Sadly, it's time to leave Daytona...

Brock sure is unhappy about leaving Daytona.  Not only because he loves it there, but also because he’s been working his butt off getting the zone motivated and pumped and working hard and now he has to leave it all.  He also loves his companion, Elder Crismon, and they’ve only been together for 6 weeks. He’s pretty down in the dumps about things.  Hopefully he’ll be transferred to an area that he wants to go and that he’ll have another sweet companion that he gets along with.  Being a missionary is definitely not all fun and games, it’s really hard work too.  Brock said he’ll let me know by a picture tomorrow where he’s being transferred to, I can’t wait to hear!!!

Friends and Family,

Well, unfortunately my time is up here in Daytona Beach. I'm pretty

sure it has gotten harder and harder to say goodbye each time I've

left an area. Saying goodbye to good friends, converts, and other

missionaries through out the zone has been one of the hardest things

on my mission. To be honest, I don't like it at all. I'd be content

with staying in one Ward my whole mission! It will be tough to say

goodbye to Elder Crismon and get a new companion tomorrow.  We've

worked really well together and will forever be brothers. We are both

a little frustrated to only be serving together for a 6 week time

period. I guess we just need to have some more faith in the saying,

"I'll go where you want me to go." Anyway, complaining is useless so I

might as well stop. I'm sad to leave, but I'm anxious to see where

I'll be headed tomorrow!

The members here in the Daytona Beach Ward are just great. I was given

some pretty sweet departing gifts from my best buds here in the Ward.

They breed the people out here in Daytona just a little bit

differently, and I think that's why I liked it. Some pictures of a few

going away gifts are inserted at the bottom of this email! It's hard

to see what I'm holding in my hand in one of the pictures, but it is

an America knife. The handle is the head of a Bald Eagle, and it the

actual blade of the knife turns into the Eagles wings. Hahahha so

sick!! 'MERICA! Bang bang! If you really know ,e, you know I'm

cracking up at this stuff

We had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this Thursday and it honestly

is the the best meeting in the mission. All of the Zone Leaders,

Assistsnts, and President and Sister Berry are there. We receive

trainings on what should be taught and how to move the needle forward

throughout the Mission. There is basically the little "MLC clique"

that my closest friends and sit by at all the big meetings. I've made

so many good friends out here it's unreal. I feel like I've known some

of these Elders my whole life!

We had some pretty sweet miracles happen this week. This one

definitely trumps the others by far. During weekly planning, we were

working through the 13 different planning steps and we're definitely

feeling the grogginess of the mid afternoon start to hit us. We were

looking through our notes, and came across the name of Brandie. If you

remember Brandie, she was going to be baptized the 27th but was

supposed to move up to New York a few weeks ago. We called her because

we hadn't heard anything from her, or if she'd been in contact with

any missionaries. It ends up she didn't move to New York because she

had some serious bronchitis! She made her way to the hospital where

they requested for her to stay in town until she feels like she's

getting better. She told us she's getting a little bit better, and she

took the sickness as a sign from God to be baptized here in Daytona.

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!  It's awesome how the Lord works.

Another great thing that happened this week here in Daytona Beach was

the less active brother we found last week named Brother Spurlin (the

family with the Sugar Gliders) came to the Priesthood Session of

General Conference. Afterwards, he said he hasn't felt that good in 3

years (the time he's been away from the church.) he said, "he just

feels as if he was at home."

General Conference was awesome this weekend. I loved the words said by

the Prophets and Apostles. 3 years ago, I never would have been able

to sit through and listen intently to 10 hours of conference. The

Gospel of Jesus Christ has changed me. I recognized it when my

Watching conference with "Grandpa"

thoughts were drawn to those testifying of the savior on a Saturday

afternoon in October, rather than 'where is College Football Game Day

taking place'. Vonn G Keetch this weekend said, "The gospel of Jesus

Christ is the plan that God has made for us to become the individual

he knows we are capable of becoming. " I've learned and now understand

the importance of a Modern Day Prophet. I can feel that this church of

Jesus Christ is the one true church. The Church that holds the keys of

the Priesthood of God, the church that hold the book that will bring

you closer to God than any other book, and the church where Jesus

Christ is the cornerstone, and head of this entire foundation. I'm

grateful for this knowledge and testimony I've gained on my mission!

Today we are having all the Elders in the Zone Come up to the Daytona

Beach chapel for a basketball tournament! It's going to be a blast!

There will be 14 Elders in it and we are just pumped.

Thanks so much for all the support and help I've received on my

mission. I couldn't do it with out you all. I love and miss each of

you! Have a great week!

- Elder Doman

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from this weekends conference!

Kim B Clark

- "We do not have to be perfect. But we have to be good at getting better!

David A Bednar

- "adversity, if handled correctly, can be a blessing."

-Elder Doman

Sugar gliders and "The freshest white guy!"

Friends and Family,

Week 5 of the transfer here in Daytona Beach is complete. It's crazy

looking back and thinking it was just 5 weeks ago when Elder Crismon

and I first started to be companions. We've really bonded and

basically became brothers. Definitely a fun transfer! We are both

hoping we stay here in Daytona Beach for another transfer. It's very

possible, but I guess we will find out Saturday. If I stay here, that

will be 6 months here in Daytona. I wouldn't be mad at all!  I'm

convinced that this is the Promise Land inside the Promise Land.

So there were a lot of good times that happened this week that I'll

always remember. For this email, I think it would be fun to just share

specific experiences.

On Tuesday, we are teaching a recent convert named Ivet (she likes us

to call her "Abuela.") to get an idea of Abuela, she is a 4'10"

Hispanic lady that absolutely loves the missionaries. Every time we

are over there, she feeds us beans and rice. It's pretty awesome. She

has less than 20 dollars a month after paying her bills, and continues

to insist on feeding us. She is totally devoted. She says it "brings

her blessings of Joy." How cool is that. Anyway, we have been meeting

with her to prepare her to go to the Temple. She was almost there and

wanted to meet with the bishop for an interview the following day. The

following day, when we went to the church to see how the interview

went, she was trying so hard not to cry when she saw us. She said she

needed to talk with us and ended up breaking down. She told us she

just couldn't pay that much tithing, and it would put her on the

streets of she did. It honestly broke our hearts hearing it. After

talking with her more this week, she is going to put it to the test.

She has so much faith! It will be great to see how this plays out.

This week we found a new less active family to teach named the

Mulin's... It's a crazy home to say the least. For a profession, they

breed small rodents and specifically Sugar Gliders. (See picture

below) A long time ago, they were offended by another member in the

ward. We are excited to work with them and to help them come back into

the fold.

Saturday we had "Feeding the Homeless." Again, this was a fun

experience. One homeless man told me "I was the freshest white guy

he's seen all day." What a compliment, what a compliment. It

definitely puts things into perspective.

A funny story for the week: BYU's football team... Hahahha no but we

went knocking for a little bit last week and Elder Crismon being the

goofball he is, was singing "Come Come Ye Saints" meanwhile, and I was

in the background doing some type of dancing with my hands. The door

opened and we stopped so quickly and just stared at this lady. It was

so silent you could hear a gator in the pond behind us.... And I don't

even know if they make a noise, but you could have heard it then.

Luckily, this Saint of a lady just laughed it off and ended up wanting

us to come back again. We were in awe! He spirit of our beautiful

performance must have touched that lady's heart... Or something like

that. Hahah it was pretty awesome.

We also found this one guy named Louie. He was just one humble dude

walking out of Walmart while we were walking in. He said he's seen

missionaries before when he lived over in Louisiana, and has always

wanted to meet, but they never talked with him. How cool is that?!

Definitely a miracle. We are looking forward to meet g with him!

Another great experience this week was the beach play this morning!

This is two in two weeks!! We were pretty lucky for this to happen.

This hardly ever happens because district are only able to go once

every 4 months. What a blessing they ended up falling on back to back

weeks :) there are some pictures below!

It was a fun week this week and we are seeing some great progress. We

are looking forward to this upcoming week and the miracles it will

entail. A big thanks for all the support with emails, letters, and

prayers sent my way.

Much Love,

-Elder Doman

Better week for Brock!! He's feeling good and bouncing back!

This is a picture of the poster and Abby and Britt made Brock this week, he's going to love it!!

One thing Brock told me this week that I thought was kind of crazy was, “To be honest I kind of miss it. It would/will honestly be a little weird being able to sit and do nothing for a little bit. It's been a little while! Out here it seems like I haven't sat down and just thought for a really, really long

time. The workload is hard and there is a ton to do, but the results are irreplaceable. There isn't a greater joy I've felt before than when I'm out here on my mission.”  I’m so proud of him for being able to see what’s important in life!

Friends and Family,

Howdy Ya'll! Hahahah haven't said that in a while. It's been a really

good week here in Daytona Beach! Vroom vroom! We really picked it up

and had a much better week! It was exciting to see the zone buckle up

and have some fun while doing it! Elder Crismon and I are really just

loving life. We get along really well and have had a lot of good

conversations about the work, football, football and more football.

Hopefully by the end of the time we have serving together, he'll be

persuaded to come down and play some ball! We've been trying to really

get to know the missionaries and what they like. Doing this, we've

just had a good bond and strengthened the trust throughout the zone.

This morning we had a Beach P-Day with one of the districts! It was

way fun to go to the beach earlier this morning, and play some sand

volleyball! The weather was perfect, and it just felt nice to reward

ourselves with a fun beach morning!

This week Elder Crismon and I really tried to used our time

effectively and stay positive. When we showed up to Brandi's Monday

night, she told us she was moving out to NY with her family the next

morning so that was tough. It was hard to see her and her family pack

up and move right before baptism.... One of the most discouraging things

that's happened on my mission. We were pretty discouraged after a tough

week with the Zone along with it. On the way home, we got a call from the

Lawhorn family of 15 saying they were no longer interested, and they

didn't want us to stop by anymore... Boom goes the dynamite. Needless

to say, we had a rough start to the week.

We went home and tried to think of a plan of action to take, we

decided to pray and fast for some divine intervention, some

confidence, and some encouragement. As we were getting ready for bed,

good ol "grandpa" gave us a call just to make us laugh. Pretty cool

how that happened. We woke up the next morning feeling positive and

ready to go to work! We were excited to go find some new people and

have some new peeps in our teaching pool! After diligent work and

definitely some help from The One above, we are stoked for these new

people to teach. One being this guy named Corey who was a media

referral! He requested a bible, but we were able to help him recognize

that the Book of Mormon was another book from God as well! At first he

put up a front like Alabama's offensive line. Nothing was getting past

him... Other than the spirit!! He opened up and was ready for us to

come back when we needed to leave! What a miracle.

Most of our other Investigators are in quite a pit right now... We are

still taking baby steps, but we are climbing up a grand-staircase. We

will get there one day! It's pretty funny how the fundamentals are

always stressed and needed to be focused on, and I’ve learned it more

on my mission than anywhere else!

Well, I hit my 15-month mark this past week! It really was just like

another day. I remember when I hit my first couple month marks and it

felt like years. Now, time is just going crazy and picking up too

quickly. When I've lost myself in the work, I've been happier,

smarter, and just an all around better testimony. Thanks for all the

support I received this week particularly. You're the best!

Godspeed,

-Elder Doman

It looks like Brock and Elder Crismon like to goof off!!  It's so good for them to be able to chill and have fun together.

Titanic?????? Weird.