Banana Trees, Maize and Peanuts

What a crazy week! Not too crazy, just a little! The week started out normal, walking the streets of Africa in a tri-panionship. Then Thursday night I got a call from the zone leaders that I was getting a new companion, Elder Condie! So Friday afternoon he arrived on a bus and I got my new companion! He's been on mission 2 transfers, is from Utah (of course) and is 6'6". So that means going back to my old area, working town and cotton research and pixie khombie. I was a little sad to lose Rimuka as an area, but it's okay! I have had now 6 companions in 6 months haha!! Elder Richardson and Elder Parco are still companions and all four of us are in the same house.

Our tri-panionship: Richardson, Cazier and Parco

Elder Richardson is just awesome.

My new companion Elder Condie

 

It's pouring today, actually cold!! 

A pic of our gym we work out at! 

 Had to take some pics so people can see how bad the roads are in Zim!! 

 One of the hardest things to get used to, is that people here just drink and drive. It's just something you have to face! Our khombie drivers, or taxis as we would say, often are either super drunk, or have an open bottle of Chibuku (an insanely cheep beer that is just fermented sadza). The drinking here is immense, since Chibuku is so cheep. Men will go drink all day, cause it's a dollar for a 2 liter. We face drunks each and every day, and one time one wanted to fight us so messing around, I pointed to my companion and said "fight him." The super drunk guy started trying to high kick my companion. Realizing the dude was serious we quickly left! He tried to follow us but was so drunk he couldn't even walk straight.

Playing Soccer in the Mud in Zimbabwe!

 That's the food I have, and live off of other then the vegetables and milk in the fridge. You can tell its mine cause it is so organized. 

 Some funny selfies. 

Apic of a typical poster in Zimbabwe. We see posters like this everywhere. And people believe them. "Bring your sick and they will all be healed!!" And people believe them and go get devils cast out.

 Ladies breastfeeding in church is also an issue. I wasn't prepared for that when I came, and I know I mentioned it in an earlier email, but it's just so hard to get used to! I come to church to worship the Lord, not see ladies feeding their child, and when the child finishes, they just sit their exposing themselves, waiting to see if the child wants more. I'll just say it's very hard to teach a lesson, when 4 ladies in your class are doing that haha. 

 Some little baby playing in really nasty water. 

 I would like to share something I learned this week! I learned that we cant judge people off one or two flaws. That we need to look past the flaw and see the good in people. Generally, we always look at the one flaw or bad thing in a person, and that is all we focus on. And that isn't right! There was a person in my ward that I judged cause of one thing he kept doing. And it would fester inside of me, to where I started to not like the guy. Then yesterday at church, the branch kind of turned on us missionaries, and the man defended us heavily. He was the only one defending us and gave everyone fire! I quickly realized, that we shouldn't judge people on one flaw, but should always see the good in people! Just like we want people to look past our flaws, we should look past others. 

Some random guy asked for pics with us.

Me next to a banana tree! 

 Service! We helped make chabaki, which is just shucking the maize off its husk or whatever you say. Chibaki (chi-bah-gee) is just another word for maize off the cob! Our thumbs were so raw, Elder Parco got blisters hahaha. When we arrived, the family had been doing it for 6 hours already.

 All the chibaki we had to do!! My fingers are sooooo sore!! 

 After making chibaki for a long time, we went to another house and helped pluck ground nuts!(peanuts)

My popped blister from my burn last week! It's like a hole in my finger, but is getting better! 

 Thank you to everyone who reads my letters every week. I try to keep them interesting, so everyone will know whats it's like here in Zimbabwe! Like even in the Book of Mormon and Bible it isn't just all doctrine and commandments. It has wars and good stuff! 

 Wednesday we have interviews with President, then Thursday we have zone conference, then Saturday we have a branch activity that will take up all day! So it's pretty cool, I like busy weeks!! It will be a fun week😊

Have an awesome week! Elder Cazier

On Fire!!!

It's been a pretty flustering day, and like every shop in Kadoma is closed down cause apparently the day after Easter is a holiday. Plus the internet has been down all day in our normal computer lab so it is tough.

Anyway this week was a pretty good week, we had 2 baptisms yesterday which was really nice. We baptized Tatenda and Tichaona, both young men (14 & 22). The work has really progressed since we added Rimuka to the area.

We have still been having problems! Not with people but other problems! We've been having tick problems! There are so many ticks here, and I hate ticks. You can see tons of them on dogs and cats, and on kids and it's just gross. To be clear I've found 10 in our house in 2 days. I had 3 in my hair and just pulled them out. It's tempting me to just shave my head cause they are so gross. But that's what you get when you serve in Zim! Lots and lots of bugs.

Right after I held this kid, my companion pulled a tick from the kids hair, yuck. 

 Having a companionship of three has been working great actually! Like I really enjoy it. It's going very smooth, the only problem is when one wants to do something and the other 2 don't, but it's good, I am really enjoying!  So Elder Parco came 2 and a half months ahead of me, and Elder Richardson is a month and a half behind me! So he just barely got to 4 1/2 months! Elder Richardson has 25 brothers and sisters.....Yes!! So there is 25 adopted, and 5 regular born! So 30 kids, and 2 parents! And he is one of the oldest kids.

A little kid was chewing gum, so I took a piece of gum out of my bag and started chewing it myself. He wanted the wrapper so I gave it to him and he stuck his gum in the wrapper. Then thinking for a second, he decided he wanted to chew his gum again, so he just stuck the whole thing, wrapper and gum, back into his mouth and ate it! Oh the kids here, they are something else!

The monkeys are back, and still annoying!

Made myself a salad in Zim!!

So I mostly eat chicken breast. Chicken is like the only meat you can trust in this country😂 I buy the breasts, cause they are boneless! So for that salad I bought cow, but the meat wasn't too good. Like I said, only trust the chicken here, the other meat, cow and pig, is just.... not right hahah. So the shopping center next to my house actually has a ton of stuff! Like they have cream cheese and random weird stuff like that! But it's SUPER expensive. Like 6 slices of cheddar cheese is over 3 dollars!! So anything American is super expensive. They just got Miracle Whip, that mayo stuff, and it is 10 dollars a jar!!! 

So I got burned cause I was being creative and made a really nice chicken noodle soup! And long story short I burned myself on super hot metal, it hurts so bad! The blister popped today and it's like a hole in my hand.

Our area, Rimuka, fills with smoke at night cause everyone cooks with fires, so I always return home with burning lungs, red eyes, and smelling like smoke!

So this fire was started cause the people said there was a poisonous snake in the tree, so they just lit the tree on fire! I actually have been told that there are poisonous snakes, and to be careful! So I have been keeping my eye out! I almost stepped on one the other day! Scared me half to death!

 Well my stomach has actually been better, and I think I figured it out!! So it had been feeling better for 3 days, and I was excited! The mission president's wife called me and said that the doctor said everything looks great, that I should find out what food hurt my stomach cause it's food related! So I knew sadza hurts my stomach, but then I ate rice Sunday night and it made my stomach hurt so bad today!!So I figure that if I avoid sadza and rice, my stomach will be okay! Which is why I have been making myself salads and things, I'm trying to be really healthy!! The mission President's wife did tell me to just be polite when people are serving us food in their homes. She said to ask the people who feed me if I can get the food in a container to go. So I don't know what I'll do, but I have been better since I have avoided those things so I think it will get better😊

We had an investigator ask us if the reason we can't drink coffee or tea was cause there was cocaine in it. I assured him there was no cocaine in coffee or tea, but that we shouldn't do cocaine.

**I told Cayden that last week we delivered hot out of the oven cinnamon rolls to the Elders in our Ward on Monday, took them Panda Express on Wednesday and then had them over for Ribs on Easter Sunday.**

Those elders are living the good life, that's so nice! What the heck, what I would do to have Panda😂
 I really miss home sometimes. Like I am at a point on mission where I don't get homesick like I used to, but I am always homesick. Dad said it was like that for him too.  Like I always just have this feeling inside that I am missing something... my family and friends! It's really hard, but I just keep pushing, and know that eventually I will be home!

That was the week! Next week should be a better week, we will see how it goes! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! Elder Cazier