House For Rent, Toy Guns and a Quarantine!

What a week! There wasn't too much that went on, but some cool stuff!

We are expecting baptisms this Saturday and I am very excited! 

This is Gugulani. He is the investigator being baptized this Saturday! 

So this week we got a text from the Zone leaders, saying there was a quarantine, and that all missionaries are not allowed to eat any vegetables. Apparently there was an outbreak of something in Harare, typhoid I think, and so the office instructed us that no missionaries can eat vegetables. So it was a vegetable free week, which sucks, but we can't have vegetables until further notice! We will see what happens! But it's funny, cause I never thought I would say this, but I am basically a vegetarian here. The only time I eat meat is at members, which often they don't even give us! I eat sahdza every day!! It's quite good, and I like it with vegetables in it, but now we can't eat vegetables so I don't know what I will do!

I have found foods I like! I make really good eggs and all that stuff. I am getting known for my cooking, cause I cook "good" stuff a lot and the elders love it! I made pancakes today!

There was a baptism at our chapel, for some other missionaries, and so my companion and I had to fill the font and get it ready. Of course, there was no water. The only water was from a faucet outside, so with no hose and only a large trash bin, my companion and I spent two hours filling up the bin, carrying it into the font, and pouring it in. I am SORE today. I had instant calluses on my hands, and am now having bad back pain. But it's okay, cause the baba (father) was able to be baptized!

I am still getting bit by mosquitoes so dang bad, but its okay! They aren't blowing up like they used too! But they still itch like crazy!

It was actually legit "cold" in Bulawayo for 2 days. Cold enough to where everyone was in jerseys (sweatshirts). But after 2 days it was back to super hot lol.

The lesson at the police station was postponed because the head officer had an important call, so he had to leave, but this week we are going and scheduling another time to go! Not sure when, but we will for sure do it!

Sewage spilling out of the pipe. This is everywhere in our area. 

So there are no guns in Zimbabwe, cause they are so illegal, 

but all the kids toys look exactly like real guns. It's kind of scary. 

A 70 is coming to talk to us missionaries, so I can't email next Monday, but will I on Tuesday. Tuesday is our p-day next week! So we will see how things go as time moves on, bond notes are still an issue, but I am coping more and more. The mission is going so fast, it's crazy. I don't want to jinx it but I look back and I'm like WOW.  The Lord can help us through any trial we are going through, as long as we have faith.

Elder Cazier

Another Crazy Week!

Hey guys!!! This was a crazy week, so I will try to fit in every thing that I can! But I was not transferred, so I will be serving in Entumbane another 6 weeks with Elder Guajardo. Like half of our zone left, so did Elder Bollinger which was hard, but that is mission life so you find new people to hang with!

Cutting Bollinger's hair. It was week six, which means no one shaves, 

so as you can tell neither of us shaved haha 

Elder Bullinger and a really cool tree

So I have spent all day with Elder Gunther and Elder Sink, and they are sweet guys!!! We went to the Khami ruins, it was super cool but too expensive for a 5 minute thing. So we just took pics of where we were, and things like that! But it was really fun! We got to go out to the bush bush, where no one lives, legit Africa!! And it rained like crazy so it was quiet an experience!

The "Bush" Hike

Today's pics, featuring Elder Gunther and Elder Sink.

 And this is why we filter our water in Zim hahah. I have never seen a GREEN river like this.

And that is our water filter in a month, compared to a new one, yuck!!

 A crazy thing happened, we were given a referral to go see the head of police in Entumbane. So on Thursday me and my companion went and visited him at the police station. I wont lie, I was scared to death! Because he is pretty high up in the political ranks. We visited him, and long story short, we got a tour of the police station and are going back on Wednesday to give a 45 minute to an hour preach to all the police officers. I am scared as heck, but it will be an experience I will never forget!

Suffering in the elements in the Zimbabwe Harare Mission! Only In Zimbabwe my friends. 

I'm not scared of weeds anymore. 

The tadpoles are attacking the mango in the water.

The food is going better, I was almost given caterpillars but the members knew that I would freak out so they didn't. lol.  I ate the middle part of a bone which was soooo gross. It tasted ok but was slimy and just not good. The thought of eating was just gross mostly. Yuck!  We had a terrific Tuesday dinner in town, which is buy one get one free pizza!! Yes, there is pizza in Zimbabwe, but only one or so places and it's super expensive! There, the elders determined that my spirit animal is a kangaroo, cause apparently I am from Australia cause my skin is so dark!

One of the funniest things I learned about Zimbabwe, is that they call farts, puffs. So if you fart, they say "ah he puffed!!" I thought that was funny.

One thing about Zimbabwe, is the stars are sooooo beautiful. The sky is so clear at night, I can easily distinguish Orion's Belt and many others. I actually saw a legit shooting star and made a nice wish😉 The frogs here are insane. We've been getting a ton of rain, and all the tadpoles just turned to baby frogs, so it legit looks like the ground is moving with baby frogs. I will be honest, I have killed so many on accident, they just jump under your shoes when you step!

Me holding some of my Christmas Package 

 The only basketball court in Zim hahah. 

And this is mchlega. Yes he peed on me hahaha 

So this was my week, miss you guys like crazy!!

Life is So Good--Kids Want to Move in with Me!

What an up and down week!! This week was super up and down, but had it's sweet moments. I'll try my best to explain it! So the week started out rough, cause there was no money in the banks, and all the missionaries had no money to buy food. So we had to spend a lot of our Tuesday trying to get money out. And bond notes are such a problem, they don't hardly give U.S. cash anymore, it's all bond notes. And the biggest size is $2. So if you withdraw $70, you are getting 35 bond notes. Talk about a full wallet!

 My companion and I worked the area really hard on Wednesday, then on Thursday I got sick. Not too bad, just non-stop runny nose and a really scratchy throat and cough. I couldn't go in the area that much Thursday just cause I didn't feel good, and Friday was mostly the same. All the children asked if I smoked cause my voice was raspy lol.

Then Saturday came around, and man what a rough day!! We were supposed to have 3 baptisms, and all fell through 2 hours before the baptism. One girl was "sick", the others mom freaked out and wouldn't let her be baptized, and the gogo (old person) said she knew the church was true, and even studies from the Book of Mormon every day, but said she didn't want to leave her other church. Dang it was rough!!

To make things better, I will add some funny moments/facts this week!

This kid was yelling at his friend and was mad at him and said "I am gonna get you for what you did!!!" So I yelled at the kid, "No, I'm gonna get you!" He turned around and said "What did I did?" I could't stop laughing for hours.

Everyone here thinks WWE is real. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I have already broke many 20 year old hearts by telling them it is all acting. 

 I was called Jesus this week and my companion Moses. 

There are these kids who keep asking to come live at my house. I explain to them that we only have 2 beds. They say they can sleep on the floor. I tell them that our floor is very dirty and bad. They say they don't care, they just want to live with us. It's to a point now where we have to out run them so they don't figure out where we live. Even when we tell them to stop following us, they don't listen. So we have to out run them.

That's pretty much it! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!! Elder Cazier

*** We received a package from Cayden this week with gifts for the whole family hand made by members from his ward in Entumbane! They are beautiful and the craftsmanship is incredible.

Cayden said it took the sister in his ward over a week to make this bowl.

Happy New Year!

What a crazy past couple of weeks, Christmas and New Years. Its been funish, almost everyone has family over or is in the rural area so it is harder to teach people lessons. It was a big change having Christmas be sunny and hot. There was no Christmas feel for the most part, cause it was so dang hot and no one really celebrates it here. New Years was alright. People pounded music all night and got super drunk. So teaching lesson the next day really wasn't an option because everyone was out cold. I saw so many guys laying on the ground with bottles next to them. The alcohol here is dirt cheap, $1 for a big big bottle so drinking here is an issue. There was a time this week when we went to teach a lesson to two young investigators who are being baptized this coming Saturday, and their father and father's friends were super drunk. They came out of the house and kept trying to offer me alcohol, and wanted to take pics with me. They tried to get me to hold their cigarettes and alcohol in the picture but I had to keep telling them, "I cant do that." When men here get drunk, they get very grabby with key wahs (white people). So they hung all over me and kept blowing their cig smoke in my face. They were so grabby and wanted attention so bad we couldn't even teach the lesson so we just left. On New Years we went to the field and played American football which was really fun. I was able to see the New Years fireworks and it was cool, but falling asleep was hard because the music was so loud.

Children here don't understand how dangerous fireworks are. They literally throw firecrackers at each other and run around chucking them. These are 6-10 year old children who have no idea what they are doing.

We get $280 a month which seems like a lot, but it's not, because the banks only allow you to pull $40 at a time. And they charge money every time you pull and half the time they don't have money, because this is Zimbabwe. So money is really hard to get. It's enough money, and I felt comfortable until all the banks are closed cause there is no money.

I just feel super off today, yesterday was the same way. Even in lessons I stutter and can't think strait. I feel sick and light headed and I am drinking enough water. I just need to keep pushing and hope it will pass I think.

 

 I am praying a lot and reading the scriptures a ton and learning a lot as well. I just finished the Book of Mormon for the first time in my life cover to cover. Finished it the day before the year ended too!

 That was my week! Happy New Year everyone!! Elder Cazier!