hey mom,

are you sure that everyone in utah went to brigham city to go to the temple? cause i think that would be a lot of people in brigham city and like way too much for the town to hold hah.. well so with people coming to church its still tough because even getting members to come is tough. that one guy who was supposed to be baptized left all of a sudden and we havent seen him since, which really sucks. we cant even get a hold of him. anyways, thats missionary work for ya. my comp is really good. i think i will be learning a good amount of swahili now hopefully hah. but i would like to finish my misison in a place called westlands, in nairobi. and no other americans are in the zone besides us but there are some kool people now. i miss kenya but i like TZ. the food is better here. but in kenya life is cheaper.

anyways this week was nice. i was on exchanges for a few days with a guy named elder mhkungo from south africa. he is a really kool guy!
we had a lesson with people who only spoke swahili and he knows less swahili than me! but they were ok lessons, but not the best. i think that they have kinda showed me how my swahili is. i think that it is getting much better but i still need to work on it more. other than that i havent really been doing much other than the same stuff everyday. hah. sorry theres not very much.

 

 well for my birthday i didnt really do very much. i had a nice cheeseburger. it was really good. and i looked for some shoes but they were a little too much for me. they were selling them for like 70000 which is like $40 and they are worth $42 brand spankin new. they think im a white guy here and they think that all white people have a ton of money so they gave us a bad price. i can definitely say that it is weird to be old now. i dont feel like i am 21 i still feel like im 18 or 19...

well i will be send some pics very soon so i hope you like them. but not today haha. maybe a few weeks hah. well i love you and i hope everything is going well

love reese 

hey mom,

well this week was nice. i finally have a new companion. his name is elder sigauke and he is from zimbabwe. he is a kool guy. score.  anyways mostly what we did this week was show him around the area and do some mish stuff. and the week before that with my last comp, we just went and did some goodbye things with him.

this transfer im going to work a lot harder with learning swahili. we didnt really have a good teacher and he wasnt teaching us anything besides new words that he knew. so that never did help much. so im going to work really hard at it this transfer. sigauke knows it really well so he can help me a lot better than my last comp could. so that is pretty much what happened this week. sorry this is so short the internet went out yesterday so we dont really have too much time to finish emailing today. when elder baldwin goes home i will for sure send something with him for you guys. i will let you know when i get your package for my birthday. and i cant believe im going to be 21 now!! now i can drink...............................fanta hahah jk.

well i love you guys and i hope you are doing well.

love reese

hey mom

well first off i will tell you the transfer news. my comp is leaving and my new comp is elder sigauke (c-gou-kay) from zimbabwe. im excited to have a change, but this guy had a little bit of drama last transfer with elder b so i hope that it doesnt come along with him. and i hope i will be happy for you mom, haha. well the package was awesome! i loved everything about it especially the ties. that purple one was gorgeous like the best purple tie ever.

 

we had a district taco night yesterday which was nice and we used pretty much all the taco stuff from the package hah. i do have a hankering for trail mix and some reeses fast break and hard candy that will last awhile haha. ps that would be the halloween stuff i would like - since you asked, haha along with other types of chocolate bars that i have forgotten about.

 

they most likely wont do anything for sept. 11th because it doesnt really affect them at all. also i dont think that i want to vote absentee.  i dont think we are allowed to do it so i wont. im glad that dixie won against w. oregon thats really kool. i hope that i will play when i get back because i really miss it. anyways it sucks that the car is broke down. im hoping that it can come back to life cause i loved that car well besides the fact that it was broken down most of the time haha.

well this week was pretty good. we had a new thing this week called a ztm or a zone training meeting instead of a ddm or district development meeting. it was pretty nice but there was a lot of arguing because some elders just dont want to change (my new comp was one of them) and i dont understand why. i mean they came here to help people to change but they dont want to. its pretty dumb to me. anyways, we have been helping the sisters teach a guy that has been difficult. i think he is in love with them and also he has the attention span of a toddler and he is my age. as we are teaching him we ask him questions and then we will ask a different question so its kind of difficult but with us there he kinda knows that he cant get away with stuff because i will beat him haha. jk. we found out on satuday that elder m is leaving but he is just going up the street to kinondoni hah. we all thought that was pretty funny. my old comp elder m is the new ap so ya...

 

anyways yesterday was really fun. all the people in the district came over to our house and we made tacos. we used the soft taco shells with the chicken and we got ground beef and made chapatis too. i love making tacos with people who have never had them because they make the best faces expressing how awesome tacos are. its funny. when they do that i call them converts; baptized and confirmed haha. i had four of them yesterday haha. when we finished we played scatergories. that was a lot of fun. then they all went home. it was really nice. i enjoyed it.

well i have a request if you could get some new scriptures would you like them in burgandy and gold sided paper or the original black and gold? cause they are really cheep here like a quad is about 7,000 shillings and 1,600 shillings is one dollar so i will let you do the math hah. so let me know. well  thats pretty much it for me. love ya

love elder maxwell

hey mom

well first off..... i got my package. i got my package. i got my package. hey hey hey hey!!! we went to the beach today and the zone leaders came with it. i actually have it on my lap right now. i havent opened it yet but im excited! thank you so much!!! thanks for telling ryan to send me an email. he sent me one so i will be able to email him now. im glad that you are doing the write me thing. i got like 20 emails today which was really nice. its kool to see and hear how everyone is doing. so i think that i am getting out of touch with technology because when i was trying to get money last monday i didnt know which one to get money out of so i was kind of stressing about it but thank you for putting money on it. and oh my gosh so freakin funny. i cant believe that you asked if african money comes out of the atm HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!! of course it does!! i laughed my butt of when i read that just so you know haha. anyways i can take a pic of the money because i have been collecting it here because they recently changed what their bills look like so they have old ones and new ones out so i have all of them. they are pretty kool. they look different from the ones in kenya tho. when i go back there i will start collecting those ones too. so i actually didnt know that pumbaa means to be relaxed but i will tell you some pretty kool things. the word taco, the food that i love, in swahili or mataco is butt cheeks haha. and also jamba, like jamba juice, means to fart haha so i love fart juice haha. here in dar i havent really worked out too much because it is super hot here and we can only have the air conditioning on at night.  but i think that i will start to do it soon. yes we walk a ton! all day everyday. i have been doing all my washing lately, im trying to not be lazy hah. ya elder baldwin is from vegas but i didnt really know that you wanted to know so much about it ha.

well for me this week was ok. i was pretty much sick for most of the week. i just had the flu with the coughing and being congested and that kind of stuff. it pretty much sucked but we still worked and stuff. i usually dont like to sit around when im sick. whenever i think of times i was sick i always think about the time when i played a football game with swine flu hah. that was really fun ha.

 

we had a few dinner appts this week which was really nice. we have been doing a good amount of service in the area with members which is always nice. so we were able to be in regular clothes a few times this week. there is a food here that my comp really loves called matoke. pretty much what it is, is green unripe bananas boiled and stuff like potatoes. its like exactly like potatoes but not as good but my comp loves it and he always tells people to make it for them. so one of the d.a's or dinner appts, some one made it. it was ok but i like potatoes better.

 

anyways this week we have a few people we have been teaching but they are not really progressing. our main guy is coming back this week so we werent able to meet with him this week so he is no longer progressing. a lot of the people we have we teach them multiple times a week and then they dont come to church and stuff so that is always discouraging but thats mission here. thats pretty much what happened this week. nothing too exciting.

well im glad that everything is going well there and that sami is going to school now that is kool to hear. i hope she loves it and makes a lot of new friends so that she wont miss me so much. make sure you tell her i love her. oh and by the way at one of the da's the member looked at my blog and its pretty much just all my emails home. is that what everyone else does. cause thats weird you should but more pics on it haha. but im sure that means i have to send more pictures right! haha. well i love you and i hope that you are having a great week.

love reese

After the first year on a mission letters, packages, emails really taper off so I know Maurice would LOVE to hear from you directly on occasion!

EMAILS ARE HIS FAVORITE! Maurice can be emailed at: mailto:maurice.maxwell@myldsmail.net.

 

Of course every missionary loves packages and letters from home but those get expensive and take a long time to receive, especially now that he is in Tanzania! But if you decide to, Letters are approx .98 cents to mail, flat rate small envelope $14, medium and large flat rate boxes $40-60 at the post office.

 

His address is: Elder Maurice Maxwell

Kenya Nairobi Mission

Upper Hill Road Next to CitiGroup

PO Box 46162-00100

Nairobi, Kenya

 

hey mom

im glad that morgan curriden is going on a mish now. thats really kool. and equador! the curridens are awesome. i really loved it when claire sang at my farewell. that girl has some pipes!! thats just an awesome family even tho they have no athletic ablility as sister curriden would say haha. make sure that you tell them i said hello back or habari ha.

so im glad that kurt gave you guys blessings. i cant believe that sami is going to school now. she is getting so big. and im glad that youre planning on going to 6 flags for the family reunion when i get home cause i would love to go too. tell grandpa thanks for looking to see if we are related to orson hyde. also the guy that was going to get baptized hasnt been baptized yet but he will soon.

well to tell you the story about why we were late for mormon helping hands, the person who was supposed to pick us up, well his wife got sick and he took her to the hospital so we had to take public transport. so it took forever after we waited for like 3 hours to get picked up. oh and i will most likely be getting a new comp when transfers come but i dont know when exactly.

anyways this week was a lot better than last week. on monday we went to the worthens and had a nice fhe. we watched a movie called legacy and we had popcorn during it and cake and ice cream after. we have been teaching a few people but most of them are not coming to church. one of the guys that has a baptism date left for a week so we dont know when his baptism will be ha. on thursday we had a really nice dinner appointment with a member. we did some service at their home and then we had a bomb dinner. with pork and chicken and fish. it was nice. we have been having swahili class twice a week but the normal teacher who is really kool named okanda went to nairobi. so we have had some guy come but all he does is give us words in swahili not teach us how to use it, so i havent really progressed.... but i have been starting to understand what people are saying now. i am good at ordering food in swahili though! haha i think that after i have been here for awhile i will be able to speak a lot more. we had a service project this week with the YSAs or young single adults. we went the the beach in mbezi and picked up trash. it was good and i think that it looks a little better even tho we didnt pick up very much. but that was pretty much my week. we have been doing some good work but things are kinda complicated here especially with those i work with so hopefully soon i will be having happier emails.

well i hope that everything is going well and that you are happy and stuff haha. well i love you lots

love elder maxwell

hey mom

i hope some one comes soon to give me my packages too cause i dont even know if they are here yet. so im still waiting for them. there should be a leadership meeting coming soon so maybe they will be sent here to Tanzania.  im glad that sammy is going to be starting school soon i think that she will like it a lot. i think that she will make a lot of new friends now. and you might make some more friends that are sammy's friends mothers haha. and i love my mission pres he is a kool guy.

well this week wasnt very fun. a bunch of things happened. my comp and i had a big argument but we got that dealt with. but the thing that was really bad was on saturday. on saturday we had the mormon helping hands big service project. so we were really late to this thing because of something that was out of our control so we had to take public transport to get there. so everyone pretty much insulted us about being late. people were even saying things like "arent these people missionaries? why are they so late?" that and some people insulted us about it. and the whole time i was trying to be calm and not get angry because im supposed to be a missionary. but i was super mad. you could have seen steam coming off of my head. but once we left i was a lot better. anyways we have a guy who should be baptized at the start of next month so it should be nice. but for the good news, we have been teaching english classes for free here and people have been coming. the guy who has a baptismal date was found through english class. so i think this should help us a lot with things. so other than that not much happened this week. 

so were you able to do check if we are related to orson hyde from the pioneer days? and what about sending a message to my coach?

well i hope everything is going well. and have fun this week. go get some chinese/mexican/italian food for me haha. love you.

love reese

hey mom

sorry for not emailing last week. we were really busy. i will do my best to get you some pics soon but this cyber is not very good and the computers are very slow so i dont think that it will be able to get all the pics on the computer. well theres not really anyone to play sports with and here i dont really want to play because it is just too hot and it doesnt get cool until night and to get around here sucks too. we tract a little but i really dont like it much cause i cant talk to people and when my comp does he.... he just bugs me when he does it because he talks down to people. dinner appts are starting to come along now but my comp isnt very nice to people cause all he wants to do is eat and leave not talk to people and get to know them and stuff and thats the thing i like the most. but i have to admit the food is a lot better here than in kenya for sure. they have this stuff called fanta passion. its so dang good i love it. i have like two everyday haha. i have flossed this week a couple times..... i think haha. but tell sami that i am glad that she is starting to swim and is not so scared of the water now and when i get back we can go swimming hah. tell jay i love him and hope he does well on his own at college.

so this week was nice. we went to the beach in our area and it was pretty good. we kind of went exploring. here the beaches dont angle down they drop and are flat, its really weird. so we found this corral reef and some sea life. it was pretty nice. this week we have had english classes. we teach people english here and they love it. a guy came to church from class and i think that he will be very good. we had a dinner appointment at a members house who has lived in the states for a few years so she made us really nice food. her friend who lives in england was there and her accent was really kool. not gonna lie, i wish i had it! hah. so one kool thing about being here is that every wednesday when we have meetings the couples come and they make desserts and stuff. so the worthens made us chocolate cake and it was so dang good i loved it. i miss cake a lot. on saturday which is my real hump day because that is when mission started cause thats when i came to the mtc. we went to this place that i love a lot called...... SUBWAY!!!!! theres one here it was really good but they were a little stingy with the meat but i still loved it. ill send the pic soon. and i bought me a chocolate bar and that was pretty much all i did but it was nice. well thats pretty much what i did this week.

so i have a few requests. 1 will you find out if we are related to orson hyde from the doctrine and covenants. 2 will you tell my coach who is coaching at hawaii (coach roucher) that he should email me.  

 

well i love you guys so much and i hope you have a good week.

love reese