Brock's Orlando Mission

Friends and Family,

Transfer week came around last Tuesday the 4th and It's crazy to think that we are already a week into this transfer! My new companion is Elder Potter! He's from Houston, Texas and we have started this transfer off great! We both love to work hard and are stoked for these next 5 weeks!

Tuesday- Transfer meeting took up most of our day along with shopping and unpacking for Elder Potter. For Elder Potter, this is his last transfer :( is pretty upset, but he’s motivated to give it his all and sprint to the finish line! Honestly, I love it. It's nice to have a great companion that wants to work hard as well. Let me tell ya, I've loved my previous companions, but I think this transfer will be the best one yet! We are looking forward to seeing the fruits of our labors this transfer! We had night games later on Tuesday, and unfortunately none of our investigators were able to make it out... this was a little disappointing, but it motivated us to get them out into a low key environment with some church members.

Wednesday- We found a new investigator! Woohoo! He has been a CP (college program) for 5 days and is looking for a church to attend. We taught him the restoration, and he accepted the baptismal invitation. He Is a baptist as of now, but doesn't like what his religion is doing for him, and feels like there is something more out there. This was a huge blessing for us! We're excited to see his testimony start to increase as he starts to read from the Book of Mormon.

Thursday- We met with Liz on Thursday for her recent convert lessons and she is happy as can be. She said that her parents are becoming more supportive and are glad that she has found something she likes! Other than that, all of our other lessons fell through... It was a long day Thursday and we spent a lot of our time contacting. It's cool to talk to so many different people and hear their stories! I love the area here!

Friday- We had an excellent weekly planning session, then went out and did some work! We did more contacting and found a couple of solid people who we are looking forward to visiting with next week. Friday evening, we met with an investigator who hasn't been progressing as well, and needed some extra help. We were inspired to start a new slate with him and re-establish our purpose and reteach the restoration. We did exactly that and it helped him immensely. He accepted the baptismal invitation and has been reading from the Book of Mormon! He was at Stake Conference Sunday and said he was a little bit confused, but enjoyed the words that were said!

Saturday- Saturday was Stake Priesthood Conference! Don R Clarke from the 70 came down and it was awesome to see him, and listen to the words he had to say. Some big news: Previously there has only been six "Zones" or Stakes in the Florida Orlando Mission, but they made a new zone! The mission will not be any bigger, they just split up the Orlando Zone and Orlando South Zone and made a Lake Mary's Zone! It's exciting to hasten the Lord's work, and to be a part of these changes! As I was sitting in my seat a half hour early, pretty excited for the words that were about to be said, I did a little self-reflection. A year ago, I would have been in my seat a half hour early to watch a football game, but now I'm in my seat a half hour early to watch Stake Conference, and I love it.

Sunday- Stake Conference continued on and we were able to attend this meeting as well. Don R. Clarke talked a lot about the importance of family and how it is central to The Plan of Salvation. Also, with the Zones splitting up, we are no longer going to just be covering the College Program area. We will reach further up closer to downtown Orlando, while the Sisters help out with the CP's too. This will be a rough and rocky change, but it will also be a good one. It will give me and Elder Potter a new experience and that's one of the main reasons we are so excited for this transfer!

I hope everyone had a great week! I will hear from you all next week!

Much Love,

Elder Doman

2nd Nephi- 31:20

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

Here's a funny story he shared this week too:

I just thought I'd share this funny experience that happened to us this week! We were finishing up a lesson after teaching an investigator who is pretty feminine. Just for a mental picture- He is a tall lanky Dude from St, Thomas, who loves to wear tight skinny jeans and a lady gaga shirt. I'm not meaning to be rude or anything, I seriously love this kid to death. He is way funny! But we just invited him to be baptized and for him to pray for a baptismal date. He agreed to it and had the biggest smile on his face. I said "Well, we can work out our plans and mee-" he cut me off right then and said, "Elder Doman. If I have to work out

and like lift weights with you, I don't think it's something I want to do!" Hahahah it was so awkward! His English still isn't the best, he's only been in the US for 7 months now! I guess he didn't understand "workout our plans" I started to laugh and and then use some different

terminology and he was a lot more comfortable! Hahah it was awesome!

Friends and family,

Happy late Halloween everybody! I hope you stayed safe, but had some

fun as well! Thanks for all the emails and letters! It's always nice to hear from a loved one back home! This week has been a good one! It was great to see our hard work pay off at the baptism yesterday! A lot went on this week, and I can't wait to tell you all about it.

Tuesday- Tuesday was one of the most successful days of my mission so far. Elder Fullmer and I wanted to make sure to end this transfer off on a good note, so we set some high goals and were determined to reach them. We found a new investigator (someone that wanted to learn more after the first lesson.) It came in a situation when we were about to leave an area, but then decided to stay for another couple of minutes. As we were walking back to our car, we saw a young man, and explained what we did, and who we represent. He wasn't busy at the time and invited us over to talk some more. We went through the first lesson with him and really enjoyed the spirit we brought into his apartment. We will meet with him again next week! What a cool experience that was. Right when we were about to give up and leave, the Lord blessed us.

After that, we went to a member’s apartment and they had their friend who was a non member there! She just moved down last Thursday and had been looking for a church to go to. We shared the fist lesson with her, and she was really thrilled to hear that we have a modern day prophet. We set up a return appointment and are excited for her to start reading and praying. Tuesday night, we went and visited some members who had been going through a hard time, and had asked for a blessing. Blessings are always the best because the spirit is so strong and present in the room. Man, I love it!

Wednesday- Wednesday we met with out investigator that was baptized Sunday. Again, she was nervous about telling her parents but decided now is the time to tell them. She called her parents while we were there! Let me tell ya, I was so nervous for this time to come. I thought her parents were going to be so disappointed in her, then she would want to back out. But the call went well and her parents were okay with it! They said as long as this is what she really wanted to do, and she wasn't doing it for a boy she was dating, they'd be happy for her. This was a relief for all of us. We all took a deep breath, then started to get the baptism arrangements going!

Wednesday night was the ward’s Trunk or Treat. Since it is a YSA Ward, we were able to join up with the other wards around us. It was fun to see little kids running around again, having the time of their life.

Thursday- We went on exchanges. Exchanges are always a little awkward, but a good break from your companion too. I went over to the Olympia area where the Temple is, and spent the day with Elder Perez. A lot of appointments fell through, but we were able to do a lot of contacting. Doing the 3 straight hours of it, I found myself repeating the same conversation starters over and over again. So it was a blessing in disguise to have those appointments fall through because I was able to learn some new ones from Elder Perez, and put them into play.

Friday (Halloween) - Good ol' weekly planning came around again which is the weekly struggle. It's probably the hardest day of the week, just because of this 3 hour planning session. I used to look forward to Friday's prior to the mission, but now Friday's are like Mondays and no one likes Monday's. But you've gotta do what you've gotta do. We got it done and saw a lot of success from it. Not much changed from the mission life since it was Halloween, we did the same thing as any other day! Elder Fullmer and I matched ties, and that's what we "dressed up" as. We couldn't do much Friday night because everyone in YSA was at a Ward party, so we went finding and looked at all the kids and their costumes walking to Disney! It was fun to see how excited they were for the Disney Fireworks.

Saturday- We were studying in the morning and we got a call from the Zone Leaders saying Elder Fullmer will be transferred out Tuesday at our transfer meeting! He was pretty upset because the YSA Ward is where it's at! I'm blessed to stay and am looking forward to another transfer here.

Sunday- Today was the big day for Our investigator Liz! We scheduled the baptism time for 8:15 which gave us just enough time to hold it before sacrament meeting, when she'd be confirmed. The Baptismal font takes about an hour and a half to two hours to fill up, so this means we had to get to the church at about 6:15! We had to leave our house at 5:50. Luckily, we had the time change, so that helped out! We were both pretty tired in the morning, but Elder Fullmer takes the cake I inserted a picture in the bottom of this email so you know what I mean! Hahaha but back to the baptism, Liz was really nervous, but also very excited (it seems like I say that a lot.) Everything went as planned and she is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Woohoo! It's awesome to see your hard work and determination bless not only your life, but others around you as well. Liz was just happy after. She had a smile on her face for the rest of Sacrament meeting. This gospel will make you happy. Bottom line, end of story, and Liz was definitely able to know for herself what "true happiness" feels like.

Well, that's the weekly roundup here in Buena Vister! I'm picking up a little southern accent here from Elder Fullmer, and I guess that's alright. Transfers are tomorrow and I'm staying in this area! Woohoo, another 6 weeks in the Buena Vista YSA Ward! Unfortunately, Elder Fullmer will be headed to a different location in the mission. I learned a lot from him and we got along well. I'll have a new companion the next time you hear from me, which is a little bit scary. I'm sure it will be great, and all will be well!

Much love

Elder Doman

Here's a funny story that Brock wrote about in his letter home this week:

We were contacting Thursday on exchanges, Elder Perez and I were walking around the WalMart parking lot looking for people we could help out or talk to. We came across this really old lady, like she had to be getting ready to kick the bucket or something. Anyway, she was riding to her car in a little Jazzy with the basket stuffed to the top. We approached her and offered to help load her groceries into the car, and then return her scooter thing back to the front of Wal Mart. She happily accepted our invitation and was glad to see two young men help her out. As we loaded the last bag into her car, she looked me and stared into my eyes for like 20 seconds straight without saying a word. I felt extremely awkward and didn't know what to do, so I just stared back at her. Finally she said, reached out and said "give me your hand, Mr. Doman." At this point I was creeped out and thought she was some witchcrafty person and was going to cast a spell on me. But I extended my hand and she grabbed it quickly. She told me she was going to "read my future" from my palm. I was trying so hard to be polite and to not laugh! Like, Women, I don't even know you! What are you doing?! Hahah after about 10 seconds of her feeling my palm, she only said one sentence, "you will live." She then let go of my palm, and scurried slowly into her car laughing! I think she must have just been pulling a joke on us or something! She drove away and now I'll probably never see her again. Me and Elder Perez were dying of laughter for like 10 minutes straight!! Maybe you had to be there, but it was one of the funniest things in the world! It's something I'll never forget! It was sooooo stinkin funny.