August 21, 2014 Letter

Hello family! It's hard to believe that I have been here for a week already! Time is so weird here. Hours go by slow but days go by fast. Before I know it I will be heading off to Oklahoma at 2:30 am on the 27th. Crazy stuff. Can I just say how much I love getting letters?.....I LOVE GETTING LETTERS! Best thing ever. When Elder Jensen gets the mail for our district there is always a happy anticipation. I love the MTC but it is super hard. We had a three hour class the other day purely on how to recognize and deal with stress. The Elders came up with a little song about it. I am doing my best to forget myself and go to work. It can be hard sometimes but I'm trying. We were able to see a great devotional/movie of Elder Bednar talking about the character of Christ. It was so good! He talked about how when the natural man's response would be to turn inward in self pity and selfishness Christ turned outward and helped others. It was such an amazing devotional. It really hit home that the mission is not about me. The next 18 months should be me turning outward instead of inward. Such a great devotional! I wish I had my notes in front of me so I could go in to more detail, but that was the general idea. We do SO many role plays at the MTC! I am learning to love them actually because now that we're in the mission, we realize that we really need to learn how to be a missionary and so we take it more seriously. At least that's how I feel. I know lots of missionaries still don't like it because it feels fake, but to me it seems real enough to be helpful. There is a bug in the room and Sister Peterson is kind of freaking out a little. Dad, you would be proud of me. I am getting faster at showering in the morning :) Yay! We're still sometimes a little late to class, but no later than the Elders. We get to go do a temple session today :) I am super excited. Well, I was right. Yesterday when Sister Bailey and I were doing our service project/cleaning assignment (we had to wash sinks and toilets, YUK!) I started singing, "I just got an invitation through the mail. Your presence requested this evening, it's formal; a top hot, white tie and tails." Yeah. And every time I tell people that I like to tap dance they ask for a little demonstration. I have to remind them that we are not allowed to dance. When our new district came in and I gave that response to the the request for a demo they asked why we couldn't dance. I told them that for me, personally, I have decided to give 18 months of my life to the Lord. I am here to do His work and to focus entirely on teaching His children, and dancing is just a distraction that I don't need right now. I am on the Lords time, not mine. They seemed satisfied with that answer and it helped to solidify it in my mind too. Well, I'd better go check on my laundry. I love you all so much! Thanks for everything you do for me! I know the gospel is true. I know God lives and loves us, as does His Son, Jesus Christ. I know the atonement is real. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know that prayer works! I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Love Emma.......oops! Sister Cryer

TEACHING AND LEARNING

August 21, 2014 I say, corker of an email, what! I mean to say, hot stuff and all that. :) I am doing great!!! I got my package today and I was so excited! It took me about half an hour to get into it though. That tape is pretty tough and the only thing I had to use to open it was a dinky plastic thing that passed itself off as a pair of scisors. It was a pretty intense battle on the bed to get the thing open. I was cracking up becuase I wanted to get into it so bad! Thank you so much for everything! I have just finished eating a winter green (sooooooo good!) and I am super excited to have chap stick that will actually work. The stuff I have right now seems to dry my lips out plus putting a pretty bad taste in my mouth. Thanks for the picture too! I am going to stop by the bookstore and pick up a few things, including a photo album :) I was so happy to kind of see you all again! The orange juice remains a mystery. I haven't had the guts to try it. There are all typs of horror stories about it though. One of our teachers, Brother Schurck (pronounced Shirk) says that the orange juice makes you forget everything you're learning. He's probably right. :) This is actually my first P-day I have had in the MTC. P-days for us are on Thrusday but since we had just arrived last week on a wednesday we didn't get a P-day last week. We were asked by the branch presidency though to email our families before Saturday that first week jsut so you knew we were alive and everything. I'm glad I could help out with your class dad! That made me feel so good! I have been doing nothing but teaching and learning how to teach and preparing to teach since I got here. I am super excited to just chill out today and clean, do laundry etc. Ya know, normal things. Haha! I love beeing a missionary though. In the MTC you start teaching right away. We got our first investigator on Friday and we got another investigator on Tuesday. We have been challenged to find one more investigator by Friday night. One of our investigators, Ms. K is really sweet. She is from China and has grown up in the Budist religion. She asks a ton of really awesome questions, which is great but we are struggling to get to the basic lesson material and doctrine. She has already prayed with us. That was a miracle! I was shocked when I invited her to pray, kind of on the spur of the moment, and she said yes. I think the spirit prompted me to invite her because I was not planning to. She is starting to read the Book of Mormon too. So Sam, I got your letter yesterday at lunch. I was SO EXCITED! You got those three men spot on. Fred Astaire, Donald O'Connor and Bing Crosby. (This is who Sam said Emma would want to have dinner with if she had her choice of three people.) You're good. Funny story: while I was reading your letter one of the Elders looked up from eating and asked if I was reading his letter. I replied that no I wasn't it was a letter from my sister. He said, "Yeah, that's for me. I have been dating your sister for a while." What the heck!? I started cracking up! He is now totaly sticking with his story that you are his girl friend, that he met you walking around one day while he was in Eugene visiting his brother who is going to UofO, and that it was just meant to be. Hmm... any way, I thought it was pretty funny. I don't know if you want to play a prank of some kind on him Sam, I would be happy to help ;) My zone is amazing. The Elders are kind of wierd, but what Elders aren't? :)It's amazing how close we have all become in so little time. We are all best friends already it seems like. Elder Jensen summed it up when he said, "It's hard to believe that you weren't my friends a week ago." Most of us are going to Oklahoma Tulsa, but we have four missionaries that are going to Colorado Denver South. We just got a new district in yesterday too, and there are missionaries in that district going to Colorado Fort Colins, and Oklahom Oklahoma City. Me and Sister Bailey are the STL's (Sister Training Leaders) and so we got to welcome the new missionaries to our district along with Elder Murdock and Elder Jensen (the zone leaders). It was really fun. This morning at breakfast we had our whole zone at one table and it was so neat! I think there were 25 of us :) Ok, quick clarification: We have two Elder Jensen's in our zone; one in each district. The Elder Jensen in my district is a farmer from Idaho with a deep voice who only smiles when he laughs. The other Elder Jensen is a tall dark kid from California who I think could have been a gangster in another life. They are both hilarious! I love everyone in my zone. They are all amazing. What else can I tell you about the MTC...? Sister Bailey is doing better. I hope she has gotten everything worked out now. I think she has. She is amazing and I know that she will be an incredible missionary if she just sticks with it. One thing I love about the MTC is how much I get to pray with my companion. I have become so close to Sister Bailey in so little time and I think part of that is because we pray together so much. Sister Peterson (another Sister in my district) and I get along really well, but it's a good thing we are not companions. We would never get anything done! We laugh way too much! I think it was on Friday night that we lost it in dorms. We were laughing so hard! Laughing is such a great way to releive stress. Thank goodness for Sister Peterson! I can't believe how busy I am all the time. The days are so packed full of things that by the time it is 10:30 I think it must be almost 3:00. I am learning so much and trying to apply as much as I can. It is hard being a missionary, but I love it! We have almost 6 hours of class time every day. By the time the evening class comes around we are all fighting to stay focused. Yesterday while trying to do a role play Elder Gordon lost it and we all started laughing. The teachers here are amazing! I don't remember if I have told you about my teachers or not, but they are amazing. Brother Mathis and Brother Schurck. We have also had Brother Frost (who is one of the happiest people I have ever met), Brother Kimball and Brother White as subs. Brother White served his mission in the England Manchester Mission, dad! I thought that was awesome. He is one of the most sarcastic people I have ever met! He is hillarious. Brother White also taught me how important it is to stay within sight and hearing of my companion. In our classroom we usually have the door open because otherwise it gets hot. But when Brother White was subbing the door was closed. When the door is open I can see the door to the girls bathroom really well, so when me or Sister Bailey have to go to the bathroom we can just stay in our seat and keep an eye on the door. Well, because I was used to being able to see the bathroom I didn't even think about it when Sister Bailey said she was going to the bathroom. Well, as you will recall the classroom door was not propped open on this occasion so I couldn't see the bathroom door. Brother White was talking to the Elders and without even turning around he said, "Where is your companion Sister Cryer?" "In the bathroom," I said, slightly hesitantly. "Why aren't you with her? Are you within sight and sound?" I got up out of my chair fast and stood outside the bathroom door waiting for Sister Bailey. It was kind of funny, but I sure am not going to let Sister Bailey out of my sight from now on! Well, I think that is about it...The only other thing is that Sister Bailey got sent some home made oreos that we are pretty sure were sent from Heaven. We call them spiritual cookies because they taste like what the spirit feels like. Yeah, they are pretty amazing. :) Well, I love you all! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and faith! I need it! I absolutley cannot do this work on my own, but I am on the Lord errand and so I will have His help. When you are doing the Lords work, you can expect miracles! Love Sister Cryer

First Day in the MTC

August 13, 2014 Dear Family, Wow! What a day this has been. I am definitely feeling very in need of heavens help in this work. We had a really eye opening teaching activity. They put us in big groups of probably 30-50 missionaries and we got to watch a pair of missionaries start teaching an investigator. Then the missionaries left and it was up to the rest of us (the 30-50 greenies) to continue teaching as one giant body of missionaries. When someone had something to say they would stand, introduce themselves and then say what they wanted. We took turns one at a time and taught the investigator that way. It was amazing how differently the investigators reacted. We taught three separate people. Two of them were very kind and pretty easy going. Well, the other was too, but she was the first one that we taught and so we didn't do as good a job teaching to her needs as we might have done, and she wasn't afraid to tell us that. Throughout we would 'pause' and discuss what was happening and what we were learning. It was pretty intense. I have got a TON to learn. I am very excited though. The food is really good. I stayed away from the orange juice. Almost everyone here has heard horror stories about the orange juice. My companion is Sister Bailey. She is awesome and so sweet. I think I will be able to work really well with her. The other sisters in my district are Sister Peterson and Sister Thomas. They are all AMAZING and I love them. Well, gotta go. Lights out. Love you. Sister Cryer

Hello everyone! I don't have a whole ton of time, I have to go to gym soon, but I just wanted to drop a line and tell you that I have arrived safe and sound at the MTC. I am SOOOOOO busy all of the time and I am learning so much. I feel like I'm drinking from a fire hose! I love it though. I love the work and I love being a missionary. I love you all so much! I have missed you all so much, but not in a bad way. I have been too busy and learning too much and serving others too much to think about being home sick. I put on P-day clothes today to do a service project and it feels so weird. I haven't been here very long but it seems like forever. Every night when I start thinking about what happened that day, stuff that happened in the morning feels like it happened about a week ago. Haha! I am having a great time though. Me and my comp Sister Bailey have been getting along great. She is struggling with some home sickness though so I have been doing my best to help her with that. It's hard though. We have our first investigator, kind of. It's our teacher doing role play, but he is so good at it! It feels like we are teaching someone else. It's so cool. Any way, we have taught him one lesson, and invited him to be baptized. Have I mentioned that I love being a missionary!? OK, I probably should head out now. I think my comp is almost done writing her letters. Sorry this is so short. I am so behind on all my writing. There is just not enough time in the day! The gospel is true! Prayer works! God loves you! Love you all! I hope everything is going good! Love, Sister Cryer

Emma is following in her brother's footsteps and so Cryer Ramblings is re-awakened. Monday August 11, 2014 Emma was set apart as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her Stake President, President Knapp. She received a beautiful blessing in preparation for her service. Ben and Alisa picked Emma up at the Salt Lake City Airport on Tuesday afternoon. They enjoyed dinner together and a session in the temple.

She reported to the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah today, August 13, 2014. I look forward to posting her letters and pictures and hope that it will serve to encourage, invite, strengthen, and inspire. Her purpose for the next eighteen months will be to invite others to heed the Savior's invitation to all, to come unto Him by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.