THE FIELD IS WHITE ALREADY TO HARVEST

Letter Dated March 16, 2015 Dear Family, OK so in my email I left off on Wednesday I think. Wednesday was beautiful. Probably about 70-75 degrees and hardly a cloud in the sky. We did some tracting and were able to find three potentials. Audrey, Matt, and Nick. We are planning to meet with Nick on Tuesday and help him with his family history. So that's a little miracle. We also got to go to a BBQ with the YSA's and Bishop brought us (me and Sister Ratto) a rabbit to rottisserize. It was pretty sweet. Thursday was a really awesome day. We had MCM with Bishop in the morning over some Chinese food and then we had a super good lesson with John about the law of tithing. It was so cool! We talked to him about sacrifice and obedience and consecration and the spirit was there. And I learned something about tithing that I hadn't noticed before. You know the scripture in Malachi 3:10 where it says, "bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse and prove me now herewith sayeth the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." Well it doesn't say what the blessing is going to be. In D&C 130:20-21 it talks about how we receive specific blessings according to our obedience to specific commandments. So I realized that with a lot of the commandments we know what the blessing will be if we are obedient. With tithing we don't have that. We are simply obedient (which can take a ton of faith) and as we are obedient God promises us that he will bless us. With what we don't know. All we know is that God will bless us. I thought that was so cool because it's almost like tithing is a wild card. You do it and then Heavenly Father will bless you with WHATEVER you stand in need of. Anyway, so that was a good lesson. We got a new investigator on Thursday as well. His name is Mike. He is friends with Thomas who is a YSA that goes to our ward. We met Mike at volley ball after hearing about him from Thomas. So last Monday (at volley ball) we asked him if he would be interested in learning more and he said yes. So we set up our Thursday appointment. On Thursday we taught him the restoration and he loved it. I got to share the part about Joseph Smith and the first vision and I felt the spirit so strongly! It was so cool. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted. Then on Saturday we taught him the first part of the plan of salvation and then invited him to be baptized on April 18 and he said yes! This kid is so golden! He has a testimony of the Book of Mormon already just by reading the introduction page and testimonies. And he is so excited to be baptized! We love Mike! We had our Zone Conference on Friday. It was just what I needed to get recharged and refocused....... Oh my goodness! I am such a slacker for not finishing this and sending it last Monday. Well you will just get two letters this week hopefully! Oh, so on Saturday (the 14th) we had a Stake Zone Conference. That was so cool! Everyone in the stake was invited, investigators were invited, and it was just a really cool missionary meeting about being a disciple of Jesus Christ. President and Sister Shumway were down for it and the spirit was super strong. My favorite part was when we had enough people that we had to open the overflow. That was like a little miracle from Heavenly Father and all of us missionaries were so excited! On Sunday we got a new investigator! His name is Hayden. He is a friend of one of our members, Joe. He's great! He is going to be baptized here real quick I think. He doesn't have a date yet, but we'll fix that this week. So, that is that letter! Now, I'm gonna write you a second one. Love Sister Cryer Letter Dated March 23, 2015 Dear Family, So last Monday the reason I didn't finish my letter is because we went to Bass Pro. It's so cool! We wandered around checking out the fish tanks and the archery museum and the gun museum. They have a ton of the original guns used in a bunch of old John Wayne movies. Pretty sweet! We had a lesson with Hayden Monday night which went really good. He said he really likes our church because it's calm. He said it just feels a lot more calm and peaceful. That was cool. I guess the church he has been going to is more like a rock concert or an interactive talk show type deal. I can't even imagine church being like that! So anyway he likes that we're more reverent. OK there is a place in Springfield right across from campus on National called Potters House. Have I told you about that place before? It's way cool! It's just this little old house that has been converted into a cozy little coffee shop with tables and comfy chairs all over the place. I got to go there again (finally) on Wednesday and we did a couple lessons downstairs sippin' on hot chocolate. Let me tell you, that is the way to do a lesson! It was fun. We also had a lesson with Charles at Rice House and he bought us lunch. Charles cracks me up! He is just the funniest kid. I've decided I really like teaching black people. OK so embarrassing but funny story from Wednesday. We were getting a ride to the institute from Angela. Sister Ratto was in front. I was in back along with on of the biggest, heaviest mirrors I have ever seen or sat under in my life. Yeah, I was sitting under one corner of it. That was the only way I could fit into the back seat with the thing. So we get to the institute and I attempt to get out from under this stupid mirror. It's a bit rough though because the thing is so heavy. So I grab on to the handle thing on the roof of the car above the door. Those things are supposed to support your weight aren't they?! Well, this one didn't. Instead it decided to pop out of the car with a snap leaving me high and dry with the mirror still on my lap, Sister Ratto laughing her head off, and a rather ruffled Angela looking at me from outside in front of the car. I felt so bad!....That didn't stop me from laughing though, unfortunately. The whole situation was just so funny! I did feel pretty bad though. I apologized quite a bit. And then once Angela left we had another good laugh about everything. I think I told you pretty much everything else about the week in my email and I don't want to not send this so I'll wrap it up by telling you about a miracle that I just remembered happened on Sunday. So, a few weeks ago we OTM'd a girl named Amanda. I don't remember if I told you about her or not, but we started teaching her and she was golden! Then she went on spring break. We didn't see her for a week or so. When she got back she informed us that she didn't want to meet anymore and when we asked why she responded that it was because her dad had told her not to. We were so sad! She had been so prepared to hear the gospel and now she couldn't. We told her to let us know if she ever wanted to continue learning and then told her that she was always welcome at activities and church. Well, who should we find sitting in church when we got out of ward council? AMANDA! She had come on her own, just showed up, and she told us that she had decided to continue learning anyway. That she felt this was the right path for her and that she wants to keep meeting with us. Not only that, but she studied about the church and temples and the Book of Mormon over spring break and told us she had been learning how to study the Book of Mormon effectively and had found "something called scripture mastery"! She is so awesome! So that was an awesome miracle that we received! Have a wonderful week y'all! Love Sister Cryer