Almost 5 months!

Bonjour tout le monde,
I'm doing really good here.(sorry jojo- we'll blame this on losing his english!)  I have had a really good week.  We have a new investigator that i think is really progressing well.  Her name is chantal.  A recent member from another branch gave her number to us.  I guess they are boyfriend and girlfriend.  She is really nice, but kind of quiet.  I didn't realize it at first.  When i introduced myself and even when i talked about the book of mormon, she was really quiet so i thought maybe i was explaining it wrong or something.  No, she was understanding she just really quiet, but you can really tell she is really paying attention and thinking about what we are saying.  She, even, came to church and accepted a baptism date.  It was pretty cool to see.
Also this week, we had a very intresting lesson with Akakpo. He has been out of town so we haven't really been able to have a lesson with him.  We finally were able to this week.  He is very accepting and always asks a lot of really good questions.  We had a great discussion on what happens to all the people of Togo who had never heard of Christ according to our church.  He then explained to us how he has actually been part of many religions.  He said for a year he was muslim and for a while he was christian, so he says he really likes to accept everyone.  He also reads a ton.  He usually reads what we give him and thinks about it a lot.
Also we had an awesome lesson with our ami named Boris.  He also has been out of town.  He always seems to teach us, I think, more than we teach him.  He told us how he has seen the importance of repent and make restitution( i think because of his job as a dective.)  It reminded me that really i learn more here or my mission than i really teach.
This week also we have had a ton of mangez-vous which is awesome!  I sent a picture of one of them we had the other day.  Also i thought Nanny Jo would appreciate this story.  So we recieved this contact from Sister Jolie in our ward.  We went over to her house and had this great lesson with her neighboor named Chalome.  It helped so much that Sr Jolie bore her testimony a few times, you could tell it really made a difference for Chalome.  So hopefully good things will come from that.  This is the part i thought Nanny jo would like: afterward Sister Jolie invited us to stay and eat.  It happens quite often.  While we were waiting for the food, my campanion noticed that there were some mice in the house.  I didn't see it though.  Then i saw it and was so startled i jumped out of my chair.  My campanion was laughing so hard, sister Jolie came back in to see what was going on.  We told here that there was a mouse.  She said like ," oh yeah, it is pretty normal in Togo to have a few mice in the house everyonce in awhile.  Sometimes i wake up to find a few on the floor running around." She didn't really think anything of it. I guess since it has been so cold lately the mice tried to find some warmth.  I thought it was pretty funny.
So this week has been pretty awesome.  I had a lot of rendez vous.  It was also great to see people in the ward helping out so much.  It really makes all the difference. 

I sent a few pictures too.  I resent two from the baptism because i didn't know if they sent and also one with one of the little girls in our ward named badga.
Je vous aime,
Elder Corey Samuel Kimzey

Bonjour from Togo

Bonjour tout le monde,
well, this week was pretty great. We had the oppurtunity to teach a lot which always makes the week fly by.  I have to admit it feels like the yesterday was monday.  We had some real progress with some of the amis lately.  We had a great lesson with Micheal this week.  I was with Elder Owusu because we were on an exchange that day.  We were having a pretty deep lesson on where do trials and temptations come from.  During the lesson though I noticed something, he kept mention the Book of Mormon as the word of God.  He kept saying how much he liked it too.  It really proved to me how much the Book of Mormon can help.
Also this week we got a contact?(i'm not sure what the word is in english i know in french its cordonnée.)  His name is Paul.  We had the hardest time find his house.  He said he lived near the boarder of Ghana.  We kept searching but we couldn't find him.  Elder Noumbolibona was about to call him again for the third or fourth time when we look around and there is Paul just a few feet away.  He is this huge guy who does Judo and swims.  I swear if he wanted to he could kill him in 5 seconds flat.  He is really funny too because whenever he agress with something or someone reads a scripture he says Hallejuah.  It is pretty awesome. 
This week also we have had a lot of help from the ward.  They have really stepped it up.  At church a bunch of members brought there friends.  Also even the recent converts are telling people about the church.  Antoine who just got baptized a week ago told us he been telling his neighboor about the Book of Mormon.
Also a funny thing that kept happening this week was I had a few offers of marriage. haha.  None of them really were serious, but it was funny still. 
I'm trying to think if I ate anything bizzare this week.  I'm not sure anymore because the food here has just become normal.  One food that I really love here is called ah demai or something like that.  It is made by with some plant in ewe is called ah demai.  I thought it was french(à demain like tommorow but i guess not.)  I usually eat it with pate  and maybe some smoked fish.  It is really good. Also i have love enyams.  They are awesome too.
This week in general has been pretty great. 
Happy pioneer day and i love you more than pie
Elder Corey Samuel Kimzey
 Corey's mom- It seems like Corey is adjusting well- his English is starting to change and the food is "normal"!

Late Photo of Corey's baptism

Kinda weird- we got another copy of the email corey sent earlier in the day, but with the attachment of this photo.  He must of forgotten to attach and then it didn't send until the middle of the night togo time (it was 7 pm our time).  Doesn't matter-he looks happy!

First Baptism

Bonjour tout le monde,
This week was way awesome. We had two baptisms this week, which was pretty exciting. We first had the baptism of Antoine. I didn't think it was going to happen because he couldn't come to the interview the night before. Then he showed up the morning of and asked if there was anyway possible we could do it that morning. My campanion made a few phone calls and we got it all set-up. Then when we got there the font wasn't working. So after awhile it started working but not very well. We held a really small service which was nice. Then it came time to baptize Antoine. The problem was the water still wasn't that high. We debated having him start on his knees it was so low. We concluded that it probably be okay. So the first time i tried to get him under the water but i think his knee didn't go under. The next time i really had to force it but he finally got baptized. Even though it took some hard work, we were excited that he was able to be baptized and take that step before God.
Sidonie's baptism went a lot smoother. Her baptism was in the afternoon with all the other canidates. It was great a bunch of her friends showed up. They are really funny. They were trying to teach Elder Kent and I some Ewe. I like to tell you its really easy, but it has the wierdest words. I have picked un a few words like wayzo(welcome), azadah( see you soon), oh fon( how are you), and a few others. Maybe one day i'll be able to speak it but i don't think its anyday soon hah. Her baptism went really well. She seemed really excited and has really progressed over the past few weeks.
We had a few other pretty great lessons. We had one with Edgard that was amazing. President Laurent( a former president of a branch) came and bore his testimony. Edgard seemed really excited after and asked us a lot of questions on how he can find out for himself which church was true. It is just another testimant of how important members are to missionary work.
Also we had a lesson with Micheal that was really intresting. He is having a hard time, i think, because he isn't really sure about joining a church because he isn't part of one right now. He seems though to be really progressing, he reads his book of mormon often and even is trying to figure out a way to come to church.
Well i thought i put something intresting that i tried this week. I ate cane au sucre which i think is sugar cane. The women way around with this big bowls full of it. It just ind of looks like branches or maybe bamboo. I thought at first it was just firewood. My campanion said i should try it. They give you a ton for just cent franc( like 20 cents) So they you just chew it at it taste like nautral sugar and then you spit out the rest when it loses its flavor. It kind of fun and tastes really good.
Well this week was awesome and I learned a lot about baptism. I learned that we really just here trying to help people come unto christ. I learned that it really doesn't matter that my french sounds really bad, that really the spirit is the one that teaches. I'm so glad that i can be here. Togo really is an amazing place. I'm also glad to hear everyone had fun at the lake
Je vous aime,
Elder Kimzey
I attached a few pictures in a word document, because that is the only way it would work. first one i think is of us with sidonie, the next is sidonie, colombe(another person who was baptized that week in our branch), president tchare, and president tcherge( who performed the baptism.) The last is antoine after the confirmation. I'm sorry i forgot to take pictures during Antoine's baptism,but we had so many problems I forgot. (also forgot the word document!)

Bonjour toute le monde,
This week was kind of a crazy one.  I guess its the first week of vacation for some of the kids so we had a lot of rendez-vous fall through.  Although, the rendez-vous we had were really good.  And also this week we are planning on having 2 baptism(Sidonie and Antonie)  Which will be awesome. 
One lesson that really well this week is Micheal's.  He was the guy that randomly stopped us on the street.  We taught the third lesson.  You could tell he had the realization that he really needed to figure out for himself it was true or not because if it was true it need to get baptized.  I thought that was pretty cool to see.
Also this week I worked a little with Elder Kazadi because his companion was sick.  He is crazy and speaks like 5 languages fluently.  We went and taught Essie.  She said she had been doing what we had said(reading the book of mormon, etc), but she hadn't received her answer.  Although she felt like she would receive her answer soon.  She really wants to find out the truth.  I hope next time she has found her answer.  Although, i can already see her changing even if she can't.  Before she was skeptic of everything.  Now she seems frustrated that she doesn't know how to do everything we ask her.  It great to see the change in her life, and i hope she sees it too.
Boris(the detective)  We had a great lesson about the end of the plan of salvation.  He said he might of had a dream about it.  He explained it to us.  It crazy, but its not very uncommon here.  I think its because there are tons of people who are very spiritual.  We talked to him about how he needed to be baptised.  He agreed but he wanted to keep studying to now for sure.  You can sometimes just tell people have been prepared for a long time.  I think Boris is one of those people.
Also this week i had my testimony in the importance of members.  This week we taught Sidonie about the law of Chasity.  I thought before had that it might be a little hard because she has a child and she not married and she doesn't know french as well as most, but we had member with us.  The member explained the who thing in Ewe.  We just bore testimony and committed her to follow it.  It was awesome.  She has really progressed too.  So i hope she continue as she gets baptized this week.
Today for p-day was way fun.  Elder Owsu put together an activity for all the missionaries of Togo to go play soccer, volleyball, and basketball at the University.  We didn't have as many Elders as we thought so we decide just to play soccer.  We end up playing against a bunch of college guy who i guess had been playing together for awhile. I was actually surprised how well we played.  We were actually winning 1 to 0.  Then i think we started getting tired because it was in the sand.  I think we lost 4 to 1.  Not bad for a bunch of missionaries against an actual team.  It was great too because we got to give them our number if they wanted to take the lessons.
I attached some pictures i thought you would think were funny.  Everyone always talks about doing laundry by hand so i took a picture of what that looks like.

I also took a picture of what kids do for fun here.  They take old tires and try to keep them rolling with a stick.

 The other one is just kind of silly, but today I saw this little girl pretending to sell things, so she put all of her "items for sale" on her head.  Her little brother followed with a rock on top of his head.  I thought it was pretty cute.

 Although the best little kid experience happened this week.  We were walking to a rendez-vous and this little girl runs up to me yelling"Yovo yovo" I picked her up and kind of twirled her around.  Then a bunch of kids thought it would be fun too.  So I kept having kids run up to me.  My companion and I were laughing pretty hard.
Je vous aime,
Elder Kimzey

Wow- it's July already!

Bonjour Toute le Monde,

So this week was pretty awesome.  We got to teach so many lessons, which made it so awesome.  I think one of my favorite lessons this week was with a guy named Akakpo.  He has one limb arm, but it really doesn't stop him.  We had this awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation.  It went really good except at the beginning i said I think everyone has wondered where we came from before we were on earth.  Then he said well I've never wondered that.  There was an akward pause and then i just kept going.  After that though it was really awesome.  He says he going to ask God if our church is true, which will be awesome if he does.  Also this week we have another ami commit to be baptized.  She has a bunch of friends who recently joined the church, so it makes it so much easier for her.  It a big testimony builder of the importance of recent convert having a friend in the church.  It was pretty neat when we asked her to be baptized, she was really confident like she really had a desire to do it. 

This week it has rained so much.  I think it has rained everyday, for usually a few hours.  It has been kind of crazy the amount of rain.  I think here we have got more rain in one week than St George gets in a whole year.  Its kind of fun though because we don't really get rain back home.  Also this week Essie has progressed a lot.  Before she wasn't really open to us about her life.  This time she told us about her life and how hard it was and how she started reading the book of Mormon.  She seems to be really changing her life.  It was crazy to see how much the gospel can change one's life. 

Also this week i had this crazy lesson with a new ami named Peter and his friend Piere(which is Peter in french i know its pretty funny)  Peter speaks both french and English.  I was on an exchange with Elder Kazadi who is from the Congo.  We had this crazy good lesson on the nature of God.  Good thing Elder Kazadi is practically a scriptorian.  It seems like he know both the Bible and Book of Mormon by heart.  It was a really good lesson and we are going to teach he again.  We have had a lot of new amis this week.  Also a bunch of people just stop us on the street.  It kind of just proves how ready people are for the gospel.  Yeah lately we haven't even really had to do contacting. I like contacting but teaching lessons are really better.  This week also i have noticed that my french might actually be improving.  I'm not quite sure how, its kind of a testimony builder of the gift of tongues.  Not nessacry that I've had this miraclous experience where i can speak perfect french, but just that i seem to be improving faster than i ever thought i could. 

This week has just been awesome, there are so many stories I could tell.  Like we had this great lesson with one of Elder Muamba's old amis.  His name is Boris.  He used to be a private eye.  He is really smart and dissects everything we give him.  This week we started talking about the fall of Adam and how we all have the ability to choose.  He thought he was so great and agreed with everything we said.  You can tell sometimes that the Lord has prepared people before you get there.  For example, sometimes Boris says thing or asked questions that follow exactly in line with what we are teaching or sometimes things we haven't even taught yet. 

There was also an ami named Edgard who seems to be really progressing.  We had a lesson on the book of Mormon. My companion told me i needed to lead the discussion.  It actually went really well.  It did help that he was so excited that he read all 3 pamphlets we gave him and part of the Book of Mormon.  It seems really interested hopefully we can start teaching his whole family.

Also this week kind has been the week of prayer.  We taught a bunch of lessons on prayer.  We had a great one with Ignace about and we even heard him pray for the first time.  It was pretty neat.

This week i haven't eat anything really weird, i think?  I don't know i found out a few days a go i had been eating dog.  The elders in the apartment didn't even tell me.  It didn't taste that good, it has a lot of fat to it.  We did eat at a recent convert house on Sunday.  She made this huge platter of Spaghetti, fish and hard-boiled eggs.  It was huge.  It kind of cool here often times meals are served in just one bier or bowl and everyone eats out of it.  I kind of like it.

Well everything is going well here. 

Je vous aime beaucoup,

Elder Corey Samuel Kimzey