letter Aug 31 It will be bitter sweet to leave Ft. Walton

Hey Mom and Dad!

That’s so awesome that Ray and Brett are rooming together. I am really jealous haha. That’s cool that they came over to the house and hung out for a little while. ....
This week was great. Josh W. Was baptized yesterday after only 2 weeks of teaching him. Almost the whole ward came to the baptism yesterday evening, so it was a really good experience. Josh has already set goals to receive the priesthood and to get sealed to his wife Annie in the temple a year from now. I am so excited for them.

As far as other investigators go, we are not teaching too many people right at this time. Everyone that we were teaching in the past few months has either gotten baptized or dropped us. So we are kind of starting at ground zero again trying to find people to teach. We have been knocking on doors for a few hours each day, and we have been finding people, but none of them are willing to keep commitments. It is going to be very bitter-sweet leaving Fort Walton Beach. Bitter, because I will be leaving all of the amazing people that I have been able to teach and the members that helped so much. Sweet, because I have biked down the same exact streets every day for 9 months, and it is going to be nice to have a change of scenery.

As far as weather goes, it doesn’t look lake anything big is going to happen any time soon. It looks like you guys are closer to a hurricane than I am. I hear there is one coming up around Baja California. It’s a bit strange that the pacific is getting more hurricanes than the Atlantic this year.

So, we are almost into September now. Very weird. In about a month I will be hitting 18 months in the mission field which blows my mind. I still feel like I am brand new. This past year and a half has been the best experience of my life. It has changed my life forever. Knowing for myself what truth really is, has made me actually care about what I want to do with my life. It almost makes me sick to my stomach to think what I would have done if I did not serve a mission. And although it will be sad when I eventually get released, I am so excited to have this new pattern of living to try out in my life back home.

Anyways, I gots to go, I still haven’t written anyone back yet so I need to go do that. I love you guys so much. Tell the Family how much I love them.
Love, Josh