hey mom,

so im sorry that you had to text your whole letter but i think its kinda funny hah. i think that its awesome about kurtis and the carpet. its awesome to hear that tinas mom is going to live right next to them. jays graduation sounds like it was a lot of fun. thats cool how many people came to support him. sami's b day sounds like it was really fun too. its kinda weird that she had a birthday again because it doesnt seem as if that long ago i was there when we celebrated her last birthday. but its kool that you guys got to go to the red rock pool cause i havent even been there yet, but it sounds pretty exciting. im really glad that dontre was baptized. its kool that work is happening there also. i think that for keylan it was a good exprience being able to baptize his friend.

well for me it was kind of a crazy week. last monday i said goodbye to elder smedley. he has finished and now is at home enjoying life ha. elder patten is in my zone too. i have been able to hang out with him a bunch and hes a kool guy. on tuesday and wednesday during the day i did a lot of packing. packing sucks so bad because you pack to unpack pretty much. so i do not like packing. i also had to say goodbye to a bunch of families that were awesome. but i guess that is missionary work. i was able to say good bye to pauls family. it was nice but it sucked. on wednesday night we had kind of a missionary party. 7 elders came to the flat in rongai and we played games all night long. it was way fun. its like tradition, its what we do when a missionary leaves an area or goes home. so that was a bunch of fun. then on thursday night the APs picked me up and we had kfc. then on friday around noon i flew to tanzania. on the flight we past mount kilimanjaro but i wasnt able to get my camera in time to take a pic of it cause i was sleeping because on staying up all night wednesday. so when i come back to kenya i will most definitely not stay up all night the night before haha. but i did get to see the ocean and we will be going to the beach later today. ya i didnt go because i had visa problems. it was just because thats where i needed to go i guess.

 

well so far with swahili i know pretty much nothing haha. but we do get a swahili tutor and we get taught every wednesday. so we will find out how much i learn after like 6 weeks. the area i am in, there are a good amount of rich people so a good amount of people speak english. my new area is called mbezi beach, so we are pretty close to the ocean. but one thing that really sucks here is the humidity. it is so freakin sweaty. i sweat a bunch every day and it is not fun at all. i can say it is like florida in the states but with no ac. we only get to use ac at night when we sleep but it is really nice because it gets cold. and another thing that is tough is that i dont know swahili and everyone here knows swahili and the pure swahili. in kenya they speak sheng. which is english and swahili, and i could understand that better. so its kinda tough. my new companion is elder mulima from uganda. he is alright. but i think he might be my toughest companion to get along with but hopefully everything will be alright. the church services are in swahili too which is good for people but isnt too good for me because i dont know it hah and its funny too because even the hymns are in swahili so its sounds really funny when they sing haha. one kool thing that they have here is that they have fanta passion fruit and it is amazing. it is my new favorite soda. they also have pepsi products in glass bottles here too so thats pretty kool. and we dont stay in an apartment we have a big house. like 4 room house with a living room and a dining room and a kitchen. i dont know why we have it because when we get home i dont really see my comp haha. i like it but it is relatively empty. but that is pretty much the new stuff for me.

now with the bank stuff i think that you should do that asap cause it looks like things here are very expensive and this month and next month i will be struggling because i will be getting used to the money here. instead of hundreds and thousands like in kenya they used hundreds, thousands and hundred thousands. its freakin crazy. like we will be shopping and they will say that will be 15000 and im like WHAT! so its crazy hah. and when you get the dvd with all the pictures from smedley please send a copy to kellie for me. thanks i love you guys

 

love reese