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

hey mom

 

  im glad that brother kings talk was good. he was awesome. i loved having him in my priest quorum. i hope i can be a good father, but i will for sure do my best when that happens in like 8 years haha. wow you taught a lesson. thats awesome! do you have a new calling or what? the ARP fireside sounded good. we unfortuately do not have that here. i think that it would be great if we could help people to do that cause people here could really use some help with that kind of stuff.

 

  tell jay happy graduation and good job for graduating. im glad he did because graduating from high school is like the easiest thing ever. i hope a good amount of people turn up. tell gracie happy birthday and since aunt tina asked, in the package it would be cool to have some kool aid/lemonade stuff and candy and whatever else. perhaps an american leather colliegate sized football haha. pretty much anything that you think i would like. cause anything from home is amazing. with the weather things are good. i like it because i like working in the cool weather instead of hot. also for my cards im going to need you to tell the bank that i will be going to tanzania like asap. probably tomorrow tho. with money im struggling a little. its kinda tough here because unlike other missions and missionaries, here we have to pay for food, transport, phone bills and other things but in other missions they just have to pay for food.
i will be getting 4000/- out of bank of america tomorrow afternoon so i can get some new shoes because i really need them. i have a hole in each of my shoes. and they get dirt/mud and rocks in them so i will get new shoes that i can have clean socks because i hate washing haha.

  well for me this week went well. we played sports at a place called buruburu. it was really fun. we played both kinds of football. but one thing that sucked is i think that i am losing my ability to play football cause i could not catch a ball to save my life! but hopefully things will get better later. this week we did a lot of contacting. we used a board on the street and just talked to people walking past. it was good and i think it was pretty successful. but the highlight of this week is that............i am leaving kenya. i am being transferred to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania! i will be leaving this friday. and my new companion is from Uganda. im pretty excited to leave nairobi but im kinda sad too. its gonna be weird to be in a different country again hah. but there i will have to learn swahili. the people there dont know any english so everything will be in swahili even the church services. and it is really hot there so im going to sweat my butt off and im not really excited about that. i think i will have fun tho. so that is everything new with me pretty much.

 

 elder sanders is doing well. he is really fun. i was glad that i was able to be in the same zone as him for awhile. elder madubanya is a really kool kid. he is pretty smart. he just came from tanzania so he knows swahili very well so it was kool to be with him. he would talk to people in swahili perfectly. it was pretty amazing. elder smedley will be home on tuesday or wednesday. so hopefully by the end of the week you will have all the pics that i have in your hands. so i hope you get my pics soon and i hope you love them and i hope that you dont ask me for pics very often anymore and i love you haha.

 

 well i love ya lots . have a good week


love maurice

hey mom

well i guess i will start out by telling you about Carnivore. so first of all it was FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!! elder sanders and i pretty much hung out on monday. we went to the nairobi national museum which was really kool and very insightful. then we went to carnivore. it opens after 6 so we kinda hung out for a minute before we went, but it was amazing! so the food that they had there was:chicken, steak, lamb, pork ribs, chicken gizzards, wings and breasts, then they had some exotic stuff. we had ostrich, ostrich meat balls, ox balls, and crocodile. no zebras or wildebeests because i heard a rumor that they got in trouble for killing too many. but it was awesome. they had three courses. the first was just soup and bread then it was all the meat and then they had dessert. it was a lot like rodizio grill but different. they brought the meat the same way some what. then the dessert was awesome. i had sorbet ice cream. it was mango and another one was passion fruit which was the best. so good. i love it. i was so full tho. but it felt amazing cause i havent been that full of awesome amazing food in like forever haha.

 

then during the week sanders and i had exchanges so we stayed in his area and his and my comps went to my area. it was really kool. he has a really nice area they get nice da's all the time cause they have rich white people in their area. they work for the US embassy and the UN so they get a pretty penny. elder pocock brought me fanta passion fruit flavor from tanzania so sanders and i had it with dinner and it was freakin awesome. best fanta flavor by far! it would be kool if they would sell it in the US.

 

now on saturday....it was amazing. we had paul's familys baptism. it was really good i baptized four of them and my comp baptized two of them. we also had a 9 year old girl get baptized too but her uncle baptized her. it was awesome. there was almost 40 people there and it was amazing. i finally got baptismal pants that i ordered like 7 months ago so i looked like a pro at the baptism. thanks for putting money on the card so i could get them. oh btw i took a bunch of pics so i hope you love them. i will be sending smedley with a cd of them cause he goes home on monday. so you will get all the pics i have in a week or so. but that was my week pretty much.

 

 i love and miss you guys a ton and i hope you have a great week.

love maurice

Hey mom

ya, there was a bomb but luckily for me im in the suburb like 50 mins away from town. we go into town, but i wasnt because it was during the week and no one in my zone proselytes in town.

 

anyway, my week was pretty good. we had some good lessons and we taught pauls family about the baptismal interview. so this week we will be having a baptism of 7 people, so im super excited! also we went to this place called pizza inn. its the popular pizza place in kenya. we got these things called pizza pies and they were super bomb. and last week on monday we went to this place called nairobit java house and i bought a burrito and it was really good no joke.

 

on friday it was a national holiday called madaraka day. it is the day that kenya got independence. so we went to a members house and had lunch and dinner. she wouldnt let us leave so we had to stay for dinner also and we had to cancel all of our other appointments. but it was really good. while they were cooking we played with little kids. we taught them red rover and duck duck goose. it was pretty fun not gonna lie. then we play some soccer with some of the guys around and then we ate. it was a good day. on sunday we had a good amount of people show up to church and over all it was a good day. then we had some chapati and minced meat / ground beef and i made tacos for me and my comp, it was really nice.

as for today elder sanders and i are going to carnivore in like 30 mins so i hope there is $ in my account or its not gonna be too good. but i have faith that there is. well i hope you have a good week and im glad that sami is ok and that you bore your testimony. i read something recently that said that the more parents bear their testimonies the better it will be for their kids. i think it was neal a maxwell or some one like that.

love reese

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