hey mom

well this week was pretty nice. first off i talked to you and everyone which was nice. it was good to hear your guys voices. also we did a lot of teaching this week. we started teaching a guy who came to church last week. he is awesome. this week we invited him to be baptized after a baptism that the other elders had on saturday. it was really nice. and the best thing is..... he speaks really good english because he is from kenya. so we can teach him powerfully. its really sweet. anyways, ya thats pretty much what we did haha. but this week the mission pres. is coming to arusha to interview some people so he will most likely be bringing me my christmas packages so if you see money being drawn out dont get worried haha. well i hope everything is going well. and i cant wait to hear from you next year.... haha. oh ya HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!! i hope you have a good one and i hope you make some good new year resolutions. i love you!!

love reese

all of the first ones were of the orphanage with the missionaries here in arusha. and the last one is what i call TZ donuts. i put nutella on these things called mandazi and it tastes exactly like a krispy kreme donut. i love it hah merry christmas

hey mom

today im doing good. yes im a zone leader again. yes we took the bus to dar and back this week. we watched battleship with no sound. on the way back we watched a movie called prey and the ghost and the darkness. well the elements in the movies here are hard to explain but i will buy some movies and bring them home hah. you will love them. ya i was able to see a lot of the people that were transferred to dar and the guys that stayed there like elder patten. the meeting was good. it was super long tho. it lasted four hours. but we talked about some good things. and yes president was there. the new couple missionaries are really nice. they are very spontaneous and they have a lot of energy. so it kinda kool. they are the gotchers from arizona. ya i miss sister n. she was awesome. 

anyways, this week we really didnt do very much. just went to dar es salaam. the bus ride there took like 13 hours because the bus broke down and we had to wait while they could fix it to start going again. in dar we stayed with elder patten and elder barney and had a good time. we stayed there from wednesday to saturday. we had the zlc or zone leader council. it was alright. they told us about the stuff that we will be doing for christmas and things that we need to help our zones with. pretty basic stuff like teaching father led families and curfew and obedience type of stuff. it was a good meeting. we had to stay in dar for an extra day because the bus that we bought tickets for broke down or wasnt available or something so we stayed an extra day. it was actually good that we did that because elder patten and i were sick. patten was a lot sicker than i was tho thats for sure. i just had a cold cause i wasnt used to the weather in arusha hah. but that night the aps came over and they slept there and we had a party hah. we called this guy who came and sold us ties. we bought each tie for 1500 so the guy made like 30000 in like less than an hour. then we came back to arusha. we had a really nice bus on the way back. i even had leg room which is a pretty impressive thing. but that was pretty much my week. 

well i hope you have a good week love ya a lot. excited for next week. ps i dont think i will email you next week i might just send you pics hah

love maurice

hey mom

arusha is beautiful! i love it. i was able to see mt kilimanjaro. it is huge and it looks like it comes outta no where. it is super nice almost all the time except in the middle of the day. thats when it starts getting hot. even in the morning i can wear a sweater because its so cool in the morning. i love not feeling sticky all the time, like in dar.

 

i havent gotten my package other yet but i will find out if it came this week. because i am going to dar again on wednesday because i have to go to a zone leader meeting. im hoping i get it soon but i wont hope too much because im really used to getting dissappointed now. anyways my new companion is elder diodati from canada. he is awesome. he was trained by elder patten and they had a good time. i will most likely go back to Kenya again in like 4 months maybe... but you never know.. well im sorry that your stitches were super painful. i know tho that they will get better. and omg a cavity. mother you are a dental hygienist!! have you not been flossing???? or brushing your teeth??? haha but i think i will have a ton of cavities when i get home. but im hoping that i will have been protected and will have zero cavities. that would be a miracle big time hah. 

 

well im glad that sami liked the cheerleading camp. all girls love that kinda stuff tho. i think it would be good for her to do gymnastics cause then it would help her in anything athletic that she would want to do. 

 

well this week was alright. before i left dar, i pretty much washed ALL of my clothes. it took forever. washing sucks. i really miss a washer and dryer. but on tuesday i said goodbye to all the guys in dar and on wednesday i got on the bus in the morning for 11 hours.  the ride was ok but i was super squished cause i was sitting next to a big dude. but it was alright, really boring but alright. i had the right amount of snacks for it haha. i didnt have anyone to talk to or do anything with so i was just quiet watching crappy tanzanian movies. they are all really bad by the way. they are made like home videos and they all have the same elements to them. anyways, so then i got to arusha and its awesome. oh ya and on the way i was able to take pictures of mt kilimanjaro. its super cool and nice here. but the branch is ok but its small. like pretty small and its pretty weak but hopefully we will be able to make it stronger. then on sunday i bore my testimony again in swahili. i also found out that we have a good swahili teacher so that is nice. he knows his stuff and he knows how to teach it which is nice. one thing that is weird that there is 8 missionaries here in this branch. 4 elders 2 sisters and one senior couple. and its a small branch so i have a bad feeling. and my bad feeling is that we are not going to get DAs ever....... it would be too hard for the people who are members here to feed all 6 of us so i will most likely not have a single DA in this area so that will suck a lot. oh and dio my comp knows less swahili than i do.... and i dont know very much hah. so by the time i come home i will know another language most likely hah. thats if i learn it nicely. well thats pretty much what happened this week.

and this next week we are going back to dar for a zone leader meeting so this week i will have been in a bus for 24 hours. more or less. and that means that i wont even spend a week in my area until week 3 of the 6 week transfer hah. anyways i hope you have a better week than you had this week. i hope you know that i love you so much and i miss you a lot. im really grateful that you have helped me while ive been on mission here with everything. i love you!!!

love reese

hey mom

well im thankful that i am here on a mission and am having great time. i am thankful for the scriptures and the understanding that i have of them now and i am thankful for the people that i have been able to meet and teach and also the people i will meet. 

 

anyways, im glad that you guys had a good thanksgiving. wow im proud that sammy was able to go into the the bowl with a scooter. i have never been down it ever with anything hah. i dont know about any package yet but it is most likely here but in nairobi. i dont get told until they bring it to me.

anyways this week was pretty nice. our investigators are doing alright. we didnt have any dinner appointments tho but this coming week we have been planning for like 3 so that will be nice. also on thanksgiving we had a zone party kinda. everyone came over to our place cause its the nicest and the biggest and we made tacos!!! probably the first and last time i will have tacos for thanksgiving but it was really nice. we ate and had a good time. we all shared what we were thankful for and then we played some cards. a game called idiot. it is awesome. i will teach it to you guys.

 

Also we had some good news on sunday.  we found out that one of our investigators can be baptized so we will be having a baptism some time soon. i probably wont be here for it though, unfortunately because i will most likely be leaving next week because this week is the last week of the transfer. his parents are ok with him being baptized so we are excited, but i guess i already told you that haha. well we have been doing bunch of stuff with the sisters because sister n is going home soon so we have been hanging out with them. but that is pretty much it for the week.

well i love ya guys have a good one

reese

hey mom

um thanks for the birthday present. it was awesome. the shoes are like the most comfortable things ever, i love them. tell grandma thank you! my dad got me this awesome football for my birthday too! well im excited for the halloween package, i hope its nice. well with the christmas package maybe some gatorade mix or something. im not really good at this kinda of stuff just be creative. hah. im excited for the brazilian package from Lucianne. i think i want to go to Brazil. that would be awesome. i mean the hottest girls on the planet live there i hear haha. and i want to try the food. ya i was able to find a good sd card and we found a pretty good place for that kinda stuff. so i will try to send some more pics hopefully soon. trust me you are not missing out on too much. i mean you are supposed to miss me right hahah. jk. anyways sami is getting huge. i dont remember her being taller than the table and chairs so that was kinda weird hah. well that ragnar race kurtis and tina did sounds pretty kool. im not a big running type to tell you the truth hah.

this week for me was really nice. we had a lot of good things happen. we went and did a lot of contacting this week so that we could help our area and it was really awesome. we found a bunch of people. we had a few lessons with some people that were really good. usually we teach people on the street. but this was nice. a guy even came to the church after just meeting him one day on the road. it was kool. one thing that was awesome was that we went to teach a recent convert that we knew and when we were walking back to the church we walked back and this random guy stopped us. his own words were,"hey do you guys have book of mormon? i used to have one when i was in zimbabwe (ps where my comp is from). i loved it soo much. and i need it." it was really kool. i havent had anything like that happen before so it was really nice. we also went to a DA and they fed us pork and stuff. it was so good. i havent had that much meat in forever. and then on sunday she brought us a bunch more so we went to the sisters flat to share it and had a feast. it was awesome. so that was pretty much my week. oh ya one more thing it was super hot too haha.

hey so i have a favor to ask on thursday. will you send a message to sister ndiwalana because that will be her birthday. her email address is rosillah.ndiwalana@myldsmail.net. and also i have been getting money out to get her a present. and if you look at the pic of our fridge you will know what i used it on haha! anyways it will be good i will send you a pic of it later. well i love ya and i hope you have a good week.

love reese

hey mom

 

so first off yes i got my packages! they are awesome! i got one from my dad and one from you and grandma for my birthday (almost 3 months ago!).  i had to get some money out for the packages for customs because some one was really honest and put how much things cost and left price tags on stuff...... haha. anyways, i have been buying some stuff to take home because there might be a chance that i leave tanzania next month.  thats awesome that allie is going to argentina. i have a friend named dan who is there right now. he is the one who who sent the email too with the email address. so do they leave the same time or what? that would be really weird to go to the same mission as your sister for sure haah.

 

 our investigators are doing ok. with transfers ya i was ok with it because i knew i was going to stay anyways. ya with the status of how many people are members, its true, less than 1000 members are here but like less than half are active or maybe like 60%, which really sucks. if more people were active and were being good members the work would progress a ton faster. ya ive kinda seen how the hurricane has been effecting the east coast. im glad that dixie is doing better hopefully when i get there we will be awesome. thanks for send that stuff to dan and kellie. i hope she gets it soon... anyways i will remember those dates and make sure you tell Macy and Laytin happy birthday for me. well im excited to hear about the election.  

well this week was nice for me. we had zone conference this week and it was pretty awesome. we had elder hartman come again and teach us about the colors again. it was nice and i really know that i am a Red Yellow. but he says that it should be when you were younger. so i think you should do the test for me and figure out what i was like then. because he says after time you can change your color because of growing up and stuff. anyways it was nice too see all the people from tanzania. my old companion elder madubanya is the new ap with elder pocock so it was nice to see them also. it feels like a long time since i have seen president broadbent. it has been like 4 months almost and when i started i used to see him like once a week so it definitely feels like a different mission here. i wasnt able to meet with elder hartman which kinda sucked but i guess at the same time was a good thing. on friday i opened my packages and they were awesome!! my dad sent me a football (nike one by the way) and some olympus shirts and candy which was pretty awesome.  by the way the new memory foam flip flops are FREAKIN awesome!! i love them so much. thank you. its nice to have some thing new on my feet instead of the ones that are four years old haha. but on saturday we cleaned the church because no one came to do it so that was kinda fun. also zone conference was nice because president broadbent did some blasting. it was nice because a few people in this zone are being super bogus.

anyways that was pretty much my week. we will be doing a lot of finding this coming week because we only have kidogo a small amount of investigators. well i love ya and i hope you have a good week

love reese

hey mom

im glad that you were able to go to see elder baldwins homecoming and im glad that you guys were able to go to st george and go to the homecoming week. i think that its pretty kool that theres a room named after paul and stuff. i hope you had a good time there.

well this week was kinda really boring. i'm sorry sami has been sick, my comp was really sick too and he was coughing up a storm. so we werent able to do very much this week. when we would go out he would act like he was super sick and so we pretty much sat at the church and hung out there. we did that a couple of times this week so it was ok. at one of our meetings during the week i gave a training about how important it is for people to go to church. it was pretty good and i think everyone learned from it. its kinda really basic if you think about it people need to come to church and thats pretty much it. we did find some pretty good people this week. one came up to us and the other was a referral. im really glad that people give us referrals because if they didnt we we pretty much have no work ha. i think i will give referrals to the missionaries when i get home. also i found out that our swahili teacher isnt too good becasue he doesnt really know how to teach grammar that well so that kinda sucks but he is still helping kinda. anyways that was pretty much my entire week. it wasnt really fun. anyways next week we will be having zone conference. so that means i will be getting my packages!!! yay im excited.

well sorry its kinda short... well i love ya a lot have a good one

love reese

hey mom
well i think it would be really kool if you started doing my genealogy again. i would like to know where my indian ancestor is from. like what tribe. maybe aunt margaret can help. sister ndiwalana's birthday is the 15th of november so im going to give her something kool then. i can find a nativity some time and i will try and find one soon. it also depends on which size you want it. like would you want it like to cover a table or what? well baldwin left early this morning and i sent something with him that you will like a lot.... i think well at least hopefully... i also gave him your phone number so if you get a weird number calling you some time just answer it hah. dont second guess it. samantha looks awesome in her belle costume. i like it alot. i hope she has fun this halloween. she looks really different now. like she is growing up. i think she looks a lot like gracie. im glad that tina had a good lesson at sunday school. oh and my packages have arrived but they are still in nairobi. but i know that they are there anyway, just not to me in tanzania yet . 

well this week was pretty nice. this was the end of the six week transfer but it was pretty good. we had some pretty exciting things happen too. on friday we only got like a half day. the reason for that was because there was a bomb in downtown dar es salaam. so all the missionaries here in dar had to go back home. so we went home pretty much the whole day. the reason why there was a bomb was because some dude decided to pee on a koran so some of those people got mad and rioted. just for the day though. anyways on saturday we went to watch conference. it was awesome especially the saturday sessions. my favorite talk was by dieter f uchtdorf. then then one by neil L anderson. they were awesome. we stayed there at their flat for like two days. so i spent baldwins last two days with him pretty much. anyways on sunday night we had a transfer dinner with the couples. so we went to there house and ate sloppy joes. it was ok but i wished they would of made something kinda fancy. but free food is free food i guess haha. well here is the big news on transfers. no one in the entire mission is being transferred. the reason for it is because of D&C 5:34. its mostly because a lot of the missionaries are not being good missionaries. so that kinda sucks. but thats pretty much everything that has happened this week.

well i love you a lot and i hope you have a good one

love reese.

hey mom

thanks for putting some $$ on there for sister n. i think i will be getting her some pretty kool stuff. i am working on getting her a nice usb thing with a ton of music because she loves music too much.

 

anyways im excited too for conference. we have it this coming sunday. i cant believe that this will be my 3rd conference. . anyways im sorry that you werent able to go to avas baptism. im sure it was really good tho. im glad that you went to the homecoming and that bro b talked to jay. he is an awesome guy for sure. im glad too that you gave some thing to barb cause she really has done some really good stuff for us.

 

i will try to find some kool stuff here this week that i can send with elder b, but if im not very able to im sorry because its sometimes hard to find the stuff. but if i do i will send some. well i have had some good fish like 3 months ago i went to this fish place and had some fresh tuna steak and it was bomb and i had calamary and i love it! its amazing and yes i know what it is hah.

 

ya i think that i might be getting all of my packages all at once because i dont think the mission likes us people here in tanzania. they make us wait until someone comes from there to give us our stuff. so i dont know when i will get getting my packages but i will let you know when i do. it will be either this next week or in november. and anything that i get in a package from home is 1000 times better than any candy here well besides the stuff that comes from the states or europe but ya better than anything so it doesnt matter if its old, smashed or partly eaten i will eat it haha.

well this week was alright. we found a couple of new people to teach. one guy talked to us and he wanted us to teach him and help him to stop smoking. so we met with him on thursday and we had an awesome lesson. he is kind of a big person in terms of money or at least his family was so we had a sweet lesson in air conditioning. it was really nice. the one thing that sucked was that he didnt come to church and he said he would but hey what else is new. we are going to get ahold of him this week and see if we can teach him again. on friday was elder sigauke's birthday. so i got him some candy and stuff. it was funny because i put them inside of a blue diamond package that russ sent to me. and when i gave it too him he was like i really dont know what these are but thanks a lot. then he opened it and realized that it was candy. i was dying. then later for dinner i got us cheese burgers at a nice place and we watched some football aka soccer. so he enjoyed himself. but this week we have been helping the sisters teach one of their investigators and he is progressing and he should be baptized here this or next week. so that kinda exciting. anyways thats pretty much everything that was exciting this week.

well i hope that you have a good week. and i will be sure to send my stuff with baldwin. so it should be there next week. love ya lots

love reese

hey mom

this week was pretty good. oh and ps thanks for telling me the big Conference news..... NOT!! i wanted to find out when i watched. but i guess its ok. im sure someone would have told me earlier anyways. contacting went well this week although we didnt really find anyone new, but things are going well. our new swahili teacher is awesome! like a 100% difference... im now excited to be learning it again. i will tell sister ndiwalana thank you, for you. i think she will think it will be funny to get her something for her birthday. if you put something in my account i would love to do something nice for her. her birthday is nov 15th so hopefully i can think of something by then haha. she is from uganda. she is pretty kool. i think its funny that you watched "the district" haha. in the mtc we watched those things to help us to learn how to teach and stuff haha. well about jess and stuff. i did get her email about it and i believe i wrote her a message. i even asked her what the baby's name is going to be. i think it should be a swahili name so that i can know what the name means haha. i think that wet n wild would be great thing to do especially if it involved really really nice food. because i like and miss food a lot haha. ok well for me im pretty much fine here. thanks for asking. if i need anything i will definitely let you know. wow im glad that dixie is doing well. i hope that i will be there when they are still pretty good. hah. well no one has come from nairobi yet to deliver any packages. i think i might have to wait until november when the aps come to dar again. so i dont know when i will get you and grandma's birthday present. and ya i know she sent it in july!

well this week was pretty nice. we had some pretty good lessons and stuff. we got a new swahili teacher like i said and he is awesome. the old teacher would just be like a dictionary and would just tell us words and stuff because he really sucked. i hated class when he was the teacher because i pretty much had to learn by myself. also this week we went to get some burgers and they were really good. i think i might just get some today too haha. well this week we had a really powerful lesson. we were teaching a girl that we have been teaching for awhile. we taught her about the authority from God that is needed in the church. she opened up a little and told us that she has been having some problems but when we come she feels peace and stuff and she cried. it was the first lesson that ive had where some one cried, but its was good. then on saturday we had a contacting day. we did this mainly because no one really knows that our church is a church because it just looks like a really big house. we have been teaching a guy with the sisters and he is going to be baptized either this week or two weeks after because the week after next we will be watching conference. im really excited for conference too. it will be my third time watching conference in Africa. it will be nice.

 

well thats pretty much it from me this week. i hope that you are doing well. i love ya

love reese

hey mom

this week was pretty nice. well the senior couples didnt make me a birthday cake but the nolls bought me a small candy bar. sister ndiwalana, the sister who is awesome here, got me the biggest candy bar that you candy find here in Tanzania and she is a missionary who lives off of what we get every month! i got some chips too, pringles, ha.  i hope that i get my packages soon. our zone conference wont even be until november next transfer so i will still have to wait. they might be here already but they dont send them. they wait until some one comes from nairobi. im glad that you guys will be sending a halloween package because i miss candy a ton haah.

 

i will try my best to send more pics but its kinda tough here because i cant just stick my camera into any computer i see because people can get viruses on them and then all my pics could be deleted but i will send some soon. im glad that sami is loving school. i cant believe that she is learning how to read now.  im really excited for conference. i think i need a little spiritual boost from the apostles and stuff even tho i guess you could say im on a spiritual high all the time haha. i hope you told alex and kenzie that i said happy birthday. and ava and joey and my other cousin who i think has the same birthday as me hahah. ps dont tell me much about how conference is because we wont get it until a week or two or three.

well this week went by really fast. we had a nice DA this week. we had a good spiritual thought too. the lady there told the sisters that they needed to get married to a RM or at least a worthy priesthood holder. it was kinda powerful. she kinda blasted them and us. but like for us she was telling us that we need to be worthy RMs and stuff when we get back so we can marry a girl because her salvation kind of depends on it too. so that was nice. this week i aslo had the hottest day of my mission ever. we went to go grab some veggies and put up some flyers and then we went to the church. by the time we got there my shirt was soaking wet with sweat. the moisture is killer. i couldn't even do anything after that. luckily we had a lesson at the church or i wasnt going to go anywhere. haha. we got a new swahili teacher so that is nice. my swahili might improve now. he hasnt taught us yet but he got hired so hopefully i will learn something that will help me this week. we have been getting along with members better now because my new comp is here. its nice to go to members and have them like for us to be there. other than that, thats pretty much what has happened this week. this next week should be good we are planning on doing a lot of contacting so we can get more people.

well i hope you guys are having a great time and i love you guys a bunch.

love reese

hey mom,

are you sure that everyone in utah went to brigham city to go to the temple? cause i think that would be a lot of people in brigham city and like way too much for the town to hold hah.. well so with people coming to church its still tough because even getting members to come is tough. that one guy who was supposed to be baptized left all of a sudden and we havent seen him since, which really sucks. we cant even get a hold of him. anyways, thats missionary work for ya. my comp is really good. i think i will be learning a good amount of swahili now hopefully hah. but i would like to finish my misison in a place called westlands, in nairobi. and no other americans are in the zone besides us but there are some kool people now. i miss kenya but i like TZ. the food is better here. but in kenya life is cheaper.

anyways this week was nice. i was on exchanges for a few days with a guy named elder mhkungo from south africa. he is a really kool guy!
we had a lesson with people who only spoke swahili and he knows less swahili than me! but they were ok lessons, but not the best. i think that they have kinda showed me how my swahili is. i think that it is getting much better but i still need to work on it more. other than that i havent really been doing much other than the same stuff everyday. hah. sorry theres not very much.

 

 well for my birthday i didnt really do very much. i had a nice cheeseburger. it was really good. and i looked for some shoes but they were a little too much for me. they were selling them for like 70000 which is like $40 and they are worth $42 brand spankin new. they think im a white guy here and they think that all white people have a ton of money so they gave us a bad price. i can definitely say that it is weird to be old now. i dont feel like i am 21 i still feel like im 18 or 19...

well i will be send some pics very soon so i hope you like them. but not today haha. maybe a few weeks hah. well i love you and i hope everything is going well

love reese 

hey mom,

well this week was nice. i finally have a new companion. his name is elder sigauke and he is from zimbabwe. he is a kool guy. score.  anyways mostly what we did this week was show him around the area and do some mish stuff. and the week before that with my last comp, we just went and did some goodbye things with him.

this transfer im going to work a lot harder with learning swahili. we didnt really have a good teacher and he wasnt teaching us anything besides new words that he knew. so that never did help much. so im going to work really hard at it this transfer. sigauke knows it really well so he can help me a lot better than my last comp could. so that is pretty much what happened this week. sorry this is so short the internet went out yesterday so we dont really have too much time to finish emailing today. when elder baldwin goes home i will for sure send something with him for you guys. i will let you know when i get your package for my birthday. and i cant believe im going to be 21 now!! now i can drink...............................fanta hahah jk.

well i love you guys and i hope you are doing well.

love reese

hey mom

well first off i will tell you the transfer news. my comp is leaving and my new comp is elder sigauke (c-gou-kay) from zimbabwe. im excited to have a change, but this guy had a little bit of drama last transfer with elder b so i hope that it doesnt come along with him. and i hope i will be happy for you mom, haha. well the package was awesome! i loved everything about it especially the ties. that purple one was gorgeous like the best purple tie ever.

 

we had a district taco night yesterday which was nice and we used pretty much all the taco stuff from the package hah. i do have a hankering for trail mix and some reeses fast break and hard candy that will last awhile haha. ps that would be the halloween stuff i would like - since you asked, haha along with other types of chocolate bars that i have forgotten about.

 

they most likely wont do anything for sept. 11th because it doesnt really affect them at all. also i dont think that i want to vote absentee.  i dont think we are allowed to do it so i wont. im glad that dixie won against w. oregon thats really kool. i hope that i will play when i get back because i really miss it. anyways it sucks that the car is broke down. im hoping that it can come back to life cause i loved that car well besides the fact that it was broken down most of the time haha.

well this week was pretty good. we had a new thing this week called a ztm or a zone training meeting instead of a ddm or district development meeting. it was pretty nice but there was a lot of arguing because some elders just dont want to change (my new comp was one of them) and i dont understand why. i mean they came here to help people to change but they dont want to. its pretty dumb to me. anyways, we have been helping the sisters teach a guy that has been difficult. i think he is in love with them and also he has the attention span of a toddler and he is my age. as we are teaching him we ask him questions and then we will ask a different question so its kind of difficult but with us there he kinda knows that he cant get away with stuff because i will beat him haha. jk. we found out on satuday that elder m is leaving but he is just going up the street to kinondoni hah. we all thought that was pretty funny. my old comp elder m is the new ap so ya...

 

anyways yesterday was really fun. all the people in the district came over to our house and we made tacos. we used the soft taco shells with the chicken and we got ground beef and made chapatis too. i love making tacos with people who have never had them because they make the best faces expressing how awesome tacos are. its funny. when they do that i call them converts; baptized and confirmed haha. i had four of them yesterday haha. when we finished we played scatergories. that was a lot of fun. then they all went home. it was really nice. i enjoyed it.

well i have a request if you could get some new scriptures would you like them in burgandy and gold sided paper or the original black and gold? cause they are really cheep here like a quad is about 7,000 shillings and 1,600 shillings is one dollar so i will let you do the math hah. so let me know. well  thats pretty much it for me. love ya

love elder maxwell

hey mom

well first off..... i got my package. i got my package. i got my package. hey hey hey hey!!! we went to the beach today and the zone leaders came with it. i actually have it on my lap right now. i havent opened it yet but im excited! thank you so much!!! thanks for telling ryan to send me an email. he sent me one so i will be able to email him now. im glad that you are doing the write me thing. i got like 20 emails today which was really nice. its kool to see and hear how everyone is doing. so i think that i am getting out of touch with technology because when i was trying to get money last monday i didnt know which one to get money out of so i was kind of stressing about it but thank you for putting money on it. and oh my gosh so freakin funny. i cant believe that you asked if african money comes out of the atm HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!! of course it does!! i laughed my butt of when i read that just so you know haha. anyways i can take a pic of the money because i have been collecting it here because they recently changed what their bills look like so they have old ones and new ones out so i have all of them. they are pretty kool. they look different from the ones in kenya tho. when i go back there i will start collecting those ones too. so i actually didnt know that pumbaa means to be relaxed but i will tell you some pretty kool things. the word taco, the food that i love, in swahili or mataco is butt cheeks haha. and also jamba, like jamba juice, means to fart haha so i love fart juice haha. here in dar i havent really worked out too much because it is super hot here and we can only have the air conditioning on at night.  but i think that i will start to do it soon. yes we walk a ton! all day everyday. i have been doing all my washing lately, im trying to not be lazy hah. ya elder baldwin is from vegas but i didnt really know that you wanted to know so much about it ha.

well for me this week was ok. i was pretty much sick for most of the week. i just had the flu with the coughing and being congested and that kind of stuff. it pretty much sucked but we still worked and stuff. i usually dont like to sit around when im sick. whenever i think of times i was sick i always think about the time when i played a football game with swine flu hah. that was really fun ha.

 

we had a few dinner appts this week which was really nice. we have been doing a good amount of service in the area with members which is always nice. so we were able to be in regular clothes a few times this week. there is a food here that my comp really loves called matoke. pretty much what it is, is green unripe bananas boiled and stuff like potatoes. its like exactly like potatoes but not as good but my comp loves it and he always tells people to make it for them. so one of the d.a's or dinner appts, some one made it. it was ok but i like potatoes better.

 

anyways this week we have a few people we have been teaching but they are not really progressing. our main guy is coming back this week so we werent able to meet with him this week so he is no longer progressing. a lot of the people we have we teach them multiple times a week and then they dont come to church and stuff so that is always discouraging but thats mission here. thats pretty much what happened this week. nothing too exciting.

well im glad that everything is going well there and that sami is going to school now that is kool to hear. i hope she loves it and makes a lot of new friends so that she wont miss me so much. make sure you tell her i love her. oh and by the way at one of the da's the member looked at my blog and its pretty much just all my emails home. is that what everyone else does. cause thats weird you should but more pics on it haha. but im sure that means i have to send more pictures right! haha. well i love you and i hope that you are having a great week.

love reese

After the first year on a mission letters, packages, emails really taper off so I know Maurice would LOVE to hear from you directly on occasion!

EMAILS ARE HIS FAVORITE! Maurice can be emailed at: mailto:maurice.maxwell@myldsmail.net.

 

Of course every missionary loves packages and letters from home but those get expensive and take a long time to receive, especially now that he is in Tanzania! But if you decide to, Letters are approx .98 cents to mail, flat rate small envelope $14, medium and large flat rate boxes $40-60 at the post office.

 

His address is: Elder Maurice Maxwell

Kenya Nairobi Mission

Upper Hill Road Next to CitiGroup

PO Box 46162-00100

Nairobi, Kenya

 

hey mom

im glad that morgan curriden is going on a mish now. thats really kool. and equador! the curridens are awesome. i really loved it when claire sang at my farewell. that girl has some pipes!! thats just an awesome family even tho they have no athletic ablility as sister curriden would say haha. make sure that you tell them i said hello back or habari ha.

so im glad that kurt gave you guys blessings. i cant believe that sami is going to school now. she is getting so big. and im glad that youre planning on going to 6 flags for the family reunion when i get home cause i would love to go too. tell grandpa thanks for looking to see if we are related to orson hyde. also the guy that was going to get baptized hasnt been baptized yet but he will soon.

well to tell you the story about why we were late for mormon helping hands, the person who was supposed to pick us up, well his wife got sick and he took her to the hospital so we had to take public transport. so it took forever after we waited for like 3 hours to get picked up. oh and i will most likely be getting a new comp when transfers come but i dont know when exactly.

anyways this week was a lot better than last week. on monday we went to the worthens and had a nice fhe. we watched a movie called legacy and we had popcorn during it and cake and ice cream after. we have been teaching a few people but most of them are not coming to church. one of the guys that has a baptism date left for a week so we dont know when his baptism will be ha. on thursday we had a really nice dinner appointment with a member. we did some service at their home and then we had a bomb dinner. with pork and chicken and fish. it was nice. we have been having swahili class twice a week but the normal teacher who is really kool named okanda went to nairobi. so we have had some guy come but all he does is give us words in swahili not teach us how to use it, so i havent really progressed.... but i have been starting to understand what people are saying now. i am good at ordering food in swahili though! haha i think that after i have been here for awhile i will be able to speak a lot more. we had a service project this week with the YSAs or young single adults. we went the the beach in mbezi and picked up trash. it was good and i think that it looks a little better even tho we didnt pick up very much. but that was pretty much my week. we have been doing some good work but things are kinda complicated here especially with those i work with so hopefully soon i will be having happier emails.

well i hope that everything is going well and that you are happy and stuff haha. well i love you lots

love elder maxwell

hey mom

i hope some one comes soon to give me my packages too cause i dont even know if they are here yet. so im still waiting for them. there should be a leadership meeting coming soon so maybe they will be sent here to Tanzania.  im glad that sammy is going to be starting school soon i think that she will like it a lot. i think that she will make a lot of new friends now. and you might make some more friends that are sammy's friends mothers haha. and i love my mission pres he is a kool guy.

well this week wasnt very fun. a bunch of things happened. my comp and i had a big argument but we got that dealt with. but the thing that was really bad was on saturday. on saturday we had the mormon helping hands big service project. so we were really late to this thing because of something that was out of our control so we had to take public transport to get there. so everyone pretty much insulted us about being late. people were even saying things like "arent these people missionaries? why are they so late?" that and some people insulted us about it. and the whole time i was trying to be calm and not get angry because im supposed to be a missionary. but i was super mad. you could have seen steam coming off of my head. but once we left i was a lot better. anyways we have a guy who should be baptized at the start of next month so it should be nice. but for the good news, we have been teaching english classes for free here and people have been coming. the guy who has a baptismal date was found through english class. so i think this should help us a lot with things. so other than that not much happened this week. 

so were you able to do check if we are related to orson hyde from the pioneer days? and what about sending a message to my coach?

well i hope everything is going well. and have fun this week. go get some chinese/mexican/italian food for me haha. love you.

love reese

hey mom

sorry for not emailing last week. we were really busy. i will do my best to get you some pics soon but this cyber is not very good and the computers are very slow so i dont think that it will be able to get all the pics on the computer. well theres not really anyone to play sports with and here i dont really want to play because it is just too hot and it doesnt get cool until night and to get around here sucks too. we tract a little but i really dont like it much cause i cant talk to people and when my comp does he.... he just bugs me when he does it because he talks down to people. dinner appts are starting to come along now but my comp isnt very nice to people cause all he wants to do is eat and leave not talk to people and get to know them and stuff and thats the thing i like the most. but i have to admit the food is a lot better here than in kenya for sure. they have this stuff called fanta passion. its so dang good i love it. i have like two everyday haha. i have flossed this week a couple times..... i think haha. but tell sami that i am glad that she is starting to swim and is not so scared of the water now and when i get back we can go swimming hah. tell jay i love him and hope he does well on his own at college.

so this week was nice. we went to the beach in our area and it was pretty good. we kind of went exploring. here the beaches dont angle down they drop and are flat, its really weird. so we found this corral reef and some sea life. it was pretty nice. this week we have had english classes. we teach people english here and they love it. a guy came to church from class and i think that he will be very good. we had a dinner appointment at a members house who has lived in the states for a few years so she made us really nice food. her friend who lives in england was there and her accent was really kool. not gonna lie, i wish i had it! hah. so one kool thing about being here is that every wednesday when we have meetings the couples come and they make desserts and stuff. so the worthens made us chocolate cake and it was so dang good i loved it. i miss cake a lot. on saturday which is my real hump day because that is when mission started cause thats when i came to the mtc. we went to this place that i love a lot called...... SUBWAY!!!!! theres one here it was really good but they were a little stingy with the meat but i still loved it. ill send the pic soon. and i bought me a chocolate bar and that was pretty much all i did but it was nice. well thats pretty much what i did this week.

so i have a few requests. 1 will you find out if we are related to orson hyde from the doctrine and covenants. 2 will you tell my coach who is coaching at hawaii (coach roucher) that he should email me.  

 

well i love you guys so much and i hope you have a good week.

love reese

hey sammie

sammie you are my favoritist little sister! i miss you a ton!! today i went to the beach and walked in the water. its was really warm too. we made a big pyramid with all the people there. it was kool. well sammie i love you sooo much!! i cant wait until i get to see you again!! i love you a lot! have a good day
love reese

hey mom

you dont know how happy i am that we have a 7-11 close by now! i shouted for joy in the cyber like no joke way loud haha. that was one thing i missed at college and in high school we had to go forever away to get a slurpee! well im glad that jay is finally at school for football. i think that he will be doing some real time growing now that he is on his own. its really weird to say that too cause i dont think that im on my own yet either haha.  well make sure to tell taylor happy birthday for me and tell max that when he turns 12 i will be out for a year.

as for me we had a good time this week. the big highlite of the week is that we had a baptism. the guy was really good he had been coming to church for a few weeks which was nice. he is a good guy too he is like 23.

so the transfer just ended. today is the first day of the new one and i will be staying with my current comp. we get along ok but at times it gets tough because he thinks whatever he thinks is right and that he knows everything which is clearly not true but i will put up with it because the Lord wants me too i guess. anyways i do get to see patten a lot every pday and every wednesday for district meetings. so thats really nice. i was on exchanges with a guy named elder mulondo from uganda. he is kool. we went to the beach on p day which was nice. 

one crazy thing happened this week. so we were walking through this crazy bus stop type of thing and some beggar lady saw us walking and she asked my comp and he just walked away and she ignored it like most do. so when i came up behind him i thought she would do the same. so i walked past and the next thing i know she grabbed on to my arm like she was about to die. and no swahili was coming to my head so i just said sorry, sorry! and pried her hands off of me cause we trying to get some where. and she kept grabbing on to me so i just kept prying her hand off and when we found the bus or daladala that we wanted to get on i tore off her hands and i jumped into the bus she followed me and SMACK!! smacked my back way hard. she totally gave me a turkey on my back. the most aggressive beggar i have ever met. so that was crazy. other than that it was just a normal missionary week. its hard to write about my weeks now because im just doing the same thing every day haha.

oh and to answer your questions, we live in mbezi beach. we have a big house like no joke its huge. it has 4 bedrooms and i think it woud be safe to say that it is bigger than our house but not nicer. swahili is coming very slow. i can write some sentences but speaking to someone and listen to their response is a totally different thing. but if they keep me here longer that would be tough but i dont really have any power over it. all the sister missionaries here are from africa. mostly from south africa, uganda and zambia. some of the beaches i have been to are coco beach, bagamoyo and kunduchi beach.

 well i love ya and i hope you are doing well.

love reese

hey mom

this week has been pretty good. i went on exchanges with a really kool missionary. he is awesome. and it was really good because me and my comp arent really getting along too well. so its getting tough and it was really nice to get a break. this week we had a couple of dinner appointments. they were really good too. tanzanians know how to make food better than those who are in kenya for sure. the food was really good except for one thing one of the members made for us. it is called matoke (ma-toe-kay) it is pretty much unripe bananas made like cooked potatoes but not as good. i really dont understand how people even like it when potatoes are way better. one thing that really sucked is that me and my comp kinda got in an argument. it was about dumb stuff but i guess we are both pretty prideful so that doesnt help either. anyways i am really glad that we have sister missionaries here in mbezi beach also. they are really kool and they help me out a lot here in this area. i am very happy that you have home teachers now! thats one thing we could really use here in this mission, people that are faithful enough to do home teaching!

 

we have an investigator who should be getting baptized this sunday so that is pretty exciting. but that is pretty much it. swahili is coming along. i still dont understand it fully but i know that it will come. 

 

i dont think that the package will be here before hump day. it will most likely be awhile after because the packages and letters go to kenya still and when the people in the office come to TZ then they bring the packages, but idk when that will be.

well i hope you guys are doing very well and i love you guys a bunch. 

love reese