No Halloween in Benin

Bonsoir maman,
ça va bien, et chez-toi? Time is flying by. I can't really believe
how fast my mission has gone by. I'm almost at my 20 month mark.
Yeah, i'm sure that it will speed up for casey around a year.
That is too bad that DH won state. Well not too bad for them, but
that would of be cool if we would of won. That is great that Byron
took second though. He has become so fast.
The weather is doing well. We got some rain so that helped a little.
This week it has been super hot and pretty dusty. But it is a good
thing that i like the heat. haha But it seems like the crops are
doing well.
That is so great that your mia maid applied what you were teaching.
I'm sure many of the others are listening and applying the lessons
too.
Wow, you guys month is going to be crazy. We just started scouting
here a few month ago. We haven't started yet in our branch but i know
some of the branches do it. that is cool that the church has been
doing scouting for 100 years. Wow, i can't believe also that dad is
about to hit his 7th tithing settlement(numéro sept, ou on peut dire
septième.)
Reponse:
1. How is teaching this week?This week was a great teaching week. On saturday, one of our amis
got baptized. She is amazing. She is one of my favorite
investigators. She is the one that i often write about. She is
great, she reads 2 chapters in the book of mormon everyday and tells
her sister what she learned in church so that her sister will come one
day. Now her sister has even accepted a Book of Mormon.
The amazing lesson i had this week was actually with an old
investigator. She actually was an ami of mine when i was in
Fidjrossé. When I was in Fidjrossé, she wasn't ever very intressed in
listening to our lessons(because she had her own church), but she did
love cooking for us. haha. But her sisters were super intressed, so
we kept coming, and after awhile we become great friends with her and
her family. But after a while even her sisters stopped progressing,
so we didn't visit them as much and then i was transferred. About 2
weeks ago, we were walking to our next rendez-vous, when this lady who
was a ways away started calling us over. As we got closer, i realized
that it was the same investigator that i had taught in Fidjrossé. So
we set up an appointment with her, for the upcoming week. When we got
there, she was so happy to see us. She told me how much she
appreciated our visits when i was in Fidjrossé. That all of her
family considered me of their friends. And For maybe the first time
she really took the time to listen to us. She explained to us that
she had left her old church, because of problems with the pasteur.
She then told us that she thinks that this is her time to join the
church. That God is showing her that she needs to join our church.
It was crazy to see how much she had changed. It made me realize that
God prepares everyone at different times. And that even if someone
isn't intressed today, maybe they will be one day.
2.  What is your favorite new french word that you have learned?

Well, that question reminded me of an experience the other day. So
we went to our amis' house who is a college student. She was doing
her math homework. She asked me if i could help her. I realized at
that moment that i had a lot of work on my math skills before i get
home. It was a question talking about metal producing companies, it
had tons of french terms that i have never used.haha So that was fun
to learn some new french. Also Elder Gomun teaches me a lot of French
words too. ONe word i learned from my amis' math homework was lot
which means something along the lines of type.
3.Carli wants to know how you acheived your level of awesomeness

Tell carli yes, i have acheived my level of awesomeness haha. I

don't know if i have acheived that or not. I hope to achieve that
someday.
4.  What is the best thing about your companion?My campanion is super funny. He is always joking around. Also he

is way relaxed and chill. I love him a lot.
5.Did people in your apartment change? Who is there now?nope, It is still Elder Rav, Elder Gomun, ELder Poll, and me

Well, i love you mom. I hope you have a great week. I tried to send
you a photo again, but it didn't work again. Maybe next week. I love
you more than all the pie, even Pumpkin pie, and all the haloween
treats you can eat,
Elder Corey Kimzey


Hey dad,
This week in Africa was great. How was your week? We are teaching quite of
few people. We have quite of few new amis, and some really good ones. We
have an investigator who is awesome. She reads a ton.
The missionary who contacted her gave her the book of mormon and she loved
it from the start. The other week she called us to tell us that she read in
the book of mormon about the urium and thumim(i have to admit i was a little
nervous when she said that) and that she crossed referenced it with things
in the bible. She said that she thought that was really intressed. I have
to admit i was amazed about how much she understood it already. This week we
gave her the brouchure:
Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. She told us that she loved it.
Then she explained to us that she thought that so people might have a
problem with the idea that an angel(angel moroni) could visit a person. So
she had found some scriptures for us in the bible to help people understand
that. It is the first time for me to have an investigator who searches
scriptures to convince other people. She is really amazing. I hope she'll
kept progressing.
It sounds like you guys are really busy this week. No, we don't celebrate
halloween here. The other day i tried to explain it to my campanion. He
thought it was a pretty awesome and funny.
Wow, i had no idea that the Kirtland temple cost so much money. That must
of been hard when many of them had to move to Missouri. That is awesome
that President Woodruff wore a white deerskin outfit. I always liked seeing
everyone in white. I'm so glad that i had a bunch of time to go to the
temple before my mission. I know some missionaries in our mission who went
through for the first time at the MTC and got to go maybe 2 or 3 times
before coming on their mission.
Well dad, i love you and i hope you have a great week, Elder Corey Kimzey

District conference

Bonsoir maman,

Nothing much, how about you dog? haha. Wow, i can't believe XC season is over already. Did both the girls and guys make it to state?
Holy cow, 800 pavers is a ton. I'm sure that will look cool when you have finished.
I totally know the talk you are talking about. I don't know why but we have a copy in our appartement. It is really great. I like the part about how there were some poor people in germany after the war
who people thought joined the church just for the food, but it turned out most of those people stayed active in the church.
1. District conference was awesome! Elder Vinson of the seventy was there. He is from australia. I think he even talked in General Conference this last time. He is amazing. He invited all of the amis
and new converts to come an hour early so that we could have a special meeting for them. Him and President Weed talked in that meeting. Then the actual meeting followed right after. The talks were great.
Sister Weed gave a great talk about how primary songs can influence our testimony. Then President Weed talked also about how we need the Holy Ghost in our life. Then Elder Vinson came up. They had invited
one of the members of the district presidency to come and translate for him. But Elder Vinson gave most of his talk in French. He explained that he wanted to practice his french. He did a great job.
He started off by telling everyone that he feels like here in Benin more people need to pay there tithing. That God is holding back blessings because certain people are paying there tithing. Then he went on to talk about what he feeling the members in Benin need. Then he shared a great story about how with Elder Oaks he had to choice a stake president and how humble Elder Oaks was. It was a great conference. It was fun to see some of my recent converts too.
2. Yeah we had 21 missionaries come in. So a lot of new trainers. Nothing changed in our apartement. But it was nice they added two more missionaries at Calavi, so we are back up to 12 missionaires in the zone. One is even Tahtian, the first tahtian elder in our mission.
3. Well, it is pretty hot. We are heading straight into the hot season. IN early December it should start getting more windy because the winds come off the sahara desert, but right now it is mostly just hot. Although, today it rained so that was pretty nice.
4. Our amis are doing great. We have a new ami that i think i told you about that loves the book of mormon. This week, we started talking about Lesson 1 and talked about the apostasy. It seemed to really strike home. She told us about how she used to be part of a church but she doesn't go there anymore because she knows that they don't follow the bible. She said she visits a lot of church but has yet to find a church that is true. We didn't have time to continue but hopefully next time we will get to talk about the restoration.
Well, i love you a ton mom. I hope you have a great week.
I love you
more than pie,
Elder Corey Kimzey



DAD,
...
You know, i can't think of anything right now that you can do, but i'll think about it. I have to admit that being here makes me realize how much i take for grant it and maybe how lazy i was. Sorry about that. People are
hard workers here. Like for instance, as we were going to district conference we saw one of my recent convert from Menontin. It turns out that he had showed up at the church at Menontin because he had forgotten that it was district conference. So he decided he was going to walk all the way to
Cadejohoun(which is across town) because he couldn't afford to the transport. But fornuatly we found him as he was walking. 

 So I know you would like to help but maybe the best thing to do is just to continue to
pray for them. I have a feeling that there are going to be some great changes here in Benin and that the church is going to keeping growing.
Wow, i can't believe you've been a bishop for almost 7 years already. I remember when you were called it feels like it was yesterday. How is everyone doing in the ward? Yeah, i totally agree that we have to ask people to do hard things. Even Elder Vinson said that in his talk in District Conference. He said that he knows that it will be tough for people to pay there tithing but the lord will bless them if they do. Yeah, i have noticed too that sometimes we teach people who seem to be perfectly content will life, but as we explained to them what they are missing out on, or the commandments that they need to respect they seem to find more joy than they had before and seem to feel a void that they didn't even know that they had.
I know what you mean about how people take my words very seriously. The other day we were teaching a guy who was having a hard time understanding the priesthood. I said something along the line that God
doesn't want people to attach themselves to a church because of miracles, but God wants that people attach themselves to the church because of their faith. I didn't think it was anything spectacular, but the investigator
looked at me and said that is amazing. He took out a notebook so that he could write it down word for word and share it with his friends. Even sometimes i feel the spirit prompt us to promise things that seem highly
miraculous but come true. For example we promised a lady who wanted to get baptized but had finincal problems that lead her to do sin. But we promised her that if we fixed a baptismal date and she worked towards it she would find an answer. When we promised that i had know idea how God was going to help her but i knew he would. You know what, her business took off, like never before. She sells enyams on the side of the road. More people come to her then ever before, she has even expanded to sell other things now. I know that God blessed her because of her faith.
This week we have been having a ton of fun and doing a lot of service projects. The assistants invite us to help them clear out a lot in there secteur. It turned out to be more like a small jungle haha. It was super fun. We had machatis and hoes and we cleared out a good part of it. It was prettyfun. I'm hoping to be able to send a picture of it. Also we got to help one of our amis who sells charcoal. We divided up all the charcoal by size. It was great because we usually just teach her husband. It was great to be able to talk to her. We even got to talk to her a little bit about the book of mormon and got to know her better.
Well i love you dad. I hope you have a great week. I'm having a great time.

 I love you a ton, Elder Corey Kimzey

Service and teaching

Bonjour, maman
Comment ça va?  Moi, je vais très bien.  Yeah, you totally said that
correctly.  I heard that the new pergola looks good.  I can't wait for
the pictures.  I like the idea of the fireplace, it would be fun to
roast marshmellows with it.  That is great that carli is running so
well.  She is improving so much... It is wierd to think that she is that old
already.  Yeah, you kind of had to tease her haha.
Thanks for the quote.  I think it is so true that we have to always
try and do the best with the time we are given.  Speaking of Young
Womens, this week the young women president asked to help her with her
lesson during the third hour.  So Elder Welch and I sat in on her
lesson.  It was on how can i cultivate a christ-like love.  It was a
pretty good lesson.  It made me think about how you told me that you
had done a similar lesson a few weeks ago. How cool is that that even
though we are on two different parts of the world the lessons are the
same and the apply to everyone.
Answers:

1.  Haven't got any pictures lately????  

  yeah sorry about the pictures.  i keep forgetting my camera at the house.  I'll try to bring it next time. 

2. got an email about the problems in benin with sending packages, so I'm going to send a large envelope instead of a box, any requests for you last african xmas?  Yes, I need to send it soon so that you will get it, crazy! 

i don't know.  i would like maybe a note from the family i think that would be great. 

 4.  Tell us about a great teaching moment this week...Well, this week i thought a lesson that was pretty intresting was one we had on tuesday.  We have been teaching a family and just recently a few of the neighboors have been assisting too. Usually the 

husband translates for the others because they don't speak much

french.  When we showed up, the husband was there.  He had got called
into work, so that left us with the three women who didn't speak  a
ton of french.  But they really wanted to do the lesson nevertheless.
so i was kind of worried how they were going to understand one
another.  So as we started we tried to be as clear as possible.  The
miraclesously they totally understood us.  I thought that was pretty
amazing.  They even we're able to answer our questions.  I thought
that was pretty amazing.
 5.  Do you teach gospel essentials on sunday? 

So, gospel essentials is a pretty full class.  Usually we have

around 30 or so people who come.  This week happened to be my turn to
teach.  So i taught about christ church in the past.  We happened to
have a lot of people there.  It also helped that the second conseulor
in the branch presidency translated for me in Fon.  Because at the end
he bore his testimony about how he knew the church of christ is
restored again on the earth.  That really invited the spirit into the
lesson.

6.  What did you do today for pday? 

Well today p-day was pretty boring.  I was my clothes.  I had a
ton of laundry to do.  Also we cleaned the apartement.  Then we went
out to eat at the cafertria of a recent convert.  So not a ton of
exciting stuff.  We are hoping to go to Ganvié soon.  It is the city
which was built on a lake.  That should be pretty exciting. 

7.  My lesson next week is on service, any missionary stories that I could use?  Do you do service for member/non members there? 

That is really funny because this week we have had a bunch of

service activities.  Often times we help people clean or cook.
Especially cooking.  Even someone told me the sauce i made was
delicous although, all i did was follow the mom's instrucions. haha.
Service helps a lot because it lets people see that we just normal
people who are here to serve.  Also the other day my campanion and i
worked at a corn mill(i think that is what you call a moulin à maïs.)
One of our amis owns one, so she let us work there.  My campanion ran
the mill while i was incharge of cooling the corn by turning in with a
bowl.  It was a ton of fun.
Well, i love you a ton too. Even more than all the pie in the world
Elder Corey Kimzey

Hey dad,
Things are going great here, how are things over there?  The branch is
progressing really well.  We had 3 baptism in our branch this week and i
think at the end of the month we have like 6 or 7 more.  Also we are really
excited that district conference is coming up this week so maybe we can get
more melchizedick priesthood holders.  It will be nice because i think we be
able to an Elder Quorum presidency, sunday school presidency, etc.  But we
actually don't live that close to the branch.  We live at Atrokpocodji near
Cocotomey while the branch is a good 6 to 7 kilometers away at Cococodji. So
they have been thinking about maybe creating a group closer to us.  Which
would be super nice.
congrats on finishing the pergola.  Was it just you, mom, and carli who did
it?
That is too bad that those missionaries died. Lately, sister weed has really
been stressing safety.  So i'll make sure to stay safe.
Thanks for the scripture dad.  I definetly keep working hard so that you can
live haha.  I like that scripture because it is kind of a direct promise if
you work hard , God will forgive you.
Also by the way, i got the email about the line of autority.  Thank you for
that.  Also early i had sent an email to the church asking for it. They
didn't have it complete.  They had though that you were ordained April
25,2004.  Thanks, i think i'll probably print it off so that i can have a
copy with me at all times.
It sounds like football is getting pretty intense.  Who is number one right
now?  I can't believe that Kyte can already go on a mission.  He seems so
young.  How is his brother and sister doing in Japan?
Wow, i can't believe Nick is back already.  I remeber when he left.
That is definetly wierd to think about.  That is so great that the Sawtelles
did so well on family feud.  That is crazy.  Lately, i have some intresting question that my
investigators have been asking.  For instance, one of our amis asked if God
forgave David and if David went to heaven?  It was our first visit with this
ami, so we just told him that we would look more into it and try to answer
it the next time.
Although, i found some intresting things in DCs about it. And also in the
translation of the Bible by Joseph Smith.  It is a kind of hard to example
that to an new investigator but maybe we will try to help him understand at
a basic level.  But this week i had been studying a lot in Preach my gospel
Chapter 13.  I was trying to come up with some ideas, so that our branch
could keep progressing.  I have always liked the part by President Hinckly
where he talks about the thing a convert needs.  Also i have always found
intresting the letter he said he recieved where a woman explain how diffcult
it is to be a recent convert.  Being "born in the church" i never had
thought about how hard that would be to adjust to the new vocuablary,
traditions, and etc.  Also it gave me a good idea to do a branch activity
where we watch the restoration or the testaments.  So hopefully we are going
to be doing that soon.
Also speaking of working with the branch, this week we had a ton of
rendez-vous planned on Saturday, so we invited two young men to help us.  So
we did an exchange so that we could visit all the people.
well, lets just say it didn't go exactly as planned haha.  Every single
rendez-vous we had planned fell through.  But it did get an occacison to
talk to the young man about serving a mission.  He is 18ish and has only
been baptized for 6 or 7 months but already has a huge desire to serve a
mission.  It was pretty fun to talk to him about how great a mission is and
to share some advice and experiences.
It made me realize just how awesome my mission is.  But luckily the last
rendez-vous was there.  We were talking about the priesthood with one of our
amis who is going to be baptized soon and her friend.  Her friend didn't
really want to accept the fact that all the churches don't have the autority
of the priesthood.  But then our ami said something that i felt was pretty
deep.  She said something along the line of that the reason she(her friend)
couldn't believe that the priesthood was in the church was because her
friend had never been to church.  She then said if her friend had been to
church she would've seen the priesthood in action and she would know that it
was true.
That really made me think about how we really need to make sure that all we
do reflects that the priesthood has been restored.
Well dad, i love you a lot.  Thanks for always been there for me. 

 I love you and think you are the best dad.Elder Corey Kimzey 

5 months left...I'm really hitting my stride

Bonjour maman,
Comment ca va?  I'm doing great.  Yep, we have power and my amis are
doing well too.
Wow, it sounds like carli ran so well.  She is really improving.  I
can't believe she cut around 9 minutes off her time.  That is too bad
that she's not sure about  track.  I kind of thought
that my freshman year too. But it was during track that i really
learned how to run.  Maybe i try to encourage that in my email with
her.  I'm sure she'd love track. I would love to see her too.  LIke
you said Crazy to think that i'll could  be home for that.  Actually,
today i have 5 months left.  wow.
I heard for multiple people that conference was great.  Even someone
told me that it was many one of the best conferences yet.  We had two
of the seventy who serve in our area president talked.  Elder
Dube(from Zimbawe) and Elder Vinson(who is from Australia)  so i'm
excited to read their talks.  Yeah,  i have to admit that i think that
now is the time that i feel like i'm really hitting my stride as a
missionary.
Answers
1.  Do you think that you will stay in Benin for the rest of the mission?
     I kind of hope to stay in Benin.  I have spent most of my mission
here.  So i'd like to stay here.  Supposely the next transfer is in
Nov or Dec, so i think i'll be here for a while.
2 Maggie and Sammy want to know if you have seen a giraffe (but not in a
zoo)?.No i have never seen any giraffes at the zoo nor in the wild.
3.   Maggie says hi! Say hi to maggie for me too.
4 btw- cj's date changed to come home to december 14th!
Wow, that is coming up.  The other day i found out that the group
right before us just got their flight plans.  How crazy is that?
5.  do you get to watch conference this week?
 no, i think we will probably watch it in novemeber.  We do have
our district conference coming up.  We are pretty excited for that
because we have a lot of people who are going to receive the
Melchizedek priesthood.
This week has been a pretty good one.  I think one of the best lessons
was one we had with one of amis who has been coming to church for a
while.  I think i've talked about her before, she the one who asked if
all the pasteurs have the autority of God.  So, she was telling us
about how she would like to be baptized but she doesn't know if she
could respect all of the commandements.  So we started talking about
what problems she could face and how itwould be hard.  So we decided
to read 1 nephi 3:7.  She was touched by that scripture and then we
told her that we were going to fix a goal and if she turned toward God
he would help her so that she could get baptized.  She gladly accepted
and she to be pretty excited about it.  It is pretty amazing how when
we show to God a little bit of faith he helps us to be able to do what
we need to do.
So things are going well in general.
  I love you a ton mom.  even more
than pie.  Je t'aime,
Elder Corey Kimzey

 Hey dad,
yeah, i got your email there is no worries.  Thanks for all the conference
quotes.  It sounds like Conference was great.  I'm doing good.  Yeah it was
kind of wierd to see my campanion going home.  but i love my new one too.
He is great.  He is from Madgascar.  It is the first malgasy campanion for
me.  He is going to go home about the same time as me.  He is thinking of
going to BYU though, so you'll get to see him if he goes there.
That is wierd that you had to go to conference by yourself.  But i just had
a wierd thought: atleast the next one we can go together.
Did i tell you also that Logan sent me an email to tell me that President
and Sister Weed happened to visit the ward he is serving in?
President Weed had to go back to the US to take care of a few medical
things so i guess he went to the same ward as Logan.  What a small world?
That is too bad that Byu beat USU.  I guess there is always next year.
But it seems like we say that every year haha.  That is cool that Stanford
won again.  We have a missionary here who is going to play football for
stanford after his mision.  He is a big guy. I hope he can keep in shape so
that he can still play for them afterward.
That is great that carli did so well.  She is improving so much.  I also
heard that Coach holt ran really well at the St; George marathon.
I like your quote on controlling your thoughts.
This week has been going well. This week we had a whole family come to
church.  It was great.  The husband usually comes to church but the rest of
the family usually can't come because they don't have a way to get to
church.  But this last week he bought a motorcycle so that his whole family
could come to church. It was great to see everyone there.
I think he leaned over and told me like 4 times,"did you see that my wife
came to church today?"  He was pretty excited.  And now they are planning to
get married soon.  Also it was great to see what an effect church can have
on the wife.  Before she wasn't very intrested but after church she asked us
if we could send over a book of mormon, so that she could read.  It is
amazing how church attendance can help.
Well dad, i love you a lot.  Good luck for your spritual thought. I think
this week i might have to give a talk in Church. So that should be
intresting.  The branch is going well.  We kept expanding each week.  The
leaders in our branch are great.  We have quite a few couples who need to
get married but they help us a lot with them.  Our branch is great too,
because we have mostly recent converts so the recent converts get a lot of
oppurtunites to participate, so they tend to stay more active.  Well i love
you dad.  Thanks for all that you do.
Have a good weektoo.  I love you,
Elder Corey Kimzey

Baptisms and a wedding

Maman,
Comment va la meilleure mère du monde entière?  Yeah, we had two
baptisms this last saturday.  It was a great baptismal service.  It
was the first one ever at Cococodji and we had 7 people who got
baptized.  It was awesome to see because 4 were from the same family.
They have been coming to church for a few months now, but couldn't get
baptized because they need to get married first.  So they got married
on Friday and baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday.  How
awesome is that?
 ok... missionary advice... ok well that was maybe one of the hardest thing
at the beginning of my mission.  We would teach people who would love
talking to us but they would never come to church.  And since they
never came to church they couldn't progress. So I learned that we had
to be a little direct with those people and explain to them why we
were really here.  Many people think that we are like the evanqlic
churches who are there just to spread the "good news" but they don't
understand that our message is actually different.  That in fact we
are there to help they make ordiances and come back to christ through
his restored authority.  So often, when people don't progress, we
explain to them our missionary objectif, or c'est à dire the reason
why we come and teach them.  Often time i find that that helps people
hold commitment better.  And if that doesn't work we usually have to
leave them a lone for a while and teach people we are ready right now.
I have to admit that that is one of the hardest parts of the mission
when people don't progress.  It probably one of the things that hurts
the worst.  Beacause i want them to progress, but they don't want to
progress.   Also i found that praying helps a lot.  It seems
to help me.
It sounds like carli did great this week.  That is crazy that it was
only 38 degrees considering here it is around 85.  Yeah that is crazy
to think that casey and i speak the same language but are in two
cultures totally different.
One of my favorite christlike atributes is serving and loving i guess.
I think i could always be a little more patient.  It is probably one
thing i could always work on.
1.  Do you eat the same kinds of food in your new secteur?
I notice that i tend to get more traditional foods here. haha.  I
have now gotten to the point where i can make pate.  So prepare a lot
of cornflour when i get home and we'll have a pate party haha.  It is
pretty wierd now, when people ask me if i want pate , rice,or
speghatti i usually choose pate haha.  I guess i'll have to adjust
when i get home.  Also lately i have been eating more gari.  Which i'm
not sure how to explain.  But it is pretty good.
2. Do you teach mostly in French?  Or in native?  if so, how since there are not many members?  We teach mostly in french.  Most people we teach have at least a
basic understanding of french.  Most of them speak really well.
Although sometimes we do teach people who don't speak french.  That is
when we ask a member to translate.  And if there isn't a member we ask
one of the kids to translate.  Although, the last option isn't the
best because sometimes the kids translate weirdly.
3.  How do you figure out where people live since I'm guessing there are no street signs?  Yeah, here in Benin there are no street signs.  There are in Togo
but no one uses them. haha.  So often they indicate to us something
that is close to where they live usually a school, a hotel, a
bar/restuarant, or a pharamice.  Then when we get there we call them
and they come and show us where there house is.  It works pretty well.
4. We saw a tv show on a pro cyclist team from africa, do people ride bikes in benin?  Are they road bikes or mtn with dirt roads? I don't see a lot of bike riders.  A lot of people do ride motorcycles though. I have seen a few cyclist, but none that looked
very serious.  I  have mostly seen road bikes.
5.  Did you get to see the wedding?  Tell us all about it...We did get to go to the wedding.  My companion knew two of the
couples well so we got to go.  It was super fun as usual.  There were
4 couples who got married.  Two of the couples were already members of
the church and the two grooms happened to be brothers.  Then there was
one couple who were investigators who then got baptized the next day.
And the other couple was from another church.  But they said they were
intrested in talking with the missionaries.  Cool huh?  It was pretty
fun.  Most of the service was done in Fon so i didn't understand
anything but thats ok. haha.  I did take some pictures though so that
was great.  The cermony mostly goes as follows the mayor of hèvie
talks to the couples about the marriage laws of benin(like the fact
that plural marriage was discontinued in 2006 i believe), then the
mayor asked the couple and the witness if they are in accordance with
the wedding.  Then there is the exchange of rings and the exchange of
vows probably my favorite part.  Then the mayor talks so more and then
we take pictures.  It is pretty simple and sweet.  Also usually the
couples come in some pretty sweet traditional african clothes so that
is also great too.
6.Going to send a package this next month for xmas (that's crazy!)  any  requests???I have to admit we ahve loved the drink mixes.  But nothing
particular comes to mind.  I let you know if i come up with something.
Well, sorry that this letter has kind of been a long one.  I thought i
tell quand même about a guy that we have recently started teaching.
We recieved his contact from some other missionaries who told us he
was really intrested.  When we went to his house he explained to us
that he lost his job a few months ago because he was fasely acussed of
stealing.  So since then he goes out everyday looking for work but
often doesn't find any.  He has started selling many things he owns to
pay for things.  But then he said something that really he touched me.
He said that he knows with christ ça peut aller.  or in other word
that if he has faith in christ all will work out .  It was amazing to
see how strange his faith was.  He told us that he believe with our
message things will all work out.  We explained the first lesson and
he told us that he already believe in joseph smith because of what the
other missionaries have said and by the brouchure.  He is pretty cool
guy.  I really hope things will improve for him.
WEll mom, i love you a ton.  Thanks for your great example.  I LOve you more than pie,
Elder Corey Kimzey

Hey Dad,
Things are going great here.  How about there?  Here it has been raining a
bunch.  The only problem is that they have been working on the big road near
our house.  So since in has been raining so much it caused the road to turn
into one gigantic mud pit.  It made getting to the baptism and to church
intresting haha.  How has the weather been there?  No, we didn't have a
meeting on thursday?  It sounds like yours was pretty awesome.  I really
like the quote from Pres.
Bangerter.  I will definetly use that in my teaching.  Also i like the quote
by Pres Kimball that there would be less problems if people went to the
temple.  HOw true is that?  It would really help people to become better
peolple.  That is great that PV beat DH.  I'm sure everyone was estatic.
That is great that all of our football teams won too.  That is crazy to
think CJ is going to be home in a few months.  Sometimes i feel like i just
got here. haha.  It seems like missionary life has become so normal it is
hard to think of life without it.  Good thing i don't have to worry about
that for a while.
Also i found out that i can write letters to Shane eaisly because we are in the
same area.
I thought of you this week.  We had a lesson with one of our amis who
progesses really well.  But he told us that he doesn't believe in Tithing.
He told us that in his church they said that Christ abolished the law of the
tithes.  But he is suppose to get baptized soon, so this week we talked
about tithing.  At first he was a little hesitint.  I even talked about how
you and mom were such great examples of full tithe payers.  I talked about
how when you were first starting your business things weren't easy but you
kept paying your tithing.  That seemed to really touch him.  Also i kind of
stole your quote about how tithing brings us tons of spirtual blessing not
just temporal blessing.  Then at the end, something suprising happened he
looked up at us and said lord, now i understand.  He then explained how he
understood that the church has to pay for things to make the work advance
and that he understood that it was the members resbonsiblity to help with
that.  It was pretty cool lesson.
Thanks dad.  You know what is funny i have been thinking this week how
awesome my dad is.    I love you too, 
Elder Corey Kimzey