Transferred to Kadoma!

(I love this little boy.  I will really miss him.)

What a week! This last transfer flew by, it's crazy how fast my mission is moving now! We had two more baptisms this past week, which was awesome! The work is really progressing in Entumbane and I am going to miss it! I was transferred to Kadoma! It's about 4 hours away from Bulawayo, more towards Harare. It is much smaller then Bulawayo, and the people here speak Shona, not Ndebele, so Ii feel super lost already! Almost feels like I am starting my mission all over again, in a completely new place.

My companion is Elder Mayatt, he also just happened to be Elder Bollingers companion last transfer. We are white washing the area, meaning 2 missionaries are brought in, so we are both new to the area. I know no missionaries in my zone at all, which is why it feels like a different mission! Different language, different people, different companion, like a different mission! It will be nice though I think, the members of my district are awesome, I just have to re-adjust again! It shouldn't take too long though! Apparently my house in Kadoma is really nice! Well, Zimbabwe nice you could say. And there is a gym right next door so I am gonna try to go work out every day!

 The mission has been getting on us like crazy about having a 72 hour kit, meaning enough food in the house to last us 3 days without leaving! I don't know why, but they are getting very strict about it!

We ate at a place in Bualwayo, before I left which was just like an American fast food place. Now it doesn't taste anything like American fast food, but it looked the same!

 The most american restaurant in Bulawayo, Chicken Inn.

I dont have much time to email this week, so that is why I am so short! Next week should be better and be much longer! Elder Cazier

Cyclone Rains and Lots of Cute Kiddos

Another week goes by! It was an interesting week this last week, well it's Africa so every week is interesting!!😂 This could be my last week in Bulawayo, transfer news comes out this Saturday! If I am transferred, I may not be able to email next week, we will see what happens! 

This transfer went dang fast!

I wear a sweatshirt every night, when I sleep. I sweat like crazy, but it keeps me from getting mosquito bites! I didn't wear it once, and now have 30 bites on my arms, it sucks.

Trying on Glasses...

We didn't have a baptism this week, one girl was semi ready so we just moved her back,
and will baptize her this Saturday!

 Pics from last week's Baptisms. 

Joy and Zoe. I love these two little girls! The Zoe girl, the one in white, I want to steal really bad.

I
I cut my hair cause I was getting so annoyed of how long it was! Had a Mohawk for 5 minutes... Then I shaved it off. I will never do that, it looks so bad. 😂😂😂

Thursday night we got a text from the office giving us a warning that cyclone rains were coming. I didn't believe it till Friday hit, and it poured all day, non-stop. We couldn't even leave our house it was raining so hard. There are holes in our roof as well so water was dripping on our floors. There's a hole right over my bed so of course, my bed got soaked haha. It was raining so hard that water started dripping down our walls. It was okay though, cause it gave me time to really study from the Book of Mormon and clean the whole house. The rain was supposed to continue through Monday, but thankfully it stopped and we were able to go out all day Saturday and teach. The rain started back up again Sunday so it was pretty off and on!

Our house with dripping walls.

A nice 1 dollar bill in Zim. Seriously, this is the nicest one you can find.
(**Zimbabwe uses U.S. Currency)

A typical cockroach killing and our pet cats.

This lizard kept scaring me to death cause I would go to grab something when it is dark and I would accidentally touch it and I would freak!!

 I had maize (corn) for the first time here. It is nothing like American sweet corn, I can tell you that. I was so excited when a member gave me some, I took a bite expecting it to be good and yeah, it wasn't. I couldn't even finish what the member gave me because it was that bad. It is so bland and has a grainy blah taste, and it is very hard. It's not plump and juicy like American corn, but flat and bland, and definitely something I don't want to eat often. I understand now why they grind it into sadza. Sadza tastes like nothing, just super bland. Cause it's literally just the bland corn, ground up.

A Flooded Maize Field

Mchega, another kid I want to steal lol.

Dinner with the Nklumane Elders, Elder Shamanis(NC) and Elder Hanson(WA)

Golfing in Zimbabwe. I forgot I was in Zim for a few hours when I golfed. It was about $8 a person! That is including a taxi to get there, a ball, and renting clubs

 Fun fact about Zimbabwe. The mama's her iron EVERYTHING. Every piece of clothing they iron. It makes no sense to me at all. They say it takes all day to iron, and I was so confused, like how could ironing take all day? Well it's cause they iron everything. Shirts, shorts, pants, underwear, socks, all of it. And they don't just iron the outside. So I watched mama Gobvu, a 50 year old member, iron a pair of her grandson's shorts. She ironed each pant leg on the front, then flipped the shorts over and ironed the backs. Then she turned the shorts inside out and ironed the inside of the shorts, both front and back. Then she pulled out the pockets and ironed the pockets of the shorts. This is a pair of shorts we are talking about. Children's basketball shorts, that don't even get wrinkly. So for all those mom's that get the chance to read my email, be thankful for the way you have to do laundry, cause here they hand wash everything, then iron it all how I just described.

The boxed milk is fine! I am already used to it, but I cant drink it straight yet. I can almost eat an onion raw now! It just burns. I eat them like apples!

Okay I'll be honest, I want to steal these twins as well, Princess and Priscilla. They are scared of me cause I am white. That's what you find, either kids try to touch you, or are deathly scared of you cause you are white. Most babies start screaming when you try to touch them.
One of the twins likes me, the other is scared of me.

So Larry Junior left to the rural areas. He was gone for weeks, and then his mom finally returned. I stopped by her house on Saturday and Larry wasn't there. She said she had left him in the rural areas and he will be coming back in a few weeks.... which means I wont be seeing him again. So I left the Legos, 3 cars, and 3 pictures with his mom and said to give them to him when he gets back. Cause with transfers I wont be seeing him again! She was very grateful, and told me he always talks about me, but can't pronounce my name right! She later told me at church that she called him and he was super excited about the stuff! 

Loved all my packages! The basketball and the pump made it safe, and they are great!! The Elders have been begging to play ball!  Mom washed the bed sheets before she sent them to me and they  smelled exactly like home, it was awesome. I even handed them to my companion and said smell these and he was like wow those smell so good!!! I loved them, and stuck them in my suitcase so when I get transferred I can use those at my new house!!

Peggy sent me a ton of organic foods! They were all very nice, and she sent goldfish and things like that! You can probably see it all in the picture! Tell her thank you very much 😊

So that is my week! The weeks are starting to blend together, my mission is officially moving now! Have a great week everyone, I miss you all! Elder Cazier

"The weeks are flying by!"

The weeks are flying by now, which is super nice!! This week not too much happened, but I will make it as interesting as possible!

We had 2 more baptisms this week, they were both very good! One of the boys who was baptized, is super shy, but after he came out of the water, he had the biggest smile on his face, and it made my day! He showed up to church the next Sunday and was so excited. He is 9 and loves the church!

I got all my packages, and I love them!! They meant so much to me, getting packages is awesome!! I will try to send pics of all of them, but I forgot my cord so I am limited on the amount of pics I can send! But I loved them very much 😊. I get so excited about the food.  I love the Mac and Cheese and popcorn.   We actually have a working microwave! Our oven is busted, but the microwave works! I will probably be transferred so we will see how the new house is, but they make sure that the mission houses all have fridges and microwaves! 

All my packages!! I was so pumped!!!

There is a fee for every package  you receive in Zimbabwe. It ranges anywhere from $5 to over $100 and there is no way to guess how much they will charge you. It's just whatever the person delivering the package decides to charge. The most I have been charged for one is $78. The mission home pays the fee for you and since money is scarce in certain areas of the mission you have your full mission to pay the mission home back for your fees! People will joke with President saying they won't pay for their packages, and he says don't worry, I have your passport. hahah.

Ryanne's Package

We had interviews with President on Friday, which was awesome! I love our mission president so much, he's a very good man and is a really good guy! He hinted that I would be transferred, so we will have to see what happens 2 weeks from today!

I went into my house this past week, I think Wednesday night, and had a weird feeling that I wasn't in the room alone. I flicked on the light, and sure enough, there was a stray cat sleeping in my bed. It saw me and ran under my bed, and it took a while but we got the cat to leave! The problem is that our door doesn't shut all the way cause anytime it rains the door warps. So any animal or lizard or bug that wants to get in, gets in.

This is "Joseph Smith," president of Washington DC.... the guy who tried to baptize himself in last week's letter. He showed up to church so I had to take a pic! Of course he laid his head on me hahah.

We went golfing today! Who would have guessed, golfing in Zimbabwe! Golfing was okay, but it was hot and it was taking forever and all of us missionaries are TERRIBLE golfers. Like we are all so bad! We only played half of what we payed for because we were taking so long.

Shredded wheat is THE BEST

We went to pizza again Tuesday night! But I have been having so many stomach issues it's hard to have fun sometimes! The days are long, but I am just fighting each day! I've been having stomach issues for about 3 weeks now. I hope we figure them out soon, they are killing! I told my Mission President and he said it isn't normal what I am having, so he said he will try to help me! He contacted someone about it and they will call me sometime.

Got one braid in my hair just for fun... I took it out after like 2 minutes! 

Really tempted to get dreads!!! 😂😂😂

That's basically the week! Love you all, Elder Cazier

**We sent Cayden a picture of Branson buying stuffed animals for a toy drive...

Cayden's Response: "Branson looks the same, but I feel like he is way older!! 

Dang I miss him, and Walmart. I miss Walmart really bad."

**Cayden also said he misses the snow and cold weather, so I sent him this picture last week:

(Yes this is a LEGO minifigure that I made a little missionary name tag for)

Packages in bubble wrap envelopes have the best success rate of actually making it to Zimbabwe and they are rarely opened up and inspected. Several of the items I have sent to Cayden have been a challenge to get into the smaller envelopes. But they have all fit in the end. 

A hand washer for doing laundry:

A New Bag

And even a deflated basketball and a pump!  The church building has an old hoop but no ball.