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