hey mom,

well i will tell you what i did for christmas in written form too i guess haha. so on friday we went to nairobi to meet with all the elders and stuff so that on saturday we could do a service project. so saturday we went to a part of nairobi called langata and we went to a hopital to just help around. they assigned us to different wards or parts of the hospital and me and my companion were assigned to the maternity ward. yea it was pretty nuts. ya i helped deliver a child. yup caught it right out of the air............. jk haha that would of been crazy tho ha. all we did was cut and fold gauze for like 2 hours and then talked and stuff. they made us wear these gowns and some weird white boots haha and i was wearing shorts and it kinda looks like i was naked haha. then we had like a white elephant gift party thing with all of the elders and sisters that were there.  i got a tie yay.... i dont like ties anymore haha.

on Christmas day we went to church for only one hour then it was finished. but after that we waited for all of the elders and sisters around nairobi to come to the upper hill chapel and we had lunch/dinner. most of the senior couple came too. esh, the food was soooo good!  we had like sloppy joes, tortilla chips and some bean dip, a potato and egg salad and pasta salad and lots of other food. its the first time that ive been full in awhile haha, since i went to kfc like 3 months ago! and the desert was bomb. sister hall made my new favorite cake ever its called banana cake and all it is, is banana bread with chocolate frosting on top. oh my gosh it was so good. then all the districts that were there presented a little thing for everyone. my district sang angels we have heard on high and then we danced around a tiny little christmas tree to the song rockin around the christmas tree. not gonna lie i think mine was the best haha. it was pretty dang funny. then we watched a slideshow for the year with just pictures of all the missionaries here. i was only in like 4 but next year ill be in a bunch of pictures. then we left and i called home. which was awesome! it was so good to hear everyones voices. you could easily say that i did have a perma grin on my face! but that was my christmas. make sure that you tell everyone MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEARS!! for me. 

love you guys,

reese

P.S last week i saw a wild rhino!! they a freakin huge! 

First Missionary Christmas

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas Dinner and devotional.  We love your sons.  They are great missionaries with positive attitudes and sweet spirits.  The Hall's

hey mom,
my week was pretty good. not to much happened but a couple things did. on wednesday we went to nairobi for our DDM. it was a pretty good meeting. then we went around with the zone leader, elder kazozo and his comp elder kazomba. i interviewed one of their investigators. then we went around and later that night and i interviewed another one of the investigators. this investigator was pretty kool she is getting married to someone from tennessee. so she could understand me perfectly which is something that i love. i cant explain how much i love when someone understands me because most people cant. it is so nice when you can speak to someone and not have to repeat yourself like 10 times every time. ugh i hate it haha. even with my companion i have to do that. its crazy but hopefully my accent will change and then they will understand me. anyway after the interview when we were leaving i went to pet the dog and after i was petting it i moved and all of a sudden it like attacked my arm right on my wrist. it kinda freaked me out a little bit because ive never been bit by a dog that liked me hah. but luckily its bite didnt pierce my wrist because of my tiger like reflexes. hah. it only gave me kind of a scratch. but i guess what happened is i stepped on its bone so it freaked out. and kenyan dogs are not as well fed as american dogs so it was scared that it wasnt going to be eating that night so it bit me. so ya that was fun.

anyways then on saturday we had our christmas party. we got there early like around 11 to help make food and get stuff together. it was pretty kool because some of our investigators came and they had a pretty good time. we watched the mormon tabernacle choir do a christmas special and each of the quorums had a little presentation. the missionary department we read something in the book of mormon about Jesus Christ, sang a song and bore our testimonies and stuff so it was pretty good. then we did, my favorite thing in the world, we ate. haha we had some choma or bbq and pilou really good rice stuff and some chapati (kenyan type tortillas) my favorite food here. and thats pretty much everything that was worthwhile to write about this week.

so on sunday i will be able to talk to you guys! yay! my first call im excited its going to be weird to hear you voice cause not gonna lie i cant really remember anyones voice. i mean if i hear it i will be able to know who it is but i cant recall exactly so forgive me if that offends anyone sorry... hah. but i will buy some credit and i will be able to talk to you and stuff so if i dont have enough just call back and we can talk again hah. well i hope everyone has an awesome week and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love Reese

ps- package ideas i know you love them haha. but burts bees is a must hah, craisins, candy, chocolate, trail mix, and i will think of some more later

pps- recipe ideas- taco mix again haha, stuff for chinese food, mexican food and italian food


********************just some questions I asked him! kinda random!***********************************


**hah ya the marriage proposal was pretty funny tho. because i didnt see her or even talk to her before she asked so it caught me totally off guard! but from what ive learned so far its pretty hard to be prepared for everything that is going to happen for the these 2 years.

**i guess you could say that the service project was like a concert but it was kinda scary cause people were going nuts in like getting crazy mad about the food and the tshirts. but it was a real eye opening experience.

**i would have to agree with you about not respecting the gospel. i did not respect it at all. i just thought you know that it was just a good thing to do. but now i see how important it really is.

**i think that you should sneak a picture of Kurt on the stage next to Bishop Dixon. it think that it would be pretty funny. im glad that you were able to see bro bulloch at the mission homecoming. i love that guy. make sure when ever you see that guy you tell him that i say hi and that hes freakin awesome. and im glad to hear that i will be getting another package!! yay! im glad that elder naylors talk was good. that one love thing is awesome.

**its awesome that dave and tiff had their fourth kid....right hah. make sure that you let them know that i say congrats.

**so the first question i have about secret santa....was there any presents in the package for me?? haha just kidding!

**im glad that jay is going to my dads for christmas. i really think that it will be good for him to spend so father son time with him alone without me. because when im there he usually doesnt say much and its just me talking to him and stuff. i think that it will be good for him. i guess that also a lecture or two cant hurt hahah

**so you didnt tell me how the lasagna at brio was. i want to get your perspective from it cause it think that it was the best lasagna ive ever had (thanks bro b) and why am i always talking about food? cuz im always hungry hah nothing new

** ive been giving those pictures or the passalong cards, with Jesus and the little girl and boy, to members of my branch and they love them! they think they are the koolest pictures ever. so if you can send more hah, (especially the one with Him carrying the little african boy)

**well with the byu boys choir you can send the cd or just send it on email. cause if you send the cd i will put it on the usb and if you email it i will put it on the usb so its all going to the same place so it doesnt matter how you send it. but with the recipes make sure its from scratch like with tomatoes tell me how to cut them and stuff like that cause like tomato paste is one thing i have NO IDEA how to make haha!

hey mom,

well it sounds like you have a pretty dang eventful week. but im happy that Heavenly Father is watching over you guys for me since you know im in freakin africa ha. i hope that when you went to Brio for your office Christmas party you got the lasagne (i dont think i spelt it right but in africa anything goes from what ive learned) cause when Kellie and i went there it was freakin good! but im glad people like getting my emails cause i like writing them so people know what im going through haha jk. and i cant wait to see how the blog is cause it would be kool to see all the things that i have written hah. kurt is in the bishopric?!?! no way that is awesome its probably better than the ward clerk hah. kurt is going places! it is so crazy everything there is changing!! its gonna be totally different when i get back too but i guess it will be for the better.

but to answer your questions. i probably wont be transferred until feburary. yes i have LOVED the music so far keep it coming cause people here have no christmas spirit except for some of the members. and ya the byu boys choir thing should be on youtube and im sure people at church have their cds and stuff. they are pretty popular and way good. and no theres not anything in particular just their songs cause my companion loves the gospel music from the states but the kind of gospel like christian rock crap. i dont like it cause i think its sometimes sacrilegious and i just plain dont like it haha. yes i will be able to call both you and my dad for christmas. its getting close hah. yes i can get you a kenyan nativity but it depends on how much it costs, how much you are willing to spend, if you want me to send it now or bring it home with me and what am i getting out of it haha. yes the reeses in the package made it perfect and im saving the other two for christmas. and yes i did love all the spices and yellow rice and the pictures and the recipe book even tho it cant really use most of the recipes hah but ya all the stuff i loved especially the burts bees cause i love that stuff so keep it coming hah (the weird kinds like the acai berry and mango that box was missing one hah im guessing jay swiped it ha but i guess it is pay back for me swiping the dixie sweatshirt hah) but i havent opened the wrapped present tho im waiting for christmas for that too. and no i dont have bro bulloch's email will you send it to me? smedley is doing good he is back in tanzania now he is doing good now but isnt walking too much lucky guy hah. hays is doing good too he says that you have been sending him emails too he says its funny but he likes it. and vilakati is alright too. we get along good not like me and hays tho but its ok. and ya we understand each other for the most part.

ok now i will tell you a little bit about my week. our investigators are doing pretty well but we have like 6 with a baptismal date so we should get some baptisms in the next two or three weeks. not much happened until the weekend tho. we had to do a lot of contacting and tracting. tracting by the way is knocking doors. but we talked to a ton of people but we got bounced from like all of our appointments this week. which is really annoying because im supposed to be leading by example and our lessons this week were the lowest in the district so hopefully next week will be better. but i did have a couple of very very new experiences. we had a big community service project in a place called slaughter (or slota as the kenyans would say it.) it is the slum of my area. its is called slaughter by the way because there is a camel slaughter house there. i guess the muslims or some other religion prays or worships them and then kills them. ya i know weird huh. anyways a senior couple named the Tuttles, who are in change of the LDS charities in kenya, were there. we were doing a big clean up project where the LDS charities donated 10 big dumpster things so the people there could throw their trash in dumpsters instead of right in front of their houses on the ground. so the Tuttles gave the community like 1000 free reusable bags to use as trash cans and were giving out 150 free shirts. so we went around for like 2 hours picking up garbage......yeah...... but the whole time people were asking for the free shirt and stuff so it was kind of chaotic. but when we finished we handed out the free shirts to the people who worked but not to the ones who didnt. then we started handing out some treats for the kids drinks and some rolls and thats when the craziness started. the leaders we gave to hand out the stuff just threw out the roll packages (there was like 8 in a pack) and the mothers and people that lived around were going crazy. its hard to explain but imagine like at a concert when they are throwing out free stuff but when people are like super desperate and times it by 10 hah and thats what it was. straight up craziness. and before all of this, the thing that i will never forget, i got my first marriage proposal. haha ya it was crazy. i was walking with a member who was there and some girl was yelling at him and he started laughing and then told me that she wants to know if you want to marry her. and i was like," WHAT!!!". and after all the craziness she came up to us again to see if i would say yes and take her to america. and thats was some thing funny about my week.

well i hope you guys have a good week and remember that i love you guys a ton. also remember to say your prayers and CTR hah

love Elder Maxwell


This is a letter from Elder Hays to his mother:

Hey mom

So this week was great. I am loving my new area. It is great. We
went from 1 shaky baptismal date to 8 strong with a couple of others
as well. So good. I love it. I have great stories this week.

Number one. Heinz. Yeah his name is Heinz like the ketchup but he is
so good. We asked him to pray and read the Book of Mormon. But he went
the extra mile and meditated. Eish, He is so good. He told us the next
day that he was completely sure that the Book was true he felt
something miraculous and he knows beyond a doubt. And that means a
baptismal date, he is just so good. He came to church and participated
more than all the other members combined. Funny how that works, he is
strong and he is a great. Every lesson is helping him grow stronger
and stronger. He is just golden, we just gave him the book and he did
the rest himself. I can’t wait to continue. Now no doubt there has to
be some kind of persecution to the church coming but I really believe
that he will pull through.

Now second we have Vera. She is a late 20’s bar owner
who is a great lady. We contacted her my first day in the area she
just ate it up. She will leave work anytime to come see us and she is
feeling the change in her life. We invited her to be baptized in the
first meeting and she accepted. We didn’t even teach her anything yet.
We just spent an hour building a relationship of trust and testifying
and then when she was feeling it we invited her to be baptized on the
22 of January. She accepted and came to church with three referrals. I
love the work. I feel like we just go out and all day we accomplish
great things. We thrust in our sickle and reap more than was there. I
love it. The work is moving.

Elder Maxwell is doing great I honestly won’t be
surprised if he is the next AP. I mean he is darn obedient; he works
and is humble. Plus every African will like him because he is black
and every American will love him because he is American. It is almost
too good to be true. He is already a district leader over sisters
(which is a sign that he is bound for great things) and he is training
in the hardest area in the whole mission. He is great. I love it.

I went on an exchange with Elder Haynes this week who came in the same
group as Maxwell, and he said that Elder Maxwell was the luckiest guy
in the mission. I mean he hates disobedience, and he was trained the
right way. Now I am not trying to take a pride moment, but Elder
Haynes gave me some amazing compliments this week. He has struggled
with his first two companions. When he came to my area, he was
excited to have a break. He said for the first time he has found a
missionary who is his role model. I mean we didn’t know what to teach
Vera in the morning, so I got down on my knees and asked the Lord. He
said after that if that is what a companion study is supposed to be,
he hasn’t had one yet. He loved it. (I am not sure how much you know
about missionaries, but they are usually disobedient and lazy.) He
felt that he knew how to handle the rest of his mission from then on
out. I just loved it that he felt that he was finally on his mission
when he went with me. He said that the way we did missionary work that
day was the way he always thought that it was supposed to go. I just
felt like a hero for a day.

In other news, yeah, I am a zone leader here, and we
are trying to get as much done as possible. We had the worst area the
last two weeks and now we are having almost the most fruitful one. I
mean we have to make our area a model for every other missionary in
the zone, and we were told to set the culture of the mission. I think
that it is working-- we are trying to lift everyone, which isn’t
exactly easy when you have two missionaries who go home the 20th mid
transfer. But we are doing our best.

Elder Harper and I get along perfect, and we are doing
our best to be celestial missionaries, which even means that we are
cleaning the flat just so that we can have more of the spirit. I mean
let’s be real, I of all people can live in a messy place, but we need
the spirit so we are cleaning.

Well mom I love you, and I am fighting the good fight. I am loving the
work here and I am on fire. I get tired every now and then especially
when I fast but I am alive and loving it.

Love you, I pray for you guys daily.

Elder Hays

hey mom,

well it sounds like it "snowed" in vegas and you will be having somewhat of a "white christmas" haha. my weather has been pretty nice but where i am at it is somewhat hot like 80's, so ive been sweating every now and then but ya it has been raining pretty often. last week wasnt very fun i fell and slipped in the mud trying to avoid a puddle but fell into it. its gets freakin muddy here. im in the dustiest areas in the whole mission so when it rains the mud gets saturated with water so it is really slippery. so i guess you could say that i am having an brown christmas? haha. anyways i cant believe you already got a different car... and its gutless!!! well i guess as long as its cheaper that is all that matters. but we might have some shidas (problems) when it i get back cause i am your and grandpa's child. i love me some power hah. make sure that you say thank you to aunt margaret and tell her that i appreciate it cabisa (alot)!!! and please tell everyone thank you that do things for me! and im not sure if i can skype on christmas? i will ask for sure cause that would be awesome if we can. well from what i hear about calling is that i call you the day before Christmas to see what time is good and then i call on Christmas and talk to you guys. but idk if i call you or if you call me cause for me to call you is /-3 a minute or 3 cents a minute for me but idk how much it would be for you.

but me and elder vilakati are doing pretty good. im training him but when people from africa go on a mission, the first three months they have to go out with the missionaries. but ya sometimes we cant understand each other for some words but for the most part its pretty easy. being a district leader isnt too bad. i am now in the upper hill district. in the district there are 8 missionaries. 4 elders and 4 sisters. one of the other two elders is the zone leader who is over two or 3 districts. so the 4 sisters call into me every night to tell me that they are home safe and if they have any concerns or anything like that. like last week, the sisters called me and said that they needed a baptismal interview so i went and interviewed one of their investigators. also i conduct a DDM or a district development meeting. there we have certain people to teach us about how we can be better missionaries or more Christ-like and stuff like that but that is pretty much all that i do. i still go to the same branch cause the other wards and branches are like an hour and a half away in a train and a matatu. and ya if the mission president really wanted me to be transfered i could every 6 weeks but im pretty sure that i will be in athi river for about 3 more months. if i could go anywhere i would like to go to Eldoret because it is nice and cool there.

but this week nothing too exciting happened. on wednesday i conducted my first DDM. it was on Christ-like attributes. luckily elder smedley was there since he broke his foot so we had enough for every missionary there to give like a 3 to 5 minute talk on each one. i think it was pretty good except for some of the sister missionaries. we start with a song and end with one and one sister will not sing the entire time. you have to kinda ask yourself, " what kinda missionary doesnt sing?" haha Bogus! after the DDM, my companion and i went with sister Kabamba and sister Chilumba, to their area Riruta to interview a guy named Bonface. ( dont ask me where he got his name, people here like to name their kids from the bible- like a lot of girls here are named Dorcus haha) but the interview went well but it was way weird that i was the one who had to interview him in order for him to be baptized.

we meet people in weird ways here. when we were on our way out for church the gate guard told us that a member came early and gave him her number for us to call her. so we called her and met her a little bit later. and fun fact.... she was not a member ha. she wanted to know what our church does for orphans and im not gonna lie i had no idea what to say to that. but i just told her to talk to the bishop and told her that she had to come to church to talk to him and then she said that she would come after she went some where. which usually means that she wasnt coming to church. but she did. then we had a really kool lesson. not because the person cried or something like that but..........(dramatic pause to add emphasis haha) it was the first time i bible bashed a little bit haha. i did pretty good too haha not gonna boast that i know the scriptures that well cuz i dont, but the guy is a J-dub or a Jehovah's witness which is a church that started after ours. but they believe that once we die, we dont exist and then we are resurrected. so we had to show him what happens in both the bible and the Book of Mormon. but its seems like he wants to know the truth and has been reading the book of mormon but he is kind of fighting against it. but it was a good lesson. one kool thing that i saw or hilarious thing i saw was some guy on a piki piki ( motorcycle ) towing another piki piki so ill send you a pic hah. but that was my week.

i hope you guys all have a great week and if you can find any more christmas songs feel free to send them cause christmas is my favorite time of season hah. i love and miss you!

love elder maxwell

ps you dont need to send sweats unless you have already bought them. i guess in reality its expensive and i would rather you just send like some more spice packets especially yellow rice. also i wanted to ask you if you could make me like a recipe book with the calendar. with mainly things that are made from scratch like refried beans, good salsa without a blender, fired rice, garlic potatoes and spaghetti sauce like with tomatoes and without tomato sauce cans cause anything in a can here like like 500/- and up which is like $5. but i wish i could send big stuff from here because the dresses here sammy would love and they are probably be like 6 bucks!

pps if you can send me some of the music from the byu boys choir thing that would be awesome too.

A Missionary Christmas (author unknown)

I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving. The thrill just wasn't there.

No pictures taken with Santa Claus, My decorating has no flair.
His presents are shoes, shirts, and ties, two suits and socks...no fun.

I've bought him all white clothes because... This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I've spent more time in the temple, my testimony stirred.
I've reread November's Ensign, Felt strength come from His words.
Our family prays more frequently. My tears are quick to run.
Abraham seems closer because, This year I'm giving Christ my son.
I wonder how those Lamanite mothers, gave their sons to war?
Or how the pioneers chose Zion , their sacrifice was so much more.
My loss will be his presence, I'll miss his smile a ton
For two years we will pray for him, I'm giving Christ my son.

I stare at his face when he's not looking. I memorize his eyes, their shine.
He's always hungered for the part of him, that makes his soul divine.
The stories and lessons he always heard, His choice and mine are one.
I'll put my faith in God's hand, This year, I'm giving Him my son.

Past gifts have lost their glitter; I think I finally understand
Christ's birth should be celebrated by giving Him a hand.
It's because I know Christ lives and reigns that all his packing's done
My gift has taken years to make, This year... I'm giving Christ my son.

I know there's One who understands, the sacrifice I'm making.
Who knows the gift I willingly give, The toll it will be taking.
For He has done it all before Greater love - there could be none.
For years ago God gave to me, His only begotten son.
The hands I washed, the hands I held, The hands I taught to pray;
Now knock on doors to find the ones Who will listen to what he'll say.
Because I know Christ needs him, Until all the gathering's done,
My gift has taken years to make. This year...I'm giving Christ my son.