Letter from Josh 26 June 2010

Hey Everybody!

this week was crazy. some of the sisters got into a fight because one wanted to wait till p-day to wash a pillow case that she had borrowed from her companion, but the companion that owns the pillow case wanted it washed right then. So, as you can see, we have very logical, kind, and loving sisters that only don't get along when pillow cases are involved. It was just about the stupidest thing i have ever heard of. and then some of the other sisters got into a stolen matatu on thursday and were taken far into the forest. So we had a fun week with the sisters.
Anyways, on Thursday we had a baptismal interview scheduled for our investigators and so we had to go pick up the district leader so that he could do the interview. We were suppose to meet the district leader at a bus stage to bring him to the investigators house. well i guess he was down some route (route 118) that doesn't have many bus's coming by and had been waiting for a half hour for one but nothing was there yet (and here there is no schedule for the bus's in any way, they just kind of do what they want) so he asked us to come and get him along that route 118. the problem was that we didn't know route 118and he didn't know the road names. so it took us a long time to figure it all out and it was pretty annoying, but we eventually got him. then that night as we are getting the call in reports they told us that they couldn't get a-hold of some of the sisters but that they thought it was just problems with the phone. We went to their house and they were not there. so we were busy trying to find where they were but none of the members new and we had no idea where to even start looking. then around 10:00 PM we got a call from the police saying that they had a set of sister missionaries with them. We talked to the sisters and they told us about how they were being chased by some street guys so they jumped into a matatu (like a small bus, it is the public transport here, but they are all privately owned, not run by the govt). well it turned out that this matatu had been hi-jacked about a half hour earlier and now they thieves were driving it around picking up a bunch of women that they thought would have money on them. when the matatu was full they headed off to the forest and took everybody's valuables (money, phones,jewelry, etc.) and then dropped them all off in the middle of the forest. the group of them started walking toward the main road after the thieves drove off again and ran into some police men who took them to the station. The problem at this point was that the police here don't have cars, and this police station was out in the middle of nowhere, we didn't know how to get there and there was no way for them to come to us. we tried talking to the police for directions for about a half hour but they don't know any of the street names because they just walk everywhere and don't need to know the street names for how to get there. in the end the officer told us just to forget our car and to take a bus down route 118. Well, even though we just thought it was annoying at the time, i guess our having to figure out where route 118 earlier that day was a blessing in disguise. We knew that route, and we were able to go and find the police station (we still had a few difficulties, but it would have been impossible before) and pick up the sisters. Who had contacted everybody while they were trying to find the main road, and when we showed up and told our end of the story and how we were miraculously able to find them, all of them wanted to be visited by the missionaries. God works in mysterious ways, but for those of us that are faithful, he will protect us. and for those that are ready, he will find a way to lead them to Him. It was a weird and stressful experience for me, and a bit of a traumatizing one for the sisters, but it was a miracle. both that we found them, and that these peoples hearts were softened to let the missionaries visit them.
The rest of the week was pretty good to, but this was by far the most interesting event.
Dad, there are about 84 missionaries in the mission, i don't know the average per month but i know that in may we had 68 baptisms, so hopefully that is close to average to give you an idea.
I am still confused as to why mom when to the young womens camp, i thought she was still in the primary. but i hope that you had fun.
sorry about the crappy rodeo clown and the lame trained buffalo, but i am glad the bad year was when i wasn't there. its selfish of me, but true.
i love you all! i hope you have a great week!
love,
elder Harris