July 27, 2009

Mom and Dad-

How are you guys? This week was really good. All the ward members were really great and a lot of them called me to wish me a happy birthday; and some even dropped off cake and presents. Its really nice to be in a ward that takes such good care of us. So that was my last birthday on my mission. That is really weird. It really has just flown by. I cant belive we are already almost in August. I remember last year around this same time saying, I cant believe I have already been out for 4 months! Things are just flying by way to fast.

Transfers are next week, and I still don’t have a clue what is going to happen. I am kind of getting anxious to get out of Fort Walton. I love the people here, but if I am here for another transfer I will have been here for 9 months. I really want to go up into Alabama and see what it is like out there. Another reason is that the companion I have right now is a pretty rough one. The work is going good, I just struggle with patience from time to time. I have to go on a trade off with some one in my district at least once a transfer, so I conveniently chose the trade off day to be on my Birthday so that I had someone to talk to all day haha, I know that’s bad.

So you celebrated the 24th with Chad and Emily? That sounds fun. Are the big fireworks legal in St. George? Chad and Em sent me some great pictures of The Kids in there package. I was also very happy with the ones that you sent on the chip. Thank you so much for that package. I loved everything you get me, especially all the snacks. I thought you were going to put some videos on the chip though, but the pics were still great. I hope you’re still ok with me buying some shoes. I bought a pair of $30 slacks on my last week, and I found a pair of Rock Port shoes for $60 that are really comfortable, but I don’t want to buy them until I get the ok from you, because I didn’t tell you I was going to get slacks.

So as far as the work goes, everything went really well this week. I think I told you last week that we have two baptismal dates set up right now, and we are going to set another one on Wednesday with Alisha who is probably our most solid investigator. When we first started teaching her about 2 months ago she was smoking a pack of cigarettes a day and living in a half way house. Now she is living on her own and is down to 3 cigarettes a day with a sincere desire to quit for good. She has been coming to church every week and has just been eating up everything that we have been teaching her. She carries around a copy of the Book of Mormon in her purse wherever she goes. It is really amazing to see the change that has taken place in her life.

The other miracle the has been happening is with Reid Steven, the one who was just baptized a couple of weeks ago. We were a little worried about him at first and we weren’t sure how solid he would be. Every week he would come to Sacrament in a stained T-shirt and some Jeans and then he would leave right after sacrament, but as soon as he was baptized, everything changed. He has been showing up to church in slacks and a white shirt and tie and has been staying for all 3 hours of church. He never participated much with the youth before, but this last week he went on the youth temple trip and spent 2 days up at the Birmingham Alabama Temple with all the youth in the ward. He wast able to do baptisms, but the temple president let him watch all the baptisms and confirmations in the temple. Reid came back from the trip so fired up and cant wait to receive the aaronic priesthood so that he can go back on the next trip and do baptisms. This was all such a big surprise to me, but I am so excited for him. There has been such a new light about him ever since he received the gift of the Holy Ghost. His best friend Westly Smith is the other one that has a baptismal date right now, and he is also a pretty cool kid. He is going to be baptized on August 8th.

We taught some good lessons this week, and we did a ton of tracting. I really have enjoyed tracting lately, we have run into some really crazy people which makes for really good journal entries. We went tracting on a street called Love Joy on my birthday which I guess a couple years back someone told the missionaries that they weren’t aloud to go on the street anymore because of the gang activity, but I think it has cleaned up a little bit. Anyways, we knocked on some doors down in the projects, and met some really awesome people. One of them was a little old black lady named Virginia White who invited us in to show us her nice clean house. She told us that if we ever got it dirty that she would beat our butts with her cane that she was holding. She was the sweetest old lady. Whenever she would say a swear word she would shake her finger in the air and say, “Its in the bible! It is in the bible! So anyway, we are going back to teach her soon.

I think that is it for the week. Thank you again for the package you sent. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for everything. I love you guys some much. And if you see any of my friends, give them my address and tell them to write me! I love you Mom, I love you Dad! Ill talk to you next week

Love, Josh