LIFE IN SILOAM

Hola! (Look at that. I put a little bit of Spanish in there) So how are your lives going? From one end it sounds like a crazy awesome and hot adventure, and from the other end it sounds pretty tame and domestic and damp. So...Not sure what to say further on that. haha Well, my week has been great! Missionary work has been kind of different the past week and a half since I arrived in Siloam. I didn't tell you this in my last letter but my companion is dealing with depression right now. It is something that she has dealt with in the past but not for a while and didn't think it would be a problem on her mission. So it was a bit of a shock for everyone that she is struggling with it again, and the consequences are that we don't get nearly as much time out of the apartment working as we normally would. I am often times alone in the morning exercising in the apartment and then doing studies while she gets some extra sleep. We are meeting with a counselor as well to try and work things out and that takes up time. Any way, so things have been quite different. But, Heavenly Father knows what He's doing, and He put us here together for a reason. So I am just doing the best that I can with what I have been given and trying to help my companion to work through this and stay out on her mission. If you could keep her in your prayers that would be awesome. The work that we have been able to do has been mostly trying to contact people that are supposedly investigators but have not had their records updated since spring time this year. ...The Elders were not very good at updating records, bless their hearts. So there is no way of knowing if they have been taught recently, if they want to continue learning, what they were taught, if they were dropped, NOTHING. So that's been fun. So yeah, lot's of phone calls and trying to stop by and talking to our ward mission leader about people. And it's not just that way with the investigators. It's that way with our recent converts and less actives too. Fun times! We have been able to contact a few people and have some return appointments so we are excited about that. We even picked up a new investigator last night! His name is Eddie and he reminds me a little bit of Jaren. We had gone over to visit the Hurts. They are sort of recent converts who have gone less active. We thought they might even have gone back to their old church. That was not the case when we got there though. They let us in and they were so excited to see us and talked about how much they wished they could come to church, but their health just wont let them anymore. Any way, they brought their grandson (or some kind of relation) out to see us because they said he might be interested in learning about the church :) That was Eddie. We aren't totally sure yet what kind of interest level he has, but he is willing to learn and he said he has already read the entire Book of Mormon! That was a shocker! A good one though :) I have made some animal friends this week :) My companion doesn't like animals very much. So every time there is an animal somewhere, usually a dog, I try and distract it so it doesn't bother her. So the other day I made friends with what looked like a bloodhound puppy, a boxer, and a chihuahua, and a gray cat. I've actually gotten a lot more comfortable with dogs on my mission! haha I have learned that if you can get the dog to come to you, then everything is good, but if you are the one moving towards the dog and it's not moving, then you might end up being in trouble. So I just get them to come to me :) And it's worked out pretty well so far. We got to play volley ball with Bishop and his family as well as Juan. Juan is an English teacher from Colombia and he is here with a group of his students. The kids are staying with various families around town and he is staying with the Bishops family. So we played volley ball with them and had a blast! I got hit in the head with the volley ball. That was pretty funny! Drew, Bishops son (he is 18 and getting ready to go on a mission) decided to try serving the ball as hard as he could in a time out. Well, let me tell you, that kid has got a great serve! The only problem was that my head was in the way. I wasn't looking when it happened so it cannoned into the side of my head, and it was so hard that I was literally pushed over and had to side step so that I didn't topple like a domino. haha It was so funny! I was cracking up and Drew was laughing and in shock and apologizing all at the same time, and Bishop kept asking me for about 10 minutes if I was really ok. Good times. There is a place here called the Mana Center that is kind of like the outreach in Alma. It's a lot slower paced though, but it's fun. Everyone there is super nice :) The lady that is in charge of the whole deal though, Marla, loves missionaries! She has pretty much adopted us. I guess the first missionary she adopted was Elder Connor. Funny because I know him. He was in my first district! Any way, ever since him Marla has just kind of adopted all the missionaries that come through. She feeds them and they would go over and help her with yard work and stuff. So we got to go over the other day and help her plant some bulbs and flowers in her yard on Friday. That was so much fun! I never really thought I would miss yard work, but it was so nice to just get down in the dirt and plant stuff and rake leaves and chop up roots with a shovel. :) Plus it was a beautiful day that we got to go over :) We got to have dinner with President and Sister Loveland on Halloween. That was a blast and a tender mercy! The blast because we love President and Sister Loveland and it was so fun to be able to spend some two on two time with them. The tender mercy part because being Halloween we were supposed to be in our apartment by 6pm. LAME! So when they called and offered to take us out to dinner because they were in town, we literally started jumping up and down because we got to get out of the apartment! Well, I am running low on time and I still have to email Pres. so I am going to sign off for now :) But I hope you all have an awesome week! I am sure going to! Love Sister Cryer P.S. Sorry about the lack of pics from my end. :/ The computers here don't have a way for me to plug my camera in. So until further notice you probably wont be getting any pics...