hey mom

so i think that i will start this message by answering all 400 of your questions haha. well the building is called the KICC building. it has like a pointed egg looking building right next to it and it is way tall and brown so its probably one that a lot of people recognize. the people in the pic with me are, yes smedley, elder law, shutt , rama, and the other guy i cant remember his name but hes from zimbabwe. well i kinda talked rama into staying at the other flat but we pretty much stay at both. the other one in langata is way nicer though. we stayed there on sat night. elder rama (ramananaivoarison) i like to spell it ha, we are getting along well. hes a kool guy. he wakes up on time and he works out. we like a bunch of the same stuff and we do work, so its good. when this transfer is over he will have been out for a year. as a zone leader when other missionaries arent obedient you just deal with it pretty much. you just tell them what they are doing wrong and then its up to them. if ive learned one thing on a mission its that missionaries are not perfect ha. yes the AP's drove us out here and yes i will only be driving IF i become an AP but that will most likely not happen. i mean i would love it if it happened but it wont, im pretty sure. we are pretty close to nairobi now but langata is closer. between rongai and langata its like a 10-15 drive and from langata to town its about the same. so its not to far. and yes elder sanders is one of my favorite missionaries here. me and him came in the same group. so we are the same age. he is from california. idk where exactly but i can ask if you want me to. he a good missionary but he has been with some tough companions. vilakati is doing good with elder msane in athi river.

any ways this week was pretty good. i think that we found a family to teach so im pretty excited for that cause we have been working on finding people to teach. while we were walking around this girl stopped rama and talked to him. she knew him from his last area so she introduced us to her family and we are going to be teaching them. another time while we were walking to see someone, this white kid from switzerland walked by us and yelled Hi Mormons! it was way weird but we started talking to them for a second and they told us that we look the same as the mormons from their country. i thought it was kinda funny but i wanted to punch him when he yelled mormons at us. just cause he had an annoying voice. later that day another guy, who i think was drunk yelled hi mormons to us too. it was even more weird cause it was dark and he was kenyan and they dont really know us by anything besides devil worshipper. and it was kool cause we were lost and he showed us the right way to go. i was pretty amazed. we went to this family who are very active members, the otiano's, home and the mama taught us how to make some pretty sweet necklaces. they are not really for guys but i know that you would love it and pretty much all the girls there ha.

for part of the week we were in langata and we kinda walked around a lot so we could get to know the area. we dont really have much to do there but i had a genius idea. to help us meet people and get some investigators rama and i are going to start teaching basketball at the church since it has a small outdoor court. so hopefully that will help. Church in langata is pretty sweet. we have a chapel too so its pretty kool. its kinda weird to be in there cause ever since ive been here ive only been in places that have been rented. the building is a lot different from our chapels. it doesnt have a mulitcultural room just rooms and the chapel. at church we gave a talk. we both talked about the atonement but i talked about how the atonement applies to our lives. it was alright. to tell you the truth now that ive been out here i think that i can give a talk on almost anything now. not to be boastful but i study like every day for at least an hour every day and i know a good amount about stuff so i think that if i even had like one day i could give a pretty good talk ha. the branch president there is from idaho. so its a white guy which is weird but good. his job brought him there so they called him to be a branch president. just so you know a branch president is a bishop pretty much but branches are wards in a district and a district is pretty much a smaller stake. after church we went to the otianos again and they slaughtered a chicken. it was freakin nuts! you have to cut the head off but its not like one chop and your done they cut the neck like its a piece of very tough steak. it was crazy. but that was pretty much my week.

i hope you guys have a great week. also if you a sending a package anytime soon will you send me a 12 pack of orbit gum? i just finished my last pack thanks! love you guys!!

love elder maxwell

A letter from the Mission President

As you find joy and impressions of how to find areas of success, you are being guided by special promptings that build relationships that are solid and secure.  Find the players that will score the winning points in the game of eternity.  Your patience and humility with your companion is a Christlike attribute that empowers and unlocks the heart to be one in all things.  Be good and keep learning the language of the Lord.  
Pres B

hey mom

rongai is nice. i miss athi tho it felt like home there but ill get over it. here i am over both langata and rongai... so one branch and one ward. my new comp is a nice guy his name is elder rama or ramananaivoarison. vilakati is doing good he is still in athi with some one new. well as a zone leader i am over every one in my zone which most of the time is bigger than the district but not this time and we dont do the meetings anymore. we dont really have much more to do, just missionary work hah. ya woolard started here and i keep in touch with most of the guys that i came with. mostly just by emailing them every once in awhile and some times ill give them a call or something. unfortunately, i didnt send hays a cd with pics on it but the picture of a cyber isnt too exciting to tell you the truth its just a room with a bunch of computers that people use. but i will get you a pic of one soon.

well this week kinda sucked. having to pack sucks. it took me like two whole days to do it. and i had more stuff than what i came with so it was freakin heavy. on wednesday afternoon the ap's picked me up and dropped off vilaktis new comp. on our way back we picked up the elders from tanzania who came with me to the mtc. it was kool to see them for sure. then we went to the aps flat or the transfer flat and i got to hangout with a bunch of the guys from my group. it was awesome to see them since i havent really seen them for 6 months. elder sanders was one that came from my group. he is now in my district so were gonna hang out this transfer. we went to my new flat in rongai that night. now that we are in both rongai and langata we get to use both the rongai and langata flats so its kinda like we have two homes to stay in which is kool. the langata flat is like 100 times better than the rongai flat but my comp doesnt want to move all of his stuff. but hopefully i will talk him into it soon. on sunday we went to the rongai branch and theres like no one who comes there. there was like 15 members there. its tiny. next week we will go to langata for church so ill tell you what that ward is like. this area is kinda new so we have a lot of work to do here but i hope that it will start getting better soon.

i forgot that around v day you go to slc for the dental convention. i bet that was fun. i miss good food. and ps please dont send pics of food. it will make me homesick. cause i dont really get to eat like that. and yes they have movie theathers but ive only seen one and we didnt go in there. but they do have something like that in the towns. its just like a little shack and people go and sit in there and they play a movie on a tv and they watch. well thats pretty much all that happened this week. ill try to send some pics later today. 

love reese

Zone Leader Call

hey mom

well this week was pretty good. we taught a good amount of people and we committed someone to be baptized so it was a pretty good week for teaching and stuff like that. on thursday i got to meet with hays before he went home. it was pretty awesome to see him again. hes a way kool guy and we get along like best buds. i was sad to see him go but he gave me his small quad so i was happy about that.  on saturday was my big day. 6 MONTHS BABY!! i have been in africa for six months that is nuts! its pretty crazy too. it feels like this last 3 months has flown by.  this week i burned a tie.... every 6 months as a missionary you burn something. at 6 months a tie, 12 months a shirt, 18 months a pair of pants and 24 months a suit. ha.

we also went to a members house and i learned how to make a thing called pilou (sounds like pillow but at the end you say oww) it was dang good!

then i found out where my next area will be. i will be going to...........................................................RONGAI!!! its a suburb of nairobi so ill still be in the city for at least 3 months hopefully hah. im a city boy so im kinda scared to go to the bush haha. but my new companion is from madagascar.  his name is Ramananaviorson and good luck trying to say it cause i cant and im not going to until he tells me what how to haha. im pretty excited. it looks like i will be a zone leader there also so im pretty excited about that as well.

just to let you know if some body had a gun of course i would give them what they wanted but if they didnt then i would be doing some damage ha. yes in that picture i was wearing a tie that kellie got me from china, like it was bought in china not just made there ha. elder hall is like 6' 7" so hes pretty dang big. and yes she made us a banana cake and it was freakin amazing! the best cake i have had in my life.

well im glad that you got the letters or i guess i should say the empty letters. i sent you and jay kenyan keychains and i said that you guys could trade them if you wanted to. i also sent bracelets that said mom, jay and sami on them with pics of jesus and stuff in them and i guess someone stole them which really makes me mad. i guess ill try to send some more again after i find out how to make them so i can spend less to get them made. ugh i cant believe that someone would steal that stuff! i sent both of them the same way at the exact time like a month ago. anyways i hope that you can find some way to send that music because i am loving it and i appreciate it alot.

 thats kool that lucianne gave you some stuff to send me. i hope that it is awesome! because my aspect on brazilian food is that it is amazing cause of rodizio grill so im sure that it will be good. im sure that primary was fun for you i can remember when you played the piano when me and jay were there which is like 100 years ago ha.

im excited for jay to be going to dixie and i hear that taylor (our cousin) might be going there too. i think it would be kool to have like the whole fam there. so where did the other guys get scholarships to?

well i hope that you guys have a good week and enjoy the pics. i love you guys and i miss you

love reese

hey mom

so jay decided to go to dixie. thats awesome! ive always wanted to play ball with him again. it would be kool to be able to block for him again when he runs. did he get a full scholarship or just a partial like me? it looks like he'll have a friend there too so that will be good. so one question did you guys have a super bowl party or do anything for it? i see the giants won.... i didnt want that..... i guess at least i didnt have to watch cause i do not like them very much. make sure that you tell sammy that my bed is a pretty ok bed and i have a good pillow so she doesnt have to worry ha. 

well this week wasnt too exciting again just normal missionary work to tell you the truth. i did teach the elder quorum class this week about obedience. i think it was pretty good. it was pretty weird to teach old members but im pretty confident in teaching now since it is kind of my job. its always good when people share what they think cause then the class turns to a discussion and everyone learns something.

will you put some money on my bank card please, i will be getting it out by wednesday ok. i have a pretty bad cold and i can't breathe well. I've been taking dayquil but its super dusty here right now. the rainy season is over and we won't be getting rain again for like 2 months. 

did you get my letter i sent you yet? or jay?

 elder maxwell