Prom 2023

(April 22nd, 2023)

I swear Ivory started planning for Prom months in advance. She found the perfect dress that was so 'her' and knew she wanted to go with Isaac. Oddly, they broke up right before prom, but they still wanted to go together. I'm glad they did. They still looked so cute and they are such good friends, they still had a great time. 

Since they knew they were going together, Isaac took his time asking. But he did a good job. Ivory came home to find this message in her room.

In turn, she sent him on a hunt. She strung a fishing line all through his house that finally led to her answer. (And some goldfish, since he really likes those.)

For the day date, the kiddos did archery. I want to go somewhere you can shoot zombies. That's so boss.

Then Ivory came home and we fancied her up. Sometimes I look up a tutorial for hair, but this time around I had something in mind and I just went with it. Her hair ended up turning out really cute and people asked where she got it done. (Yep, pat on the back to me.) The butterfly was the piece de resistance. (You have to say that with a french accent.) It was magnetic, so I simply put a clip in her hair and stuck the butterfly on top. Magic.

I told you Ivory planned it all out. She didn't want to wear heels since they get so uncomfortable, so she bought herself some fancy tennies. Comfort meets fashion.

Guys, check out this dress. It was so pink and so lovely and so expensive. And so Ivory. She looked so pretty.

Seriously, the butterfly completes it. 

All the tulle was so fluffy and light. And pink.

Isaac arrived and was adequately stunned. He said he had something prepared to say when he saw her and he forgot what it was the instant she appeared. :) Then they exchanged all the flowers.

It's our tradition to do the tie, if you remember. Ivory could have gone with pink, but she opted for a sparkly silver bowtie. I loved it. 

Ivory's group was just three couples. That's actually a really nice number of people. Not too small, not too big. They got some really cute pictures.

I really love the last one with the girls wearing the guys jackets. Classy.

I think the dance was out at Thanksgiving Point. I never hear much more after they're out the door. I think Ivory's second prom was just as good as her first, and perhaps her feet hurt less by the end.

The Longest Date in History

(January 16th sorta, 2023)

I haven't been the best about doing dates with the girls this year. I started off strong (as is common in January) but life has been busy and only a few dates have happened. However, does it count if a date seems to carry over for several months?

Back in January, I took Pearl to Color Me Mine. We each chose a piece and we painted away. I'm usually the slow one, but for some reason, it came together easily this time and I was finished in no time. 

Pearl was struggling with what she wanted to paint. Oh, and they kicked us out after an hour since it was a holiday and they had lots of reservations. Even though there were empty tables, they asked us to leave. So Pearl didn't get to finish. But mine came back a week later and I loved it.

Well, we still needed to find time to go back. Time went by and we kept pushing it back. But I figured we'd have time over Spring Break. Analena wanted to come, so I ended up dropping off the two of them and I got errands done while they painted. I actually recommended that Pearl start over. She washed off her other design and made a new one with Analena. They both loved it and were super happy with their project. 

I went to pick it up later and when the girl went to hand it to me, she let go of the bag before I grabbed it. It plummeted to the floor and you could hear the sickening crack all through the store. Yikes. She knew right away that it was going to be bad. She wrote us a card to come back and get a free piece. When we finally unwrapped it at home, it was shattered. I was hoping for a crack, or maybe just a piece that came off, but it was lots of pieces. Pearl and Analena had worked so hard on it that I couldn't just throw it away. So I worked very hard to glue it back together. 

And yet, even though it was back together, some of the edges were rough and didn't fit as perfectly as I'd like. I was worried about Analena slicing a finger on a rough edge. So I got the bright idea to do Kintsugi. It was a broken bowl after all. It would make sense to add some gold because then it would be meant to have those cracks. But it took a while to get the gold and for me to get it done. I finally finished it last week and gave it to Analena. So a date that started in January, finished in June. But I'm pleased with the end result. 

And we still have a coupon for a free piece. I'm just not sure I have the time...

Oremfest and Such

(June 5-9, 2023)

Another fun week has gone by. I'm really not sure how best to blogify all our activities. Perhaps I'll do it a week at a time, or an event might stand out that gets a post of its own. That's what's best about this really flexible summer. 

The beginning of the week brings another cleaning chore. Room changing is up next. Yep, that special time of year. Some of the girls look forward to it and others dread it. I guess it depends on which room you are moving to and how much mom is going to nag you about getting rid of stuff. (Spoiler: She nags everyone.)

Regardless, it is an important project and probably a way to mark that summer is here. I've learned from past experiences that it takes longer than I think it will, so I gave it two weeks of priority time. Even so, we started early because people get anxious to get moving. 

We aren't quite done this week, but I'll give you a teaser of stuff to come. Here is a collage we put up in Ivory's room. Last year we never got her stuff hung up. So we made sure to do it this time.

You'll really be amazed when you see the before and after pictures. And I'm hoping with the Zorro circles (our recent cleaning method) and Saturday chores, that rooms will stay cleaner this time around. (A mom can always dream.)

Our treat for the week was Blackberry Lavender Cheesecakes. Except that we looked ALL over for lavender extract and I couldn't find any. So scratch the lavender part. Instead, we got some lemon extract because blackberry and lemon is a great combo. (And I have such a soft spot for lemon stuff.) We added a little food coloring to make the cheesecake more of a purple color. I realize in these pictures, they look more grey, but zombie cheesecake is good too.

The final product with the blackberry puree on top was quite delicious. Cheesecake is such a yummy treat. And it didn't taste like flowers at all. ;p

Our hike for the week was to the Draper Suspension Bridge. The trail is actually called Orson Smith park. It was really busy. There were dogs and kids everywhere. I was sad we didn't bring Nova since she would have loved it, but none of the other dogs would have appreciated our savage canine, so it's just as well that we left her home. I took a picture of this lady because she was the perfect example of a hiker; with her dog and kids. 

It was a really nice day. It hasn't gotten too hot yet, so I'll take all the mild climate I can before summer really sets in.

It was not a waterfall hike, but we found one anyway.

The main trail is up to the suspension bridge. It is a really big bridge and you can see it from far away.

Gotta take some pictures on the bridge.

The funny one was Beau saying that everyone should do this strange pose. It was a little bizarre, but when I took the picture from a different angle, all the girls looked like weird child-sized dolls. They are like little action figures.

The view was awesome. You could see so much of the valley. No clouds from this view.

Here's my mighty crew. Looking good. That rock was actually huge.

There weren't a lot of wildflowers, but still some here and there. And Beau and Pearl saw a couple lizards, but they were camera shy.

We made it. Some things to note in these two pictures. First, Daisy slipped on the last set of stairs and scraped her ankle, so her smile is despite the pain. Second, even though that looks like Beau's hand on the wall, it's Pearl's. Hands don't go that way. And third, I totally caught Ivory yawning in the second one. 

Some Culver's on the way home? Yes, thank you. 

We wrapped up the week with Oremfest. It used to be called Summerfest, but they renamed it. Fine by me. All the fun stuff was still there. We got food, Ivory got an airbrush tatoo and we got some cute beaded necklaces. Daisy also got a cute ring, but it's not pictured here. Oremfest is always a party.

Second week of summer down. Doesn't it already feel like it's going too quickly?

Short Story Long

Hey amigos! 

This week was pretty great! We had lots of great lessons. The Spirit has been leading the lessons and He is such a great teacher. Way better than me. I'm so grateful for His help.

Story time!

We have this friend named Iris. I don't know if I've written about her before. Hna Fernandes and I found her on our first day opening the area. She's a cute little old lady and always calls us her hijas and the muchachas. She gives us juice every time we come and from the beginning has expressed interest in learning about the gospel and reading the Book of Mormon. She even has shared with missionaries before, a long time ago.

Well, the weeks dragged on. Every week we invited her to church. Every week she said she would come, then she didn't. Then we came back to find out why and she gave us an excuse. Some were pretty valid (her son got stabbed in the chest and she was taking care of him for two weeks). Some were pretty lame (the neighbor showed up to talk). Iris has been on date for baptism but her date keeps falling because she keeps not coming to church despite her promises.

So last week something changed. She started actively looking for a way to come to church. She started praying that she would be able to make it and I could feel the real intent in those prayers. She genuinely understood the importance of it and was filled with desire to go. She prepared everything so that she would be able to come this Sunday.

Then she didn't come. We went to her house last night to see what was up cuz I was honestly devastated that after the genuine change I had seen in her this week, she didn't come. She told us that there's the lady who she works for on an un-set schedule who just sometimes comes to pick her up and help her out, and that that lady showed up yesterday an hour before church. She had to go and she was so sad she missed church for it.

But as she was telling us this story she told us that she'd had a feeling all week to call this lady just to make sure she wasn't gonna come on Sunday. She told us, "Hermanas, I failed. Because I had this feeling that I should call her and I didn't." She recognized the Spirit!! That's something that is often hard for people who haven't grown up feeling it and learning about what it is to do.

It was really cool for me because I promise people almost every single day that God will provide a way for them to get to church and that He will help them in their righteous desires. But we're not with them 24/7 and we usually don't get to see exactly how God does prepare the way.

But He does. He prompted Iris this week. He understood her desire and knew what was going to happen and He tried to help her overcome the obstacle in her way.

That's what He does. He has eternal perspective and sees things that we don't see. He does keep His promises. He does guide His children. Sometimes it gets hard to see because we live life so shortsighted and expect instant gratification and easy solutions too often.

Sorry about the novel to just tell one story. We had transfers this week and I had to say goodbye to my amazing companion Hermana Fernandes. It was a party every day opening this area with her and she is such a light in my life. But she's gonna go be comps with Hermana Cook who I also trained and I'm so excited about their compañionship! I got an hermana who has a year on the mission named Hermana Fifita. I'm training her to be an hermana leader and we are gonna have such an epic transfer together.

Love you guys!

Hermana Cazier

Pics featuring some sad goodbyes and my new favorite fruit 

Be Thou Humble

We had an amazing week! The Spirit was with us. I was about to write that my favorite thing about missionary life is having the Spirit with you all the time, then I remembered that that's actually just normal life cuz God is GOOD and literally every week re-promises us the constant presence of His Spirit when we take the sacrament! 

Cool miracle this week. I was on an exchange and neither one of us had any Jesus cards to write our number on. We had already run into this problem a couple times during the day. Then we run into this really cool lady named Estefany. She's so interested in the gospel, really wants to meet up with us again. She doesn't have a phone so she's trying to make this crazy plan about how at 5:40 on Saturday we're gonna meet her at this duck restaurant. Then she breaks off and goes, "wait it would be way easier if you just gave me your number and I'll text you from my husband's phone." I really wanted to give her a card cuz paper gets lost so easily so I reached into my bag to desperately search for one. I knew I didn't have any blank ones, but I was pretty sure I had one I had written something on already and I was gonna see if it was maybe salvageable to give her. I pull it out and it says, "Hola Estefany! Esperamos que estés bien!" ("Hey Estefany! We hope you are doing well!") It had her name on it!! I had written it weeks earlier to a different Estefany we were teaching and it had just been chilling in my bag for weeks. I was kinda mind blown in that moment and it was just a cool tender mercy. 

We used the members a lot this week and that felt really good. We were really expecting like ten amazing investigators to come to church and all of them would be golden if they would just COME but instead they're like maybe bronze. It makes me so sad because we have amazing spiritual lessons, in the moment they are like, "yes! I want to come to church!" Then Sunday rolls around, they forget how good the Spirit felt, sleeping or going to the beach sounds better, and they don't come. They give us a weak excuse and we give them another powerful spiritual lesson or two, and then they don't come AGAIN. It's been a brutal cycle. It's rough because I genuinely love these people and I see them soaking in the Spirit in lessons, then it's so hard when they choose to not come to church and their excuse sucks and we're heartbroken because we know how good it is! 

But. God is good. 

I've been thinking a lot about Christlike attributes this week. This song really resonated with me when I read the lyrics:

Be thou humble in thy weakness, and the Lord thy God shall lead thee

Shall lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers.

Be thou humble in thy pleading, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee

Shall bless thee with a sweet and calm assurance that he cares.

Be thou humble in thy calling, and the Lord thy God shall teach thee

To serve his children gladly with a pure and gentle love.

Be thou humble in thy longing, and the Lord thy God shall take thee,

Shall take thee home at last to ever dwell with him above.

There was something in every single one of those verses for me and I hope there's something for you too. I love that as we humbly plead, the promise isn't that we will get what we are pleading for. It's that we will get the assurance that He cares. He is aware of us. He has a plan, and if we are humble enough to accept His will, our lives will be better than we can even imagine. Maybe different that we thought. Maybe some things will be harder than we thought. But at the end I have faith that we will look our Father in the eyes and say thank you for the trials. And He will say thank you for being humble enough to accept His will because He prepared great things for us and was hoping so hard to be able to give them to us.

Have a great week! I love you all!

Hermana Cazier