"I'll take the shot"

We had a great week!

Finished up our last exchange for the transfer, and it feels to have that done during the fifth week this time. I got to go to Bella Vista with Hermana Miller. She's a fire missionary and I'm so proud of her! I loved meeting all their friends and I love all the labyrinth alleyways they have there. It's a sick area.

On Thursday we had an AMAZING lesson. I might say best of my mission. We taught our friend Nesly who is Haitian but speaks English. I was initially worried about teaching in English haha, but once we got going I was fine. And I actually loved it. It's so much fun to testify in your own language. We were trying to teach lesson one, but instead we just kinda went the way the Spirit directed us and we invited him to get baptized on March 4. He was quite overwhelmed by that. His eyes were big and he was like, "That's nine days away!" The Spirit guided our response cuz I know there's no way I could have helped him get past that overwhelmment on his own. We continually testified of God's love, God's plan, repentance, Jesus Christ, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. And then Nesly said, "I'll take the shot."

He said the closing prayer and said, "Thank you for this marvelous opportunity coming up on the fourth when I will be baptized." It was so powerful. I thought I was going to cry because I was so full of joy and the Spirit.

Satan is real annoying. We had this amazing lesson with Nesly on Thursday. We tried to meet with him again on Friday and on Saturday, but something happened both times and we couldn't. Then he didn't come to church yesterday. That hurt so bad because Nesly understood God's will for him on Thursday, then he lost spiritual momentum and chose to not come yesterday. Satan kinda has a knack for recognizing those who are truly getting worked on by God, and doing his best to pull them away from the amazing and illuminating joy they are just starting to discover. We will get Nesly's momentum back though, and he'll get baptized on the 12th.

We made a goal this week to have 100% member attendance in lessons. That's what my mission standard was in Oregon and we reached it. Then I got here and we have like ten more lessons everyday than I did in Oregon, and I just accepted the fact that that would not be possible anymore.

I wish that instead I would have found a way to make it work. Because it turns out it is possible. We accomplished it this week. It was so awesome to work so much with the members. Also sometimes frustrating because they are not as punctual as we are and frequently cancel at the last minute. But they are our best tool to help our friends get converted and stay converted, so it's worth the hiccups. And God makes miracles happen according our desires.

About six months ago I was lucky enough to serve with one of my best friends Hermana Cook. During the month of September, she read the entire Book of Mormon, cover to cover (In Spanish; what a legend). Then right after she finished, general conference happened and she told me about how much of a spiritual boost it was to have read the Book of Mormon so fast and so recently right before listening to the words of God's ordained prophets and apostles. She said she wants to continue doing a read through the month before conference starts in the future.

I've recently been on a quest to become a more spiritual missionary. I've been doing a lot of things differently, reading part of my patriarchal blessing every day, listening to conference talks in the morning when I get ready, praying out loud, asking God what I should study every day and waiting for a prompting, trying to keep a prayer in my heart in the street. It's made a big difference and I like the missionary that I am becoming (still got plenty of room for improvement). Yesterday while we were setting goals for the week, I was thinking hard about what other ways I could be more spiritual and Hermana Cook's Book of Mormon speed read popped into my mind. Then I realized the timing and I was like, no way is this a coincidence. 

So starting today I'm gonna be reading 18 pages of the Book of Mormon every day to prepare myself for general conference. I already have a testimony that it is an amazing experience from watching Hermana Cook last September/October. If you want to do it with me, email me! I can't respond but I would love to hear updates.

"Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do" (2 Nephi 32:3)

Thanks for reading another long and kinda rambly email from your favorite missionary in the Dominican Republic, you'll get another equally long and equally rambly one next week! Love you all!

Hermana Cazier

 Pics are mostly food selfies and spikeball shots 😂

Moca Had a Wedding

Hey all! We had a great week. Truly strove to be diligent. Worked hard, saw miracles.

One thing that's been kind of rough in this area has been getting people to church. The last few weeks, I felt like we put forth a good effort. Then no one came. So this week we went all out. We wanted to honestly be able to say we gave it our ALL. We testified about church in every lesson. We left a little card reminding them to go the church in every lesson and every contact, even if they already had a couple floating around their house. On Saturday we called a ton of people then spent most of our pros time walking around with Salomon, the most goated new convert ever (we are best friends and as we walk he teaches me creole and I teach him english) inviting everyone to church in person. 

Y VIMOS ÉXITO! We got 12 people in church and it felt great cuz it's been a minute.

Other fun stuff from this week. We planned a movie night with the ward and all our friends in teaching watching Coco. And it was actually insanely successful! So many people showed up. The ward made juice and popcorn and brought a projector. It came together so nicely.

Had an exchange with the legendary Hermanas Sanchez and Ramirez and learned so much from those stellar hermanas.

And had a total miracle where this inactive member made us came in when we were trying to walk by her house. Then she waved over this kid and proceeded to explain to him that for three months he is going to get visited by us a couple times a week and he is going to read all the homework we give him and go to church every Sunday, and when we invite him to get baptized he's going to say yes and his life will be forever changed. The kid nodded along the whole time and was totally into it.

Also shout out to my legendary sister for being born 17 years ago today. It's insane to me that my beautiful, talented, brilliant sister is already 17. I love you Marfil!

AND some of my favorite people in the entire world got married and baptized last week! Kayla and Alex, my amazing friends from Moca. Hermana Lee took good care of them and the ward pulled through to help and they got married on Valentines Day. Hna Lee sent me pictures and they look so happy. The gospel has truly changed their lives and I'm so glad I got to be part of their journey. They are definitely people I will be visiting when I come back here.

Hermana Cazier

Hypothetically, here's a bunch of random pictures from the last couple weeks, sorry about the lack recently.

(She wasn't kidding. She sent over 20 photos. So enjoy the overload. Some of them are cute wedding photos.)

Legendary Bloom

(February 6th, 2022)

This is another photo shoot I missed. (Where do I go all the time??) Beau did Daisy's makeup and then surrounded her by flowers. It's very striking. I really love some of the pictures they got. Enjoy.

That last one is with added filters. I don't think it needed to be edited at all, but I do like the rosy hue. For some reason these pictures remind me of Persephone, perhaps lamenting her imprisonment in the underworld. I think I've been reading too much mythology lately.

Part Cyborg

(February 27th, 2022)

I sometimes miss when Ivory does her special effects, but I do love finding pictures on her phone. This day was trying some tinfoil for a robot reveal. Gotta start with some aluminum.

After adding quite a bit of effects, you get a pretty cool peak under Ivory's false skin. She really is a robot inside.

What's with the lazy eye?

Now take some pictures around the house and in the dark.

Her granny skin is showing in this one. It's what happens when a robot gets old.

All kidding aside, I really love her special effects. This year she's been too busy to pull stuff out. It's about time we had a serious wound or peeling skin. I'll mention it to her. 

Mega Concert - Disney Style

(February 9th, 2022)

Whew. I've been gone for a heartbeat as I try to get my life in some kind of balance. This means the blog has been pushed back once again. BUT (and that's a big but) I did get the ward history submitted. That is my new calling. Ward Historian. Yep, snore. And they put me in right when everything was due. Thanks all. But I bugged everyone and got it all submitted before the first of March. That's a win in my book. And I'm definitely going to figure out a system that gets people to submit things through the year instead of waiting til people are singing Auld Lang Syne.

Today, we are going back a year again to the Mega Concert. Oddly, Mega Concert already happened for this school year, back in November. It is traditionally in February, but they switched it around this year. Regardless, that doesn't really matter. Mega Concert was so fun last year. The theme was Disney and who doesn't love Disney songs and know at least a dozen of them? 

Ivory was in Con Brio last year, so she got to sing lots of girly songs. (Those are often the best anyway.) They started by singing a compilation of multiple songs. They had a lot of fun ones. They had a Hercules song in there, so they were wearing white with gold accents. I think in one of the pictures, you can see a gold band on Ivory's arm. She looks so cute with her braids.

The boys had some fun numbers. I think my favorite was another compilation, but it included I'll Make a Man Out of You. I love that song. And I love these guys. Brock, Isaac, and Parker all up on the same podium. What great guys. 

The other number the girls did was the song from Enchanted. Weirdly their costumes were shirts that said McKay Card Fan Club. I think he was the choir president, but I don't think the girls were really that into him. It was just a fun thing for the concert. They had cutouts of him that the girls ogled over, and then he made a real appearance on stage. The effect was pretty funny.

They finished with High School Musical. (Very appropriate.) You can see Ivory for a bit. She even has a microphone, but she was instantly swallowed up in the crowd when the front row stood up. You could sometimes catch her between people.

It was such a fun evening. The individual and group numbers were also super fun. They even had a sing -along with the audience where we all sang Frozen. Is there a song more well known than Let It Go? It was probably one of my favorite Mega Concerts. And naturally, we got a picture of our favorite performer afterward. (Ivory, not Isaac)