our P day is still on monday, just last week the power to the whole town went out so we werent able to finish on monday so we were allowed to finish on tuesday. ya we pay like 50 cents to 1 shilling a minute at the cyber... anyways people do ask me about my family every now and then mostly cause im white and black or just white cause they dont think that im black. they also think that i look exactly like obama. we'll be walking around and ill hear someone say una fanna coma obama which means he looks like obama. its actually kinda funny cause they just say it cause im light skinneded haha.
anyways this week was pretty good. on monday we played basketball at a church that is across the street from us. and we played with some guys that come and play there everyday and theyre still not that good hah. then we went and got haircuts. not gonna lie it was probably the best haircut that i have ever had not in how it looks but how it felt. after they cut my hair and stuff they pretty much gave me a head massage and washed my hair and stuff it was awesome!! it was kinda like when girls go to the salon to get their hair cut and colored and they shampooed. then this week we were trying to help this guy stop smoking so we decided to fast with him and his wife. so on friday we fasted and went over to talk with him and he was drunk out of his mind. so we fasted and it got worse. i dont know how that happened. but the next day we talked to him and we had a pretty good lesson. we taught another guy whos from congo and all he knows is french and swahili and a tiny bit of english. so we got a french book of mormon and taught him using it. it was tough but it was kinda kool. people are still amazed that they don't have to pay to go to our church. in mosiah 18 like 22 thru the end talks about how priest and pastors should be first ordained and should labor for their own support. the book of mormon is legit. its awesome how it talks about our day. and im glad that you went visiting teaching cause we are trying hard to get the members of our branch to go home and visiting teaching too. so elder hays and i hate washing clothes so bad. you have to put water and detergent in a big bucket and soak the clothes for a while then grab the clothes while they are in the bucket and rub them together with your knuckles then wring them out and after you finish washing all of them you have to rinse them just by putting them in water then wring them out like 5 times then hang them up. it sucks. sorry i just told you the whole process haha i just felt like i needed to vent a little ha. sunday was probably the best part of the week! the Apostle Russell M Nelson came and talked to our stake. it was awesome. he gave the congregation a really awesome promise and he said that if you do not pay your tithing you will stay in poverty and if you do i promise you that you will have what pres. hinkley promised you, that you will have food in your bowls, a roof over your head and clothes on your backs. it was awesome. so that was pretty much my week. well im glad that jays mri was not too bad. i think that he should play i mean its his senior year. he should get the surgery after the season and if he doesnt get a scholarship he can always go to dixie haha. and with william tell him that he NEEDS baptismal clothes. cause im going to have to get some from south africa sometime if i can. it wasn't on the list just like the extra pair of shoes. the other elders say that you have to have two pairs of shoes and you have to switch them everyday or something like that.
i really am so glad that i was able to meet drew buckmiller and his dad. they were awesome. i think that we should have a family reunion with them and our family that would be legit, as elder smedley would say. so can you send me some music like fantasia and fantasia 2000 and email it to me so i can put it on my usb. its mostly just classical good music. i would love that. oh, and more recipes even if its one a week. you can try and find good recipes for potatoes cause there are a ton. and thanks for sending stuff to grandma stine im sure she will love it. well i love you guys and hope you have a fantastically awesome week hah
love Reese

A letter from Elder Hays to his Mother

Hey mom,

So the week was okay, we got to see Elder Nelson of the twelve
yesterday which was nice. But none of our investigators could come to
church because it was in Nairobi--which was a downside. Other
downsides this week: Well our investigators bounced us to death. I
don't know how this always happens but it does. The members bounced us
a ton; it is funny how this just happens. But some people are coming
up. Many have fallen through the cracks. I really don't know what has
happened. I have had about 6 that should have been baptized, but they
weren't. I mean some that even had their baptismal interview. I don't
know how this happens. But whatever-- Another hard one to take. Well
we have this investigator who is trying to stop smoking, and we are
kicking him along because he wants so bad to be baptized, but he
won't stop smoking. We scheduled with him and his wife to fast on
Friday but by the time that we got to him on that day he was not only
smoking but drinking, so somehow our fasting didn't have the effect
that we wanted, and he forgot to fast. You can't make them do it.

Not to worry though things happen so much that you just get used to
them. I and my companion though are getting along too good. We are
just tearing it up. And we are so nerds. And sure enough this 235lb tight

end from Dixie state is a nerd as well. Man we get along so much.

It is great. I am loving it out here.Even when it is hard we still are going

to have a good time. We can talk about Star Wars
or Harry Potter for hours. I didn't say that we were anti social, but
we are nerds . I mean two missionaries that can tell jokes and quote
lines from Star Wars nearly all day. I mean laugh it up fuzz ball.
HAHAHA. I mean I have a belief that most all interesting people have
some kind of nerd in them. I mean if you don't, you are incredibly
boring to talk to. If we didn't have the work to do we probably would
get nothing done. I mean the work is hard we had 6 of our progressing
investigators go up country this week, and we have no idea when they
will be back. But we had a blast just talking.

About the French-speaking investigator: I am actually speaking a mix
of Swahili, French and English. We got a French copy of The Book of
Mormon, and I am having to kind of go with the flow. If you ask me
afterwards to say what we said in the lesson I have no idea, but in
the lesson we are there, and things sort of seem to work out. I don't
know it is something like the gift of tongues but something more like
the gift of somehow him understand three broken languages put
together. But he now understands things like the fall of Adam and Eve
and spiritual and physical death, the purpose of our life, and the
plan of God made in the pre earth life. I don't know exactly how we do
it but somehow it comes together.


Oh well, I don't know what else to say this week was just there but we
had fun, just a slow week. I can feel myself getting tired I mean I
have been tired for a long time and I just get more and more tired.
Whatever. Well love you mom. Tell them all that I love them over
there.

Elder Hays

this week was a pretty dang good week. this week we were working with a guy named peterson who is having problems with the word of wisdom. he smokes tobacco so we are helping him to stop smoking. then later this week we caught him lighting up and we had to re commit him to stop. so we are trying to him polle polle (little by little in swahili) something that was kinda kool that happened this week was the relief society was having a party this week because of the national holiday called Mashujaa (Hero's day). and they made food and had a little get together. they made the best chapati/chapos that i have ever had. they are the tortilla like food but a little bit different. they had all the kids there and we played with them a little. then a bunch of the kids from around the church came in and we started playing with them. they found a hose and were playing tug of war with it so i told all of the kids to pull on one side and i would pull on the other. there was like 20 kids too and i was still beating them hah. it was so funny i will send you a pic of it. we also had like 7 investigators come to church so it was really surprising. it was the first time that, that many new people have been at church. so i kinda felt kool.
well im glad that you and sammy are having a good time getting ready for halloween.i kinda wish they had halloween here so i could get some free candy. cause i miss american candy and reeses hah. im also gald that you are having fun with milee. make sure you say hi to her for me and that i say thank you for all the stuff it has helped a lot. im excited to hear about how trick or treating goes. i miss good candy really bad. all the chocolate here is mostly wafers and stuff. anyways tell jay that im mad at him for hurting himself. he should have gotten that looked at awhile ago so he could have gotten it taken care of. and tell him to email me about football. also im glad that my dad made it to jays senior night too. i remember when he came to mine. i was so happy that he was there. im jealous that aunt margret and uncle moe were there. i hope they will come see one of my games when i get back.
the pics should be there by hopefully wednesday if they sent them as soon as they got home and hopefully by friday. dont worry i wont erase the card because i can take almost 7000 more pictures until it is full so i probably will never send it. so you can tell people to send me candy, burts bees and seasoning packets (taco, zatarans, etc) they do have american type food but nothing really like america. and unlike at home canned food is the most expensive food and boxed food. like mac and cheese is like 300/- which is like $3. so i have been eating a lot of ramen noodles but we do get to eat at members houses often so its alright. but i hope that i will have a ton more experiences like that. will you tell will lewis that when he gets to the MTC to buy me like 10 tempo candy bars and tell him that i will pay him back when he gets to kenya hah. im hoping that i will have an accent by then.
love Reese

Week 9

well this week we were not able to have the baptism. she was fired the week before so this weekend she found another job and worked for 3 days - sat thru tues. so we might not be able to baptize her for awhile because she broke the sabbath day. anyway, thats what elder hays says but shes been coming to church for 20 weeks now so i think that we should just baptize her next week. but we'll see what happens and i will let you know. this week was pretty fun. on monday we went to this shopping place it was awesome. it was just a bunch of little dukas or shops it was kool. i bought three ties. i was gonna buy shoes because the soles by the balls of my feet are really soft so everytime i step on a rock it hurts big time but my feet are getting used to it so im starting to get used to it. im starting to always carry a bandana around in my backpack to wipe off sweat, but its been a little cooler lately. on thursday we had a crazy lesson. we were teaching this girl and her family that we were not devil worshippers. it was kinda funny because the people in Athi River are really nice but they all believe that we are devil worshippers because we wear a white shirt and tie everyday. its crazy some people are so scared of us hah mostly because they get told dumb stuff like we sacrifice kids for money and as soon as they join the church they get rich. its weird too cause the persecution is different every where we go. like the other town that we have is called Kitengela and they just look at us weird cause we look different. they will be walking and they will totally stop and stare at us and i stare at them back. i think its funny hah. but they dont think that we are devil worshippers so its easier to talk to people there. after the lesson one of the elders (Elder Tricket) was going home so we went to nairobi to meet with some more missionaries. we ate at this place called Spur, its a pretty high end place, and on thursdays they have unlimited ribs. i ate 10 racks of ribs it was so good but not as good as american ribs. its weird that people here think that our fast food places are nice restaurants. even at kfc only people who had big time money were eating there. this is the end of my first transfer and there are 16-17 tranfers in one mission which is 6 weeks. well im glad that jay is playing defence now. is he starting on D?? im glad that he is doing some work on defense. im glad that hes dating someone who is lds they really are the best girls anyways hah. im not envious that he has to take the ACT. i hated that test it sucks so bad. and its like 20 hours long too but tell him i said good luck. i love seeing pictures of sammy. she is so dang cute ha. good luck on tuesday with the interview i hope that its for a good one. that would be awesome to get a package for christmas i would love it. yes i have gotten a package. kellie sent me one for my birthday last week it was awesome! she sent me a journal with my name engraved on it with sour patch kids and some other stuff. i loved it she is amazing!! ya the one next to me is elder woolard. he is a good guy. he looks like he plays football but he doesn't. there is elder pocock, haynes, call, neilson, sanders, sarlo, huskinsen, morris, horstman, raymon, lictenburg, and theres a couple more but i dont remember. mom i think you are going crazy with the missionary blogs thing. i think youre loving it a little too much hah. well im glad that you are going to start mine soon. the kid who is going home next week is going to send you a cd with all of my pictures on it so as soon as my pictures get there im sure you and kori will have a blast hah. anyways that was the highlite of my week. i love you guys and miss you a ton.
love reese

well im glad that you got those pictures! the halls are awesome people but elder hall kinda scares me (he doesnt smile much). and sister hall is a saint. an elder named elder trickett is flying home today or tomorrow and his parents came to pick him up so we met them today and they took some pictures and they let me know that they will email you them so probably you will have a picture or two by wednesday. youll be happy to know that i also gave them a disc with all of my pictures on them so you will most likely have 315 pictures of africa by next week hopefully. by the way will you mail a copy of the pictures to my dad and to kellie ( im sure you can email her for her address). im glad that jay is actually starting to get some playing time. i pray that he will every night because i want him to have the experience of his life with football because i did. im sure that his last two games are going to be fun. i cant wait to see how he did on his highlight tapes. make sure that you have him call my dad to have him come to his senior night game. make sure to let him know that i tell him good luck and have fun and make it rememberable cause i miss football so much. i think i have a lot of pent up anger i really just want to hit someone i dont know why. Not that i want to hurt someone im just in football mode cause its football season. i think i want a college sized football for Christmas like really bad it would make me happy and a lot of burts bees (im almost out of that stuff)
i cant believe that you havent start on my blog yet..... that makes me upset..... just kidding hah. but its has been like almost like 3 months... just saying. elder haynes was supposed to eat with me and a bunch of other missionaries on thursday but i was able to see him and another elder, elder sanders, it was awesome. it was kinda weird that i was so happy to see them. it feels like ive known them for like years but i only got to see them for about 20 minutes.
it sounds like jared is having a great experience. i know i did the mtc was so much fun. i loved all the guys that i met there and i know that we will all still be friends when we get back because we all live pretty close to each other. i cant wait. jared and i email each other every week its awesome. im glad that we keep in touch.
so where is Drew buckmiller going? is will lewis the one that is come to kenya also?? if so will you tell him to email me if he has any questions about stuff. but ya kellie is the only one who has sent me a package. how does that make you feel??? hah just kidding i loved getting the package but i dont want you or other people to send them if they are expensive to send cause they stuff and how much it took to send was a good amount. im gonna have to have a little talk with her hah. im glad that you were able to sub for some places to make ends meet. i pray for you guys a lot so that everything works out ok. but im glad that you and tina are having a fun time going shopping and eating delicious food that your son will like almost never be able to eat again hah. but ya they think its kool if they know what it is but mostly they are surprised that im from america hah. ya i even think its crazy. sometimes at the end of the day i look up at they sky and say," i cant believe im in freakin africa" hah. and i think that Aunt mary would love to come and i would love that too. i could show her all the coolest things about kenya she would die hah.
well this week was the start of the second transfer. and i am staying in Athi again with elder hays which i am glad because he is an awesome comp. he knows all the ins and outs and all the people love him. even tho they cant really say his name. but people love to say my name. just imagine saying maxwell in a broken british accent but eight times as fast and thats they way they say it but its usually just because they want us to buy something. i dont really know if there is really an area i want to go to but i heard that eldoret is pretty good place to go but im loving athi river besides the fact that people believe were devil worshippers which is probably the stupidest thing ever but people here are the most gullible people ever. probably worse than hillbillies hah. we actually did not get to baptize caroline. she was at work and stuff so we were not able to meet with her so i dont know when she will be baptized. ya but there is this kool thing called a supermarket that we go to. haha it called tuskys. it is a nationwide company well i mean like in the 5 big cities in kenya hah. but we buy fruits and vegetables from local vendors and stuff but we havent bought very much just like peanut butter and jelly and ramen noodles. we go eat at places for lunch but i usually get chips (french fries) from places and that pretty much fills me up sometimes. you can send me recipes anything that you think that would be good and very cheap to make like the one zatarans rice thing that you would slice sausage in i love that stuff. and also send me a recipe with yellow rice but without the saffron stuff if you can. and i have not yet made ugali maybe when i get an african companion. and im not to excited for it because its not really good by itself but i eat it at members houses. we walk all over the place mostly on dirt roads because there is only like 4 roads in this entire place and they are terrible. and i dont know if im getting skinny i just think im getting fat cause i havent been working out to much but im going to start soon.
so kool things that happened this week was on monday after i emailed you we went and played basketball at one of the nice chapels. this was the last time that a lot of the kool elders would be together in one place so we decided to have a last day of basketball. and while we were playing it started pouring and we just played thru it. and we were getting soaked so we all took our shirts off so we played basketball in the rain! it was so much fun probably the most fun ive had in basketball in a long time mostly because i hit two game winning three pointers haha. on tuesday hays and i said goodbye to the elders who were staying in our flat, elder khumalo and pocock we went to the mtc together, until their flat was finished but the problem was that it wasnt finished. they dont have beds, chairs, a fridge, water purifier, electricity, plumbing, and other things but they still decided to go. but it sucked to say goodbye to pocock because we were tight from the mtc and i love that kid hah. on wednesday hays wasnt feeling good so i gave him a blessing with the oil for administering the the sick. and that was weird, i was definitely not comfortable with doing that but i guess ill get used to it. on thursday we didnt go out cause he was feeling worse but he was better on friday.
well that was just some of the stuff that happened this week. let everyone know that i love them a lot and i miss you guys a ton
love reese

yes mom! i walk a lot. like 4 hours a day. it gets tiring but im kinda used to it. we had a really good missionary day on saturday. we had like 10 lessons and we got like 20 referrals, it was awesome. i also had a lesson where the guy knew no english so we had to have a member translate everything that we said and what he said. it was crazy. i can understand people that speak english pretty well, but when they are speaking swahili, ya, i have no idea what they are saying hah. i know a few words now but i still cant speak it.ill tell you a little about some kool and funny things about what has been happening here. there is this one investigator named Carolyne who wants to get baptized but her dad had multiple wives so we had to wait for south africa to approve her interview. and this week they approved it. so im getting my FIRST baptism this week!! im so excited and she wants me to baptize her too!! we had to clean the baptismal font though because there was still water in it from the last baptism, which was a year ago, so it was nasty. there were live worms in there so we cleaned it for like an hour, just scrubbing it ha.

last p day we totally deep cleaned our flat too because it was nasty. it took like 3 to 4 hours but now its good. so at church there is this guy named manzu. he is a terrible singer hah not gonna lie. he is the loudest guy and he is also the most monotone guy. its so funny cause you can always hear him. so i usually cant make it through an entire song cause i just start laughing. and the women at church are really bad singers too cause they cant pronounce the words right and we dont have an organ or piano so we have to sing acapella and they sing so slow so its bad but kinda funny ha. im glad that the missionaries come over alot. its good to know that back home they get great hospitality like we do here. we dont get to see conference for a couple of weeks so we can watch all of it at once. but we've heard that africa is getting two more temples so everyone here is way happy. and yes i knew about the general authority (Elder Nelson) visiting africa this month, but i thought that i would tell you when i actually got to go see him or when he actually got here duh hah. i dont think that i can name all of the elders in the entire mission but if you want me to i can send a letter with all of the elders who are in the mission, cause i have met almost all of the american elders. and to answer your last question, some elders stay for up to 9 months in one area but some just stay like 6 weeks then leave, but its different for everyone. my comp elder hays has been out since feburary 2010 so he goes home in like 4 months. He might die (lingo for leaving and going home) here with me in athi river.thank you for sending the pics to everyone. i can put them on a cd if you want me to but it will probably take about a month to get home. so do you want me to keep emailing them cause if you dont want me to i wont. i will try and take pictures of ALL of those things with me in it that you asked me for haha. just be patient i will get you some pictures soon ok? i actually cannot believe that you sent me a your team pic from WalMart (a game the kids play when they see someone bizarre or otherwise and assign them to your team and go back and forth)haha but i loved it!make sure you tell everyone that says hi to me that i say hi back and i miss them. im glad that you are finding enough work. i hope and pray that you get work that will help you the most. im glad that bishop dixon is helping you out too. make sure that you let him know that i say hi and thanks as well.like always im glad that i got to hear from you. i love you guys and i miss you a ton.

love Reese

(Here is a blog of the SA MTC President and his wife. There are pictures of all the groups going out since February of 2010!www.christensenmission.blogspot.com) Also it is kind of cool to find out that the Kenya Nairobi Mission was legally/officially opened in 1991, the year Maurice was born! ;)