tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40462550690313023772024-03-05T06:23:59.734-08:00Elder Corey KimzeyBenin, Cotonou Mission
French Speaking
3/7/2012- 3/2014kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-74099318670674872252014-02-04T12:52:00.001-08:002014-02-04T12:52:51.007-08:00What I've learned<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Bonjour maman,<br />Comment vas-tu? et Comment va l’étude de français? Well, that is good that i didn't miss a good game. haha. Hopefully next year it will be better. Yeah, i have to admit when i see carli in photos some times it is hard for me to regonize her. mais ça va aller. Wow, i can't believe that so many people are engaged. A girl that lived across the hall from me at college just sent me an email saying that she is engaged. I think i'm going to have to go to a lot of weddings. haha. That is great that Hunter's papers are already in. Keep me posted on where he gets his call. Praying for Benin Cotonou. haha. <br />Thanks for the two emails. I think that that would be awesome to room with Danny. We could speak french with each other all the time. haha. I'll send him a quick email to see what he thinks. Also for nanny jo there is no problem. I can always ask the tailor to buy the fabric and make the ties. I just need to know how many she would like. He is actually a member who is getting ready to go on a mission(he is waiting for his call), so he has tons of time. So i'm sure there are no problems. The navities for chelsea will be a little harder. I don't know a place here in togo to buy it .<br />I know, at the beginning of my mission the end seemed so far away. Now in a few days, it will be over. Wow, to say what i have learned in two years is kind of hard, there are so many things. I think the thing that the mission has done for me the most, is i have learned how to get along and try to love everyone. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but what i mean is that back at home if someone annoyed me or wasn't nice towards me, i would just avoid this person. ON the mission, you can't do that. It has taught me how to work through my problems and to communicate with people. ALso I have learned some much about the scriptures and scripture study. <br />I would tell at someone who is coming to my mission is to not compare the different cultures or costums. But to know that just because something is different doesn't inherently mean that it is wrong. I think that mindset has helped me some much. <br />Well, This week was awesome. Elder Clayton came and visited us. He had given us a reading assignement, and then during the meeting asked us what we had learned. And then he let us ask question. So we got to ask question to 2 general authorities, their wives, an area seventy, president weed, and his wife too. How great is that? I thought it was pretty great. <br />I'm so excited for you to come here. I'm kind of putting the last finishing touches on the plans. I love you more than you can imagine,<br />Elder Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-15799952129100253972014-01-28T09:36:00.000-08:002014-01-28T09:36:44.740-08:00I'm #1 (on the stake wall...)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Bonjour maman,<br />Comment ça va? Et la semaine c’était bien passée? That is crazy that i'm the oldest missionary left. How is Will doing? How many missionaries are there now in our stake? That is too bad that you pulled your hamstring. Have you been icing it and stretching it too? <br />That is great that you have almost finished all of your shots. That is crazy that you met the niece of the southams. They are really nice. I have to admit that i'm doing pretty good. I have to admit that i'm so excited to see you guys, and to show you around. Also i wanted to ask you a question. I've beeen thinking of making some ties from traditional fabric. What do you think of that? I thought of making them for most of the guys in our family. How many would i need to make? <br />That sounds like a good plan. Is carli and chelsea going to drive down to pick us up? or are you guys just going to leave the car in Vegas?<br />This week was great. I've been showing my campanion around. He has learned the secteur quick. This week we had an awesome lesson with this lady who is the girlfriend of a member of the church. We were doing a follow up on the first lesson. She understand the restoration well. She seems to really believe it too. It is kind of hard because she works nights(i know how hard that it.) So she sleeps often during the day. But she is progressing well, so we'll see.<br />Also this week we have been contacting all of the contacts that we got. It has been a lot of work but we got a few good contacts.<br />Also we have been visiting a lot of member active and inactive. They gave us a lot of contacts. So hopefully things will keep going good here at Tokoin.<br />Well, mom i love you more than pie. Can't wait to see you. Also a missionary asked me if you could bring him 3 sticks of deodrant. It is not urgent, so if there isn't space don't worry about it. Bon, je t'aime, et nous allons nous voir bientôt,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-61622286756703327232014-01-21T11:07:00.002-08:002014-01-21T11:07:41.016-08:003 weeks...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maman,<br />Bonjour comment ça va? Comment était la semaine? Je vais très bien.<br />That is crazy that a canadian woman made it to the quarterfinals.<i> (australian open)</i> Has<br />that ever happened before in history? Who do you think is going to<br />win.?<br />That is awesome that you sent you vsa applications in. Do you get it<br />back already? I'll make sure and tell Elder Kunz that you have a<br />package for him.<br />Yeah, we do have them in French. (<i>life of Jesus video)</i>They are pretty cool. I feel like<br />there are pretty realistic. me too, i always feel the spirit as i<br />watch them.<br />That is awesome that Megan is going to Toronto. Although, that will<br />definetly be a cold one. That would be awesome if Hunter came here.<br />Right now we have two elders who are here who are cousins. Although,<br />we wouldn't be here at the same time it would still be awesome.<br />This week has been a good one. We are still in the process of<br />contacting all the referalls that we recieve from the members. We<br />recieved around 40 to 50 referalls haha. So little bylittle we been<br />trying to contact them all. We have some pretty awesome new<br />investigators. We have one who is a hairdresser. We had a good<br />lesson with her about prayer. She was so excited to talk to us. Also<br />we had a great lesson with a guy who leaves next to a member. He had<br />a bunch of questions about the plan of salvation especially Adam and<br />Eve. It went really well. It helped to have a member along who bore<br />his testimony about it.<br />Also we got another tansfer call. I guess my campanion is getting<br />transferred to Benin. It kind of suprised me because i thought he<br />would be my last campanion. But i guess Heavenly Father planned<br />differently. So my new campanion comes tommorow. His name is Elder<br />Diallo. He is also from the ivory coast. So I have 3 weeks to show<br />him around the secteur, which might be a little hard because i don't<br />know it very well myself haha. ça va aller. Elder Diallo is a great<br />missionary and one of my favorite missionary so it should work out<br />fine.<br />Wow, i can't believe we are going to see eachother in like 3 weeks.<br />It kind of wierd to think about. Also i've been planning our trip. I<br />have some fun things planned. We are definetly going to have a good<br />time. Also i don't know if you got my email about the measurements<br />for your clothes. I'm so excited for you to come here. You are going<br />to love it. Je t'aime maman, plus que la tarte même,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-21493247987213573102014-01-07T08:07:00.000-08:002014-01-07T08:07:04.071-08:00New Year's<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Maman!<br />Comment ça va? Tu as fait un peu? moi, j'ai fait beaucoup même. haha Wow i can't believe that there is only 5weeks left. It is crazy to think that even. That is great that you have finished some of your shots. don't worry about the travel nurse. it isn't that bad. Alot of the things they talk about are in the villages. So no worries. <br />No way, Kaylee boyer got engaged to texting jordan. That is wierd. It seems like everyone is getting engaged. No way Gimpy got married. Shoot, she always told me that she was going to marry me. oh well haha. <br />Yeah, i totally know how you feel. I'm suppose to give a lesson tommorow in Zone meeting and it is today i came up with an idea. That sounds like a great lesson though. I like that quote from CS lewis a lot. It is so true that everyone has the potiental to become like God.<br />This week has been pretty crazy for us. Considering this week was New years, which means everyone is celebrating all week, it went really well. We ate a ton this week. We had so many members invite us over to eat. I really like new years here because everyone is so thankful. If you ask someone why they are celebrating, usually they tell you it is because God has been so good to them this year. We had a great fast and testimony meeting, where many people come up to thank God for 2013 and their goals for 2014. It was one of the better fast and testimony meeting i have every assisted.<br />Well mom, you know your french is getting better. haha. I'm sure you'll be pro by the time you get here. <br />I love you more than pie mom, and can't wait to see you.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> je t'aime,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-6916282201961579342013-12-24T09:04:00.001-08:002013-12-24T09:04:45.968-08:00Transfer on Christmas eve<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Maman!<br />There is no problem. I bet you are really tired from the christmas party. I saw the photos, they are awesome. I'm sure everyone loved it.<br />Yeah, i'm so excited that we get to talk this week. But i'm getting transferred to Togo tommorow. Kind of crazy huh to get transferred on Christmas Eve? But i'm sure there is a reason. My new number is...And also it is an hour difference than Benin. It is an hour earlier. So right now it is 3:39 pm in Togo right now. But don't worry i've already started working on fun things to do here in Benin. Also i think it would be fun to visit a few recent converts too. Also i've been talking a lot with the assistants, so i'm sure they help me out a lot too.<br />Also, i bought that fabric the other day for you, carli, and Chelsea, but i think i'm going to leave in with a tailor here in Benin. Because one of my old investigators is one of the best in Benin(he is getting baptized this week too.) But I think i'll need some measurements. So i'll talk to him and maybe at christmas i tell you what i need. Would that work?<br />This week has been a pretty good one. We had quite a bit of teach and a few amazing lessons. I have to admit that it was pretty hard to say good bye to them. Especially a lot of the members. I have to admit if we get to visit a branch while you guys are here i would love to take you to the branch of Cococodji. Also this good bye was kind of hard because i'm leaving the country. I have to admit i like Togo,<br />but Benin is kind of like my second home.<br />It will be fun to go back and work in Togo for a few weeks. Also my new campanion there is Elder Sery. We were in the same branch before. He is a really nice guy and a good missionary. So it will be fun to work with him too.<br />Mom, i'm so excited for you to come here. I know you are going to love it. I know somethings are a little different, but i'm sure you will love the people like i love them. Also i'm sure the members are going to love you too. Also you'll have a chance to practice your french. </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Alors je t'aime maman, et j’espère que tu vas passer un<br />joyeux Noël. Salue tout le monde à ma part. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> We get to talk in a few day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Love you more than pie,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-43546979448166327992013-12-24T09:00:00.002-08:002013-12-24T09:00:41.861-08:00My release date has changed!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Bonjour maman,<br />comment ça va? How has your week been? I can't believe that you still have snow on the ground. Maybe you'll have a white christmas how fun would that be? The ward christmas party sounds like it is going to be awesome. When is it? Say hi to everyone for me.<br />That is fun that chelsea and skyler will be down for christmas. Are you still thinking of going over to nanny jo's and grandpa's.<br />Ok so i kind of some big news. President Weed called me this week and told me that he has decided to bump up my realese date. I guess there are bunch of missionaries who are coming in soon and they don't have enough room for everyone. So he said that my realase date is now Feb 15. I know holy cow! When he told me that it blew my mind. That is like in 2 months from yesterday. But he called me because he<br />wanted to make sure that that didn't ruin any of your plans. Also Elder Semkens called me to ask me if i could cordonate with you guys so that he can reserve my flight plans. So if you still wanted to come, he could set the flight plans for latter.<br />Answers:<br />1. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Carli and I watched some classic christmas movies today. What is your favorite christmas movie?</i><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My favorite christmas is it is a wonderful life.<br />2. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Did you have a ward party? How do they celebrate in your branch?</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We haven't exactly planned a ward party yet. But i think that they </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">will do one maybe the 24th. But there already doing a primary party </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">this saturday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Thanks for the phone number- so I'll call you at the end of the week and </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">arrange for christmas call?</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Okay that sounds like a plan there is no worries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Did you happen to find a nativity set? Do you need me to put money in </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">you account?</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So today, my companion and i went to Tokpa and the Hall of arts to </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">do some shopping. I found a pretty awesome nativity set. It is a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">full 12 piece set. My campanion talked the guy down to the equalivant </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">of $50 dollars. Which is pretty good considering he started at around </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">100. Also a lot of other missionaries have got them for more expensive</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">and worse quality so i was pretty happy. Also i found 2 statues for 20 bucks in total. They're about 6 inches and pretty awesome too.<br />Then we went to Tokpa. I decided to buy you, carli, and chelsea a present. So I bought some traditional fabric. I found a really good one too. And not very expensive for how awesome they are. So i'm going to ask a lady in the branch if she can do the sewing for me.<br />She is really good. But I'm not sure what measurements she will need, so i'll ask her and get back to you on that. And also i found carli something she can run in. It is a t-shirt that says I love africa. I thought she'd like that.<br />5. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">So, one of the great things about missions that I've heard is that you </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">can learn from each companion. what have you taught, and learned from you </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">new companion?</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I have learned a lot from my campanions. Elder Rav is so good at </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">being personable. He is really good at getting a long with people. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Also he always seems to make an akward situation better. I think that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">one of the things i try to teach to all of my campanions is to just </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">enjoy the journey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This week was great again. We kind of had a miracle happen on Saturday. We have been kind of struggling with finding members to teach with us because there isn't that many in our secteur. But on saturday, while we were walking to our next rendez-vous we saw one of the members who lives in our secteurs. Which was kind of strange because she works usually on saturdays. She told us that she had the<br />day off and she asked if she could come and teach with us. We accepted gladly. She did a great job during the lesson too. Then we invited her to come teach another investigator later. Her prescence in the lesson helped so much. Her testimony about how she was tired of all the churches and that through prayer, church attendance, and the book of mormon she came to know that the church was true. The ami<br />de l'eglise was really touched and promised to pray about our message. It was great.<br />I'm so excited to talk with you too. At what time are you thinking about calling at? Also Elder Semkens told me he would really like to set my flight plans soon. So we probably need to figure that out together.<br />Also i thought you would think it was funny that i taught an english speaker the other day and she totally thought i was french not american. haha It was pretty funny.<br />I love you more than pie mom and can't wait to hear from you,<br />Elder Kimzey<br /><br /></span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-6382917668120087542013-12-10T10:19:00.000-08:002013-12-10T10:19:24.391-08:00no snow here...haha<blockquote id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1386697850787_14243" style= font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 1em;" type="cite">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />Bonjour maman,</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Comment tu vas? Je vais très bien. Wow, you recieved a lot of snow huh? holy cow! I don't think i have ever seen that much snow ever in st george. The only time that i have seen that much snow is when i was in logan. I remember that feeling of waking up to a bunch of snow in logan. It is kind of wierd. That is too bad that hunter got into an accident. I remeber how hard it is to drive in the snow. Remember<br />the time that you, casey, and i went driving in the snow to practice? haha That was pretty fun.<br />That is crazy that you even had to start snow shoveling. I don't think i have ever even done that in st george. haha. That is crazy that they canceled church too. Thanks for the photos. They were pretty great. I think he told me before that it doesn't really snow in Madagascar.<br />I think that you're right, that it would be better that you call me this time. My number is ....... I went to the bureau the<br />other day but i think someone said that we were leaving around the 12 of march. But i get some more details about that later. Also I think this next week i'm going to go to Tokpa, to do some shopping. If i got it right you wanted something to put on the table(would a small stuate or maybe a african mancala set work?), also carli wanted something to run in(would an african t-shirt work) Also i was think<br />of buying some african fabric because it is pretty cheap and pretty cool. Is there any thing else that you would want me to buy?<br />Ok this week has been pretty awesome. We recieved a bunch of contacts. Got to love that! Especially because most of them are families. Even one of our amis started giving us contacts. She gives brouchures to all of her friends and she isn't even baptized yet haha. She even came and helped us teach her next door neighboor. Which was an awesome lesson. We taught a husband and a wife about the restoration. They seemed to be way intrested. Our ami even taught<br />part of the lesson haha.<br />Also the assistants gave a contact of a young husband and his wife. I guess the husband is about to give his disertation soon to get his docrate in business fincance(or something like that.) Lets just say he is really smart. We had a really great lesson about the savior minstry, the apostasy, and the restoration. He seem to be really touched by the lesson. He was telling us that he is searching for the truth so hopeful he keep progressing too.<br />Well, mom i love you. I glad to hear that everyone is doing well, even if they are freezing. Here, it is has been pretty toasty.<br /> I love you more than all the christmas treats,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-40845409176855941312013-12-03T13:13:00.001-08:002013-12-03T13:13:22.121-08:00Bad ColdMaman!<br />Bonjour Comment vas-tu? Moi, je vais bien. It sounds like<br />thanksgiving was awesome. That is great that so many people were able<br />to come up for it. That is great that all of our football teams seem<br />to win too. haha<br /> ...This week, i taught gospel principes. We were talking about<br />Obessience(<i>obedience</i>). And a lady asked a question but the way she worded it was<br />kind of wierd. So i did my best, but she wasn't sastified with the<br />answer. Good things, some of the investigators and members explained<br />it to her better and she seemed to be ok. So i guess it happens to all<br />of us.<br />Answers(daily double)<br />1. <i>Did you try out your card? did it work?<br /> </i>yeah i tried out my card. It worked. I don't know why it didn't<br />work before, i used the same bank and everything. But it seems to be<br />working now.<br />2. <i> sending your last missionary package- so last requests??? Did you get your xmas package?</i>I got my xmas package, but i haven't opened it yet. scout's honor. Although, it was pretty tempting haha. I can't think of anything particularly, maybe some granola bars.haha<br />3. <i>could you look for a nativity set from there? I could put money in your account, anything cool, like wood carved???</i>Yeah, i think this next week we are thinking of going to Tokpa(the<br />big market) or the hall of arts. So I think i'll be able to find it. I think Elder Poll bought one, so i'll ask him for how much it got it. Also, i was wondering if there was anything else you guys wanted?<br />4.<i> I got a note from the semkins- are you feeling better? was it a cold?</i> Yeah, i'm feeling a lot better. I had a really really nasty cold. haha. I wasn't able to leave the appartement for like 4 days. But<br />now, i'm doing great.<br />5.<i>What is a cool christmas tradition there?</i><div>
Well, on christmas day if you visit someone you have to eat at there<br />house. They just constantly cooking that day. haha. So that day we<br />get super stuffed.</div>
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<br />Wow, i can't believe that cj is coming home already in 13 days. That<br />is absoutly crazy. Did I tell you that Elder Poll is going home the<br />same day? So we got a new assistant in our appartement. His name is<br />Elder Ritchie. He is one of my best friends, so it is pretty fun.<br />6. (arranging for xmas call!!!)Ok i can give my number to you when ever you want.<br />This week wasn't really exciting because i stayed home for most of it.<br />But Sunday was pretty great. I hadn't planned on giving the lesson<br />in the 2nd hour but no one else had prepared a lesson either. So i<br />volunteered. It turned out pretty well actually. Like i said before<br />it was all about obedience. We had a intresting discussion about when<br />motivates us to respect the commandements. Is it fear, blessings, or<br />our love for God? It was really intresting but we decided that in the<br />end we have to be motivated by our love for God if we want to endure<br />to the end. I learned a lot from that lesson.<br />Ok, i can't wait to hear from you too. It is crazy to think that it<br />will be the last time that i call.<br />love you more than pie too,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey<br /></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-19651866562165638022013-11-26T07:55:00.001-08:002013-11-26T07:55:50.394-08:00November 25<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Dear dad,<br />How is it going? This week has been awesome. We have had a ton of things going on this week. On Saturday, there were 7 people baptized in our branch 2 family and 2 little kids(that my companion and i teach)It was pretty great. Then after the baptism, that afternoon we had an missionary activity that my companion and i were in-charge of. I didn't think many people would show up but 95 people did. It was fun, we watched the film the testaments and then answered questions about the book of mormon. Then we eat sandwiches and beesap. It was great.<br /> That is great that Aunt Nicole's play went so well. That is amazing how many temple names you guys have already done. It seems like each week you seem to do a ton.I really like those scriptures. Especially the scripture about the importance of the holy ghost. We were talking to one of our ami who has a hard time understanding why she needs to get baptized again. She was telling us about how she had done many miracle and healed people so that must mean that she has the gift of the holy ghost. But she doesn't realize that the things she feels isn't actually the gift of the holy ghost but the influence of the holy ghost. Hopefully, she'll come around.<br /> My week is going pretty well. The branch is going well. We had tons of people at church again, which was a good sign because we have had a lot of people absent lately. We don't really celebrate thanksgiving here. School is about to take a break though. I love you too and <br /> have a great week, </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-41113634173263562672013-11-19T10:27:00.000-08:002013-11-19T10:27:05.343-08:00Plans and the temple<blockquote id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384882208223_8872" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 1em;" type="cite">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bonsoir maman,<br />Comment va la meilleure mère dans la monde entière? (<i>How is the best mother in the whole world?)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What?! There is a second Thor movie comment? haha Yeah i left a little time after the first one came out. That is great that carli is doig so well with her running. Maybe the trip to nike will convince her to do track. That is fun that she is going down there. I always loved that trip.<br />That is amazing that carli's volleyball team won took second. It was probably because of their amazing coach.<br />I'm glad to her that your lesson on education went well. Last week, i had some serious computer issues. It took me a year in an half to get logon to my email and then i started writing you and the power cut.<br />So sorry i didn't write you to tell you why i think it is important that girls are educated. I like your spin on it though. It is so true that we all need to be spirtually independent. I think it was president wilkey who would always tell that when you go off to college, you leave your family and friend, so it is so important to have a good realtionship with God because that wont leave. I hope that makes sense. My english is sometimes a little rough these days.<br />Answers:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>What do you think of us coming? I have two concerns. One- are you </i></span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">going to be tired and just want to come home? I know some missionaries are </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">and so don't be afraid to tell us. Two- will you be sad to miss the whole</span></i><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"greet your family" at the airport?</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Ok, so last week i didn't get dad's email. So i'm kind of confused what the plan is. Personally i would love it. I don't feel like i would be too tired. Also i don't think i would miss the whole greet your family. Because i could do that for you guys. Maybe i could create a banner that said Bienvenu Au Benin. haha. No, but seriously i don't think i would miss that. I don't know my release date, but i think i should know it soon because someone told me the office elders are going to start working on our flight plans(crazy huh?) But I told dad that i would think about it this week and i'll try to find out from the office when my release date is. But personally i think it would be awesome.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">2.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>I was thinking at the temple- do your youth ever get a chance to go? </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So we have 3 temple trips every year. They actually left to ghana today. haha. But i know they try to help the youth go. I know they even reduce the price sometimes for the youth. And usually afterward, they invite some of the people to come up and bear their testimony about the temple. I always like the sunday after a temple trip.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Do you know your release date? If not when do missionaries know?</i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Yeah, i don't know the date. I thinking maybe to email the office and maybe they'll know. It is worth a shot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Tell us about the best lesson you taught this week...</i></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We had a good lesson about the book of mormon with one of our amis. She has a hard time coming to church lately because she has to take care of her uncle sometimes. She told us that some people had told her that our church was a sect because of the book of mormon. She was really confused about it. So we read the introduction </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">together. I think it helped her realize that it wasn't a book written by Joseph Smith or a book that replaced the bible. I could tell that the spirit started to work on her little by little. She seemed to understand by the end and said she would start reading. It renforced my testimony about how the spirit helps people resolve their problems and that the truth really does win out haha.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">5. </span><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">What are you personally studying?</span></i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Lately i study by topic or even chose certain words to study. The other day though i did some serious studying on the preisthood. I read in Doctrine and Covenants 121 and 84. It really struck me the importance of the preisthood and really the way we should act when we have the priesthood. ALso the blessings if we respect the preisthood.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I liked a lot a verse in d and c 84 which talked about how it is<br />through ordonnaces we become more like God. I thought how true that it.<br />6. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>We didn't get a letter last week- no power??</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> yeah sorry about the fact that you didn't get a letter. The power was cut most of the day. Power sometimes cut because we are in the dry season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, i love you more than pie mom. I hope you have a great week. Love you,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-49993622491333685492013-10-29T10:11:00.002-07:002013-10-29T10:11:31.407-07:00No Halloween in Benin<blockquote id="yui_3_13_0_1_1383064649599_5935" style="background-color: white; margin: 1em;" type="cite">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Bonsoir maman,<br />ça va bien, et chez-toi? Time is flying by. I can't really believe<br />how fast my mission has gone by. I'm almost at my 20 month mark.<br />Yeah, i'm sure that it will speed up for casey around a year.<br />That is too bad that DH won state. Well not too bad for them, but<br />that would of be cool if we would of won. That is great that Byron<br />took second though. He has become so fast.<br />The weather is doing well. We got some rain so that helped a little.<br />This week it has been super hot and pretty dusty. But it is a good<br />thing that i like the heat. haha But it seems like the crops are<br />doing well.<br />That is so great that your mia maid applied what you were teaching.<br />I'm sure many of the others are listening and applying the lessons<br />too.<br />Wow, you guys month is going to be crazy. We just started scouting<br />here a few month ago. We haven't started yet in our branch but i know<br />some of the branches do it. that is cool that the church has been<br />doing scouting for 100 years. Wow, i can't believe also that dad is<br />about to hit his 7th tithing settlement(numéro sept, ou on peut dire<br />septième.)<br />Reponse:<br />1. <i>How is teaching this week?</i>This week was a great teaching week. On saturday, one of our amis<br />got baptized. She is amazing. She is one of my favorite<br />investigators. She is the one that i often write about. She is<br />great, she reads 2 chapters in the book of mormon everyday and tells<br />her sister what she learned in church so that her sister will come one<br />day. Now her sister has even accepted a Book of Mormon.<br />The amazing lesson i had this week was actually with an old<br />investigator. She actually was an ami of mine when i was in<br />Fidjrossé. When I was in Fidjrossé, she wasn't ever very intressed in<br />listening to our lessons(because she had her own church), but she did<br />love cooking for us. haha. But her sisters were super intressed, so<br />we kept coming, and after awhile we become great friends with her and<br />her family. But after a while even her sisters stopped progressing,<br />so we didn't visit them as much and then i was transferred. About 2<br />weeks ago, we were walking to our next rendez-vous, when this lady who<br />was a ways away started calling us over. As we got closer, i realized<br />that it was the same investigator that i had taught in Fidjrossé. So<br />we set up an appointment with her, for the upcoming week. When we got<br />there, she was so happy to see us. She told me how much she<br />appreciated our visits when i was in Fidjrossé. That all of her<br />family considered me of their friends. And For maybe the first time<br />she really took the time to listen to us. She explained to us that<br />she had left her old church, because of problems with the pasteur.<br />She then told us that she thinks that this is her time to join the<br />church. That God is showing her that she needs to join our church.<br />It was crazy to see how much she had changed. It made me realize that<br />God prepares everyone at different times. And that even if someone<br />isn't intressed today, maybe they will be one day.<br />2. <i> What is your favorite new french word that you have learned?</i></span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, that question reminded me of an experience the other day. So<br />we went to our amis' house who is a college student. She was doing<br />her math homework. She asked me if i could help her. I realized at<br />that moment that i had a lot of work on my math skills before i get<br />home. It was a question talking about metal producing companies, it<br />had tons of french terms that i have never used.haha So that was fun<br />to learn some new french. Also Elder Gomun teaches me a lot of French<br />words too. ONe word i learned from my amis' math homework was lot<br />which means something along the lines of type.<br />3.<i>Carli wants to know how you acheived your level of awesomeness</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Tell carli yes, i have acheived my level of awesomeness haha. I</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">don't know if i have acheived that or not. I hope to achieve that<br />someday.<br />4. <i> What is the best thing about your companion?</i>My campanion is super funny. He is always joking around. Also he</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">is way relaxed and chill. I love him a lot.<br />5.<i>Did people in your apartment change? Who is there now?</i>nope, It is still Elder Rav, Elder Gomun, ELder Poll, and me</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, i love you mom. I hope you have a great week. I tried to send<br />you a photo again, but it didn't work again. Maybe next week. I love<br />you more than all the pie, even Pumpkin pie, and all the haloween<br />treats you can eat,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey<br /><br /><br />Hey dad,<br />This week in Africa was great. How was your week? We are teaching quite of<br />few people. We have quite of few new amis, and some really good ones. We<br />have an investigator who is awesome. She reads a ton.<br />The missionary who contacted her gave her the book of mormon and she loved<br />it from the start. The other week she called us to tell us that she read in<br />the book of mormon about the urium and thumim(i have to admit i was a little<br />nervous when she said that) and that she crossed referenced it with things<br />in the bible. She said that she thought that was really intressed. I have<br />to admit i was amazed about how much she understood it already. This week we<br />gave her the brouchure:<br />Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. She told us that she loved it.<br />Then she explained to us that she thought that so people might have a<br />problem with the idea that an angel(angel moroni) could visit a person. So<br />she had found some scriptures for us in the bible to help people understand<br />that. It is the first time for me to have an investigator who searches<br />scriptures to convince other people. She is really amazing. I hope she'll<br />kept progressing.<br />It sounds like you guys are really busy this week. No, we don't celebrate<br />halloween here. The other day i tried to explain it to my campanion. He<br />thought it was a pretty awesome and funny.<br />Wow, i had no idea that the Kirtland temple cost so much money. That must<br />of been hard when many of them had to move to Missouri. That is awesome<br />that President Woodruff wore a white deerskin outfit. I always liked seeing<br />everyone in white. I'm so glad that i had a bunch of time to go to the<br />temple before my mission. I know some missionaries in our mission who went<br />through for the first time at the MTC and got to go maybe 2 or 3 times<br />before coming on their mission.<br />Well dad, i love you and i hope you have a great week, Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-13235509044533715872013-10-24T09:35:00.000-07:002013-10-24T09:38:26.438-07:00District conference<blockquote id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1382629902840_6282" style="margin: 1em;" type="cite">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bonsoir maman,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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?<br />Holy cow, 800 pavers is a ton. I'm sure that will look cool when you have finished.<br />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<br />who people thought joined the church just for the food, but it turned out most of those people stayed active in the church.<br />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<br />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.<br />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<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />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.<br />Well, i love you a ton mom. I hope you have a great week.<br /> I love you<br />more than pie,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey<br /><br /><br /><br />DAD,<br />...<br />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<br />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<br />Cadejohoun(which is across town) because he couldn't afford to the transport. But fornuatly we found him as he was walking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> So I know you would like to help but maybe the best thing to do is just to continue to<br />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.<br />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.<br />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<br />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<br />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<br />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.<br />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.<br />Well i love you dad. I hope you have a great week. I'm having a great time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I love you a ton, Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
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kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-78787076695327542772013-10-15T08:57:00.000-07:002013-10-15T08:57:13.535-07:00Service and teaching<blockquote id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3235" style="margin: 1em;" type="cite">
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<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3236" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Comment ça va? Moi, je vais très bien. Yeah, you totally said that</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3240" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">correctly. I heard that the new pergola looks good. I can't wait for</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3237" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">the pictures. I like the idea of the fireplace, it would be fun to</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3238" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">roast marshmellows with it. That is great that carli is running so</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3239">well. She is improving so much...</span><span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3249"> It is wierd to think that she is that old</span></span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3250" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">already. Yeah, you kind of had to tease her haha.</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3251" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Thanks for the quote. I think it is so true that we have to always</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3252" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">try and do the best with the time we are given. Speaking of Young</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3253" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Womens, this week the young women president asked to help her with her</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3254" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">lesson during the third hour. So Elder Welch and I sat in on her</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3255" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">lesson. It was on how can i cultivate a christ-like love. It was a</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3256" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">pretty good lesson. It made me think about how you told me that you</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3257" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">had done a similar lesson a few weeks ago. How cool is that that even</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3258" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">though we are on two different parts of the world the lessons are the</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381850980240_3259" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">same and the apply to everyone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Answers:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>1. Haven't got any pictures lately????</i> </span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> yeah sorry about the pictures. i keep forgetting my camera at the </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">house. I'll try to bring it next time. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">2. <i>got an email about the problems in benin with sending packages, so I'm </i><i>going to send a large envelope instead of a box, any requests for you last </i><i>african xmas? Yes, I need to send it soon so that you will get it, crazy!</i></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">i don't know. i would like maybe a note from the family i think that would be great. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <i>4. Tell us about a great teaching moment this week...</i>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 </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">husband translates for the others because they don't speak much</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">french. When we showed up, the husband was there. He had got called</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">into work, so that left us with the three women who didn't speak a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">ton of french. But they really wanted to do the lesson nevertheless.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">so i was kind of worried how they were going to understand one</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">another. So as we started we tried to be as clear as possible. The</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">miraclesously they totally understood us. I thought that was pretty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">amazing. They even we're able to answer our questions. I thought</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">that was pretty amazing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> <i>5. Do you teach gospel essentials on sunday?</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So, gospel essentials is a pretty full class. Usually we have</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">around 30 or so people who come. This week happened to be my turn to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">teach. So i taught about christ church in the past. We happened to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">have a lot of people there. It also helped that the second conseulor</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">in the branch presidency translated for me in Fon. Because at the end</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">he bore his testimony about how he knew the church of christ is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">restored again on the earth. That really invited the spirit into the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">lesson.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>6. What did you do today for pday?</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well today p-day was pretty boring. I was my clothes. I had a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">ton of laundry to do. Also we cleaned the apartement. Then we went</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">out to eat at the cafertria of a recent convert. So not a ton of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">exciting stuff. We are hoping to go to Ganvié soon. It is the city</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">which was built on a lake. That should be pretty exciting. </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">7. My lesson next week is on service, any missionary stories that I could </span></i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">use? Do you do service for member/non members there?</i> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That is really funny because this week we have had a bunch of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">service activities. Often times we help people clean or cook.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Especially cooking. Even someone told me the sauce i made was</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">delicous although, all i did was follow the mom's instrucions. haha.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Service helps a lot because it lets people see that we just normal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">people who are here to serve. Also the other day my campanion and i</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">worked at a corn mill(i think that is what you call a moulin à maïs.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One of our amis owns one, so she let us work there. My campanion ran</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">the mill while i was incharge of cooling the corn by turning in with a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">bowl. It was a ton of fun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, i love you a ton too. Even more than all the pie in the world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="">Hey dad,</span><br style="" /><span style="">Things are going great here, how are things over there? The branch is</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color:;">progressing really well. We had 3 baptism in our branch this week and i</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color:;">think at the end of the month we have like 6 or 7 more. Also we are really</span><br style="background-color:;" /><span style="background-color: ;">excited that district conference is coming up this week so maybe we can get</span><br style="background-color:;" /><span style="background-color: ">more melchizedick priesthood holders. It will be nice because i think we be</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">able to an Elder Quorum presidency, sunday school presidency, etc. But we</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">actually don't live that close to the branch. We live at Atrokpocodji near</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Cocotomey while the branch is a good 6 to 7 kilometers away at Cococodji. So</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color:;">they have been thinking about maybe creating a group closer to us. Which</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">would be super nice.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color:;">congrats on finishing the pergola. Was it just you, mom, and carli who did</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">it?</span><br style="background-color:;" /><span style="background-color: ;">That is too bad that those missionaries died. Lately, sister weed has really</span><br style="background-color:;" /><span style="background-color: ;">been stressing safety. So i'll make sure to stay safe.</span><br style="background-color:;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Thanks for the scripture dad. I definetly keep working hard so that you can</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">live haha. I like that scripture because it is kind of a direct promise if</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">you work hard , God will forgive you.</span><br style="background-color:;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Also by the way, i got the email about the line of autority. Thank you for</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color:;">that. Also early i had sent an email to the church asking for it. They</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">didn't have it complete. They had though that you were ordained April</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">25,2004. Thanks, i think i'll probably print it off so that i can have a</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">copy with me at all times.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">It sounds like football is getting pretty intense. Who is number one right</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">now? I can't believe that Kyte can already go on a mission. He seems so</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">young. How is his brother and sister doing in Japan?</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Wow, i can't believe Nick is back already. I remeber when he left.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">That is definetly wierd to think about. That is so great that the Sawtelles</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">did so well on family feud. </span><span style="background-color: ;"> That is crazy. Lately, i have some intresting question that my</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">investigators have been asking. For instance, one of our amis asked if God</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">forgave David and if David went to heaven? It was our first visit with this</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">ami, so we just told him that we would look more into it and try to answer</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">it the next time.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Although, i found some intresting things in DCs about it. And also in the</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">translation of the Bible by Joseph Smith. It is a kind of hard to example</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">that to an new investigator but maybe we will try to help him understand at</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">a basic level. But this week i had been studying a lot in Preach my gospel</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Chapter 13. I was trying to come up with some ideas, so that our branch</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">could keep progressing. I have always liked the part by President Hinckly</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">where he talks about the thing a convert needs. Also i have always found</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">intresting the letter he said he recieved where a woman explain how diffcult</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">it is to be a recent convert. Being "born in the church" i never had</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">thought about how hard that would be to adjust to the new vocuablary,</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">traditions, and etc. Also it gave me a good idea to do a branch activity</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">where we watch the restoration or the testaments. So hopefully we are going</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">to be doing that soon.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Also speaking of working with the branch, this week we had a ton of</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">rendez-vous planned on Saturday, so we invited two young men to help us. So</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">we did an exchange so that we could visit all the people.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">well, lets just say it didn't go exactly as planned haha. Every single</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">rendez-vous we had planned fell through. But it did get an occacison to</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">talk to the young man about serving a mission. He is 18ish and has only</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">been baptized for 6 or 7 months but already has a huge desire to serve a</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">mission. It was pretty fun to talk to him about how great a mission is and</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">to share some advice and experiences.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">It made me realize just how awesome my mission is. But luckily the last</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">rendez-vous was there. We were talking about the priesthood with one of our</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">amis who is going to be baptized soon and her friend. Her friend didn't</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">really want to accept the fact that all the churches don't have the autority</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">of the priesthood. But then our ami said something that i felt was pretty</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">deep. She said something along the line of that the reason she(her friend)</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">couldn't believe that the priesthood was in the church was because her</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">friend had never been to church. She then said if her friend had been to</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">church she would've seen the priesthood in action and she would know that it</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">was true.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">That really made me think about how we really need to make sure that all we</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">do reflects that the priesthood has been restored.</span><br style="background-color: ;" /><span style="background-color: ;">Well dad, i love you a lot. Thanks for always been there for me. </span></span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: ;"> I love </span><span style="background-color: ;">you and think you are the best dad.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: ;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span> </span><br />
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kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-70501958405440076282013-10-08T09:41:00.002-07:002013-10-08T09:41:50.135-07:005 months left...I'm really hitting my stride<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Bonjour maman,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Comment ca va? I'm doing great. Yep, we have power and my amis are</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">doing well too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Wow, it sounds like carli ran so well. She is really improving. I</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">can't believe she cut around 9 minutes off her time. That is too bad</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">that she's not sure about track. I kind of thought</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">that my freshman year too. But it was during track that i really</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">learned how to run. Maybe i try to encourage that in my email with</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">her. I'm sure she'd love track. I would love to see her too. LIke</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">you said Crazy to think that i'll could be home for that. Actually,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">today i have 5 months left. wow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I heard for multiple people that conference was great. Even someone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">told me that it was many one of the best conferences yet. We had two</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">of the seventy who serve in our area president talked. Elder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Dube(from Zimbawe) and Elder Vinson(who is from Australia) so i'm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">excited to read their talks. Yeah, i have to admit that i think that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">now is the time that i feel like i'm really hitting my stride as a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">missionary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Answers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">1. <i>Do you think that you will stay in Benin for the rest of the mission?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i> </i>I kind of hope to stay in Benin. I have spent most of my mission</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">here. So i'd like to stay here. Supposely the next transfer is in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Nov or Dec, so i think i'll be here for a while.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">2<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>Maggie and Sammy want to know if you have seen a giraffe (but not in a</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>zoo)?</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">.No i have never seen any giraffes at the zoo nor in the wild.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">3. </span><i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Maggie says hi! </span></i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Say hi to maggie for me too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">4 </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">btw- cj's date changed to come home to december 14th!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Wow, that is coming up. The other day i found out that the group</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">right before us just got their flight plans. How crazy is that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">5. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">do you get to watch conference this week?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> no, i think we will probably watch it in novemeber. We do have</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">our district conference coming up. We are pretty excited for that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">because we have a lot of people who are going to receive the</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">Melchizedek priesthood.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This week has been a pretty good one. I think one of the best lessons</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">was one we had with one of amis who has been coming to church for a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">while. I think i've talked about her before, she the one who asked if</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">all the pasteurs have the autority of God. So, she was telling us</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">about how she would like to be baptized but she doesn't know if she</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">could respect all of the commandements. So we started talking about</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">what problems she could face and how itwould be hard. So we decided</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">to read 1 nephi 3:7. She was touched by that scripture and then we</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">told her that we were going to fix a goal and if she turned toward God</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">he would help her so that she could get baptized. She gladly accepted</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">and she to be pretty excited about it. It is pretty amazing how when</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">we show to God a little bit of faith he helps us to be able to do what</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">we need to do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">So things are going well in general.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> I love you a ton mom. even more</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">than pie. Je t'aime,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Hey dad,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">yeah, i got your email there is no worries. Thanks for all the conference</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">quotes. It sounds like Conference was great. I'm doing good. Yeah it was</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">kind of wierd to see my campanion going home. but i love my new one too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">He is great. He is from Madgascar. It is the first malgasy campanion for</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">me. He is going to go home about the same time as me. He is thinking of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">going to BYU though, so you'll get to see him if he goes there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">That is wierd that you had to go to conference by yourself. But i just had</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">a wierd thought: atleast the next one we can go together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Did i tell you also that Logan sent me an email to tell me that President</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">and Sister Weed happened to visit the ward he is serving in?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">President Weed had to go back to the US to take care of a few medical</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">things so i guess he went to the same ward as Logan. What a small world?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">That is too bad that Byu beat USU. I guess there is always next year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">But it seems like we say that every year haha. That is cool that Stanford</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">won again. We have a missionary here who is going to play football for</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">stanford after his mision. He is a big guy. I hope he can keep in shape so</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">that he can still play for them afterward.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">That is great that carli did so well. She is improving so much. I also</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">heard that Coach holt ran really well at the St; George marathon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I like your quote on controlling your thoughts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This week has been going well. This week we had a whole family come to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">church. It was great. The husband usually comes to church but the rest of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">the family usually can't come because they don't have a way to get to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">church. But this last week he bought a motorcycle so that his whole family</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">could come to church. It was great to see everyone there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I think he leaned over and told me like 4 times,"did you see that my wife</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">came to church today?" He was pretty excited. And now they are planning to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">get married soon. Also it was great to see what an effect church can have</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">on the wife. Before she wasn't very intrested but after church she asked us</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">if we could send over a book of mormon, so that she could read. It is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">amazing how church attendance can help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Well dad, i love you a lot. Good luck for your spritual thought. I think</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">this week i might have to give a talk in Church. So that should be</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">intresting. The branch is going well. We kept expanding each week. The</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">leaders in our branch are great. We have quite a few couples who need to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">get married but they help us a lot with them. Our branch is great too,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">because we have mostly recent converts so the recent converts get a lot of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">oppurtunites to participate, so they tend to stay more active. Well i love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">you dad. Thanks for all that you do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Have a good weektoo. I love you,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-56882603986781708852013-10-01T12:48:00.002-07:002013-10-01T12:48:48.226-07:00Baptisms and a wedding<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Maman,<br />Comment va la meilleure mère du monde entière? Yeah, we had two<br />baptisms this last saturday. It was a great baptismal service. It<br />was the first one ever at Cococodji and we had 7 people who got<br />baptized. It was awesome to see because 4 were from the same family.<br />They have been coming to church for a few months now, but couldn't get<br />baptized because they need to get married first. So they got married<br />on Friday and baptized on Saturday, and confirmed on Sunday. How<br />awesome is that?<br /> ok... missionary advice... ok well that was maybe one of the hardest thing<br />at the beginning of my mission. We would teach people who would love<br />talking to us but they would never come to church. And since they<br />never came to church they couldn't progress. So I learned that we had<br />to be a little direct with those people and explain to them why we<br />were really here. Many people think that we are like the evanqlic<br />churches who are there just to spread the "good news" but they don't<br />understand that our message is actually different. That in fact we<br />are there to help they make ordiances and come back to christ through<br />his restored authority. So often, when people don't progress, we<br />explain to them our missionary objectif, or c'est à dire the reason<br />why we come and teach them. Often time i find that that helps people<br />hold commitment better. And if that doesn't work we usually have to<br />leave them a lone for a while and teach people we are ready right now.<br />I have to admit that that is one of the hardest parts of the mission<br />when people don't progress. It probably one of the things that hurts<br />the worst. Beacause i want them to progress, but they don't want to<br />progress. Also i found that praying helps a lot. It seems<br />to help me.<br />It sounds like carli did great this week. That is crazy that it was<br />only 38 degrees considering here it is around 85. Yeah that is crazy<br />to think that casey and i speak the same language but are in two<br />cultures totally different.<br />One of my favorite christlike atributes is serving and loving i guess.<br />I think i could always be a little more patient. It is probably one<br />thing i could always work on.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />1. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Do you eat the same kinds of food in your new secteur?</i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I notice that i tend to get more traditional foods here. haha. I</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">have now gotten to the point where i can make pate. So prepare a lot<br />of cornflour when i get home and we'll have a pate party haha. It is<br />pretty wierd now, when people ask me if i want pate , rice,or<br />speghatti i usually choose pate haha. I guess i'll have to adjust<br />when i get home. Also lately i have been eating more gari. Which i'm<br />not sure how to explain. But it is pretty good.<br />2. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Do you teach mostly in French? Or in native? if so, how since there are not many members? </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We teach mostly in french. Most people we teach have at least a<br />basic understanding of french. Most of them speak really well.<br />Although sometimes we do teach people who don't speak french. That is<br />when we ask a member to translate. And if there isn't a member we ask<br />one of the kids to translate. Although, the last option isn't the<br />best because sometimes the kids translate weirdly.<br />3. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">How do you figure out where people live since I'm guessing there are no </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">street signs? </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Yeah, here in Benin there are no street signs. There are in Togo</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">but no one uses them. haha. So often they indicate to us something<br />that is close to where they live usually a school, a hotel, a<br />bar/restuarant, or a pharamice. Then when we get there we call them<br />and they come and show us where there house is. It works pretty well.<br />4. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">We saw a tv show on a pro cyclist team from africa, do people ride bikes</i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"> in benin? Are they road bikes or mtn with dirt roads?</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I don't see a lot of bike riders. A lot of people do ride </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">motorcycles though. I have seen a few cyclist, but none that looked</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">very serious. I have mostly seen road bikes.<br />5. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Did you get to see the wedding? Tell us all about it...</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We did get to go to the wedding. My companion knew two of the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">couples well so we got to go. It was super fun as usual. There were<br />4 couples who got married. Two of the couples were already members of<br />the church and the two grooms happened to be brothers. Then there was<br />one couple who were investigators who then got baptized the next day.<br />And the other couple was from another church. But they said they were<br />intrested in talking with the missionaries. Cool huh? It was pretty<br />fun. Most of the service was done in Fon so i didn't understand<br />anything but thats ok. haha. I did take some pictures though so that<br />was great. The cermony mostly goes as follows the mayor of hèvie<br />talks to the couples about the marriage laws of benin(like the fact<br />that plural marriage was discontinued in 2006 i believe), then the<br />mayor asked the couple and the witness if they are in accordance with<br />the wedding. Then there is the exchange of rings and the exchange of<br />vows probably my favorite part. Then the mayor talks so more and then<br />we take pictures. It is pretty simple and sweet. Also usually the<br />couples come in some pretty sweet traditional african clothes so that<br />is also great too.<br />6.</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">Going to send a package this next month for xmas (that's crazy!) any </i><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;">requests???</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I have to admit we ahve loved the drink mixes. But nothing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">particular comes to mind. I let you know if i come up with something.<br />Well, sorry that this letter has kind of been a long one. I thought i<br />tell quand même about a guy that we have recently started teaching.<br />We recieved his contact from some other missionaries who told us he<br />was really intrested. When we went to his house he explained to us<br />that he lost his job a few months ago because he was fasely acussed of<br />stealing. So since then he goes out everyday looking for work but<br />often doesn't find any. He has started selling many things he owns to<br />pay for things. But then he said something that really he touched me.<br />He said that he knows with christ ça peut aller. or in other word<br />that if he has faith in christ all will work out . It was amazing to<br />see how strange his faith was. He told us that he believe with our<br />message things will all work out. We explained the first lesson and<br />he told us that he already believe in joseph smith because of what the<br />other missionaries have said and by the brouchure. He is pretty cool<br />guy. I really hope things will improve for him.<br />WEll mom, i love you a ton. Thanks for your great example. I LOve you more than pie,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hey Dad,<br />Things are going great here. How about there? Here it has been raining a<br />bunch. The only problem is that they have been working on the big road near<br />our house. So since in has been raining so much it caused the road to turn<br />into one gigantic mud pit. It made getting to the baptism and to church<br />intresting haha. How has the weather been there? No, we didn't have a<br />meeting on thursday? It sounds like yours was pretty awesome. I really<br />like the quote from Pres.<br />Bangerter. I will definetly use that in my teaching. Also i like the quote<br />by Pres Kimball that there would be less problems if people went to the<br />temple. HOw true is that? It would really help people to become better<br />peolple. That is great that PV beat DH. I'm sure everyone was estatic.<br />That is great that all of our football teams won too. That is crazy to<br />think CJ is going to be home in a few months. Sometimes i feel like i just<br />got here. haha. It seems like missionary life has become so normal it is<br />hard to think of life without it. Good thing i don't have to worry about<br />that for a while.<br />Also i found out that i can write letters to Shane eaisly because we are in the<br />same area.<br />I thought of you this week. We had a lesson with one of our amis who<br />progesses really well. But he told us that he doesn't believe in Tithing.<br />He told us that in his church they said that Christ abolished the law of the<br />tithes. But he is suppose to get baptized soon, so this week we talked<br />about tithing. At first he was a little hesitint. I even talked about how<br />you and mom were such great examples of full tithe payers. I talked about<br />how when you were first starting your business things weren't easy but you<br />kept paying your tithing. That seemed to really touch him. Also i kind of<br />stole your quote about how tithing brings us tons of spirtual blessing not<br />just temporal blessing. Then at the end, something suprising happened he<br />looked up at us and said lord, now i understand. He then explained how he<br />understood that the church has to pay for things to make the work advance</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">and that he understood that it was the members resbonsiblity to help with</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">that. It was pretty cool lesson.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Thanks dad. You know what is funny i have been thinking this week how</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">awesome my dad is. I love you too, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-63212062431315754622013-09-24T10:24:00.002-07:002013-09-24T10:24:41.583-07:00It was really cold today, like 78 degrees!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hey dad,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> How is it going? Things are going great here. Yeah, the power was out, so
i wasn't able to write. Yeah, we should be getting a ton of missionaries
soon. I think we are getting around 21. It is pretty exciting. Yeah, i
don't think there are many cyclists here. And also the roads are a little
rough, so that would be a little hard to have a tour here. Although, i did
see a cyclist the other day.
It sounds like Kaylee's wedding was super nice. Mom sent me a picture,
kaylee and her husband seemed pretty happy which is probably the most
important thing. It is good to hear that everyone was able to make it down
too.
Thanks for the quote dad. I will definetly use that one. I think you are
right, i think often we think about the atonement and how it helps us
overcome sin, but sometimes we forget how it helps us overcome other
problems too. LIke the alma 7:11-13 says.
That is too bad utah state lost. They never seem to be able to pull out the
big upsets. I sure one day they'll put it all together.
Maybe when i'll get back.
That is too bad that byu lost again too. They seem to be really struggling
lately. Hopefully they will come around.
Yeah, i'm way excited for conference. We will probably get to watch it in
Novemeber. Hopefully they even play it at our branch. Also i almost forgot
to tell you our exciting news here in Benin. This week for the first time,
we are going to be able to do our baptisms at the branch here at cococodji.
Before we only had 1 baptismal font in Benin, but now we have 2 soon 3. How
cool is that.
I thought i'd share an experience that i had this week with a family.
The family isn't free very often, but we usually teach them once a week. At
first when we invited them to church, they politely told us that it wasn't
possible. That they had responsibilties in their own
church and didn't have time to come to ours. But the next time, when
we talked about the apostasy and the restoration, their hearts seemed to be
touched by that. They said that they would try and come. They didn't end
up coming, but it made me think about how amazing the message of the
restoration is. How crazy is it to think that God has restored his church
here on the earth. What a blessing!
Well, i've been writing casey and he seems to be doing good.
The first 6 weeks are hard but it gets easier after
that.
you know dad, often i really wish you could be here, to meet all the amazing
people here. I'm sure that you would love them and love teaching them. And
i'm sure you would be a way better teacher that i would be. Often i brag to
the other missionaries about how cool my dad is. Thanks for being such a
great example and i hope someday you get to meet these people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I love you, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Elder Corey Kimzey </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Bonsoir maman,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Comment ça va? Guess who has power, i do!!!haha. Last week, the
power had been coming off and on all day long. So i was able to read
you emails but then after that they cut the power for the rest of the
day. So today i'm hoping that this will go through. But don't worry
all is well here.
First thing first, i thought i would tell you that today it has been
raining all day long. So your prayers have been working. It was kind
of funny though, because today we played a soccer match against some
teenage kids in a nearby neighboorhood. We got owned haha 5-0. But
it was a lot of fun in the rain. Although pretty cold. But then we
looked on a therometer and it was only 78°f. Then i realized that i'm
going to struggle in the winter when i get back. haha.
It sounds like kaylee's wedding went well. It is hard to think of all
the cousins who have gotten married since i started my misson. It has
got to be around 5 or 6.
That is too bad that byu and usu lost. But it sounds like usu played
well at least. Maybe when i get back they have a good team.
I did hear from casey. He sounds like he is doing prety well. That
would be great if you could send his weekly family letters too.
1. My new companion is great. He is pretty funny. We work well
together too.
2. the new missionaries come the 16 of october. There are 21
missionaries who are going to come. That is a lot for our mission.
Usually, as a zone leader i don't train unless it is absoultly
nessariry.
3. My amis are doing great. 2 are going to be baptized this saturday.
They are part of a parital member family. We have been working with
this family a ton so it is nice to see that more of them will be
members soon. I love that family a lot.
Also we have an ami who has come to church a few times but hasn't been
abled to get baptized because he needs to get married with his wife
before he can get baptized. We talked to him the other day and he
told us that he is ready to get married and baptized. It has been
cool to see how he has come to know that our message is true. At
first, he seemed to think that we were like all the other churches,
but little by little he has come to know the truthfulness of our
message.
4.a funny story... well i know you might think this is kind of a lame
one, but the other day i was kind of running late. So i was trying to
get ready to leave and eat at the same time haha. Not the smartest
ideas. So just after i put on my white shirt, i went to eat some of
my rice with tomato sauce. As i bet you could imagine what happen
next. As i did this the tomato sauce splattered all over my white
shirt haha. The good thing was i had a spare one handy. haha
5.This week has been full of good lessons, i'm not sure exactly why.
but it has been great. We had a lesson with this lady that we have
been teaching for a while. She is kind of like my beninoise grandma
haha. I love her to death. I think nanny jo and grandma hawaii would
really like her too. She is pretty funny. So we have been teaching her for a while
but she has never come to church. Every time she has a small problem,
but she never seems to be able to make it. So on saturday, we were
talking to her about baptism. She had a lot of questions and the
lesson was going well. We started talking about how we have to be
baptized by someone who has the autority She then asked(something
along the lines of) well, do all the pasteur hold the autority or not?
Questions like that can kind of be kind of sensitive because we don't
want to hurt the person's feelings but at the same time we want to
help they understand the nessecity of the autority. When she asked
the question, i wasn't sure how i was going to answer her. But i felt
like we should read in 3 nephi 11 about how jesus christ said we have
to be baptized. She read it and seemed to agree that that was a good
way to be baptized. Then i asked the question, you said that there
are many different ways that people baptize, but do you think that all
these different baptism are done by the autority of god?. Looking
back, i usually wouldn't ask a question like that. Even my companion
told me he was shocked how straightforward i was. But it turned to be
exactly the right question and the right way to handle it. She told
us that she didn't believe that all those people could baptize in the
different manners and still have the autority of god. She even then
accepted to be baptize and she came to church too. That lesson taught
me that it is important to listen to the spirit and not to teach all
the lessons the same way. That everyone is different so they need to
be taught a little differently.
I have to admit that is one of the things that has suprized me the
most over my mission. The fact that i can say things(when guided by
the spirit) that i would never have the guts before to ask someone.
haha. It is amazing how the spirit supports us.
6.Well, i just finished the book of mormon a few weeks ago, so i'm
planning on restarting that again. I did study the other day about
the gospel of jesus christ. I was reading in 3 nephi 27 starting with
13. I found that chapter intresting. Especially the verses 13-16ish.
I like them a lot.
Well, that was the things that happened this week. I love you a lot
mom. I can't believe that there are only 22 sundays that rest. That
isn't that many. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Well I love you more than pie. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Ton fils, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Elder Corey Kimzey
</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-83047709202242105912013-09-17T08:49:00.001-07:002013-09-17T08:49:44.737-07:00Still not much rain...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Maman!!<br style="background-color: white; color: #454545;" />Bonsoir, comment ça va? That is great that you are going to Atlanta. We have a missionary from there, he loves it. It seems like a pretty great town.<br />I'm glad that it has rained so much there. Here, it hasn't rained much at all. But it did rain some yesterday, so that was a plus.<br />That is great that you got to talk to Elder Casey. Yeah, i think<br />every missionary kind of feels that way. Especially because at the MTC, they talk about talking to everyone, and then you get to the airport and there seems to be a million people. haha. It can be kind of an adjustment at first. I'm sure he'll adjust well once it gets started with his trainer. I wonder how he is going to do with the cold considering it is probably pretty cold there right now. I can't wait to here from him. Could you send me his letter? I don't know if he'll have a lot of time au cyber(i don't know how you say that in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">english, a lot of time on the computer?) I'm sure he'll be pretty nervous for the first couple days but i'm sure he'll get into the rythmn of things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">No, i never did run the bloomington hills course. It sounds like a pretty tough one. She seems to improving a lot though. I think that is what xc is all about.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That is great that Serena won again. How many times has she won that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Also she is getting older for a tennis player and she keeps winning, that is pretty crazy. Novak and Nadel should be a good one too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My week was great. We had a zone council meeting with President Weed on tuesday. During the meeting i got to talk to Soeur Weed. She told me that her son is a bishop in Wisconsin and that there is an Elder Kimzey in her sons ward. What a small world? How crazy is that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">haha. I thought that was pretty cool.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This week, my campanion starting saying good bye to all of our amis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It is crazy to think that he is going home in 3 days. I love him a lot. He is a great guy. He works hard and is a great teacher. My new companion comes on Thursday. His name is Elder Raveljoana. He is from Madagascar. We were in the same apartement at Menontin. He is one of my favorite missionaries so i'm really excited to work with him. But that was the only change in our apartement. There was a bunch of changes in our mission though. Since we will lose 12 missionaries a few secteurs got combined. So now my zone is down to 10 missionaries. But in october our mission get 21 new missionaries, so i'm sure the changes will only be temporary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">We had some great lessons with one of our ami. He loves the Book of Mormon. This week we started talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He really liked it. We spent one whole day talking about baptism. At the end of the lesson he told us, that that was the explantion of baptism(that he was searching.) We then asked him if he wanted to get baptized, before we even finished the question he said</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">yes. haha. So now we are hoping to fix a baptismal date with him the next time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Also we started teaching the restoration with another ami. It was cool how even though he didn't have much religous background, the restoration made total sense to him. He is a really nice guy. For instance, while we were at store teaching him, a car came by and hit his motorcycle. I looked at him thinking that he would start yelling at the guy. But, he just slowly got up and started calmly talking with the guy. I thought that was pretty christ-like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That was kind of what happened for my week. I got your email about my debit card. I might take out some money soon. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Well, i hope you have a great week mom. I love you so much. Sorry that this letter is a little early but its because latter we have a bunch of rendezvous so that my companion can say bye to everyone. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Je t'aime plus que la tarte,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-54399981788429269422013-09-03T10:11:00.000-07:002013-09-03T10:11:12.998-07:00No internet connection last week...<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Maman,<br />Bonjour!!! Comment ça va? Like we say in Benin it feels like we haven't seen each other for 2 days(or or in other words for a really long </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">time.) </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Last week, we didn't have internet connection in all of </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Cotonou, so none of the missionaries got to write, but thankfully this </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">week there is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Wow, the yard looks great. I don't think i have ever seen our yard look that good. I really liked you sign too. That is cool that Cotonou is the furthest away.<br />I can't believe Casey flies out already. What day does he fly out? I have talked to him a few times. He seems to be doing great. He seems to be adjusting well. I'm sure he'll do great.<br /><br />reponse à vos question:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1. <i>what are the names of the elders in your apartment?</i> There is Elder Mukenga, Elder Poll, Elder Gomun, and me<br />2. <i> (for your companion) what is elder kimzey's best missionary quality?</i>.he says that i'm nice and servable, and i'm too loving.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">3. <i> </i><i>what do you love most about your companion?</i> My campanion is great. The thing i love most about him is how he is just so nice. He is probably one of the nicest persons i know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">4. <i> How many missionaries are assigned to your branch?</i> We have 8 missionares in our branch. 4 from our apartment and 4 from cococdji.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">5<i>.</i><i>How is the drought?</i> It did rain a little bit the other day. But in general it has been pretty dry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">6. <i>Are you having more problems with power?</i>For the most part we have been ok. The hard thing is that the President of the country decided to dismiss his whole campanion (<i>cabinet??) </i>and then the next few days we had some power outages so people were kind of mad. But things have calmed down and people are ok with him again.<i>here is a link to a news article about the President of Benin)</i><a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/09/uk-benin-government-idUKBRE9780G220130809">http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/09/uk-benin-government-idUKBRE9780G220130809</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">7. <i>How did your talk for zone conference go?</i> My lesson went ok. I talked about how missionaries can either be a burden or a blessing for their branch president. We talked about how a missionary could be a blessing and how he could be a burden. It was interesting to see how the missionaries answered. They talked about how we have to be their to serve and not critical the little things. Also Dad gave me some thoughts about that so that helped. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Speaking of our branch, i love my branch here at Cococodji. It is awesome. We don't have very many members who have been in the church for more than a couple month but in general the branch works well.<br />Our branch presidency is awesome too. At cococodji, so of the investigators are having a hard time getting married. So the branch presidency said that they will totally help them out. Also sundays are pretty great.<br />This sunday was pretty good. We had a lot of people come bear their testimonies. Some of them were in Fon so i didn't understand those haha, but the ones that i did understand were great. Even one of our investigators bore his testimony. It was his first time coming to church even. He was sitting next to me and then he asked if he could<br />bear his testimony too. I told him that he could if he wanted to. Then to my suprise, he gets up and starts bearing his testimony. I have to admit, i was a little nervous because we haven't been teaching him very long. He got up and bore a great testimony about how the book of mormon is true and how we have to love one another. I was so suprised. He is a great guy. He actually goes to Jeohvah's witness church but started to take the lesson nevertheless. It realy likes<br />our teaching and absoultly loves the book of mormon. One day he was having a hard time understand how the fall of adam and eve were part of the plan of god. We read a bunch of scriptures in the book of mormon. Then my campanion gave him one and after reading he looked up at us and said, The book of mormon is filled with wisdom of god(something along those lines) It definetly reinforced my testimony of the Book of Mormon.<br />Also lately, we have found a lot of people who are earnestly seeking the truth. They are kind of sick of how there are so many church, and they just want to know which one is true. So teaching has been going well. The other day a bad thing did happen, we were walking to our appointment and when we got there we didn't have our phone. We called<br />it and it turns out that someone had stolen it(we think that it might have fallen out of my pocket and then someone picked it up.) So the mission is working on getting us a new phone but we have been working like the ancient missionaries this last week. haha It is all good though because it gives a good excuse to randomly show up to fix appointments haha.<br />Can you believe that i only have 6 months left? It is pretty crazy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My campanion goes home in 10 days.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I love you a lot mom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">hey mom,<br />I almost forgot. Guess who got a package? I did! Thanks for the package! Our apartement has been partying it up this last week with the things which are in it. Also i gave the dedorant to Elder Mundu. HE was really thankful. And told me to say hi to you guys and that he love you. Also i got the debit card, but did you activate it or would you like me to activate it? Also i don't know the pin number or is it the same as my old card? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I love you a lot,<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />
Hey dad,<br />Things are going great here, how are things going there? yeah last week, there wasn't internet connection in most of Cotonou, but thats ok. Mom sent me some pictures of the yard. It looks great. I'm really excited to see it when i get home. I think it is the prettiest i have ever seen our yard.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I like the new primary theme. I think it is so intresting that God never just ask for a little of our strength,or a little of our heart, but he asked our whole heart. Our mission president often shares Omni 1:26 or 25 which talkes about how we have to consecrate ourselves to God and give our whole heart to him. That we can't keep a little bit for ourselves and give the rest to God but we have to give it all. Ok,This we has beeen a good one in general we have been teaching some</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">amazing people. Although, one thing was pretty heart breaking. We had an investigator who was really progressing but then was pushed by some members of her family to commit a horrible sin. It was pretty hard on us. We did a lot of praying, and we even fast on fast sunday for her. But i learned an important lesson. That even if we pray with all our heart God can't infringe on someone's ablitiy to choose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The spirit really testified to me that God really was helping her but that it was her own decision to not follow the commandements. So it was definetly pretty sobering but i learned a lot from. We to help her repent, so that she can find some peace in her life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But the rest of the week was really great except we lost our phone. I still can't believe that it fell out of my pocket. Hopefully we will get a new one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Also i wanted to tell you that my lesson in our Zone<br />Meeting went well. I did a lesson on how a missionary can either be a burden or a blessing for his bishop/branch president. I even told the missionaries how you said that the best thing a thing a missionary could do was help the recent converts have a tesitmony and to help them respect the commandements. They appreciated that a lot. Also we<br />have been teaching a great new investiagator. He has been looking for a new church. He told us that our doctrine makes sense to him and that it helps him to apply the gospel in his life. He told us that a lot of people have passed by to teach him but he never seems to understand their doctrine becuse it is too complicated. It made me think about how uncomplicated the missionary lessons are and how they<br />focus on the basic. It also made me think how i needed to make sure and keep my lessons simple and to the point. Those are the things that people really want to hear.<br style="background-color: white; color: #454545;" />I'm doing well. I can't believe that Utah state lost. That is too<br />bad. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I can't believe that we have 19 missionaries in our ward. That is great. I heard that casey is leaving tommorow. It feels like he just got into the MTC. I'm sure that he'll do great. If you get a chance to talk to him say hi and tell him that i love him.<br style="background-color: white; color: #454545;" />My investigators are doing really well. We have a few are progressing well. Also we have started to teach some families which is always great.<br style="background-color: white; color: #454545;" />How is the Ward doing back home? How are Brother and Sister Demille doing? Also could you say hi to Brother Griffiths for me. He is a great guy, i love him a lot.<br />Also today(sorry that this letter has been a little random and<br />speratic) we went and played soccer. It was a ton of fun. We played missionaries against missionaries. We tied 5 to 5. It was pretty fun. Although, i think i'm going to be pretty sore tommorow. I'm defiently not in shape like i used to be. Also it is good to hear that your running is going so well. When are you going to run a 5k? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, i love you a lot dad. I hope you have a great week.<br />Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-26168829884326305022013-08-20T13:19:00.000-07:002013-08-20T13:19:11.540-07:00Service project<div id="yui_3_7_2_1_1377011847727_6402">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Chère Maman,</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Wow, that is cool that the new film is good. What did you think of it? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Je t'aime et passe une bonne semaine,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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. <i>(in our stake offices there are pictures of all the missionaries serving, and Corey just moved to the top row or five rows!)</i> How is he doing? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, i hope all is going well there dad. I love you a ton. You are an example for me,</span></div>
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kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-88824462578162677172013-08-13T09:34:00.000-07:002013-08-13T09:34:36.006-07:00New Branch<span 12px="" arial="" elvetica="" font-size:="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif="" style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hey Dad,</span><br />
<span arial="" helvetica="" neue="" sans-serif=""><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It sounds like the Tour of Utah was amazing. Is it already finished?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Who won/is winning? I can't believe how fast they are riding. Are they pro riders?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Well, i love you a ton dad. I hope you have a great week. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I love you, Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="">Bonjour maman,</span><br style="" /><span style="">Je vais très bien et toi? yeah, time is really flying. Sometimes it </span><span style="">suprise me how quick it has gone. yeah, i always thought the 7th lap</span><br style="" /><span style="">was similar to the 8th in the fact that you have to give it all you </span><span style=">got haha.</span><br style="" /><span style="">It sounds like Mary poppins was cool. They always seem to put on a </span><span style="">good production.</span><br style="" /><span style=";">I remember that Bro Doman told us about the helman club. It sounds </span><span style="">like that would be pretty awesome to do.</span><br style="" /><span style="">Reponse:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #454545;" /><span style="">my new area is good. it kind of in the outerskirts of cotonou. So it </span><span style="">can get pretty dusty. We don't have a ton of amis but we do have a </span><span style="">few. Although, we have maybe 2 members.</span><br style="" /><span style="">So we usually take a bus, a taxi, or the assistants take us(since they </span><span style="">are in the same apartement) to go to church. It usually takes a good </span><span style="">15 minutes by car.</span><br style="" /><span style="">my apartement is a new one, so it is pretty fancy. We dont even have</span><br style="" /><span style="">to sleep with mosquito nets because they installed them on the doors</span><br style="" /><span style="">and windows. Cool huh?</span><br style="" /><span style="">This week it hasn't rained. Super cold though. It has kind of been </span><span style="">freaking people out, because the cold weather has lasted longer than </span><span style="">usual. It is kind of suprising. I even got a cold sore it has been </span><span style="">so cold haha.</span><br style="" /><span style="">I do,as zone leader, a lot of similar things that i did before. We</span><br style="" /><span style="">are mostly incharge of doing some meetings and solving problems when </span><span style="">they come up. We have 12 missionaries in our zone(6 at Calive, 4 at </span><span style="">Cococodji, 2(us) at cocotomey.) It pretty fun because we are all in </span><span style="">realtivily new secteurs. I like all the missionaries in my zone a </span><span style="">lot. They work hard and seem to get along pretty well. We just had a </span><span style="">transfer so some of them should be switching out. So it should be fun </span><span style="">to get to know some other missionaries too. oh, also my old </span><span style="">companion, Elder Gomun, just got called to be the new assistant. So h</span><span style="">e is going to be coming to our apartment soon. We were only apart </span><span style="">for like one week haha. He is a really good missionary so i'm sure </span><span style="">he'll do a good job as assistant. Also i was talking to Elder </span><span style="">Mundu(my companion who talked with you guys on mother's day), he told </span></span><span style="">me to say hi to the whole family for him.</span><br style="" /><span style="">This week was a pretty good one. Today, we went to the zoo near Porto </span><span style="">Novo as a zone. haha. It was pretty funny. We got to see some </span><span style="">aligators, gila monsters, bamboons, and lions. It was kind of scary </span><span style="">with the lions because their enclosing did seem that sure. It was an </span><span style="">8 foot concrete wall with steel bars over the windows. And then the </span><span style="">tour guide started harassing the lions hoping that it would roar at </span><span style="">us, but instead he just charged us a few times haha. It was scary, </span><span style="">but fun. I got some good pictures too. </span><span style="">This week we had some good lessons. We had a great lesson with one </span><span style="">ami who has been hesitant to fix a baptismal date. We had a great </span><span style="">lesson on how we can recieve answers to our prayers. We talked about</span><br style="" /><span style=""><span style="">how sometimes it is hard for us to recognize when Heavenly Father </span></span><span style="">answers our prayers, if we don't pay attention. She talked about how </span><span style="">much her life had changed and how maybe that was an answer for God. </span><span style="">She said she was going to keep praying about it but she seems to be </span><span style="">progressing.</span><br style="" /><span style="">Well, thanks mom for another email. Can't believe how quick the time </span><span style="">is going! Thanks for being such a great mom. I know that you have </span><span style="">helped me so much to be the missionary that i am. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style=""> i love you more </span><span style="">than pie,</span><br style="" /><span style="">Elder Corey KImzey</span></span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-87084651716281929792013-08-06T08:52:00.002-07:002013-08-06T09:09:48.077-07:00Transfers to Cocotomey<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I don't usually post letters to elder kimzey's sister- but this was pretty cute...</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i> </i>
Chère ma soeur qui est bonne, douce, gentille, et intelligente,<i>(My dear sister who is good, sweet, kind, intelligent,)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> 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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Ps I love you more than pie too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> pps i like the lion king.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> pppsI'm not sure i have a favorite disney character.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">pppps i really liked my senior year of running.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">pppppps i started runnning when i was around 13. But did it off and on until my freshman year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Je t'aime,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Dad,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> 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?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Well, dad i love you and hope you have a great week.
Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Bonsoir maman,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> 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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> I love you too mom.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Je t'aime plus que la tarte,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Elder Corey Kimzey
</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-31142719449461547722013-07-30T09:06:00.000-07:002013-07-30T09:06:33.851-07:00MenontinBonjour 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
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZgoGo7Grt79N-8cJyt4NrahDY5ALrdthEOit7dEXaCpuKZmqEK_6nkV4_TEnkoNMrkLhihelDZhxzhozpPMcevNRrDykdPr2VA0mkDDuaeaAO_Vs-FvjHaw3InYwquJSO6uNpObtOpnt/s1600/benin72913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZgoGo7Grt79N-8cJyt4NrahDY5ALrdthEOit7dEXaCpuKZmqEK_6nkV4_TEnkoNMrkLhihelDZhxzhozpPMcevNRrDykdPr2VA0mkDDuaeaAO_Vs-FvjHaw3InYwquJSO6uNpObtOpnt/s640/benin72913.jpg" /></a></div>
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
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-28076242568844395572013-07-16T08:26:00.001-07:002013-07-16T08:37:06.855-07:00 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 <i>(or Ouimee)</i>.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguaA4DcR2sqMcTEfZrbBMGpahDCl5joVx_ZpfTgQDIiNaQmdrnbAgEgRClmqhqUS8ElkKASdjaQL79hPHRWBYNDr505z0ETVR8yBm9rb5j75ze0dKBPrD5y-65jIVMr-CAvnPn_RFgvThU/s1600/oume+river.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguaA4DcR2sqMcTEfZrbBMGpahDCl5joVx_ZpfTgQDIiNaQmdrnbAgEgRClmqhqUS8ElkKASdjaQL79hPHRWBYNDr505z0ETVR8yBm9rb5j75ze0dKBPrD5y-65jIVMr-CAvnPn_RFgvThU/s400/oume+river.jpg" width="400" /></a> It happens to be a one of two valley in the whole world. <i>(huh???)</i> 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.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIbYtt2P2XI9WXDjej8-8vA9_U1w2gIWaWh6SCfkTcJfCpuywPlofK4x4RIdU6uKqEMutPQYERdIbzntPROJuQBUA8191uq_Bx_VrIEsHIuoKt3kBQNxLMzoiP7pwMIyf4fwyJudPqydEO/s1600/DSC_0206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIbYtt2P2XI9WXDjej8-8vA9_U1w2gIWaWh6SCfkTcJfCpuywPlofK4x4RIdU6uKqEMutPQYERdIbzntPROJuQBUA8191uq_Bx_VrIEsHIuoKt3kBQNxLMzoiP7pwMIyf4fwyJudPqydEO/s640/DSC_0206.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks for the Semkens for this photo!</td></tr>
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<br />
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.<br />
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?<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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?<br />
Well, thanks for righting me mom. I love you more than pie and i'll
make sure to write casey.<br />
Je t'aime,
Elder Corey<br />
<br />
<br />
Hey Dad,<br />
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?<br />
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.<br />
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.<br />
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. <i>(insert mom laughing!!!)</i>Sometimes they ask pretty hard questions. Well, Thanks dad.<br />
I love you and hope everything
keeps going well there,<br />
Love,<br />
Elder Corey Kimzey
kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-25190890638960995992013-07-11T10:57:00.000-07:002013-07-11T10:57:38.411-07:00Catching a bus<span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Bonjour Mamman,</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Comment vas-tu? How was the lake(considering you'll probably off of </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">it when you read this?) Did you catch some big air?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>(told elder kimzey i was going to start a new scripture study and asked how he marked his scriptures)</i>I have heard that idea before and i hope to try it when i get back. </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Well, i bought some scriptures crayons when i was at the mtc. It came </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">in 6 different colors. Five of which corresponded with the five </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">missionary lesson ie blue for the first lesson, and there is a red </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">crayon left over that i use to mark scriptures that i like or i think </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">apply to missionary work. It seems to work for me. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">That is great that you have been getting a bunch of missionary </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">reports. Cj's mom sent me his report. It was kind of fun to see the </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">differences. </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">So my week was a pretty great one. We hosted a basketball activity.</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">It was a lot of fun even though i'm pretty sure we lost. haha. Ok the </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">best story of the week was probably when we were teaching one of our </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">amis. He has a hard time speaking french but we bring along a members </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">so it usually works out well. Well, a few lessons ago we talked about </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">the importance to forgive others. We challenged him to try and</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">forgive others but afterward i kind of forgot about it. This week he </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">told us how he has started to forgive others around him and how it has </span><span style=" #454545; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">changed his life. He told us that his wife has even noticed a </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">difference in him. It was so cool to see how the application of a </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">lesson changed this mans life. He thanked us a million times. It was </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">really great.</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The funniest part was probably when we did a split on Wednesday. I </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">was with Elder Montross who is from Michigan. We were trying to catch </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">a bus. well, we weren't having much luck. We were able to call down </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">our first bus easily, but the second bus was diffucult because all the </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">buses were full. I probably should explain that there are two types</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">of buses here. There is the big bus of Benafrique and the smaller </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"buses" which are more like vans. The big bus is 300 fcfa and the </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">small ones are only 200 fcfa. But to get on the little ones you have </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">to yell out where you are going and if they are going there they will </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">stop and pick you up but if not they just continue on their way. So </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">we were at Etoile Rouge which is probably the biggest intersection in </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Benin trying to call down buses right around rush hour. I have</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">actually have a lot of practice doing this but we weren't having much </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">luck that day. Finally an older lady came over and started calling </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">down buses for us. It was awesome, she would call out for us before </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">calling out for herself. Eventually we ended up finding a bus, it </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">was super nice of her. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">One of the more spiritual experiences was that we have been teaching </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">two guys who seem intrested and seem to progress well. My campanion </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">asked them a simple question along the lines of What have you done </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">this week to grow nearer to god. The two explained to us how they </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">actually have been having committing some serious sins but that they </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">want to change their lives. We asked them how we could help. they</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">told us that they just wanted us to continue to help them understand </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">the word of God. It was amazing to me to see how much faith they had </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">in the simple fact of hearing the word of God could change their </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">lives. they seemed to be really progressing. It made me kind of </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">think about why we are really here. It is to help people change their </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">lives through the gospel and ordannces. It was a great experience. </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Well, i'm sorry if my letter is a little long this week. It has been</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">a great week. Not much has change in our neck of the woods. No one </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">is leaving in our district even. I hope you had a great week. I </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">can't believe casey only has 2 weeks. I love you more than pie.</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Thank you for everything mom. Je t'aime,</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span><br />
<span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Hey dad,</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I just wrote you a long letter and i hope it go to you but i don't </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">think it did. so I'll try to write as much as i remember.</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">How was your week at Lake powell? It sounds like you guys had a blast. </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Yeah, we had another great week this week. I tried to put some of the </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">details in mom's letter. The thing that i really noticed this week is </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">how blessed i am. The fact that i'm able to recieve an education, </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">that i recieved the gospel, and that i have a family that loves me.</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">It is crazy to see how hard working people are here. Many of the </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">kinds do odd jobs to be able to pay for their schooling and if they </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">can't go to school they pick up an aprentissage like mechanics, </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">tailors,or barbers. I bet the saint george pioneers were similar in </span><span style= font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">many ways. for example, that people here are more concentrated on </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">things that are important like family more than other things. I wish </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">sometimes that you could just stay here for a week. I'm sure that you</span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">would love the people. </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I love you a lot dad. </span><br style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">well. Say hi to all the priest for me and Brother Hadlock. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> I love </span><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">you,</span><br style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style=" font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Elder Corey Kimzey</span>kimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4046255069031302377.post-20469262742986183402013-06-25T10:10:00.000-07:002013-06-25T10:10:28.911-07:00Another week in BeninBonsoir Maman<br />
(ou bien bonjour, je ne suis pas sur.)<i>(Good evening, or good day, not sure which one)</i> Comment vas-tu? Thanks for the picture. The new pergola looks great. It must have taken a lot of work. Also the pavers look great too. I'm glad that you used the sand this time. I remember how hard it was last time pounding the pavers and digging to pack it fit just right...<br />
When are you leaving for the lake anyways?
Wow, i can't believe casey has already gone through the temple. It is wierd to think that 2 years ago none of us kids were endowed and now 3 of 4 are endowed. I have to make sure and tell him congratulations.<br />
31 days? <i>(until Corey's brother reports to the MTC and can't wait) </i>Wow, that is great. Yeah, i remember how hard that is right before the mission. I remember one thing that helped me was to go to the temple. Remember the time that we went to do Intiantories together and i went through twice in the time you went through once. haha. So maybe if you invite to go to the temple with him that would help.<br />
Congrats, on the good lesson. I have had a lot of oppurtunities to give blessings. I'm really fortunate. I remember that we gave a blessing to a recent convert in Fidjrossé. He had been sick for a week or so and then after the blessing he was doing great. That was a pretty amazing, i thought.<br />
I didn't get to see the meeting. I did see the overview though. I can't believe that Missionaries are going to start using facebook. I don't think our mission will but that should be intresting to see if casey's mission will.
This week has been pretty good. We have been spending a lot of time visting the members. One member family, the lokkossous, made us black pâte. It is pâte made from enyams that have been dried and then crushed into powder. It was really good. They are a great family and they help us out a lot.<br />
Also, on saturday we were having kind of a rough day, all of our rendez-vous were falling through and we ended up visting mostly members. But as we were visiting members, people kept stopping us on the street. It seemed like everyone was stopping us on the street that day. It was definetly a tender mercy because we invited almost all of those people to church and a bunch of them ended up coming to church the next day. So it just goes to prove that sometimes we have something planned that doesn't work out but God always will help us find people, or he will help the people to find us. haha.<br />
Well, i hope you are doing great. I love you more than pie. Keep up the great work on the yard.<br />
Je t'aime,<br />
Elder Corey Kimzey<br />
<br />
Hey Dad,<br />
How are things going? I'm doing great. My new campanion is doing great too. He really likes working and has a bunch of great ideas. I read about the worldwide leadership meeting. I like what Elder Perry said that many people use social media, so the church also is going to start using more social media. Yeah, i think youre right that my mission won't change much but maybe casey's will. Yeah, the time in between the mission call and the mtc is really hard. It just hard to wait.
Wow, i can't believe all the people who are putting in their papers. How many missionary do we have out now from our ward? and how many soon will be out?<i>(16 is the answer)</i> It is crazy to think how many have just recently left. I remember when we had only 3 or 4 missionaries in our ward. It is crazy how fast the work has grown.<br />
That is an amazing story that Pres. Buchanan told you. Can you imagine how excited that missionary was? It is crazy to think all the little and large miracles that God does every day.
Wow, that is neat that you called Brother Hadlock to speak. I really like him. He is a nice guy and a great leader. Please say hi to him for me. I find it amazing all the little things that Heaven Father does for us. For a kind of chessy example, the other day i was hungary and was craving pâte, i don't know why but i just was. We didn't have any mangez-vous planned but one of the member suprized us by making pâte for us. haha. It was great. Or the other day, i was trying to figure out what i should teach in my zone meeting, but as i read about Captain Moroni, i realized i need to talk about those chapters in the book of mormon and how we have to prepare ourselves as missionaries.
I love you dad, And hope you have a great week.<br />
Also make sure and watch the tour for me,<br />
Elder Corey Kimzeykimzeyfamilyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15667935336868440361noreply@blogger.com0