solid education, set
meaningful goals in life, and to be happy. I feel like these are some
of the 3 biggest things that have influenced the people there. After
talking with some of them as they are looking around, it just seems
like they are completely out of hope. Their hole they dug is now too
deep and there is no way out. At least that's just how they feel and
not reality. We had our work cut out for us this week. There was a
warehouse about 40x40 yards in dimension, full of boxes we needed to
organize and prepare for a garage sale they were having on Saturday.
Inside the boxes we found anything from dirty old socks to Play
Stations. A huge variety of items. Hopefully the sell had a lot of
success! We stopped by a few less active members to finish up the
night!

Wednesday Alarm Clock = 5:30AM
Our knees hit the floor a little bit early Wednesday for Zone
Conference! 3 Zones met up Wednesday for a lot of training! It started
at 8 and went until 4! 8 hours of jam packed trainings with the spirit
level on full blast. I walked away from this meeting more motivated
than I've been in a while. The subject for the Meeting was "Becoming
Master Teachers." I learned on how I can improve my teaching and how
to teach simpler. Another training we had was on goal setting, and
this might be my favorite subject. It reminded me a lot of the
training Elder Maynes gave a few months back. I've learned it's
important to set goals in life and achieve them. But I've learned it's
even more important to focus on what you are going to do today to
achieve your goals. It was basically an inspirational speech for 20
minutes so you know I was loving it!
After Zone Conference we all scurried back into our different areas to
apply what we've learned! We had a lesson with David who's been
investigating the church for a while. We taught him the basics of the
Gospel and it was an awesome lesson. I feel like I'm all about the
fundamentals. If you do the little things right, the rest will come.
So teaching principles like faith, repentance, baptism, etc... Is
right down my alley! It was pretty cool to see him being 16 years old
totally understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is really
for anyone and everyone, from the kids on the street to the Baptist
Preacher. This church is for you!

Thursday we had Exchanges!! I was in the Neighboring area/ward, so it
wasn't too much of a change of scenery. I was going into the exchange
with an Elder that has been struggling for a little bit. Just has been
having a hard time knowing why he was on a mission and having a lot of
passion. I was pretty nervous going into the exchange knowing that it
was partially my responsibility to help this missionary out! Through
out the day I felt like I was on a secret mission to help out this
Elder without him actually knowing that was my goal. For most of the
day we spent our time doing service for one of their potential
investigators. So I'm just going to say it, his lady was a straight up
HOARDER!!! Holy smokes. Her house was full of dust collected boxes
with each being marked as "miscellaneous." They all just had random
junk inside each one with no order at all. Sorting through the boxes,
I also felt kind of like I was playing "Dance Dance Revolution" with
all the spiders and cockroaches. Pretty nasty... Wrapping up the
night, I felt like I wasn't able to help him out too much. It was
definitely a strange day! As we reviewed the exchange, the Elder told
me he had an awesome day and loved the exchange. I was almost thinking
the exact opposite at this moment still thinking there was dust all up
my arms like previously in the day. He said felt the spirit through
out the entire day, and he won't forget it. I asked him why he liked
it so much, and he said it was the service that helped him realize why
he was on a mission. It hit him that he was here to help God's
children. It might not be sharing the gospel with them, but just being
there to help, to stand in the place of Jesus Christ. I was humbled
and felt like I came away from the exchange more than I originally
thought.

Temple Trip Friday morning!! We rolled out of our beds at 4:30 excited
to go back to the Temple and this time to do a session! It's such a
tease throughout the year for us to teach about the temple, to go on
Temple Tours, and to encourage Recent Converts to go within 2 weeks
after baptism, but then only get to go to through the Temple ourselves
twice a year! That's alright though because it just builds up the
excitement! The spirit in the Temple is indescribable.  It's was nice
to just sit and recuperate for a minute before heading back out into
the Mission Field. It definitely recharged the juices!

Saturday was round number 2 for exchanges! I went into a Spanish area
again, so it made things a little bit hard to communicate with their
investigators...
*MIRACLE OF THE WEEK*
Saturday morning we needed to go and sync our area books in a location
with Wifi. The closest place we could go to was the mall right next
door, so we hoped on our bikes and hustled on over. Walking into the
mall, I recognize a guy named MIKE DANSBY!! I taught mike while I was
in Buena Vista! I left the area 5 days before Mike was baptized so me
and him were way close! We talked for a little bit about his baptism
and where he has been since. It was awesome to see this guy again.
I've been blessed lately with the opportunity to catch up with 2 of my
Recent Converts since I've been back here in Waterford Lakes! That
never happens!! They say the Lords hand is in everything and I
definitely believe it. Two unplanned circumstances where I just so
happened to run into Recent Converts in the last 3 weeks. I'm one
happy camper! When I told him I had to get going, it honestly was
pretty tough. Bringing almost brother or sister to the gospel creates
a bond like no other. I love these people!

Sunday Elder Terry woke up with the same sickness I had last week...
But just a little bit more intense. After church he had no voice at
all and his throat was killing him. The little feller needed some
rest! He woke up sounding a little bit better than Golum from the Lord
of the Rings, so still not totally up to par. Some prayers sent his
way would be great!

As you can tell, this week has been all over the place! I love the
experiences I've had this week. They helped remind me why I'm a
missionary, and why I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for
the love and support from each of you. I heard the quote this week from 

a member in the ward and I thought it was great. "Find something that you 

love, and do it every day. Do this for the rest of your life, and eventually the 

World will change." Hope you have a great week!

- Elder Doman

John 15:13
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends."