THE PEOPLE HERE ARE AWESOME

What ho family! 21 policies???? WOOHOO! Well whether I had anything to do with that or not, I am so happy for you dad :) I have been praying for you in your work and Sam, I have been praying for you in your work and school, and mom, in your work at home and the things that you are doing. I don't have a whole ton of time today. We got put behind schedule a little because I had an eye appointment (Bishop Nothum is getting me contacts!!!) One of the Bishops in the wards here is an eye doctor and somehow Bishop worked something out. He just came over one day and said "everything is taken care of, you just need to call and schedule an appointment." I couldn't even say anything I was so shocked and grateful and amazed that he would do that. So yeah, I am wearing contacts right now). Any way, so we have gotten our shopping done, and this afternoon we have a district outing. We are going to the zoo. Not what I would have chosen to do, but it should be fun to hang out with the district peeps. All that to say that this might be a bit of a short email and letter this week, but I will do my best to give you the good stuff. :) First of all, I had a dream about Jack and Gus (Sam's gerbils) last night. Yeah, not you guys, Jack and Gus. It was the weirdest thing! Actually, I guess you were in it as well Sam. I remember you were playing with them outside and they got away from you and all of a sudden there were tons of gray and white gerbils everywhere and we couldn't tell which ones were Jack and Gus. So, get out the dream interpretation stuff and give it your best go! So, mom you asked about the ward :) I will do my best to tell you about some of the people that I am getting to know. Oh! Before I forget, thank you grandma for the letter and pictures and the $5! What a treat that was to hear from you! Glad everything is going pretty well. And Sam, you did the chicken dance?! Wow. I don't know whether to be impressed or concerned. Ok, so the ward. The ward is so awesome! Let me start with Bishop. Bishop Nothum is amazing. He is a hoot to be around. He is always teasing and giving people a hard time. Before I ever met him he sent me and Sister Reese a text and told us that we should stand on a street corner on campus and Sister Reese could play the flute and I could tap dance. That should get peoples attention. HOW DID HE KNOW I COULD TAP DANCE????? I was so confused how he found that out. When he came over to give me a blessing I asked him about it and he said that he had looked me up on facebook. These YSA bishops! He is really moving the missionary work forward in the ward. He is calling ward missionaries left and right and has some awesome ideas about giving them specific assignments to further the work. Helena (don't pronounce the h) is our relief society president. She lives about five doors down from us. She is from Colombia and her food is amazing. We have gone over to eat a couple times now and it has been SO good each time. She has a friend from Colombia living with her right now. Her name is Laura. They are both so sweet and awesome. We just love them. Laura is not a member and we have been able to teach her a little bit about the gospel. It has been a challenge though because she is still learning how to speak English. We are going to start helping her learn English though a program that the church put out where you teach people to read using the Book of Mormon. Apparently it works really well for just teaching people how to read and speak English as well :) We are all really excited to start that. Ryan is the Elders quorum president. He is awesome. ...Hmm. I'm not quite sure how to describe Ryan! He has taken us out to dinner several times, and he has been able to do some lessons with us. Yeah, I don't know. Haha! He is just great. Everyone in the ward is just really awesome. Everyone is a lot of fun and really open and welcoming and friendly. Most people are willing to help us out with rides and lessons and I drew little cartoons of me and Sister Reese on the last exchange calendar, so maybe that encouraged people to sign up for dinner and exchanges too ;) We had a baptism yesterday!!!! Jackie got baptized. I will attach a picture at the end. She actually had to be baptized three times because Bishop turned the faucet off too soon and there wasn't enough water in the font! It was super shallow so they eventually had to have her kneel. Oh well. It worked out, and she won't forget it! Bryden Brett was the one who baptized her. He is a friend of hers in Branson and guess what? He is really good friends with Dele! Apparently Dele lived in his families basement for a while! Small world. Any way, you should look up the Bretts online. Yeah, I met the Bretts. :D Well, I have to go, that is all I have time for right now unfortunately. I will try and squeeze in a letter today as well and tell you some more stuff. Love you all so much! Have a smashing week! Sister Cryer (email dated 22 Sept 2014)