Service project

Zone Conference- Elder Kimzey , third row, second from left!

Chère Maman,

Comment vas-tu?  That is too bad that the hot tub hasn't been holding water.  I'm sure you'll get it fix.  Also, good to hear that Chelsea is doing well. It is always scary when things like that happen.  

Carli told me all abour her race.  She seemed to be exctatic.  I like that she is having such a good time and is improving so much.  That is too bad that the boys team is a little on the small side.  It is probably because so many people have graduated.  Speaking of XC, have you seen so of my former Xc friends?  How is Trevor , tyson, and Austin doing?  

Wow, that is cool that the new film is good.  What did you think of it?  

I'm glad that your miamaids class is growing.  Yeah, sometimes dating can been a hard subject for girls that young.  Our young men and young women hada lesson on the law of chasity last week.  It seemed to go well.  We heard a lot of laughter as the teacher was explaining that "little kisses" can lead to "big kisses." haha It was pretty funny.

This week has been a great one.  On saturday, we had our mormon serving hands service project.  Do you guys do that too?  We went as a branch to the hospital here in Cococodji to pull up some weeds.  It was pretty hard work.  We had a good turn out of about 80ish member/missionaires.  I spent most of the time using a hoe to take out the weeds.  But hoes here are a little different haha.  They don't have the stick part, so you have to bend down to hoe.  haha  It was a pretty good workout.  It was great also because so of the people in the neighboorhood came to help us out.  They even planned some rendez vous with the missionaries at cococodji.  Cool huh?

Also we had another little miracle this week.  Well, on wednesday, some of our appointments had fallen through in the morning.  So we didn't know exactly what to do.  So we started knocking some doors.  We found so great people .  Then we knocked on a door and this guy comes up and starts talking to us in fon.  So we start communcating with him in half fon/half french.  In his broken french he explain to us that he doesn't worship  God but  worships voodo, but that we should try and talk to the family a few doors down.  So we took his advice and knock on the door of the family just a few doors down.  We ended up finding the whole family of 8 or 9 people home.  We had an amazing lesson with them.  It was amazing to see how God uses "unusual" sources to lead us to people who are ready.  It was awesome because so of the members of the family even came to church on Sunday.

Well, that was my week in general.  Oh except this week we played soccer with some kids in Hévie.  It was pretty fun.  We won 6 to 3.  I even scored a goal.  haha.  I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to send some pictures because the cyber that i use has had some problems with viruses and stuff.  So i'll see if i can but it might be a while before i send a photo.  I love you more than pie mom.  I've been writing with casey.  He seems to be doing great. 

Je t'aime et passe une bonne semaine,

Elder Corey Kimzey

Hey dad,

How are you doing?  LIfe in africa is doing pretty well.  Lately i've been working on my culinary skills so that when i get home i can make you some african food.  Although, some of the ingredients are going to be hard to find.  Do you think we could find casava there?  Happy anniversary too.  Well, we don't really eat cake and ice cream that much.  Sister Weed did make cake for us for Zone leader meeting a few times.  We even ate it with Fan ice which is like ice cream.  How was your anniversary?  That is cool that i'm right next to Will. (in our stake offices there are pictures of all the missionaries serving, and Corey just moved to the top row or five rows!)  How is he doing? 

Wow, i can't believe how fast Jacob ran.  Him and Daniel are like running gods haha.  They seems not to even have to train and they run well.  It is good to here that running is going well for you and mom too.  Are you guys thinking of doing the Painter's half marathon?

That is crazy that Alec got switch to soman.  I imagine that is pretty hard considering he will have to learn it in the field.  Yeah, that would be crazy to have to learn fon or ewe.  It is hard because it isn't much of a written language so it can kind of vary from area to area.

Thanks for the scriptures dad.  Wow, i really like those scriptures on recieveing christ.  I like how they explain how we can recieve christ and the blessings of recieving christ.  The other day, i studied about the rest of God.  It was intresting to see all the instances that God promises that if we respect the commandments that we will enter into the rest of God or in esssence live with him again.  I've always like 3 nephi 27:19-20.  Also i found another in Ecclatise or Ezechiel(i can't remember which)  which talked about how we have to look at the old path we have taken to see if we are on the path that leads to the rest of God. I liked that one too.  Also i have been studying in D&C also a little.  I read some of the section about Oliver Crowdry and the translation of the plates.  I didn't realize that he wanted to translate too.  I had forgotten that.  Also there was so cool scriptures that talked about having to humble oneselve so that God can give us gifts of the spirit.  I thought that was intresting too. 

Thanks dad also for answering my questions.  I think your right that as a missionary the best thing that i could do to help the branch is to help recent converts and members have a testimony.  Hopefully, i'll be able to share that in a our zone meeting tommorow.  Also, i think your right in the fact that one of the best ways to do that is through the book of mormon.  I've seen that many times, that recent converts that read the book of mormon often respect other commandments  That is why they are going to(and have been dong in other branches) French class.  It really helps people to learn french and be able to read the book of mormon.  They even got promission to do it during Sunday School.  It helps a ton. 

This week has been a pretty good one.  We found a lot of new investigators, so hopefully they'll keep progressing.  Also recently we been able to teach whole families.  Which has been hard to find on my mission.  We been teaching a family that a member introduced us too.  He is a pretty funny guy.  He talks a lot but seems to be pretty intrested in our message.

Also we had a funny lesson with this women.  We were explaining the apostasie and she said that she would totally go to the church of Jesus Christ if it was restored on the earth.  Then we explained the restoration.  She then told us that she was going to start coming to our church haha.  It was kind of funny.

Well, i hope all is going well there dad.  I love you a ton.  You are an example for me,

Elder Corey Kimzey

New Branch

Hey Dad,
How has it been going?  I'm been doing pretty good here.  That is cool that you got to give a talk in church.  Yeah, it is hard to make Tithing super exciting.  I'm sure it went well though.  I liked your quote too because often times we explain to our amis that if they pay our tithing that God will take care of them financially   But i think Elder Irvins is right in the fact that that shouldn't be our attitude towards tithing but we should do it because we wont to help the church grow.
This week, I got to bare my testimony in church.  It went well.  It is interesting to be in a new ward.  A lot of new faces, although i do know a few because they used to come to Menontin.  It is interesting that they translate a lot of parts of the service in Fon(native language.)  It helps a lot for people who don't speak french.  Did you have have a problem on your mission of people not being able to speak spanish?  It is pretty cool to hear it.  Although, i understand only a little of what they say in Fon. I wonder if one day they will have Fon branches.
The branch is pretty new, but pretty strong already.  The branch president is a great guy and helps the branch so much.  He does a lot of stuff for the branch.  Sometimes it is hard because we don't have microphones or chalkboards but i'm sure that will come soon.  Almost everyone in our branch are recent converts, it is pretty crazy.  But even though they are recent converts they do a great job.  Also this week, we have our mormon hands service project on Saturday.  We are going to go pull a bunch of weeds for the youth home(similar to a YMCA) of Cococodji.  It should be pretty fun.
It sounds like the Tour of Utah was amazing.  Is it already finished?
Who won/is winning?  I can't believe how fast they are riding.  Are they pro riders?
That is great that you stayed over for the ward campout.  I remember we usually went home early haha.  That is great that you had a good turnout too.
Well, i had a question for you, dad. What is the best thing that you think a missionary could do to help his branch/ward and his bishop?  I thinking i'm going to do a lesson on that soon and was wondering what you think.
Well, i love you a ton dad.  I hope you have a great week. 
 I love you, Elder Corey Kimzey

Bonjour maman,
Je vais très bien et toi?  yeah, time is really flying.  Sometimes it suprise me how quick it has gone.  yeah, i always thought the 7th lap
was similar to the 8th in the fact that you have to give it all you It sounds like Mary poppins was cool.  They always seem to put on a good production.
I remember that Bro Doman told us about the helman club.  It sounds like that would be pretty awesome to do.
Reponse:
my new area is good.  it kind of in the outerskirts of cotonou.  So it can get pretty dusty.  We don't have a ton of amis but we do have a few.  Although, we have maybe 2 members.
So we usually take a bus, a taxi, or the assistants take us(since they are in the same apartement) to go to church.  It usually takes a good 15 minutes by car.
my apartement is a new one, so it is pretty fancy.  We dont even have
to sleep with mosquito nets because they installed them on the doors
and windows.  Cool huh?
This week it hasn't rained. Super cold though.  It has kind of been freaking people out, because the cold weather has lasted longer than usual.  It is kind of suprising.  I even got a cold sore it has been so cold haha.
I do,as zone leader, a lot of similar things that i did before.  We
are mostly incharge of doing some meetings and solving problems when they come up.  We have 12 missionaries in our zone(6 at Calive, 4 at Cococodji, 2(us) at cocotomey.)  It pretty fun because we are all in realtivily new secteurs.  I like all the missionaries in my zone a lot.  They work hard and seem to get along pretty well.  We just had a transfer so some of them should be switching out.  So it should be fun to get to know some other missionaries too.  oh, also my old companion, Elder Gomun, just got called to be the new assistant.  So he is going to be coming to our apartment soon.  We were only apart for like one week haha.  He is a really good missionary so i'm sure he'll do a good job as assistant.  Also i was talking to Elder Mundu(my companion who talked with you guys on mother's day), he told me to say hi to the whole family for him.
This week was a pretty good one.  Today, we went to the zoo near Porto Novo as a zone. haha.  It was pretty funny.  We got to see some aligators, gila monsters, bamboons, and lions.  It was kind of scary with the lions because their enclosing did seem that sure.  It was an 8 foot concrete wall with steel bars over the windows.  And then the tour guide started harassing the lions hoping that it would roar at us, but instead he just charged us a few times haha.  It was scary, but fun.  I got some good pictures too. This week we had some good lessons.  We had a great lesson with one ami who has been hesitant to fix a baptismal date.  We had a great lesson on how we can recieve answers to our prayers.  We talked about
how sometimes it is hard for us to recognize when Heavenly Father answers our prayers, if we don't pay attention.  She talked about how much her life had changed and how maybe that was an answer for God.  She said she was going to keep praying about it but she seems to be progressing.
Well, thanks mom for another email.  Can't believe how quick the time is going!  Thanks for being such a great mom.  I know that you have helped me so much to be the missionary that i am. 
 i love you more than pie,
Elder Corey KImzey

Transfers to Cocotomey

I don't usually post letters to elder kimzey's sister- but this was pretty cute...
  Chère ma soeur qui est bonne, douce, gentille, et intelligente,(My dear sister who is good, sweet, kind, intelligent,)
Comment tu vas? I'm doing good. How was XC camp? It sounds like it was a blast. I don't think i have ever done a nerd war. What is it exactly? That is great that you ran so much. I liked playing volleyball too. I think my team was similar to your team. We did pretty good most of the time. How is running going? Are you having a lot of fun?
 My week was good. I just got transferred. I have a new campanion whose name is Elder Mukenge. My old campanion told me to say hi to you. He always appreciated that you ask how he was doing. I have learned a lot of new things lately. I just finished the Book of Mormon which was great. It really is the word of God. My investigators are doing good. We just met a new family because of a girl about your age started coming to church.
 Ps I love you more than pie too.
 pps i like the lion king.
 pppsI'm not sure i have a favorite disney character.
pppps i really liked my senior year of running.
ppppps I like the state track 3200m my senior year. That race i felt like i really gave it my all. Have you every felt like that?
pppppps i started runnning when i was around 13. But did it off and on until my freshman year.
Je t'aime,
 Elder Corey Kimzey

Dad,
 Yeah, i agree. The majority of the time JST and 3 nephi correspond, which probably means a translating issues. although, it is true that sometimes things are uniquely said in 3 nephi which probably means a message issue. How are you doing dad? I didn't get an email from you this week. I hope all is going well. This week has intresting with all the transfers. Although, at the begining of the week we had some great lessons. We have working hard with some of our recent converts. It is amazing how great they are. One told us that he was kicked out where he was living because the propertaire didn't like that he was going to our church. But luckly he found another place to stay. It is crazy how much faith people. People amaze me everyday. So now i'm serving in a new-created secteur? Did you ever get to serve in an area that was realitivly new when you were a missionary? I'm excited to work with my new campanion too. He seems like a really nice guy and an amazing missionary. The transfers were this morning so we have been together for a few hours and we have been having a good time so far. Also now i'm living in the same apartment with the assistants. Elder Poll and Elder Owusu. Elder Poll is from Mesa, Arizona and Owusu is from Ghana. They are both pretty funny guys. So it should be tons of fun, but they aren't home very much because they have so meeting and they have to travel back and forth to Togo. How has the ward been doing? How many missionaries are out now?
 Well, dad i love you and hope you have a great week. Elder Corey Kimzey


 Bonsoir maman,
Comment vas-tu? Je vais bien. Also, this week i sent you casey's letter. It seemed to work pretty well last time. Yeah we have been kind of in a draught. I has been pretty cold but not much rain. Which is kind of hard since electricity is created by rivers here, so they have been having a hard time gettin enough electricity. But in general we have electrcity. I usually get emails from Dyllen(which is always cool to see the similarities in our missions), jessica stone's, cj's, shane's, reann's, and casey's. I would like to hear the reader's digest version of Logan's. Also i haven't heard for Kendall in a long time. I hope he is doing well too. Ok, I'll keep you posted on the package. Also i'll make sure to write to carli about running too.
 My week has been quite an adventure. haha. On thursday, we had our zone conference. So my campanion and I did a lesson on how to find people to teach. It went really well. We talked about the importance of members. Then president Weed talked about how God has prepared people for us to teach that we just need to find those people. Overall it went really well. Then that night at like 9 pm we got a call from the assistants. It turns out that i got transferred. So now, I'm in Cocotomey. I'm going to be working with Elder Mukenge as zone leaders. He is from the Congo and is about to go home in 5 weeks. So it will be great to learn from him. Also Cocotomey is a newish secteur in a brand new zone. It is kind of on the outskirts of Cotonou. So from now on i will be going to the new branch in Cococodji. I'm pretty excited, i have to admit it was pretty hard to leave menontin though. I will definetly miss the members and my amis there but i know God has a reason for putting me in this new secteur. Also this week, we had a pretty good show for english class, around 15 people. I was pretty suprised. It pretty crazy to see all the people who wanted to learn english. Also, we had some great lessons this week. We started teaching a familly whose daughter was invited to church by a member. The mother at first seemed to be listening just to be nice, but as we continued our lesson about the restoration seemed to hit home. I could tell in her facial experissons that we were teaching something that seemed fimilar to her. It reminded me of what Boyd k packer said in Preach my gospel. That the things we teach aren't new to our investigators because they were thaught it in the pre mortal life.
 I love you too mom.
 Je t'aime plus que la tarte,
 Elder Corey Kimzey