School in Benin

Mamman!!!
Bonjour Comment vas-tu?  I had  a great week this week too.  Yeah, i think he will need a little more space than i did.  Yeah, i think it is sightly chiller there than here. haha.(speaking about his brother, casey, who got luggage for his mission to Montreal)
Thanks for the photos of casey's graduation.  He seems to be already a true canadien.  Um school is a little different here.  There are  both public and private schools.  They both cost money but public schools are usually cheaper.  Also all the schools of uniforms.  Also it is a
lot harder to graduate because they have to pass a big exam called the BAC.  And if you don't pass the bac you have to redo the last year.  I have heard that people have tried 9 times before recieving their bac.  So when you do recieve it, they usually throw a big party.  Many
people do have their bac though, and sometimes they will go on to the  university which is found in my secteur but it is really far from us.  I can't believe Shane already when through the temple.  When does he leave again?...
My week was great.  We had a baptism on Saturday.  Her name is sophie.  She is really great.  She was so excited she came like an hour before hand.  It was a great baptismal service.  Then sunday, i gave the lesson in primary.  It was pretty fun.  We had about 10 kids in the
primary and 4 or 5 are so young that they didn't even understand what i was saying.haha.  The lesson, that i was assigned, was on the Law of Consecration.  I know, it is pretty tuff doctrine for primary kids.  So i started off talking about that but spent most of the time talking about tithing and fast offerings.  It seemed to go really well.  Thanks for getting the stuff for my campanion.  You know, i'm not quite sure i'm really in desperate need of anything   I'm so used to the food here now that it just seems normal.  I don't know maybe some peanut butter would be nice, or those drink mixes. 
 I love you more
than pie too,
Elder Corey

detorant vs.deodorant

Chère maman,

Comment ça va? ok, I hope you recieved my first email. Does that work?  If not i can totally send another one.  That is great that you found a missionary who can come and give it to me.    I cant believe Casey is graduating already.  Time really seems to fly. Are you doing anything fun to celebrate his graduation?  

I'm sorry that your miamaid lesson didn't go well. haha I feel your pain though, sometimes we plan lessons and we think they are going to go well and they are totally flops.  I guess we just have to try our best and hope and pray.

I like your spritual thought.  I love that chapter too. Have you ever seen the church movie the testaments(we watched it in the mtc) ?  It does a pretty good job at showing that part.  

This week has been really great.  We have been teaching a woman who has decided to get baptized this saturday.  Which happens to be her birthday too. How great is that?  We usually teach her with three other women.  So sometimes it can be kind of a hoot.  Also one of introduced me to maybe my favorite Beninese snack.  It is called ahswanswan(spelled phonetically.)  It is some type of nut that you suck on.  It has a very intresting taste but i like it a lot.  The other women seem to be progressing too and hopefully we become members soon also.

We even now teach one of their brothers.  We had a great first lesson with him.  He started off by telling us that he has some questions for us.  I prepared myself to answer some deep doctrinal questions.  His first question was Can I join your church.  Obvious with a big smile we said yes.  I have to admit, i love questions like that.  So hopefully he we keep doing well also.  I love you more than pie mom.  Good luck with you miamaid class, i'm sure they love your lessons more than you know.  

Je t'aime,

Elder Corey

Bonjour maman,

Sorry for writing so many emails but like usually i have forgotten a few things haha.  First off,  i was wondering if you have sent off a package recently because if you haven't my campanion asked if you could maybe stuff in a few things.  He was wondering if you could maybe put in some old spice "pure sport" detorant( insert mom laughing... deodorant)  and maybe some gilette aftershave.  I know that kind of seems specific but i guess he really like them and you can't find them here.  

Also today, we went to the marché and bought matching african fabrique.  So we are going to all make matching traditional clothes.  So that should be pretty exciting.  I will definetly send you pictures when they are finished.

I love you mom,

Elder Corey

Hey dad,

How are you doing?  Things are going well here.  Last monday we had a family home evening lesson with president weed.  We watched the preisthood session of General conference.  This time, it was pretty great because i could understand the speakers without tons of problems.  

I'm glad that Ashley's fireside went so well.  Carli told me that she seems really excited to go to Nebraska.  I think you are totally right that your prespective on the mission depends a lot on your attitude.  I have noticed how much easier it is when i have a better attitude.  Also it makes it easier to get along with your campanion too.  That is cool that you just got a new sister missionary.  A missionary who used to be here told me that he knows a missionary that is serving in St george.  I forgot her name but he did tell me that she is from paris . 

  I'm sure that casey is going to love a big suitcase. How is he doing getting everything ready?  Also i had a question for you.  What did you used to do for general conference when you were on your mission?  Were you able to watch it?  

That is funny, mom quoted the same scripture.  I will read it when i get back to the appartement.  

My investigators are doing well.  We don't have a lot but we try to concentrate on the ones we have.  It seems to work really well.  Also we went to a funeral yesterday.  One of your amis invited us.  Funeral are kind of different here.  There is a ton of dancing and food.  It is like a genormous party.  Afterword, our ami invited my campanion to talk about the plan of salavation.  It was great, because we got some contacts and handed out a bunch of brouchures.  Well, i hope all is going well there.  I love you a lot dad.  And appreciate all that you do for me.

Elder Corey Kimzey

Bonjour maman,

Comment tu vas?  I couldn't tell you how nice it was to talk to you yesterday.  How great was it too to be able to see one another. 

The backyard sounds like it is going to be awesome.  When does he think he could be able to finish all of that?  It sounds like it is going to be great though.

The whole family seems to be really getting into pickleball.  Carli told me that she even won a racquet.  That is good that carli is trying out tennis too.  It is important to be well rounded.  Please tell her that i used to hit with a 2 handed forehand all the time when i was her age.  

My week was really good.  The baptism went so well.  Even though it was way difficult to get there.  There were enormous puddle everywhere.  Even in some areas water was up to our knees.  The baptism went really went well.  I got to act as one of the witnesses.  Also like i said they just split our branch.  So there was only 30 people there when church started.  But by the end there was around 60.  So not bad.  Right now, i'm studying in Mosiah chapter 2.  

I love you too.  I hope you get the photos that i sent.
 I love you more than pie,

ELder Corey Kimzey

Hey dad,

How are things going?  It was great to talk to you too.  I like that talk too.  I like how Elder Bednar always explains everything so simply.  

I can't believe Wiggins did(sorry correction-he didn't, gotta put that in for Elder Kimzey's dad)  have a good downhill.  OK maybe i could understand that considering i probably would never even try doing that... 

Probably my best spirtual experience this week: was proably when i was reading in Omni and Jarom.  I found some really amazing scripture in there and they were just what i needed. It reminded me of when Our mission president shared with us Omni 1:26.  He told us how we all need to  live the law of concercartion as missionaries.

 Wow, Sister Rencher really did have a miracle.  That is amazing.  Is her family still doing well?  They sent me chritmas cards a long time ago, and i haven't sent them a thank you card back which i feel bad about.  I'm glad that casey is doing well.  He seems to be excited for his mission.  I'm sure he will do a great job. 

I can't believe Alec gets to skateboard on his mission.  I'm sure he is loving that.  That seems to be a mission meant for him.  I will talk to my mission president, i need to write him an email anyways.  I love you too.  It was great talking to you.  I tell my campanion.
 Love,

Elder Corey Kimzey

Short note- Mother's day is this week!

Bonjour maman

ça va bien.  Et chez-toi?  I'm glad that missionary week went well.  It sounds like carli was really a missionary "zélé"

It sounds like vegas was fun also.  Dad and i decide that we are going to try out for Cirque de Soleil when i get back.  haha jk.  

Well, ok i think we are 8 hours or so .  What time is it there right now?  My telephone number is----------------------.  I'm not sure about skyping.  The cyber that we use has cameras but they don't have headphones or speakers.(he said that someone had broken all the headphones, argh)  So i'm not sure how we could make that work. Also, i was wondering if it would just be cheaper to buy the phone credit on my end.  Because i think from my end it is 1 franc per second.  Which means for $1 i can talk for 500 seconds.(quick math-8 minutes)  I'm not sure if that works better.  I could just take out some money and buy phone credit.  What do you think?  Yeah, i will tell him (his companion).  Yeah you can totally write him back.  I asked him and he said you can even write him in english if you want.  

Bon, we aren't really supposed to use any other site than the church's sites.  I'll ask president tommorow because we have a zone conference with him.  

This week has been pretty fun.  We watch general conference this week.  We got to see the saturday afternoon and sunday morning sessions.  It was really good.  We had a few investigators come and they seemed to like it.  I think next week we are going to watch the priesthood session with all the missionary of Benin.  Also, we got a new missionary in our apartment.  His name is Elder Ringle.  He is from Logan.  He is a really nice guy.  We have been trying to help him adjust. We have eaten pate a few times to help him get adjusted.  He seems to like it here.  

Also this next week we have zone conference.  And also i found out today that Elder Dickson  of the Seventy is going to ge coming this month to visit our mission.  He was the one who talked in General Conference.   Sister weed told us today that He has been a general authority for 24 years and that he is going to be realased this next general conference will be released.  

Also we have an investigator that we have been teaching for 2 weeks now, who has really started to progress.  She also has started having other people join our lessons.   So we are really excited for her and hope that she can be baptized soon.  Also we are excited for the two baptism this week too.  

I can't wait to talk to you too mom.  I love you a lot,

Elder Corey Kimzey

Hey dad,

How are you doing?  Things are going pretty well.  I'm really excited to talk to you in a few days.  I think mom and i are going to schedule it so that everyone can be there.  I never did find that cord.  But i think i'm going to go to an electronic shop that is near our house to see if maybe i could pick one up there.  That is great that you got to go to the temple of las vegas with mom.  I heard that temple is very pretty.  I admit that i miss the temple a lot.  When i get back we will definetly have to go the next day.  Yeah, i don't think being an acrobat is very likely for me.  I ask my campanion and he said that he doesn't speak spanish but that you can just write him in english and he can translate it.  

I didn't know that they change the st george ironman into a half ironman.  I would really like to try one of those someday.  The nice thing if i did the st george ironman , i could train on the course even.  That would be fun for us to do that together when i get back.  I have to admit i would probably have to do a lot of training.  

I can't believe that Bishop Sheppard is getting realeased already.  I remember when they put him in.  That is crazy to think that much time has past already. 

yeah, carli has been telling me how she has been doing a bunch of family history work.  I think that is amazing that she likes it so much.  

I like those two quotes that you sent me.  I really like the one by elder Maxwell. I think sometimes people forgot that even good people have hard times.  I always really like what my mission president says.  He says that there are 3 reasons why we have a trial.  1 is because we have sinned.  2 is because there are wicked people around us.  3 because god planned for us to go through it or in essence it just part of life.  He always says that we have to make sure that the reason we are having a trials is because of  the people around us or because God planned it for us.  I find it to be true.

I love you too dad.  I love hearing about your week and all the things that you do. I can't wait to hear from you this sunday.

Elder Corey Kimzey 

a note from kim-
got to call elder kimzey on monday and set up mother's day call- he's sounds great.  He even told me about his greenie from Logan- and that they were trying to help him get accustomed to the food.  He said that the new elder was just eating rice on monday, had an upset stomach from yesterday. But he said he was going to be a great missionary.  Talked to his companion for a second- he sounds awesome, and so funny, a good fit for Corey.  He is talking about coming to america to study at BYU, and he said "I can understand your english, you speak well"  to which I said with a laugh "that's good, since that's what I speak"- huge laugh on the other end of the line...we set up our call for 12:30 utah time, sooooo excited!  Last mother's day call for Elder Corey, then two on christmas (elder corey and elder casey)!!!!