hey mom,

ya i already got my thanksgiving package now im just waiting for my christmas package hah. ya its awesome thanks so much!! but im not eating all of it for awhile i gotta make it last for at least a couple weeks. but ya elder hays is no longer my trainer/companion. i tried to send another message to you last week but the internet went down where we were at so i wasnt able to send it. but i am now training elder vilakati. he is from Swaziland and hes 21 years old, so my son is older than me and his grandfather (elder hays) by the way when you train someone they are called your son so elder hays is my father and elder vilakati is my son. i have also been made a district leader over athi river and the upperhill missionaries (upperhill is an hour away). which means that the missionaries in my area have to call in to me every night to tell me that they are home safe and if they have any concerns, then i report that everyone is safe and the concerns to the zone leaders who then call the Assistants who call the president. i also have to conduct DDM or district development meeting every week. which is just a meeting for missionaries every week and for that we also have to go to Nairobi or Upperhill to do.

well im glad that everyone came to vegas for thanksgiving. sounds like you guys had an awesome time besides seeing the dumb twilight movie. and im glad that you guys were able to stuff your faces with delicious food and were able to play my favorite sport that i love. but i miss the thanksgiving spirit a lot people here dont even know what that even is here so i kinda feel like it didnt happen haha. im glad that you did the traditional going around the table to say what your thankful for so here is mine.

1. i am thankful for my family and all my loved ones. without them in my life i would be a mess. and i would feel very unloved and life would suck ha

2. i am thankful for the gospel in my life. i know that it has blessed my life in ways that i cant even explain. and i know that it will continue to do so. i also know that without it i would be lost in this life and i probably wouldnt be the best person.

3. i am also thankful that i live in the US because things are a lot different here in the kenya. mostly because the food is great haha. no a lot of it is because of the opportunities that we have because we live there. those are the things that i am thankful for.

anyway we werent able to eat at KFC for thanksgiving because of transfers. so i think on wednesday ill celebrate it by going there. but man i love black friday!! but i guess every day here is pretty much black friday since the dollar here is like 95 kenyan shillings so everything is pretty cheap. that picture of sammy is freakin hilarious!!! i dont think that she'll be up for black friday for like ten more years haha. the phone that we have is just some crappy nokia phone that they have here. but they dont have plans like in the states all the phone are the ones that you pay for service and you can use it but when the credit runs out you have to buy more so pretty much pay as you go phones. and ya we use it pretty often. oh and the guys that we played basketball with are the ones that took him to the police station.

well the baptism went really well. the confirmation was definitely scary like all blessings are but it went pretty well i guess. this week went by pretty slow. we got the news that hays would be transferred and i would be training on saturday night. i was SUPER nervous! so on wednesday we got on a matatu with all of hays stuff to go to nairobi. and when we got there we had to hike up to the mission office with all of it. and we hung out in nairobi for all of wednesday and thursday and i met my new companion elder vilakati. hes a pretty kool kid. i miss hays tho he was so much fun cause we liked a lot of the same things and he was an awesome teacher. on thursday we stayed with the AP elder willis and then went to all of the missionary flats that were being transferred. we got to see all the really nice flats and all the ones that were just there. i want to go to the longata area cause they live in a really nice flat. but then me and my new companion took the hour and a half drive back to athi river. he only came with a big suitcase and a backpack which was a lot different than me haha. but we had a good week.

friday tho was not my day. after lunch it rained so it was really muddy and guess what? i slipped big time and fell in the mud. the whole left side of my pants was covered in mud and this was our first day out together. so we had to go back to our flat and i had to change and wash all the mud off of my pants. then after we went and taught someone we went to the chapel. the doors here suck so you have to make sure that they are shut all the way so that you can unlock them and stuff. so i was pushing against the door, and its made of glass with bars and stuff on the inside, and i broke one of the windows of the door and cut my hand up and stuff. and i mean im strong and stuff by i barely pushed against it and it broke. cause before i would like kick it and throw my shoulder at it and stuff and nothing would happen but the one time i use my hand it brakes so ya haha.

on saturday i baptized a little girl named evelyn. shes the first one that i myself have baptized on my mission and she picked me to baptize her so that was pretty kool. also one of the members who went on his mission to durban south africa we found out baptized my companion so that was really kool to find out. but thats pretty much the most exciting things that happened this week.

well i hope that you guys have an awesome week and i hope that it is filled with christmas joy!! i love you guys

love elder maxwell

From Maurice's mission president:

"You have the spirit of service and vision as a priesthood missionary. Enjoy the blessings that come as you continue to increase your faith in all things. Be good and enjoy the trust of this new assignment. Love and trust you much. Pres B"

Thanksgiving is this week huh? wow. i love thanksgiving. well i guess it would be more appropriate if you could say that i love food
so i love thanksgiving hah. but i want to hear about what you eat. but i think that i will go to KFC on wednesday for thanksgiving. i
think thats a bomb idea ha. chicken and turkey is pretty much the same thing sindo (right in swahili)?

talking to people is getting easier now i think that i am getting some kind of accent i guess. most people speak in english and swahili
and their mother tongue (the language that their tribe speaks and theres 47tribes in kenya). im learning a bunch so hopefully ill be
able to speak sheng or a mix of english and swahili.

this week was pretty good. on monday we got our phone stolen. we were playing basketball and we left it on a bench at some church
we played at by our flat and when we got done it wasnt there and we asked all the guys playing with us and they said no but a guy
that was there that had left early has been known to steal things. so they took us to his house but he wasnt there so they took us to
where he hangs out and we found him and these guys grabbed him and found our phone and then they took him to the police station
and he went to jail so that was pretty nuts. so people are pretty nice here too and i learned a pretty good lesson too. dont steal. haha.

tuesday we had a zone conference. it was so awesome to meet all the missionaries in my area and stuff. we had to staythat night there
cause on wed i had to get fingerprinted so i could get my working permit so i dont get kicked out of the country.

on saturday i had my FIRST BAPTISM!!!!!! YAY!!! his name is martin. hes a really kool guy. he was introduced to the gospel by his friend
who went on his mission. so he was a good example to him so he was interested. and now hes baptized and he wants to go on a mission.
so it will be pretty kool if he goes by the time i leave that would be awesome. ill send some pictures of it. i was able to confirm him and
hays baptized him.

oh and to answer your questions, we used ground beef or as its called here minced beef. i didnt really care if i got sick from it cause it tasted
so good haha. but ya im feeling a lot better i just had diarrhea and a shida(problem) with my stomach. well im glad thatsammy is learning to
be competitive maybe she can be a soccer or volleyball player. and im glad that you guys were able to give service to people at opportunity village.
i hope that it was fun. Also, i got my Christmas package last week!! the one with reeses, starbursts, yellow rice, bandanas, and stuff hah so
im just going to call it my Thanksgiving package so you can send me another package and it will get here by christmas and i can call it my real
christmas package and maybe you can include just a hundred taco, guacamole and yellow rice seasoning packs and more hard candy and maybe
some sweatpants and wrapped stuff haha. but do you think you can start sending me some christmas music stuff too with all the other music also?

wow. jays senior season is over man even for me it went quick. its too bad that he didnt play very much. when i played them it was the
hardest i have ever played my entire life and im glad that my dad was able to be there. but i dont know what that coach is talking about with jay
being the best punter hes coached. i bet you i could out punt jay right now when i havent even touched a football in like 4 months. he is
terrible. i mean he good but no where even close to me hahhahhope that you guys have a good week. love ya guys.

Photos of the Athi River/Nairobi area

hey mom

well im glad that everything is going well. ya it was a coffee place in a middle of a mall and i ate cake not coffee and anyways i went to starbucks all the time and got that strawberry lemonade blend.

but not gonna lie i think that palo will lose against gorman for sure, but hopefully jay will be able to play and get some looks but all i can say is i hope ha. but i think that im kinda scared for him in college too because it is no joke you have to work hard even in the easy classes. im glad sami is growing up good. she better be reading by the time i get back cause i know some of the people teach thier kids how to read by the time they are 3 or 4 here but then after that not much haha. im sure she is loving primary a lot since she can remember any song that she hears once hah.

this week was kinda slow, but it started off really good. on tuesday it was elder hays birthday (i think you should tell him happy birthday in a quick email) and his mom sent him a package and he got some guacamole seasoning, dehydrated refried beans and taco seasoning, so we went to a members house and made tacos!!! and it was freakin good!!! i had like 6 of them i was so happy haha! we made the meat, refried beans, guacamole and salsa or kachembarri and they made the chapati or the things that are like tortillas. but then on thursday hays was throwing up so we didnt go out and on friday i had diaharrea and i was so sick that we were only out for half of the day so it sucked. on saturday our zone leader came to athi so we could interview people who are ready to be baptized. we went out on splits. also the church here was giving out free flu shots for kids 1 and under and they gave us and the members free shirts to advertise it. so we were giving the handouts out to people but they didnt even want the paper that was giving the free shots! all they would ask is "are there free shirts??" and i had to tell them no free shirts, free shots so your kids dont get sick! but then they didnt really care about it then, it was crazy. but then on sunday our investigator who got interviewed was at church so next week we are having a baptism!! im excited! so my next email will be about that .

well if theres anything that would be nice is in the next package you would add the items including to, but not limited to crainsins, trail mix, taco seasoning, dehydrated refried beans, yellow rice seasoning, gatorade, lemonade, chips and other goodies hahah. and maybe a classical cd. anyways i hope that you guys have an awesome week. love ya guys.

love Reese

ps - the dehydrated refried beans that hays got from his mom were from the lds cannery! so its probably cheap hah

November 3rd email

hey mom,

yes i did take the train to Nairobi. we get up really early to go and come here so that we can email back and forth. we dont see the missionary couples too often because we are still considered to be in Nairobi. anyways, i am so happy that you got that job tho i have praying every night that you would get it. now you can send me $$$! haha!! YAY!! i found an awesome pair of jeans they are levis 505's and i bought them for 100/- or $1!! they probably cost like $50 so tell jay that if he wants any kind of clothes ill look for them here and theyll be cheap hah. well im glad that jay was able to play. i hope his shoulder is doing well. make sure you tell him that if it hurts that he needs to come out because if he hurts it too bad it will take a long time to heal and maybe interfere with scholarships and stuff. also make sure that you send some of his film out or have him talk to our dad about helping him with some stuff.

well im glad that you guys had a good halloween. mine was pretty good..... i guess. africa doesn't celebrate halloween. we went to this mall that is in a very rich part of town and we found a candy booth with american candy. so i bought sprees, sweet tarts and starburts for halloween and it cost me like like $7 but i was happy. we also had some really good cake. i had some chocolate cake and hays got some cheesecake and it was good.

for me this week was pretty good. on tuesday we met a ton of americans that were doing a study abroad thing. it was so kool to talk to them because it felt like i was at home just hanging out and talking to people and stuff. it was awesome. it was kinda funny because i would ask, "where are you from?" and some would say "america" really slowly like they couldnt tell i was american and thought i was kenyan (i do not look kenyan, do i?) then i was like "ok but where from?" then they would say some east coast state. and i would say "kool im from vegas" and then they would laugh and im sure that they felt pretty dumb but it was funny. it made me miss home a lot though.

the next day was funny. we were filling up some 40 liter jerry cans after our mama came and did our laundry. (a mama is a lady with kids, anyway we have them do it when we have a lot and will take us forever. we pay her 250/- (shilings) which is $2.50 which is awesome...) but we kinda forgot about it and flooded our flat! hah but luckily we dont have carpet or anything like that so we just had to mop it up and fan off the place for the rest of the day. i thought that it was kinda funny. i dont think elder hays thought that it was though. later that day we met with this lady who has the cutest little girl. i gave her my tag and she got it and put it up to her head and started talking to it hah. it was so funny so i will send you a pic of her.

Friday we painted a members house that was making part of her house a salon and kinyozi (barber shop). we had a good time with that except here in kenya they dont use paint the same way as we do. the guy that was helping us put a ton of paint thinner in the paint so that it was no longer thick it was like water. so it dripped a lot. i think that we painted mostly the ground hah. sunday sucked though.... we had 3 people that were supposed to be baptized next week and none of them came to church so we have to put their dates back a week or two but we will be having some soon....hopefully.

well i hope you have a good week and you have a good time. i will remember to keep you guys in my prayers. Love you guys, Reese