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.

hey mom

 

well ya i know you wouldnt forget about me, but its weird here it kinda feels like everyone kinda forgets about you but thats just mission life and im used to it now. we havent been able to really plan james' baptism but hopefully it can be before i leave because transfers are coming soon. we only have 5 weeks this transfer. plus i hope i can do his baptism all in swahili.

 

the bus ride to dar was alright, long but alright. we had some fun because it was all six of the missionaries here from arusha. anyways, some funny stuff happened on the bus. it happened at the place that we went to eat. we had one stop where we were able to get off and get some food and a drink. we had to take our food on the bus because we only stopped for like 15 mins, but when we were walking to the bus some hawks stole two of the missionaries fried chicken. it was hilarious! we were all dying. so on the way there it was really nice, we had air conditioning and i had some good snacks- like the type of doritos that they have here from South Africa. but on the way back we didnt have AC so it sucked.  they had some movies on the bus and there was a good amount of us so in between we were able to have some great conversations. and i studied swahili a little bit. no it wasn't very crowded and it didnt smell bad. it was the nicest bus you can get, at least here.

 

so the reason we went to dar again was that we had another zone conference. i was conducting. so i guess that was pretty kool. it was an alright zone conference but it was super long. also i do not miss dar es salaam weather at all. it sucks super bad. i was always sweaty and i had a bad mood because of it. but during the conference i talked with the mission president and i found out that i will probably be coming home like two weeks early because of all the new missionaries and they will only be in the mtc for two weeks now. so it changed all the schedules for the missions, so we changed a little so that will be kool. but that was pretty much what we did this week. it was nice but we didnt really get to do very much missionary work because we got back so late on saturday night.

oh ya, i just found out that i just got a package but i wont get it until maybe the end of next month because the aps and stuff just came from nairobi and it wasnt there. but it was a good thing it wasnt because i wouldnt have been able to buy it cause i didnt have any money with me.  well im pretty sad to hear about the t bird. i loved that car but hopefully i will be able to get another one. but maybe not........ anyways, for my first restuarants that i want to go to when i get home is: in n out, then 7-11 then McD's then cafe rio and then baskin robbins and then to finish it off pei wei. i dont know if i will be able to eat all of but i want to. oh ya! and costco pizza. and then dominos. haha!

well that was pretty much my week i hope you guys have a good week too. next week i will be sending a ton of great pictures!! yay! i know you will be excited hah. love you!!

love reese

hey mom,

im glad that sami was the student of the week. i remember when i was student of the week in first grade. but one question.... why is it that im in like one of her pictures and jay is in like all of them??? its like people are forgetting about me haah jk......well thats too bad about milee's son but hopefully everything will be alright. also im glad that helen cruz got married and came back to vegas. maybe you can get some tips from her haha. well i will pray and stuff so that you can find a different job. its really too bad that people really suck.

anyways, for me this week was just there but we had some pretty kool things happen. so we sent my companion and elder sarlo's companion to nairobi and to dar. so we had a sweet day just the two of us. we went to get some things done for our house and to get ready for our next comps. then we picked up my new companion elder chimkuzi from zimbabwe. he is a good guy but i kinda wish i would have gotten someone who knows less swahili. but i guess its all God's plan right, hopefully. wellon thursday elder sarlo's companion, elder jimu from zimbabwe came and we picked him up. but then the sisters who are here in arusha with us told us that some one who was from mbezi beach in my last branch was here in arusha and wanted us to come and meet her. so all six of us went to her hotel and met with her. she bought us drinks and dinner at an expensive restaurant (well expensive for us missionaries). it was nice. i had chinese food. it was awesome. i got sizzling beef. and it came on a plate that was sizzling. it was sweet. then she bought us all dessert. she like no joke spent like 200000 shillings on us for this meal. which is like $60 for all of us. it was great. we had a few people show up to church which was really nice. we had 2 investigators there. it was pretty sweet. one was james and the other was a new guy. we might be teaching him with the couples in like two weeks. but other than that, thats what i did this week. next week will be nice we are going to dar for zone conference on wednesday.

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

 

love reese

hey mom

well this week has been pretty good. im really sad that i didnt get to do anything with the halls before they left the mission. i really loved them. and she made banana cake which is freakin genius! man..... 9 am church! that sucks. thats like the worst time. i like going at 11. but i think that it will be easy for me to adjust to. well im glad that people said that they were going to write me. that will be nice i guess. i mean i havent had a letter for like 2 months. so it would be pretty kool. ((maurice.maxwell@myldsmail.net ))

anyways, this week was pretty good. on wednesday we had this new thing called ZTM or zone training meeting. so my comp and i trained and stuff. we went to teach one of our investigators but he wasnt there so we met with his wife. so we talked to her and we found out that they arent married but have kids and live together but she really wants to get married like right now but he doesnt really want to. so i think we might be having a wedding. haha. anyways that night my comp made chili because the couple here gave us like a kg or like 1.5 lbs of minced meat or ground beef. it was sooooooo good but it gave me diarrhea or runny stomach as they call it here. then on thursday we went to a Masai wedding. it was pretty kool but we had to wait for forever because the couples wanted to be there early but they are new and dont really know about african time yet. haha it was pretty kool. we had to get up an introduce ourselves in front of a crowd of like 200 people. so i have pretty much gotten over my stage fright, but its a totally different thing when its in a different language. so i pretty much said who i was and where i come from hah. then on friday my comp and i went to this pizza place that was freakin awesome. it was so GOOD! it looked small but it was dang good. i got chicken, beef, ham, cheese and olives ya thats right i said olives for only like 10500 which is like $6.50 i was so happy and after that for dinner we went to the couples and they made cheese burgers so its pretty much been an awesome eating week. then saturday we got transfer news.... pretty much the worst part of the week. im getting a new comp another zimbabwean but he has been in tanzania longer than me and knows more swahili. so i was super mad about it. its just maddening because when you have to struggle with swahili then thats how you learn but if someone is next to you who knows what the people are saying then you dont struggle. so im not happy. but one things that was nice as on sunday. we had 3 people show up at church and the couples washed our clothes with there washing machine so that was kool. first time we've ever had use of a washing machine!

anyways i hope you have a great week love ya. 

love reese

hey mom

well here on p days we havent done much besides service and going to the orphanage to paint. we also had to buy all the food storage for all the missionaries here in arusha. so that pretty much took our whole day. but also i found some thing amazing................ RANCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i know that might seem really weird for me to be so excited about but i miss ranch kabisa. its good too!

 

we really didnt do very much for new years. my comp elder diodati made us shepherds pie. it was aw3esome. so we had a nice meal and ate it and then stayed up until 12. we banged pots and pans together and made a lot of noise, as much as possible! the koolest thing was that we were able to see some fire works. its was sweet. i miss them for sure. last year in kenya no one could do fireworks because of the war and stuff. it was kinda funny. we have a bar right next to our house and all the people were drunk and being pretty funny. anyways some random places also had fire works going so that was kool to see. 

 

i think i love your new years resolution. that would definitely be weird to see when i get home.... no diet coke.... weird hah. i cant believe that kurt went without chocolate and the kids without soda. i dont think that i could do either one of those especially when i get back cause i want to remember what they all taste like.

 

anyways we had a good lesson with our only progressing investigator. he is a really good guy. we gave him a baptismal invitation so hopefully some time next month we will be having a good baptism.  we have been doing a lot of reactivating, but it sucks because when people get baptized they pretty much know what they are getting into. so its kinda annoying but i guess its good.

 

this week the mission president came with some of his family to church. it was nice. he did some interviews for some people in the branch to get the mel. priesthood. so we had a ton of people come to church. it was pretty sweet and we had 3 investigators at church which was very unexpected. the mission president leaves in july and we will be getting a new one but soon after i will go home. 

 

well i still havent gotten your package yet but hopefully i will get it here in two weeks. anyways i love you guys and i hope that you have a good week.

 

love reese

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