Menontin

Bonjour maman, Comment ça va? ça va bien chez moi. Wow, i can't believe that Casey is already in the MTC. How crazy is that? I was thinking that maybe i should send the letters i would write to him to you and then you could send them to him through dearelder. I remember not having much time to email at the mtc. Would that work? It sounds like your week was pretty crazy. I can't imagine trying to keep a missionary busy for 2 days. That would be pretty hard to do. That is great that casey can go to the temple. I would seriously give an arm and a leg to be able to go. He is pretty lucky. It sounds like the beaver races went well too. Grandpa told me that there were quite a few people there this year for the 24th. Yeah, i have to admit, i was kind of hoping that casey had written, but i'm sure his p-day is either today or tommorow. So hopefully we get a letter soon. Ok, my week has been pretty good. Yeah, I'm still in Menontin. They ended up creating the Branch of Cococodji already. They even found a new building which includes an area that they can do their baptisms. So I'm sure they are really excited. um, i know that we just got a new missionary. I guess he was a big football star back in the states, even signed with stanford, but i haven't got to talk with him. Elder Ringle told me that he seemed to be kind of in shock still. Elder Ringle is doing good too. We get along really well. He is pretty hilarous. Transfers were this last week. So, i think the next transfers will probably be in September. There is probably a good chance that i will be transfered in Sept because i will have already spent 6 months here in Menontin and 12 missionaires are going home and 18 are coming. It is going to be a pretty crazy month haah. Our amis are doing really well. We had our baptism on saturday which went well. That morning, we invite to a retirement party of a member of the church. He was the director of an Elementary school. He asked the church to come and do an hour long program. It was a great oppurtunity to give out some brouchures and book of mormons. It was pretty fun too because after our program the kids came out and danced for him. Afterward, I went with Elder Poll(the assistant), while my campanion went with Elder Owusu, to go pick up our baptismal candiates. The baptism went great. WE had a lot of people there to support our two candiates. But my camera ran out of battery, so another elder took our pictures and promised to send them to me. So it might be awhile before i can send those pictures. I did remember this week to send a picture of Renaud's baptism(which was like the 14.) Also, we have been having good sucess with one of our amis. He actually is our tailor but one day we felt inclined to fix an appointment with him. He accepted. We have been teaching him for a month or so. He is so awesome. He comes to church every week and even invites other people to come to church. He reads the book of mormon even though french is pretty hard for him. He is really amazing. Well, i hope you have a great week mom. I think that after i finish writing you, i'll write casey and send it to you. I love you more than pie, Elder Corey Kimzey

dad, Life is going great here in Africa, hows life back in the states? How was dropping casey off? I remember when you dropped me off that it was so quick. I'm sure he is doing great. I can't wait either to get his first letter. I'm sorry to hear about CJ's campanion. That would be super hard. yeah, your right it is kind of crazy the important of clothing in the scriptures. Like for instance when Potterfer's wife takes the clothes of joseph. There are a lot of instances that clothes are kind of important. I'd never thought of that before. That is cool that you got to learn about George Parkinson. Grandpa told me that John Parkinson came who is kind of an expert in Geneolgy. It sounds like that must of be awesome. I always really liked hearing stories about him. I really hope some day to meet him. Yeah, i think those quotes are great. I like the whole idea that repentance is a life-long process. That really we try everyday to become better. sometimes investigators struggle with that concept because they think that if they believe in christ they are automatically going to return to live with god. Bt i have seen a bunch of times when people start really repenting how much they can change thier lives. It reminds me of an ami who just got baptized. He told us straight up that he didn't respect all the commandments, but that he wanted to do what was right. It was amazing to see him change little by little. That why i like the verb for repentance in french "se repentir." It is a reflexive verb, so in essence to repents oneself. I think that is pretty cool. How has your week been? My week was pretty great. We had a bunch of activity and stuff to do. We also did a split with the assistants. It was pretty fun. I went and spent some time with Elder Owusu. he is from Ghana. We had a lot of fun and taught a bunch of lessons. Also this Thursday we have zone conference. It should be pretty exciting. My campanion and I are going to teach a lesson on Chapter 9 of preach my gospel. Also Thursday is the independence day of Benin. They have already start to party for it. So this week should be pretty great. Well, i love you a lot dad. I hope you have a great week. Elder Corey Kimzey

Weme valley and Claystone...yum!

Maman, Bonjour, Coment vas-tu? This week has been awesome. My companion says that he is doing well but that he doesn't like all the motocyles here. haha. It hasn't rained here as much as usual. Although, it still has rained more here in a week than it probably does the whole year in St. George. Like for example, today we went to the valley of Weneé (or Ouimee).

 It happens to be a one of two valley in the whole world. (huh???)  It was super pretty. I took a bunch of pictures with the help of my campanion. It was goregous. So we decided to do some wondering around. As we were wondering around we happened to end up at a small village. They were excited to see us. So they showed us around their little village. They live on the river bed and they said that when it rains a ton water is up to their chests. And the water even goes into their houses so they have to build pathways in their houses. Talk about amazing huh? Then they took us to the huge river right next to their village. They said that there are prianhas, crocodiles, and all sorts of aquatic animals in the river. So obviously we didn't get in haha. It was amazing. We took tons of pictures.

Thanks for the Semkens for this photo!

 Normally i would send them to you today, but i coming to the cyber i my camera at the house. I will definetly send those pictures next week.
Also this week, we had a baptism this week. It was pretty great. His name is Renaul. He has been an investigator for a long time because he has been so busy, it was hard to have a rendez-vous that held through. But everything worked out. Even, the day after his confirmation he offered to visit people with us. How great is that?
Also i forgot to tell you all about what happened a few weeks ago. I was on a split with Elder Montross who is from Michigan. We were visting a recent convert, when a lady passing was eating something that looked something similar to a gray sandstone like rock. My recent convert asked if we had ever eaten it before. We said no, so she gave us some. We were curious to see what it tasted like considering it looked more or less like a rock. Turns out that totally what it was. It was claystone. As we were eating it, i kept thinking this taste a lot like sand, turns out that is exactly what it was haha. I guess it is a tradition here that eating claystone is good for pregnant women and for health in general. haha. It was a funny experience.
 I have never heard of miracle fruit. Maybe it is here i just don't know how they call it here. It sounds pretty cool. We don't really eat a lot of desert here, just because people here don't tend to eat a lot of sugar. Although, we do have something called Fan Ice which is pretty good. It is kind of like ice cream that they sell in little pouches. It is pretty good. But i think for the most part it is fruit for desert.
 Wow, i can't believe Murray won Wimbledon. I'm sure all the brits were ecstatic. Wow, Bartoli won also. That is crazy. It has been a long time sense a french person has won a major well since Meresmo. The tour sounds pretty exciting too. Wouldn't that be great to see one day? Whos winning?
 Well, thanks for righting me mom. I love you more than pie and i'll make sure to write casey.
  Je t'aime, Elder Corey


 Hey Dad,
Thing are going great here in Africa. How is life back in America? Wow, how luck are you to be able to go to Lake Powell twice in one week? Yeah, i bet going sleeping on the sand was a little different than sleeping on a house boat. But i'm sue it was way fun nevertheless. That is great that Reann is leaving already. How long does she have to stay in the MTC? That is cool casey's fireside is coming up. Who is going to be the missionary from canda who is going to come? That is awesome that the Domans moved back into our ward. They are really great. I like him a lot. He helped me a lot to prepare for my mission. That is great that Ashton got her call. That is quite wierd that she isn't going to the Mexico MTC. I heard even Madi Kimzey is going to the Mexico mtc even though she is serving in America. But who knows how all that works?
 I have to admit, that i have never heard of Miracle fruit. I'll have to ask my companion. He probably knows it. It sounds pretty sweet though. haha. Yeah, i see that often. Some people seem to make everything harder because of their attitude and some people make evferything easier becaus eof thei attitude. That is so cool that Brother Thomas went on his mission having the faith simple that he could feel that same spirit again.
ok, on a more worldly note haha, how is the tour de france? I heard from mom that it has been pretty intresting. Who is winning right now? Also, This week have been reading all the conference talks(because we just got the talks last week.) There were some amazing talks. I love Elder Hollands talk. Also there were tons on missionary work and what we have to do to have real growth in the church. Also I liked President Monson talks also.
 Also this week i have been reading in Helaman and 3 nephi. Helaman was intresting to see how the lamanites chased away the Gadianton Robbers while the Nephites embraced them. After that i read in 3 nephi. It is so amazing to see the way that Christ admistered among the nephites. I loved comparing the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon. It is quite intresting to see the difference. I wonder if it is just because of the translation of the bible that some of those are different or if it because the nephites needed those things. What do you think? Also this week we started English Class. We put up banners to annouce it. We had tons of people promise to come. 3 people showed up haha. But it was good because 2 of them were non members who had no idea about the church. So hopefully, it will keep growing and it will lead to people accepting the gospel. Although, i need to brush up on my english because there are some people in that class who are really strong in English. (insert mom laughing!!!)Sometimes they ask pretty hard questions. Well, Thanks dad.
 I love you and hope everything keeps going well there,
Love,
Elder Corey Kimzey

Catching a bus

Bonjour Mamman,
Comment vas-tu?  How was the lake(considering you'll probably off of it when you read this?)  Did you catch some big air?
(told elder kimzey i was going to start a new scripture study and asked how he marked his scriptures)I have heard that idea before and i hope to try it when i get back. Well, i bought some scriptures  crayons when i was at the mtc.  It came in 6 different colors.  Five of which corresponded with the five missionary lesson ie blue for the first lesson, and there is a red crayon left over that i use to mark scriptures that i like or i think apply to missionary work.  It seems to work for me.  That is great that you have been getting a bunch of missionary  reports.  Cj's mom sent me his report.  It was kind of fun to see the differences.  So my week was a pretty great one.  We hosted a basketball activity.
It was a lot of fun even though i'm pretty sure we lost. haha.  Ok the best story of the week was probably when we were teaching one of our amis.  He has a hard time speaking french but we bring along a members so it usually works out well.  Well, a few lessons ago we talked about the importance to forgive others.  We challenged him to try and
forgive others but afterward i kind of forgot about it.  This week he told us how he has started to forgive others around him and how it has changed his life.  He told us that his wife has even noticed a difference in him.  It was so cool to see how the application of a lesson changed this mans life.  He thanked us a million times.  It was really great.
The funniest part was probably when we did a split on Wednesday.  I was with Elder Montross who is from Michigan.  We were trying to catch a bus.  well, we weren't having much luck.  We were able to call down our first bus easily, but the second bus was diffucult because all the buses were full.  I probably should explain that there are two types
of buses here.  There is the big bus of Benafrique and the smaller "buses" which are more like vans.  The big bus is 300 fcfa and the small ones are only 200 fcfa.  But to get on the little ones you have to yell out where you are going and if they are going there they will stop and pick you up but if not they just continue on their way.  So we were at Etoile Rouge which is probably the biggest intersection in Benin trying to call down buses right around rush hour.  I have
actually  have a lot of practice doing this but we weren't having much luck that day.  Finally an older lady came over and started calling down buses for us.  It was awesome, she would call out for us before calling out for herself.  Eventually we ended up finding a bus, it was super nice of her.  One of the more spiritual experiences was that we have been teaching two guys who seem intrested and seem to progress well.  My campanion asked them a simple question along the lines of What have you done this week to grow nearer to god.  The two explained to us how they actually have been having committing some serious sins but that they want to change their lives.  We asked them how we could help.  they
told us that they just wanted us to continue to  help them understand the word of God.  It was amazing to me to see how much faith they had in the simple fact of hearing the word of God could change their lives.  they seemed to be really progressing.  It made me kind of think about why we are really here.  It is to help people change their lives through the gospel and ordannces.  It was a great experience.  Well, i'm sorry if my letter is a little long this week.  It has been
a great week.  Not much has change in our neck of the woods.  No one is leaving in our district even.  I hope you had a great week.  I can't believe casey only has 2 weeks.  I love you more than pie.
Thank you for everything mom.  Je t'aime,
Elder Corey Kimzey

Hey dad,
I just wrote you a long letter and i hope it go to you but i don't think it did.  so I'll try to write as much as i remember.
How was your week at Lake powell?  It sounds like you guys had a blast.  Yeah, we had another great week this week.  I tried to put some of the details in mom's letter.  The thing that i really noticed this week is how blessed i am.  The fact that i'm able to recieve an education, that i recieved the gospel, and that i have a family that loves me.
It is crazy to see how hard working people are here.  Many of the kinds do odd jobs to be able to pay for their schooling and if they can't go to school they pick up an aprentissage like mechanics, tailors,or barbers.  I bet the saint george pioneers were similar in many ways.  for example, that people here are more concentrated on things that are important like family more than other things.  I wish sometimes that you could just stay here for a week.  I'm sure that you
would love the people. I love you a lot dad. 
well.  Say hi to all the priest for me and Brother Hadlock. 
 I love you,
Elder Corey Kimzey