WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE MISSION

August 18, 2011 Letter

Dear Family,
Well, yesterday we had a Zone Conference. It was very different! It just had a totally different feel to it. I did get a prize for having a 'celestial' apartment. I guess our apartment is really clean.
Really the whole Zone Conference was based on the new 12 week training program, our new stat system, and our purpose. One thing that came to me while they were talking was that we are not directing others to Christ...we are inviting them. We have to be with Christ first ourselves. If we aren't then were merely pointing. It was interesting.
President Anderson is really focused on getting things to happen, which is awesome. He talked about activities versus accomplishments. We used to report hours of tracting, ITL's and part members and less actives we visited. We don't report those anymore. All we report is people baptized and confirmed, people with a date, people at church, lessons with a member, overall total lessons and new investigators. He doesn't really care how we find people...we just need to find them...without breaking rules of course.
I don't even know if all that interests you but I figured I'd let you know what's going on in the mission.
We are working really hard on getting people to come to church. There is one lady that is so ready for baptism...she just needs to come to church.
Well, I have been enjoying the e-mails from England (as I'm sure you have too). It sounds like Sam and Emma are having a great time. I'll be excited to go over there again.
August 22.....
So, I totally thought I had sent this letter. I'm really sorry about that.
Things have been going well. I realized a little bit ago that my temple recommend expired in July. Whoops! So I go an interview by President Anderson. All good again.
Well, me and Elder Berghoff are getting along really well. It's nice to be able to end my mission with a companion that I get along with. Our district is doing well. We went out for a district lunch yesterday and had a great time together. I think they (or we) all needed that. It helps when you're unified as a district. I've been feeling a lot of stress in the district lately. That's starting to go away now. Me and Elder Berghoff are planning an activity for this Saturday. Like a hands on tree of life lesson for less actives, and recent converts, and potentials. It's taken a couple of weeks to put together but we're really hoping it goes well and encourages people to come to church, get baptized and get aimed towards the temple. I really hope it's a meaningful activity.
Yesterday for part of p-day we went down to Manitue Springs and walked around. There are some crazy hippie places down there! Then we ate a burger place. It was way good food.
I wanted to say thanks again for the DQ card. I love ice-cram cake so that was a really nice treat.
Did I ever say thanks for those "Every Flavor Beans"? I'm not really sure if thanks is the right word though because some of those were gross! Like the rotten egg. It was so disgusting! Me and Elder Hakes too turns spinning the spinner and eating the flavor it landed on.
We went to Sally DeFords again and she showed us more of her studio. She even gave us a couple of albums she's helped with in one way or another.
So we picked D and S back up. D wants to quit smoking and we told him about the 12 step program which really caught his attention. He said he'll for sure be at church on Sunday. I hope he means it.
So yesterday we got this text message referral from BYU. It was followed by a message from Sister Sparrow (who is in charge of referrals). She said, "Um, I'm kind of worried about the referral that I just sent you. The phone number is 666-666-6666. I'm really worried about it."
So we have to call the office before we go see them to see if it's real or not. The message on the text was weird. It said, "Please share your religion with me at my home! I would love to convert!" Very strange....but me and Elder Berghoff were laughing about it so much!
That's one thing that me and Elder Berghoff do a lot of....laughing. It makes life a lot more fun.
Well, I'm going to be sure to send this today.
I love you!
Love Elder Cryer
P.S. I just got a letter from gma and gpa. It was one of Emma's postcards. It was postmarked August 20. It said they'd sent a couple other letters but I haven't received any others. Just wanted you to know.
Take Care