hey mom

well nakuru is a nice place. its really dusty and windy right now tho. i drove with the couples from arusha to nairobi and then i took a bus here with the other guys that live here. my new comp is elder omara from uganda. the couples are the dalleys from utah in highland. this week was kinda hectic. on monday after emailing we went to play some basketball. it was so much fun since i havent played for a long time. i miss it a lot. but then at night the mission pres called me and told me that tuesday i would be going to nairobi instead of thursday. so tuesday morning we left and before we got out of arusha we forgot that i didnt have my passport then we went to the couples and they didnt have it. it was in dar. so i got to stay an extra day. which was pretty sweet. then on wednesday we had to wait til like 3 pm and we got my passport. and we left for nairobi. it was a long drive too. it was like a 5 1/2 hour ride when its supposed to be like 4. then on friday i got to nakuru. and we went to see a few people. there are four of us here so its nice. on sunday we went to church but there is something kinda fishy with church. we meet in someones house. technically we are called a group. we arent even a branch here. so on sunday the mission pres. and some others came to make it a group. it was the first time that they had the sacrament in nakuru EVER. so that was kinda kool. also another thing that was pretty kool was that we met with the greenies or the new missionaries and they are so funny. like how scared they are of everything so that was really funny. so that was pretty much my week.

well i love you and i hope you have a great week.

love reese

***EVERYONE PLEASE KEEP THE KENYAN MISSIONARIES IN ALL YOUR PRAYERS!! THE ELECTIONS ARE MARCH 4TH AND WERE VERY VIOLENT IN 2008 AND ARE THREATENING TO BE THE SAME THIS YEAR!! They have to stay inside for 5 days. Before, during and after the elections. ***

hey mom

well first of all i cant really help it if the girls love me so much i think that might be more of you fault than mine ha. well my swahili is just there. im not very good at it. i have a hard time hearing people and remembering words and stuff. im really mad at myself tho for not studying harder at it and not having a really good attitude about it when i was in dar. but its ok. james baptism went really well. i baptized him and my comp confirmed him on sunday. well on sunday also we gave the couples our clothes to wash them and they gave them back to us this morning! they have a washing machine and its so nice! well i have another cousin and i will be an uncle here soon. btw i havent got any letters or anything like that for awhile now but i will be getting some here soon because.......................................

im being transferred back to kenya................ im not too happy about it but i guess i dont really have a say in it. im going to a place called nakuru. anyways thats some big news this week. also we had the baptism of james on saturday. it was really nice. people were pretty late but i guess thats a normal thing here. im really happy about him too cause from all the people i have baptized. i think he is definitely one of the ones who have had the most conversion i think. it was a good baptism tho. well this week also i ate a ton of good food. on monday my 18 months, i got some sizzling beef with rice. it was like chinese food then on thursday i got pizza that was really good and then on friday i got a burger. it was definitely a good eating week. one crazy thing that happen this week was on wednesday. after we had our district devotional meeting some ladies came to the church asking for a blessing. come to find out that they want us to cast out an evil spirit. it was really freaky. so we called the branch pres. and he tells us to do the blessing and my comp whips out his consecrated oil and anoints her and so that means i have to do the blessing and at first im really not comfortable with the situation so im really nervous and then when we put our hands on her head she starts freakin out like crying super loud. so i had like no idea what to say then when we finished they left but like nothing happened. she calmed down after a few minutes of us finishing and then they left. it was super weird and i didnt like it one bit. anyways that was pretty much my week.

i leave for nairobi on thrusday. my area is going to be really sketchy because of the elections and with the last ones a ton of people died there so try to keep me in your prayers a little more this coming month. anyways, i love you guys and i hope you have a great week.

love reese
ps will you try to figure out the stuff so i can register for school and stuff please??

To:  Parents, Families and Branch Presidents of Missionaries serving in the Kenya Nairobi Mission

As you may know, Kenya is preparing for a general presidential election on March 4, 2013.  In order to ensure the safety of missionaries serving in Kenya, we have implemented an Emergency Action Plan which will begin on Friday, March 1.

Missionaries serving in areas that potentially may have political disturbances will be moving to safe areas.  Those serving in Mombasa will transfer to Chyulu area for the election week and will be teaming up with missionaries serving there to continue missionary work.  Missionaries serving in Kisumu/Busia,  Naivasha and Nakuru will transport to Nairobi and stay with missionaries in safe flats on Friday or Saturday, March 1^st and 2^nd .  Missionaries serving in outlying areas in Kitale and Eldoret will stay with other missionaries in town and close to each other beginning March 1 or 2. After arriving in their assigned areas, all missionaries will be staying inside for 4-6 days beginning Sunday after church or before if needed.  Preparations have been made for extra food and water for each missionary.  During these 4-6 days, we will all have the opportunity to study the gospel in depth.

Because the election is on a Monday, missionaries will be unable to use internet to send emails for that week.  Instead, we will be sending out updates to you from the mission office as the election process progresses.   We will also notify you when missionaries will be returning to their areas.  We expect this to be about 5 days after the election.

We have worked with Church Security in Salt Lake City, Africa Southeast Area Security, local embassies and others to prepare for this election time in Kenya.    Certainly the safety of each missionary is paramount and we have taken all necessary precautions.  We also know the Lord is guiding His work in this part of His vineyard and that it will continue to go forward with the blessing of vibrant and powerful missionaries.

We invite you to join with us in prayer and fasting on March 3, Fast Sunday, for a peaceful and positive results of the Kenya election and the safety of all members and missionaries. 

We are grateful for the wonderful service of your missionary in the Kenya Nairobi Mission.

Sincerely,

President Steven H. Broadbent

Kenya Nairobi Mission

hey mom

ive been on mission for 18 months yeah!!! if i were a sister missionary i would be home right now. hah. i will find out transfer news on saturday but i dont think anything will happen. but one thing that will be nice is that james will be baptized on saturday afternoon. it will be awesome. well thanks for the advice. i am trying really hard to stay that way for sure. its kinda tough sometimes but i can do it. 

anyways this week was just there. we had a good amount of lessons. we had kind of a zone activity. we went to the park and did some contacting. it was nice but the park wasnt really crowded so we werent able to get too many contacts. but it was nice. i think we are going to start to do it more often. also we taught james twice this week to prepare him for all the stuff for baptism. it was good and he is awesome. he asks good questions and he seems to love the church now. he comes to institute and he wants to go on mission. he is 22 so he could go if he continues to do everything. but thats pretty much what happened this week. one kool thing is.. do you remember that ointment stuff i got for my excema? well i found some more and its only like 15000 which is like $10 so i got some and im planning to buy some more because its good and it works well and its super cheap!

well i hope that everything is going well. i love you and i hope you have a good week.

love reese

hey mom

im glad to hear that the super bowl was pretty kool. im glad the ravens won and ray lewis got his first and last super bowl win. i miss watching football but at least by the time that it starts again i will be able to watch and play. the audrey snacks there were probably awesome. i dont even think i can imagine it. anyways, im glad that you got my christmas cards. they took me some time to write. i actually wrote and sent them after christmas haha . well the reason why they were sent from slc is because if i send it through the office i can get them sent for free. but im glad that you like them. anyways, im glad that so many people are helping me to be on my mission. im really grateful that i was able to come and to learn so much here. it is a great experience. but make sure that you tell everyone thanks or ahsante sana! well i did say thanks to my dad for putting money in my account. he told me about it a few weeks ago. ya james is progressing well. we taught him about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity so hopefully soon if everything goes well he can be baptized on the 16th.

well last pday it was freakin awesome. period. we went to mt meru pretty much. the couples drove us up there and then we hiked for a while. it was nice. but the best part was the waterfall. at the end of the hike part we got to the waterfall. well the couple missionaries let us play in the water cause it wasnt very deep. only about mid thigh height, well for me hah. but it was awesome. i felt like i was in the tarzan movie. it was really awesome. we took a ton of pictures. i had pretty much 200 new pictures from that day alone. anyways, after that the couples gave us lunch which was sandwiches. they were good too. i had both kinds, tuna and ham and cheese. i miss tuna hah. they were good. on our way home we sat and stood in the back of the pickup and they took us home. we were all soaked and everyone was looking at us like we were crazy.  it also rained really hard when we were having lunch so we were wet and cold but it didnt rain in the valley part where we live. anyways, the other thing that is note worthy is on saturday we had a fireside. Member Basics. we decided to do this because a lot of people in the branch dont really know how to make/give a talk or make/give a lesson. so we did that it and it was good but only like 12 people showed up which is better than none. but that was pretty much my week. we are trying to find people to teach here because we dont really have a big teaching pool. i feel like thats all ive been doing here. anyways, im also learning swahili pretty well tho. its nice.

well that was my week i hope that everything is going well. i love you guys and hope you have a good week.