Letter from Josh 26 April 2010

hey family!

this week was good. mom said buru buru sounds exotic. butbesides the fact that its in kenya its not exotic. it is still part of the city, just not central city, more of the outskirts. its a cool place though. a lot of people live here, a lot. i use to think that it was an exageration when i heard people say theat nairobi has 4 million people in it. now that i actually serve here i have no problem believing it. there is this place in my area called pipeline and that place alone has hundreds of thousands. it probably a 2 mile radius of just big apartment buildings. which at home would have a lot of people. but here the people are renting one room apartments (not one bedroom, one room, for everything. there are shared bathrooms and bathing areas on every other floor). which means there are a lot more people per apartment building then there would be at home. that place is just one big maze. narrow roads with no real direction because somebody sold the plots in weird places so that there cannot be a proper road system by any means. half of the flats you couldn't even get to with a car. but nobody living there could afford a car anyways.

somebody asked me the other day what i miss the most. i said my family. then they asked what the next thing was. i said my friends. they asked what else i missed. i sat and thought, and said "i dont know, there use to be stuff but i either dont remember or dont care anymore". they said, what about the food? i thought again and said "well, the food at home is good, but i dont miss it cause i like the food here". i guess that's how you know you have been out for a while. dad said i am in the fourth quarter now. but that's not quite true. fourth quarter starts mothers day. mothers day (the ninth) is one day short of an exact six months from my fly home day and then the eleventh i would guess would be the release day. but to be honest. i am glad i still have another quarter. the sisters that i came with are going home. I'm glad i am still here though. there is still so much i feel i haven't done yet. sometimes when you have been in an area for a while you just kinda feel the end is near and then sure enough you get transferred. but the end doesn't seem near to me, it doesn't feel over yet. i still want to be here.

Moses is still doing good. we gave him a baptismal date for may 8. and then he will be confirmed on mothers day. i am excited for him. he is such a good kid and already has good friends in the church and a powerful testimony. about mothers day though. the cyber here has skype. i am not sure if i would be allowed to use it, but i have zone conference on thursday and will ask president about it then. but i would assume that if he says its ok then i would have to come on Monday to do that and not call on Sunday. i dont know which you would rather do, but let me know and i will let you know what president says as well.

anyways. i love you guys. i hope you have a wonderful week and that you all stay happy!
Love,
Elder Harris