Dear Sister Hyde,

There was a blast at one of the universities in Nairobi yesterday. All of the missionaries are accounted for and doing well.

We get to see Elder Maxwell in the mission office quite often and enjoy him very much. He has a great personality and is a very good missionary.

We appreciate your concern and want you to know that all is well.

With High Regards,

Sister Olsen

Mission Secretary

hey mom

 

well my week was pretty good. we were in nairobi for half of the week. we had a leadership meeting on tuesday and then on wednesday my companion had to get fingerprinted at the immgration house so that he could get his alien id card. so we stayed in town for like almost 2 and a half days. on friday we taught paul and his family about the laws and ordinances like word of wisdom, tithes and offering and the law of chastity. it was kool cause he like knew everything already so he kinda helped us teach his family. thats almost how all his lessons go! its awesome. then on saturday we had a baptismal interview for the guys in langata but no one came which kinda sucked for them. but we went to the mall by our area which is kind of like a little america. cause they have kfc there and nice places there. we went and got this pizza pie thing that was freakin awesome. im in love with it. it tastes so dang good. we are actually going there today cause i want another one haha. on sunday i confirmed timothy the 9 year old kid we taught and stuff. a guy from the branch baptized him and i confirmed him. it was nice but as for me that was pretty much it. i did get a package from kellie on tuesday which was nice.

 

it sounds like arizona was a lot of fun. ive never really been there besides driving through the canyon and right next to mesquite haha. i wish i could of been there. its kool that you went to her graduation cause like grandpa and grandma and kurts fam went to mine but that was it.  im kinda jealous that they got to throw their caps in the hair cause for my graduation they said if you do that you will get expelled and that people could get their eyes poked out. thats too bad that bubba lost their game. what position does he play? i didnt even knew he played. my comp isnt too much of a sports guy but we both like music so thats nice.

well this week i think i will buy some new shoes cause my second pair now have two holes in them. one in each foot. i can actually stick my pointer finger in each of them so im going to get another pair so i dont have to wash my socks as often haha. the transfer ends in three weeks so we will see what happens then.


well i love and miss you guys tons

love reese

hey mom

well im glad that church went well. even me, we had church for 5 hours because we had to stay for a meeting that happens after church. im glad that you played the piano cause i remember when you used to play when i was a kid and i loved listening to you play. i thought it was really kool. im hoping that taylors graduation is fun. tell everyone there that i say hello and that i miss and love them tons. i think the family home evening at tinas will be good idea.

well this week went well! Paul is doing great. we taught him and his family the plan of salvation this week.... and then we gave him and his family a baptismal date for June 9th! also this weekwe had some exchanges with the guys in langata. elder kigongo was with me and elder tuckett was with madubanya. we had a ton of lessons too. we had a baptism of a kid named tim that we had been teaching. but he had some one in the branch baptize him. paul and his family came too, which was really nice. he is just a son of a member. he wasnt baptized when he was 8 so we had to teach him and stuff. it was good tho. i also went on an exchange with sanders and we had a funny lesson. we taught a girl who was around 22 about the law of chastity. it was a good lesson and she accepted to live it but she asked some weird questions. once we finished teaching the jist of it she asked, "so what cant we do, and be specific." and it was a little weird but we answered her but it was kinda awkward to talk about hahah. 

well i hope that you guys are having a great time and i hope you have a great week. i love you and miss you a lot .

love reese

hey mom

it was great to talk with you guys. my other calls were awesome.  it was fun to talk with jay cause we didnt really ever get to talk to much when i was at school. cams birthday sounded like it was a lot of fun. im really jealous that they saw the avengers cause i heard that it was supposed to be a great movie.  

well elder rama left this week and before he left we did some kool stuff like go get pizza and hotdogs and stuff which was nice. the night before he left some of the other guys from our zone came over and we stayed up the whole night playing games and stuff. it was really fun but i was super tired. we have zone conference every 2 transfers or 3 months. my new comp is elder madubanya from south africa. he seems like a kool guy but he not really an athlete like rama but im sure we will get a long just fine. but thats really all thats new here but next week it will be longer. love ya have a great week. 

love reese

hey mom

wow it seems you must of been really busy cause i think this is the shortest email you have ever sent haha. 

 

so, i havent had any issues yet but i am now an official alien in the country of kenya. i even have an alien id card. its kinda kool but i look like a terrorist in it! its bad.

 

well this week was nice we had a lot of kool things happen. we have begun to teach a 9 year old girl and her family so hopefully there will be another baptism soon. we had a really good lesson with the guy named paul, the one who has the triple combo and stuff. he has accepted to be baptized so hopefully by the end of the month he and his wife priscilla and his family will be baptized. there is catherine, mellissa, mark and zawadi. We are teaching them with another member family. it was really nice cause he helped us with some of the concerns that they had, but he talked sooo much. we taught them about the gospel of jesus christ. usually we finish the entire lesson in like 30 mins and stuff but this guy talked forever cause we werent able to finish the lesson.

 

saturday was really nice but it also really sucked a lot. we went to the nairobi national park safari walk with the young men for an activity. it was really kool. we saw a hippo, zebra, cape buffalo, a white rhino (which was freakin tight) a couple of lions, a leopard, baboons, crocs, and hyenas. it was really kool. there was a thing for a cheetah but it wasnt there or it was hiding. i really wanted to see it. my favorite was the hyena and the rhino. after the activity we had a snack outside of the park and a bunch of baboons tried to steal our food and stuff. the baboon was huge too and it was walking around us and it touched my back, it was kinda crazy.

 

so now the part that really sucked..... we were going to teach someone who's daughter just died with the neighbors who are members and the ap's called us. my comp elder rama is leaving......... that sucks so bad! and my goal to become an ap vanished into thin air because a guy from my group is becoming the next ap and there has never been aps who have been from the same group. so that sucked and then we had to teach these people right after that phone call. luckily the member guy was the same guy who came with us to teach with us the other day so he talked most of the time and we just bore testimony. but that was my week.

well i hope everything is going well. so next week i will be calling on sunday night from here so probably sunday morning there so i hope you are ready. i think that you should have kurts fam around you so i can talk to them too. also i am going to get 4000/- out of the bank so i can buy credit here so i can talk for a long time haha. well i love you and i will talk to you in 6 days

love reese

hey mom 

 

well this week was a pretty good week. on tuesday we had exchanges. i was in langata with elder kigongo (che-gongo). he is a new missionary from uganda. he is pretty funny. i did take out some money fthat day and all four of us met up at kfc which was really nice. i payed for a little more than half of my comps meal there cause i thought it would be messed up if i ate bomb american food in front of him. it was so freakin good too. the only bad thing......that night i got sick and threw up. luckily most of the chicken and stuff was already gone but not all of it. it sucked super bad cause i really didnt want to throw up but it felt so much better after i did. and idk if those new pills you sent me work cause i also had diarrhea. nice.

 

then on friday elder rama and i bought the gummi boots cause we have lake victoria on our street. before we bought the boots we were having to pay pikipiki guys to take us on like a one minute ride across it! so first we bought flip flops so we could walk through it but then we realized that the water is also the sewage system so we bought the boots. they are actually pretty kool cause you can feel the mud and the water on your feet but they fit the best. its kool though,  we wear them around during the day too cause there is mud and stuff every where. hopefully this week i can find a new pair of shoes cause my shoes have a hole in each foot. im going to try and find a pair of ecko shoes cause i hear they are super nice, light and they have like a sports shoes sole. so maybe i can find some, but i dont have my hopes up ha. i think that next week elder sanders, elder sarlo and i and maybe some other people will be going to carnivore if plans work out, which could or could not happen.

 

so we taught this guy named paul who has the triple combo and it was an awesome lesson. his first question was about temples and chapels and what is the difference. then he asked us about the book of abraham and if it is the same one from the bible. i think it might be my first and last time that someone asks us about the book of abraham in our first lesson. it was powerful though! he told us that he used to be a church builder. he would go to different places and help people establish churches there. he would lead the congregations and stuff but he said that he is willing to leave that all behind and be baptized into the truth. i felt the spirit so strong it was awesome. then later we taught this guy named nicholas or aballa about the plan of salvation. this lesson was definitely not the same as the other cause this guy fought every point that we talked about even though we showed him proof from the bible and stuff. i was getting so frustrated that i wanted to punch him and tell him to listen cause this is the truth... but not so christ like. we will be teaching him again this week so hopefully he will be more accepting. but that was my week in a nutshell.

 

well i hope that everything is going well. i hope that you liked the pictures that i have sent cause i sent a ton so you would get off my butt haha jk. im glad that dontre is getting baptized. im really surprised. it will be a good thing that he will be in a ward where there is black people cause usually theres none haha. oh and if you send a package do you think you can send me pics of the fam and pics of me in pads and stuff and also will you send me a copy of my highlight tape and my game film from high school cause i want to show some members here what it is like. cause they think that rugby is more violent and i have to prove them wrong haha.  well i love you a lot and sorry for sending this late.

love reese