Letter from Josh 1 March 2010

Hey!

So i was super disapointed to see that i didnt get any mail from any of you this week. to be honest i was shocked. either the power is out or the computers arent working, or you are all dead. i seriously doubt the last one. but if you dont have a good excuse for it, then consider yourselves on my bad list for the next little while.
we had mission tour last week. it was fun to have everybody here, but they left our flat trashed and it took a while top clean it all up. it lasted way too long. the general authorities couldnt get there until 3, but president wanted to make it an all day thing so it started at 9 and ended at 7. even as a missionary where you grow a very large tolerence and attention span for long gospel meetings, it was just way too much. by the end i dont think anybody was thinking straight or gaining anything from what was being said. the theme was retention and reactivation. a lot of it was about working with the ward mission leader. the problem with that in this mission is that most places dont have them, and we bug the bishops to call them, but since we cant actually make the calling ourselves it doesnt happen. i am lucky enough to hae one right now, but he leaves on his mission to sierra leon at the end of the month and if things go the normal kenyan way we wont get a new one for about 6-7 months. i really liked what elder kolliker (not spelt right but i dont know how to spell it) spoke about. he spoke about the power of prayer. he told us that we should expect miracles to happen every day that we say heartfelt and sincere prayers before we leave the flat. so i have been working on that this week. so far i think the biggest miracle is that the assistants made my companion and i tacos the other night. you just dont realize how much you will miss mexican food until its nearly impossible to get it.
also at mission tour i was eating an apple and the perminent retainer on my bottom teeth popped off on one side. so then the wire was poking everything and i tried to pull the other side off with pliers but it felt like it was pulling my tooth out and not the wire off so i cut the wire as small as i could so that it wouldnt bother me. then this morning i went to an orthodontist to get it taken off the rest of the way. it cost me about 70$, just to take the stupid thing off! and they were going to charge me over 100 until i complained to everybody in the office. i am pretty sure they only lowered the price to keep others from hearing me say how bogus their pricing was. they also said it would be about 300$ to put a new one on. i just laughed at them. this isnt one of those big plastic retainers that you can take out and put bake in. it is simply a wire that they cement to the back of your teeth. i could do it myself for about 2 bucks. anyways, enough being angry, but the mission doesnt cover anything dental, so i am going to need more money n my account because there was only about 50 in there to start so i had to use some of my allotment to fill in the gap.
also transfer news comes tonight. i am pretty sure i am staying but also pretty sure i am getting a new comp cause he has been here for 9 months. i will let you know what happens.
i love you guys!!!!
Josh


p.s. i better get really good updates next week!