Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Week three- Teaching and Four Square

Bonjour Ma Famille,
Wow what a week. This has been maybe one of the hardest but the best weeks ever. This week I started my duties as a zone leader. Its pretty fun we go to a lot of meetings and try to help people become better missionaries. I like it a lot. This week has been really hard because my companion has been having a real rough time. He is such a great guy though. I have to admit it was really hard to see him struggle, but I have seen the greatest of the gospel through him. I have seen the lord bless him and me throughout this whole week. He is doing ten times better now because of the Lord's help and he's the greatest.
Also this week we started something called trc(teaching resource center?) We go into a room and teach people in french about the gospel. Usually, the people are members but it fun to get to practice. Yes, by the way I did see the Buchanans Son in Law. I kept thinking it was him, but I didn't want to make it super awkward if it wasn't. He was a really good at french. He talked really fast and really well. We also got to teach a girl who is going to BYU. We thought that since it was our first TRC that everyone would be LDS and we just teach them about Faith. Well, a few seconds before knocking on the second door, my district leader says, "oh by the way, she isn't a member." This made us really nervous, so we switch our lesson to the restoration. It went really well. She was way open with us and even said she would pray to know the truth. It felt really awesome to teach someone who was actually looking for the truth. It was great experience.
We also are still teaching our "progressing investigators." Its going really well, we challenged one to be baptized. He said he would pray to see if it was what he was supposed to do. I thought that was pretty great. I know that the spirit helps us so much in these lessons because often times I don't know how to respond and words just seem to come. We have another investigator too. He pretty great also. We taught him about the restoration and hope to teach him about the Le Plan DU Salut.
Also this week, we had a devotional on Tuesday night. Dallin H Oaks and his wife came to talk to us. It was pretty neat to see a apostle to the lord come and speak with us. He talked about how to be worthy of the holy ghost and how important the sacrament is. It was way amazing. I love the mtc because we get to meet great people like that all the time
Ok so to answer some deep thought provoking questions. (Hey- these are things a mom wants to know!)
 
-People are asking if you've gained weight?  Or is competitive four square a good alternative for weight control?
 
Weight? I weighed myself yesterday. I weighed 166 pounds, which is what I pretty much always have weighed lately. So I guess foursquare burns tons of calories. Probably, because our four square is so intense. Carli, I think for sure we'll have to have a 4 square tournament, but watch out I've been practicing a ton.
 
-How do you watch General Conference?
 
General Conference? I get to watch conerfence generale in the the gym. It pretty exciting. So of the people in my district are actually singing at it. I have been singing in the choir, but you need several years of experience to go to general conference. Its all good, I'm excited for it anyways.
-Did you get your package?
 
Package? yes I got the package. I liked it a lot. It made me smile. It crazy how much food we have in our room now. thank you so much.
 
-How are you doing with French?  How is your district doing?
 
French? My companion i have got to the point where we can teach the first 3 lessons all in french. Which is pretty amazing if you think about since we been here for 3 weeks. Our district is actually doing really well with french. Many of them didn't know a lick of french coming in. Its pretty amazing to see the growth in every ones french.
 
-Are you getting every one's letters from dear elder?... followed by some not so veiled guilt about writing others in the family...
 
Letters? Sorry I don't write back very well. I don't have a lot of time, except on Tuesdays. I hope I can write back more especially today.
 
-Tell us about your companion.  Is he haole or Hawaiian? It's hard to FB stalk him since we don't know his first name!
 
Companion? My companion is Hawaiian. Its pretty cool he seems to know everyone. We get along really well.
 
- Carli asked Corey for a funny story in her letter...
 
Funny story? I have plenty of funny stories. I often time says English words with a french accent.
 
I'm out of time though.
Je vous aime,
Elder Corey Samuel Kimzey

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Week two-ish

Bonjour Ma Famille et Mes Amies, 
This week was a crazy but awesome week.  This week so many pretty amazing things happened.  First off, we got another pretend investigator.  His name is Lelyse.  It just our teacher acting as him, but it crazy how much I still want him to do what we commit him to do.  Also did I tell you that Ben, our old investigator,  was actually our new teacher.  His name is Frere Weed.  He is pretty hilarous.  
 Also on I think Sunday the branch president called Elder Pickard and I as Zone Leaders.  Holy cow,  I did not see that one coming.  So this week we have been trying to prep for the old zone leader to leave next Monday.  Also this week was pretty amazing because I really learned how to teach.  At the beginning everyone in the district was using notes, coming up with scripts, or using a dictionaire when we taught our investigators.  Then we had a subsitute on Wednesday who told us we should just follow the spirit and don't use any notes.  Wow, that was an amazing experience.  I can't believe how much better everyone taught- expecially me.  So everytime we role played this week I didn't use notes.  The difference is staggering.  So Monday was our first whole lesson without notes.  I could feel the difference in how the lesson went.  I mean not everything came out the way we wanted, but thats not whats important.  Whats important is teaching the people what they need.  I know that the gift of tongues are real because during that lesson I said things and my campainon said things that we had never practiced or even thought of saying.  It was an amazing experience.  Also the other day I had to teach one of the Branch Presidency in English.  I can't believe how wierd it is to teach in English now.  French seems almost eaiser in a way because I have such a limited knowledge of french words, I have to make sure and stick to the point.  The lesson still went okay though. 
 I am trying to do better answering some of your questions so here goes.
(I've added my questions in the original form)
 
Did you get to go to the temple? What did you think of the Provo temple?
Temple?  We get to go to the temple every tuesday.  It pretty cool experience to go with your district.  The provo temple is way pretty than all the pictures, but iI still like st george better.  Also they are really busy, but its really nice because its just across the street.  They have tons of rooms though,  they really are very efficent. 
 
 How is the French? Do you speak in only french? How about reading your scriptures?
French?  French is great.  I love it.  We get to practice all the time.  Also we its crazy how many words I have learned in just a few weeks.  Also we teach all the time which is my favorite part.  Although, we don't always speak in French.  Its something we could probably work on better, sometimes we forget.
Scriptures?  Another great thing about the MTC is that we get to study for hours.  Which at first was a little hard, but now is great.  This week we learned about how we should spend half our time studying just for our investigator.  I say a big difference in lessons when I did that.  We had Frere Stinagel come talk to us about how we can recieve revelation for our investigators, which is pretty amazing if you think about it.
 
Are you getting a chance to exercise? do you run?
Excerise?  I get about an hour a day.  I can run and I do sometimes.  More often though I play four square.  I know what your probably thinking, but four square here is a big deal.  Its pretty competive and really fun.
 
Are you taking pictures? Can you attach any on your email? (I'm going to send a suggestion list next time!)
Pictures?  Sorry about no pictures yet.  It hard because they only give us 30 minutes to email.  So hopefully I can either send my memory card home this week or just send you some printed pictures.
 
Dylan and Morgan want to know, if you don't give your talk in Sacrament meeting, can you just save it for the next week, or do you write a new one each week?
 
Sacarment meeting?  yep every week we get to write a 3-5 min talk in french on a subject.  For example our first week was faith in the atonement( la foi en L'expiation) and the second week was on repentance( le repentir).  It pretty nerve racking.  Every one feels some much better when there name isn't called.  The sacrament pray is given in french and all the prayers and hymns are also.  That is pretty diffrent also all of our prayers are in french personal, campanion, district.  It pretty great.
 
Any great experiences? Any scripture "aha!" moments?
Experiences?  Way everyday I feel like I have great experiences.  I feel like I get more spiritual experiences in just a few weeks here than in years elsewhere.  I guess it probably partly because we get so many oppurtiunities to do so. 
Here is a sentence for casey:  bonjour mon frère,  je a ecouté que tu cour très vite en le deux miler.  Je pense que c'est très chouette.  Bien, Mecerdi, je pense,  nous avons bible en francais.  Donc, Je pense ton bible peut-etre veinir.
 
 
Love, Elder Corey S Kimzey

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

First letter from MTC!

Bonjour Ma Famille et mes amies,

Holy Cow where to start. This has been probably the best and longest week of my life. It kind of wierd but the saying of that the first days feel like weeks is so true, but they're really amazing. So I got here on Wednesday. It was great, I meet my campanion. His name is Elder Pickard. He is from Hawaii. He lived in Kahouku( don't know how to spell that, its near the famous high school) nearLaie. He is really great. I'm suprised how quickly we have become close. He loves to work hard and try new things so it makes life fun. I have to admit it was a little wierd having someone with you 24/7. I mean we even wait outside the bathroom for one another, but It actually has been really great to have someone always there for you when you need it. On Wednesday I also meet our district. I'ts an all guys district. We are all also going to Africa( 6 of us are going to Benin, while 2 are going to the Congo.) My district is pretty much the best district ever. We laugh all the time. I love that. Also I had a tour on Monday which was really intresting because all the building in the MTC look the same. Thursday, we meet our teacher Frere Magre who is from France. He is really funny because he has a perfect french accent when he speaks french and a perfect english accent when he speaks english. We also started preaparing for our lesson for the next day. We learned some basic french also. We learned how to say we are missionaires of Jesus Christ( nous sommes missionaire de Jesus Christ) and stuff like that. It kind of crazy, but of my whole district I have the most french experience. Friday, My campaion and I taught our first lesson en francais. It was crazy!!! The guy ,we taught, was named Ben. He only spoke to us in french and we only responded in french. He asked tons of questions, but I actually understood what he was asking. The hard part was responding, but it went well. Saturday, we taught again so much better. Elder Pickard and I taught him about Joseph Smith and the restoration. It seemed to flow way better and we spoke better too. It was pretty amazing. I know for sure the gift of tongues is real because Elder Pickard an I dont know that much french and we were still able to get through the restoration with someone who supposedly only spoke french- all by ourselves. Sunday was also way good. Sacrament is mostly all in french. The crazy thing is they don't tell you who is speaking before hand. We all have to write a talk in french and just wait to see if they call our name. Its kind of nerve racking. Monday flew by. We studied a ton that day, which is one of the great things about the MTC. Tuesday is my p day so you'll probably get emails from me on that day. Also they said to send me letter through dear elder because I get them the same day and can read them at night. So I can respond better on Tuesday since they only give us on 30 mins. So the clock says I only have 7 min so I'll try to respond to some of the questions:
How are you Adjusting to Mtc?
 I'm adjusting pretty well. I love it here. Some of the rules are wierd like we can't put our hands in our pockets, but i know they all have a purpose.
  Leaving Mtc?
I leave on May 8.
How is the Food?
The food is kind of interesting? It kind of sits in your stomach like a rock, but I don't have to clean up and its all you can eat.
 Did you forget things or need stuff?
I forgot my jeans haha. I don't know how, but I did.
How is your French going?
Bien, I love french. Its going really well. I get to help my district alot with it, so it geat and my teacher is really great too.
Can you tell us about any great experiences?
Too many to count. I felt the spirit so many times. The feeling of the MTC- I can't imagine is really any where else. I love it. We had a devotional the other day that was great about just doing your best. Sorry I can't write more but the bright red clock in the corner is telling me I don't have much time left.
 
  Je vous aime,
 
  Elder Corey Samuel Kimzey
PS. Great to hear everything is going well at home. Tell Casey way to go on the 2 mile!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Off to the MTC...

Dropped off Corey at the MTC yesterday.  I knew we could be in trouble, when we went outside to load his bags in the car, it was snowing in Saint George!  We  picked up Chelsea in Cedar and had snow on and off from just outside of Cedar to Scipio.  It made for a long morning.  I must say that I didn't have much time to have a pity party.  We went to Tuscanos for lunch ( we heard that a good lunch is a must- the missionaries don't get a chance to eat until way late), and had a great time. Oh- and did I mention that if you go there, your missionary eats for free??? 

Then it was off to the Provo temple for a quick picture (since we were running late from the snow).  My good friend, Diana, gave us a good tip to drive to the North side of the temple to take pictures (it was less crowded for sure).  A quick hug  to everyone, and we were off to the MTC.
Wow- if you want to see how organized the Church can be- take a missionary to the MTC!  Chelsea said she was just like a "mormon tourist"- "look at all the missionaries!", " they are everywhere!", "everyone has their backpacks and lugguage!" , and "is that a sister missionary getting dropped off?".  I noticed all of the  missionaries volunteering at the curb, just waiting for the next car and the next missionary.  You drive to the next available space, and they unload your bags.  The missionary then told Corey- "okay, time to give your mom and dad a hug and say goodbye".  And then...  he was gone.  It was like yanking off a bandaid- quick, not nessacerily painless, but so much better than trying to slowly pull it off.  And then before we knew it, we were out of the parking lot, and back on the road home.

It's going to be a long wait until we hear from him (we assume on his p-day next week?), but promise to post his letter as soon as we get it.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

How to Write to Corey

Here is Corey's address at the MTC




(For letters/packages)

Elder Corey Samuel Kimzey
MTC Mailbox # 98
BEN-COT 0509
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793


He would love to hear from you!