ouidah, transfers, and baptism

Bonjour Famille,

Comment allez-vous?  Je vais bien.  This week has been absoultly crazy.

Ok, to start off today we went to Ouidah!!!!  It was really awesome.  I sent two pictures for you to see.  So to start off our adventure, we went to the museum at the old portguese fort.  It was really cool.  They taught us about how the Benin slaves had influence on other countries like Brazil and Haiti.  That is why there is still vodoo in those countries.  They had a bunch of amazing artifacts and pictures of the slave trade.  Then we took a few pictures at this huge tree which someone had carved into.

  Then it was oft to the Temple of Pythons.  So the Temple of Pythons is this voodo  temple that is really safe and open to vistors.  The main attraction is they bring out pythons and you can take pictures with them ie the first picture that i sent.

  It was pretty scare to have that huge snake around me, but they are pretty harmless.  I guess they said that the snakes are really important to them. 

The guide said that they keep all the snakes inside the temple except for once a week they open the gates at 2:00 in the morning so that the snakes can go look for things to eat.  They said that often they will go into peoples homes and it is suppose to be a sign of good fortune.  And if they do come into your home you are suppose to bring them back.  I had a hard time imagining that if i found a python in my house i would be calm enough to just take it back.  One person even said sometimes they will come snuggle with you while you are sleeping.  It was pretty intresting to see all the cultural things behind it. 

 They we went to the port of no return.  It is a grand monument(seen in my second picture) for all the slaves that were brought there. 

 They would march them along that beach to bring them to the slave ships.  It was a pretty amazing monument.  I really like this one part where they had a tree that the slaves would walk around three times to signify that they after they died there spirits would return to their homeland.  Overall, it was a really cool experience and one that I will never forget.  It was amazing just to see all the amazing cultural sites and the respect that they had for their ancestors.

Secondly, This week i recieved a suprising call.  I getting transfered to Menotin.  I going to be working with Elder Mundu as a Zone Leader.  I heard that Menotin is a really great branch so i'm excited for that.  I have to admit though it is going to  be hard to leave Fidjrossé.  I really love it here.  I guess the thing i love the most it just my amis and my recent converts and the members too.  The nice thing is that we are still in the same zone.  So i will be able to see them sometimes.  

Lastly, this week we had the baptism this week.  We got to see one of our amis get baptism.  I think she was really nervous about it, but afterwards she felt really good.  So that was really great to see.  She has changed so much and made so many strides.  I know she is going to do so many great things.

So That is kind of what happened this week.  It was definetly a crazy, unexpected one.  I hope everything is going well with all of you.  Je vous aime tous,

Elder Corey Kimzey

I didn't receive an email this week, but I wanted to share an excerpt from another missionary in Benin...

 Here is what I know about some other missionaries... Elder Smilies (Kimzey) is going to be a zone leader in Benin, Elder Poll is assistant, Montross is coming to Benin for the first time, and there are a bunch of other missionaries coming in too. Excited to meet all of them! (elder Layton)

Good to know that corey's smile lives on in Africa...