Letter from Josh 12-8-2008

Hello everyone!!!!!!

First to answer some of your questions: there are no adresses here, there are literally thousands of dirt roads intersecting from any angle and none of the roads have names or numbers, this is part of the reason why i feel so lost here, in the area book we write who they live relatively close to that is an active ward member and use that as an adress to help us find their house again. so the only way for you to send me mail is through the mission office. i could go to langatta and set up a p.o. box but it is too far to travel to unless we have buisness there like church or a ddm or zoco, but even the zocos are in upper hill so it would be a hassle to stop in langatta even though it is on the way.

the only sit down restoraunts are in the city, which again is too far to travel so i wont be going to any at least in this area mom. and i know you are still worried about food maybe even more now when you heard about the kitheri. but i am told that it normally doesnt have the bananas which would make it taste better and that is the only time that i have had it. normally we eat rice and beans or ugali (the boiled corn stuff that ben showed us and michael mentioned, although i dont think he called it ugali, the other name for it is posha, but that is only used in tanzania). the ugali is actually really good, it is bland alone, but it is always served some sort of side dish to dip it in. normally fired beans or some fired vegetable. i eat a lot of tamatoes and green peppers and bananas. we started eating this poridge stuff that the hospital in langatta gives out for free in the mornings. it is kinda bland but i add a bit off sugar, and it has a lot of vitamins and stuff that normal lack in a kenyan diet. so in sumary, the food is good, i like it, dont worry about it, it is different, but different doesnt mean bad, it just means different.

for right now, i dont need or want anything, if i do i will tell you. i doubt i will ever want that sweater cause this is suppose to be one of the cooler areas and while the temp may say 75ish it is humid and i dont believe the 75 thing anyways, it is hotter.

as far as christmas goes, you will be calling me because we only have the cell phones and it would cost way too much for me to call you, i will give you all the information about that next week though.

just so you know i have been having some crazy dreams as well, nothing inspiring or magnificent like yours, but really really crazy, they say that the malaria pills cause them.

i havent got any mail since the mtc, and just so you know, all the american elders have told me that if you send packages through the normal u.s. postage whatever it will take forever to get to me, like between 40 and 50 days. they say if you use fed ex or something like that then it normally takes between one and two weeks, so if its not going to be too expensive, send packages through the other companies.

thats pretty much it for the questions, but this week has been much better than last week. i am becoming more familiar with the area but i still dont think i could lead anybody around here. i love this place more and more everyday though, and i love the people meet more and more each time i meet them. we currently have two investigators that i feel are serious. one is carol, she has been searching for a church that she feels is right, and when we first met her she told us that she has some things that she believes in that nobody could change her mind about, that scared me at first, but it turns out that all of those things are in line with our church. we have only taught the first lesson to her so far becuase the first time we met we were answering questions that she had concerning the beliefs she had had previously that had made me nervous until i knew what they were. but i know that she will be baptized before too long. the second is larry, he lives with his dad and his parents were divorced when he was young. his brother went to live with his mother. his brother, ironically enough, is serving a mission in uganda right now. we have also only taught him the first lesson but when we went back to check up on him a few days later he asked for two more copies of the book of mormon to give to his mom and dad. i am very excited for the both of them.
tracting is becoming ever harder, both because elder byaruhanga would rather sit in the apartment and because it is holiday season and everyone is going up-country, which means to their grandparents houses for the children and their parents houses for the adults. so most people we meet are from somewhere else and are only here for the holidays. and they normally go up-country for all of december and the first part of january. so not only is it hard to tract, but it is hard to set apointments because the few that are still here are here because of work and they dont get home until 4 or 5 and we have to be in by dark which is sevenish.

we went to go see the elephants today though, it was really cool. it was actually an elephant orphanage so it is just baby elephants, and then they have a few rhinos and a bunch of wild wart hogs, and since it is part of an animal preserve they say that ocassionally you see other animals while you are walking around as well, but all we saw were the warthogs and baboons, which are everywhere once you get into areas with trees. it was really cool though and it was more fun than the crocodiles last week cause we got to touch everything today, including the full grown wild rhinos, and because we went with the elders from langatta and two of the sisters from upper hill.

i dont know what time it is at home, but if it is morning and you have been waiting for my e-mail i am sorry but when we came to the cyber earlier today i wrote this big long message saying everything i have just tiold you and then when i went to send it, the internet was no longer working and it wouldnt even save the message. also, i am going to try to attatch some pics to a seperate email but i am not sure if it will work, so look for that just in case it doeswork.

i love you all, i miss you all, i pray for all of you each day! i'm excited to talk to you on christmas and i wish you all the very best until then.

Love,
Elder Joshua David Harris