She is so fun! We have had a great few days together since she got here on Thursday. I was sad to see Sister Reese go. Me and her had some good times as well, plus she knew what she was doing! Haha! But me and Sister Nelson are taking the bull by the horns and we are determined that this is going to be an amazing transfer and full of miracles.
So, I did buy boots on Monday. I couldn't wear them until Tuesday though because I water proofed them and they had to dry. But man! I had no idea that feet and legs could stay so warm! It was heavenly to go outside in those things for the first time.
We also bought Jon (Atwell, recent convert) a tie. That was kind of a funny experience to be a Sister missionary in Walmart and ask a Walmart employee, "Excuse me, could you tell me where the men's ties are?" Somehow it just seemed like I shouldn't be asking that. haha
We did the booth on Tuesday at MSU. Have I told you about the booth? Probably not, because until Tuesday it hasn't been that effective and so was not worthy of mention. However, because of it's success on Tuesday it is now worthy to be talked about a little :) So, the booth is just what it sounds like. A booth. LDSSA (LDS Student Association) reserves the booth and then we can go on campus and promote activities of family history etc. It's located in the PSU building on campus and it allows us to actually stop people and talk to them. WOOHOO! So, our success on Tuesday, I am convinced, is due mostly to the fact that we had candy. The night before at FHE part of the activity was sticking candy on family history cards that we could hand out to people at the booth. There is nothing that draws in YSA's like free candy. So, we handed out family history cards and candy and we also had a bunch of invitations to a Nativity Celebration that we got to give to people. When people wouldn't stop to talk to us, Zach (a member of LDSSA) would chuck a family history card with candy attached and yell, "Free candy comin' attcha!" That worked really well too! haha
There was one point at the booth where a huge group of Mexican kids walked by. They ALL stopped to see what was going on, and I suddenly found myself backed up against our big LDSSA sign surrounded by at least 10 Mexicans who did not seem to understand the concept of personal space. I had to try really hard not to start laughing!
Sam, this will interest you. People in Missouri say 'whenever' a lot. They pretty much use it in place of the word 'when'. So instead of saying, "When I went to 1st grade" they will say "Whenever I went to 1st grade." It's crazy! Any way, I pointed it out to Sister Reese and Lauren a little while ago, but they didn't agree with me. They hadn't noticed that people used it in place of the word when. Well, we were talking to Brother Lawson on Tuesday and he confirmed my observation. He was saying something and said the word whenever, and then he interrupted himself and said, "Have you noticed that people here use the word whenever a lot?" HA! Take that! In the mouth of two witnesses shall the word be established. Sister Reese was stunned! Hehe
So, Zachs baptism went really well! :) I was so happy for him. It was funny though, he didn't realize for some reason that there would be a bit of a fuss made for him. Not anymore than anyone else but he seemed to be under the impression that only the people who needed to be there would come. So he was getting all teared up when other people showed up for him. He even started crying when he saw that we had made programs for his baptism! He has a bit of a soft heart. It went really well though. The spirit was there. Zach has come a long way :)
So Wednesday was a bit rough. We were late for everything it seemed like and there was confusion about dinner and just all sorts of things. However, one good thing that happened was that I got to go to Lamberts, home of the thowed roll. Oh yeah! I almost caught the roll too! It glanced off my thumb though and landed on the floor. The guy didn't throw it right! That is the only reason I didn't catch the thing.
Lets see, Thursday was transfers. We were almost late because the Assistants were about half an hour earlier than they said they would be. But it all worked out and we got Sister Reese off safe and sound.
Friday was pretty mellow. Weekly planning. We did try to visit some less actives, but no luck. Me and Sister Nelson were talking though later that night and we both feel like we are going to learn something this transfer. Like, learning in the hard way. Oh well. It will be a good growing experience I guess.
Saturday was fun. We got lost visiting less actives with Angela and then we got to meet a recent convert that had just moved into the ward; Augustine, or as he likes to be called, Augi. We also got to help someone in the ward move. Hurray! Service! Funny story about that though, we got back to our apartment a little bit later than we had planned after less active hunting so we had to scramble to get our service clothes together and all the stuff that we would need that night at the meetings we had for stake conference. In our mad rush we forgot that we would need to put on our service clothes before we left though and so we got over to Helena's house, about 4 doors down from us, and then ended up changing there! It was so funny! Me and Helena were cracking up about it.
Any way, after moving Elizabeth we went to the Priesthood leadership meeting which was really weird because we aren't priesthood holders! Me and Sister Nelson and Sister Moon and her companion and Sister Shumway were the only females in the room. The only reason we went was because the meeting was about missionary work. President Shumway had the floor pretty much the whole time, which was awesome. I could listen to him teach all day! I always learn so much. I got to do a role play with Sister Shumway as well. That was a little intimidating, but it was fun. I actually got a compliment on my role playing skills from one of the brothers there. haha!
Sunday was awesome! We went to Stake Conference and then had a lesson afterwards with a kind of recent convert (baptized a little over a year ago) who is returning to activity, Christine. That lesson was a bit different though because Christine's mom was there and she had invited Ryan and Caleb and Anthony and we had invited Dannah. When I got into the room and saw everyone I immediately thought, the lesson we were planning on isn't going to work in this setting! So during the prayer I prayed for guidance on what we could talk about. Then we just had a discussion on what we had learned from stake conference and we eventually got around to Christine and how she had come to know that this was true and how she knew that being baptized was what God wanted her to do. It was actually really good, and we were able to include Annett (Christine's mom) in the lesson. It was a testimony to me of letting the spirit guide the lesson and the things that I said. I really felt like the questions I asked were inspired by the spirit. It was a cool feeling :)
Then we had a Thanksgiving lunch at 'The House of Seven' (originally named 'The House'. We have since renamed it. All seven girls in the house approve of the name). We got to help them cook a little bit and we got to do the dishes for them.
Then we had some active member lessons at the institute and a lesson with Augi.
We got back to the apartment at 8 for dinner and made German Pancakes (our oven pancakes) and sat on the couch and told each other funny embarrassing and awkward stories. We were laughing so hard we cried! It was very much needed and we had a great time.
Well, I think that's about all my news... at least all that I can think of right now.
I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love, Sister Cryer
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Dear Peeps,
First of all, Sister Nelson says hi :) I LOVE Sister Nelson!
She is so fun! We have had a great few days together since she got here on Thursday. I was sad to see Sister Reese go. Me and her had some good times as well, plus she knew what she was doing! Haha! But me and Sister Nelson are taking the bull by the horns and we are determined that this is going to be an amazing transfer and full of miracles.
So, I did buy boots on Monday. I couldn't wear them until Tuesday though because I water proofed them and they had to dry. But man! I had no idea that feet and legs could stay so warm! It was heavenly to go outside in those things for the first time.
We also bought Jon (Atwell, recent convert) a tie. That was kind of a funny experience to be a Sister missionary in Walmart and ask a Walmart employee, "Excuse me, could you tell me where the men's ties are?" Somehow it just seemed like I shouldn't be asking that. haha
We did the booth on Tuesday at MSU. Have I told you about the booth? Probably not, because until Tuesday it hasn't been that effective and so was not worthy of mention. However, because of it's success on Tuesday it is now worthy to be talked about a little :) So, the booth is just what it sounds like. A booth. LDSSA (LDS Student Association) reserves the booth and then we can go on campus and promote activities of family history etc. It's located in the PSU building on campus and it allows us to actually stop people and talk to them. WOOHOO! So, our success on Tuesday, I am convinced, is due mostly to the fact that we had candy. The night before at FHE part of the activity was sticking candy on family history cards that we could hand out to people at the booth. There is nothing that draws in YSA's like free candy. So, we handed out family history cards and candy and we also had a bunch of invitations to a Nativity Celebration that we got to give to people. When people wouldn't stop to talk to us, Zach (a member of LDSSA) would chuck a family history card with candy attached and yell, "Free candy comin' attcha!" That worked really well too! haha
There was one point at the booth where a huge group of Mexican kids walked by. They ALL stopped to see what was going on, and I suddenly found myself backed up against our big LDSSA sign surrounded by at least 10 Mexicans who did not seem to understand the concept of personal space. I had to try really hard not to start laughing!
Sam, this will interest you. People in Missouri say 'whenever' a lot. They pretty much use it in place of the word 'when'. So instead of saying, "When I went to 1st grade" they will say "Whenever I went to 1st grade." It's crazy! Any way, I pointed it out to Sister Reese and Lauren a little while ago, but they didn't agree with me. They hadn't noticed that people used it in place of the word when. Well, we were talking to Brother Lawson on Tuesday and he confirmed my observation. He was saying something and said the word whenever, and then he interrupted himself and said, "Have you noticed that people here use the word whenever a lot?" HA! Take that! In the mouth of two witnesses shall the word be established. Sister Reese was stunned! Hehe
So, Zachs baptism went really well! :) I was so happy for him. It was funny though, he didn't realize for some reason that there would be a bit of a fuss made for him. Not anymore than anyone else but he seemed to be under the impression that only the people who needed to be there would come. So he was getting all teared up when other people showed up for him. He even started crying when he saw that we had made programs for his baptism! He has a bit of a soft heart. It went really well though. The spirit was there. Zach has come a long way :)
So Wednesday was a bit rough. We were late for everything it seemed like and there was confusion about dinner and just all sorts of things. However, one good thing that happened was that I got to go to Lamberts, home of the thowed roll. Oh yeah! I almost caught the roll too! It glanced off my thumb though and landed on the floor. The guy didn't throw it right! That is the only reason I didn't catch the thing.
Lets see, Thursday was transfers. We were almost late because the Assistants were about half an hour earlier than they said they would be. But it all worked out and we got Sister Reese off safe and sound.
Friday was pretty mellow. Weekly planning. We did try to visit some less actives, but no luck. Me and Sister Nelson were talking though later that night and we both feel like we are going to learn something this transfer. Like, learning in the hard way. Oh well. It will be a good growing experience I guess.
Saturday was fun. We got lost visiting less actives with Angela and then we got to meet a recent convert that had just moved into the ward; Augustine, or as he likes to be called, Augi. We also got to help someone in the ward move. Hurray! Service! Funny story about that though, we got back to our apartment a little bit later than we had planned after less active hunting so we had to scramble to get our service clothes together and all the stuff that we would need that night at the meetings we had for stake conference. In our mad rush we forgot that we would need to put on our service clothes before we left though and so we got over to Helena's house, about 4 doors down from us, and then ended up changing there! It was so funny! Me and Helena were cracking up about it.
Any way, after moving Elizabeth we went to the Priesthood leadership meeting which was really weird because we aren't priesthood holders! Me and Sister Nelson and Sister Moon and her companion and Sister Shumway were the only females in the room. The only reason we went was because the meeting was about missionary work. President Shumway had the floor pretty much the whole time, which was awesome. I could listen to him teach all day! I always learn so much. I got to do a role play with Sister Shumway as well. That was a little intimidating, but it was fun. I actually got a compliment on my role playing skills from one of the brothers there. haha!
Sunday was awesome! We went to Stake Conference and then had a lesson afterwards with a kind of recent convert (baptized a little over a year ago) who is returning to activity, Christine. That lesson was a bit different though because Christine's mom was there and she had invited Ryan and Caleb and Anthony and we had invited Dannah. When I got into the room and saw everyone I immediately thought, the lesson we were planning on isn't going to work in this setting! So during the prayer I prayed for guidance on what we could talk about. Then we just had a discussion on what we had learned from stake conference and we eventually got around to Christine and how she had come to know that this was true and how she knew that being baptized was what God wanted her to do. It was actually really good, and we were able to include Annett (Christine's mom) in the lesson. It was a testimony to me of letting the spirit guide the lesson and the things that I said. I really felt like the questions I asked were inspired by the spirit. It was a cool feeling :)
Then we had a Thanksgiving lunch at 'The House of Seven' (originally named 'The House'. We have since renamed it. All seven girls in the house approve of the name). We got to help them cook a little bit and we got to do the dishes for them.
Then we had some active member lessons at the institute and a lesson with Augi.
We got back to the apartment at 8 for dinner and made German Pancakes (our oven pancakes) and sat on the couch and told each other funny embarrassing and awkward stories. We were laughing so hard we cried! It was very much needed and we had a great time.
Well, I think that's about all my news... at least all that I can think of right now.
I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love, Sister Cryer
She is so fun! We have had a great few days together since she got here on Thursday. I was sad to see Sister Reese go. Me and her had some good times as well, plus she knew what she was doing! Haha! But me and Sister Nelson are taking the bull by the horns and we are determined that this is going to be an amazing transfer and full of miracles.
So, I did buy boots on Monday. I couldn't wear them until Tuesday though because I water proofed them and they had to dry. But man! I had no idea that feet and legs could stay so warm! It was heavenly to go outside in those things for the first time.
We also bought Jon (Atwell, recent convert) a tie. That was kind of a funny experience to be a Sister missionary in Walmart and ask a Walmart employee, "Excuse me, could you tell me where the men's ties are?" Somehow it just seemed like I shouldn't be asking that. haha
We did the booth on Tuesday at MSU. Have I told you about the booth? Probably not, because until Tuesday it hasn't been that effective and so was not worthy of mention. However, because of it's success on Tuesday it is now worthy to be talked about a little :) So, the booth is just what it sounds like. A booth. LDSSA (LDS Student Association) reserves the booth and then we can go on campus and promote activities of family history etc. It's located in the PSU building on campus and it allows us to actually stop people and talk to them. WOOHOO! So, our success on Tuesday, I am convinced, is due mostly to the fact that we had candy. The night before at FHE part of the activity was sticking candy on family history cards that we could hand out to people at the booth. There is nothing that draws in YSA's like free candy. So, we handed out family history cards and candy and we also had a bunch of invitations to a Nativity Celebration that we got to give to people. When people wouldn't stop to talk to us, Zach (a member of LDSSA) would chuck a family history card with candy attached and yell, "Free candy comin' attcha!" That worked really well too! haha
There was one point at the booth where a huge group of Mexican kids walked by. They ALL stopped to see what was going on, and I suddenly found myself backed up against our big LDSSA sign surrounded by at least 10 Mexicans who did not seem to understand the concept of personal space. I had to try really hard not to start laughing!
Sam, this will interest you. People in Missouri say 'whenever' a lot. They pretty much use it in place of the word 'when'. So instead of saying, "When I went to 1st grade" they will say "Whenever I went to 1st grade." It's crazy! Any way, I pointed it out to Sister Reese and Lauren a little while ago, but they didn't agree with me. They hadn't noticed that people used it in place of the word when. Well, we were talking to Brother Lawson on Tuesday and he confirmed my observation. He was saying something and said the word whenever, and then he interrupted himself and said, "Have you noticed that people here use the word whenever a lot?" HA! Take that! In the mouth of two witnesses shall the word be established. Sister Reese was stunned! Hehe
So, Zachs baptism went really well! :) I was so happy for him. It was funny though, he didn't realize for some reason that there would be a bit of a fuss made for him. Not anymore than anyone else but he seemed to be under the impression that only the people who needed to be there would come. So he was getting all teared up when other people showed up for him. He even started crying when he saw that we had made programs for his baptism! He has a bit of a soft heart. It went really well though. The spirit was there. Zach has come a long way :)
So Wednesday was a bit rough. We were late for everything it seemed like and there was confusion about dinner and just all sorts of things. However, one good thing that happened was that I got to go to Lamberts, home of the thowed roll. Oh yeah! I almost caught the roll too! It glanced off my thumb though and landed on the floor. The guy didn't throw it right! That is the only reason I didn't catch the thing.
Lets see, Thursday was transfers. We were almost late because the Assistants were about half an hour earlier than they said they would be. But it all worked out and we got Sister Reese off safe and sound.
Friday was pretty mellow. Weekly planning. We did try to visit some less actives, but no luck. Me and Sister Nelson were talking though later that night and we both feel like we are going to learn something this transfer. Like, learning in the hard way. Oh well. It will be a good growing experience I guess.
Saturday was fun. We got lost visiting less actives with Angela and then we got to meet a recent convert that had just moved into the ward; Augustine, or as he likes to be called, Augi. We also got to help someone in the ward move. Hurray! Service! Funny story about that though, we got back to our apartment a little bit later than we had planned after less active hunting so we had to scramble to get our service clothes together and all the stuff that we would need that night at the meetings we had for stake conference. In our mad rush we forgot that we would need to put on our service clothes before we left though and so we got over to Helena's house, about 4 doors down from us, and then ended up changing there! It was so funny! Me and Helena were cracking up about it.
Any way, after moving Elizabeth we went to the Priesthood leadership meeting which was really weird because we aren't priesthood holders! Me and Sister Nelson and Sister Moon and her companion and Sister Shumway were the only females in the room. The only reason we went was because the meeting was about missionary work. President Shumway had the floor pretty much the whole time, which was awesome. I could listen to him teach all day! I always learn so much. I got to do a role play with Sister Shumway as well. That was a little intimidating, but it was fun. I actually got a compliment on my role playing skills from one of the brothers there. haha!
Sunday was awesome! We went to Stake Conference and then had a lesson afterwards with a kind of recent convert (baptized a little over a year ago) who is returning to activity, Christine. That lesson was a bit different though because Christine's mom was there and she had invited Ryan and Caleb and Anthony and we had invited Dannah. When I got into the room and saw everyone I immediately thought, the lesson we were planning on isn't going to work in this setting! So during the prayer I prayed for guidance on what we could talk about. Then we just had a discussion on what we had learned from stake conference and we eventually got around to Christine and how she had come to know that this was true and how she knew that being baptized was what God wanted her to do. It was actually really good, and we were able to include Annett (Christine's mom) in the lesson. It was a testimony to me of letting the spirit guide the lesson and the things that I said. I really felt like the questions I asked were inspired by the spirit. It was a cool feeling :)
Then we had a Thanksgiving lunch at 'The House of Seven' (originally named 'The House'. We have since renamed it. All seven girls in the house approve of the name). We got to help them cook a little bit and we got to do the dishes for them.
Then we had some active member lessons at the institute and a lesson with Augi.
We got back to the apartment at 8 for dinner and made German Pancakes (our oven pancakes) and sat on the couch and told each other funny embarrassing and awkward stories. We were laughing so hard we cried! It was very much needed and we had a great time.
Well, I think that's about all my news... at least all that I can think of right now.
I hope you all have an amazing week!
Love, Sister Cryer
Monday, November 17, 2014
LOTS OF POTENTIAL BAPTISMS IN THE WORKS
Well look who's home!!! 
That is crazy! It feels like Caleb just left on his mission. And now Jaren is heading out on his. These guys are growing up so fast. Haha!
So this week has been really good. It snowed yesterday!
It is sunny and bright and a nippy 25 degrees. I will be buying boots today. :)
We had transfer calls on Saturday. ...I'm staying! Yaya! Me and Sister Reese were both very happy to hear that. And so was Bishop! He does not like shot gunning. So I will be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The next transfer is on New Years Day I think. Pretty crazy. Any way, Sister Reese it going home. She is super excited, and I am excited for her, but I sure and going to miss her. She has been an amazing trainer for sure. We have had a lot of fun together.
My new companion is Sister Nelson. ...and now you know as much as I do!
The area is doing super good right now. We have a baptism tomorrow. Zach is getting baptized. He was our walk in :) We are so excited for him! He is so ready.
We had an awesome lesson with Mark last Monday. We taught about the restoration and the spirit was so strong! We invited him to be baptized and he accepted! He is thinking and praying about a date right now. We are so excited to follow up on that and see if he has set a date yet. :)
Ramiro is doing good as well. It's been slow work with him, but he is beginning to progress. He has accepted the invitation to be baptized as well and he is thinking and praying about a date. WOOHOO!
We are also teaching Dylan. We had a really great lesson with him on Friday. He is thinking about a baptism date as well.
So, some news about family history: I am doing it! My family history. And the reasons why I am doing it are very clear to me! Ok, I will stop singing now. :) We have been asked by President Shumway to do 5 hours of family history work a week so that we are prepared to teach other people how to do their family history work. It's been fun. Sister Reese is actually studying family history. That is her major at BYU so she has been a very capable teacher; which is good because I need all the help I can get. Any way, I got to help Ramiro start his family tree on Friday. We had a blast doing that :) That kid is hilarious! We were constantly laughing at something as we put his little family tree together. He called his dad and got some information about his grandma, and his great grandparents. It was so cool!
I had a neat experience with family history the other day as well. Me and Sister Reese were just inside the institute and she was teaching me how to search for names. We were trying to find information about Fletcher Lowe. And we may have found a gold mine! We were getting so worked up and excited! The thing is, we are not sure if the Fletcher that we found all this great info on is our Fletcher. Sigh. So we are going to have to find out. But it was cool. It's the closest to success that I have ever come in family history work. :)
Well, I had better go. I am running out of time and I still need to write to President.
Love y'all and have an amazing week!
Sister Cryer
That is crazy! It feels like Caleb just left on his mission. And now Jaren is heading out on his. These guys are growing up so fast. Haha!
So this week has been really good. It snowed yesterday!
It is sunny and bright and a nippy 25 degrees. I will be buying boots today. :)
We had transfer calls on Saturday. ...I'm staying! Yaya! Me and Sister Reese were both very happy to hear that. And so was Bishop! He does not like shot gunning. So I will be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The next transfer is on New Years Day I think. Pretty crazy. Any way, Sister Reese it going home. She is super excited, and I am excited for her, but I sure and going to miss her. She has been an amazing trainer for sure. We have had a lot of fun together.
My new companion is Sister Nelson. ...and now you know as much as I do!
The area is doing super good right now. We have a baptism tomorrow. Zach is getting baptized. He was our walk in :) We are so excited for him! He is so ready.
We had an awesome lesson with Mark last Monday. We taught about the restoration and the spirit was so strong! We invited him to be baptized and he accepted! He is thinking and praying about a date right now. We are so excited to follow up on that and see if he has set a date yet. :)
Ramiro is doing good as well. It's been slow work with him, but he is beginning to progress. He has accepted the invitation to be baptized as well and he is thinking and praying about a date. WOOHOO!
We are also teaching Dylan. We had a really great lesson with him on Friday. He is thinking about a baptism date as well.
So, some news about family history: I am doing it! My family history. And the reasons why I am doing it are very clear to me! Ok, I will stop singing now. :) We have been asked by President Shumway to do 5 hours of family history work a week so that we are prepared to teach other people how to do their family history work. It's been fun. Sister Reese is actually studying family history. That is her major at BYU so she has been a very capable teacher; which is good because I need all the help I can get. Any way, I got to help Ramiro start his family tree on Friday. We had a blast doing that :) That kid is hilarious! We were constantly laughing at something as we put his little family tree together. He called his dad and got some information about his grandma, and his great grandparents. It was so cool!
I had a neat experience with family history the other day as well. Me and Sister Reese were just inside the institute and she was teaching me how to search for names. We were trying to find information about Fletcher Lowe. And we may have found a gold mine! We were getting so worked up and excited! The thing is, we are not sure if the Fletcher that we found all this great info on is our Fletcher. Sigh. So we are going to have to find out. But it was cool. It's the closest to success that I have ever come in family history work. :)
Well, I had better go. I am running out of time and I still need to write to President.
Love y'all and have an amazing week!
Sister Cryer
Sunday, November 16, 2014
SHORT AND SWEET
Dear Family,
I can't believe it's November already! We've actually had some cold weather for a change the past few days, which has been nice. Not today though. Today it's probably around 65-70 degrees, sunny, and lots of wind! The leaves are blowing everywhere. I LOVE IT!
Thursday, after Zone training we went to have dinner with Michael and Emily. They just got engaged. They are amazing people. We got a bit of a late start and we had to change our restaurant of choice from Olive Garden to Ruby Tuesdays because of very long lines at Olive Garden. Those things combined with the fact that our food took a while meant that Sister Reese and I shoveled our food down in the car as we drove back to the institute for our 7:00 appointment. Lo and behold, our 7:00 ended up not working out. That figures! So we went back to the apartment, laughing at our predicament, and got bundled up against the cold. Then we headed back to the institute , talking to people as we went, to meet Joh at 8:00. He actually ended up being late, which is funny because he always gives us a hard time about how we're late.
While we were waiting for him to show up though a girl came into the room and sat down and said, "I know this is weird but I need help and you are the only people I can think of that might be able to help me. I am having a hard time letting go of something."
"Uh,...is this normal for missionaries?! I wondered.
Her name was Taylor I think. Anyway, so we talked to her for a little bit and tried to help her out. It was interesting though that she just came in and started talking to us.
On Friday we had a lesson with a guy named Dylan. Dylan is a member referral from Cysco who actually just recently started coming back to church himself. Anyway, we had a really great lesson with those two. The spirit was there and Dylan accepted the invitation to be baptized. The only problem was we hadn't been able to find a girl member so we had to do the lesson outside and once the sun went down and the wind kicked up it was cold! Haha! But it all worked out. Like I said it was a really good lesson, plus when we got to our dinner appointment they gave us some hot water bottles to hug and that warmed us right up.
Well, sorry this is kind of a short letter. Have a wonderful week!
Love you all.
Sister Cryer
(Letter dated 10 November 2014)
Monday, November 10, 2014
A MIRACLE
Well hello my beautiful people!
This week has gone incredibly fast! In fact, this whole transfer has gone by in no time at all. Transfer calls are on Saturday. Sister Reese will be going home, and who knows what will be happening with me! We are both hoping that I stay. Shotgunning is a bit rough, plus I love the ward I am in! But what will be will be I guess.
I got my hair cut on Monday :) It took about 2 hours even though we didn't cut off very much and that's why you didn't get a letter from me last week. Sorry about that :/ But you will get one this week! I will make sure it happens even if it is just a one liner.
Want to hear something exciting that I should have told you last week in my email? ZACHS BACK!!! Our golden investigator who dumped us to work things out with his girlfriend texted us on Tuesday (28 October) and told us that he wanted to start meeting again. Me and Sister Reese were in the little closet at the institute where the computer is when he texted and we started freaking out! We were bouncing in our chairs and laughing and high-fiving and all sorts of things. I think that was one of the happiest moments on my mission so far! So, we are teaching Zach again, he is doing so good and he is going to be baptized next Tuesday. Any way, that is kind of old news since it happened a while ago, but it's new news for you :) So there ya go!
So on Thursday we had our zone training. WOOHOO! It was so good. And not only was the meeting amazing, we had interviews with President. That was the best! I love President Shumway. I only got to talk to him for about 15 minutes, but I was only supposed to have 10, so I am counting my blessings. :)
In district meeting we talked a lot about what we had learned from zone conference with Elder Packer. (Speaking of Elder Packer, in my interview with him he told me to tell you, mom and dad, thank you. Apparently for bringing such an awesome person as me into the world ;) You did a good job apparently). So we just kind of went over our notes and then discussed what we had learned and felt. It was really cool to hear what everyone got out of it. The spirit was really strong. We also got some instruction for a member of the Stake Presidency. I forget what his name is, but he talked about our responsibility to invite. It was really cool. He challenged us to invite in our ward councils and to invite the members to invite. The mission is going to be downsizing here pretty soon (290 missionaries right now to 190 or something like that) and so we are going to need the members help to keep up the work. Really good meeting. Also, we talked about the story of the Brother of Jared. How he brought stones to the Lord and asked Him to touch them to give light. If you look in the footnotes in that section, Ether 3:1 footnote c, molten means skill. We talked about how without the Lord, we just have a pile of rocks; but when we use our skills that we have been given and developed to further the work, and then we go to the Lord and ask Him to sanctify our efforts, we will be successful. It was so cool! So me and Sister Reese have been trying to think of some creative ways that we can try to find people to teach as well as involve the members in the work. Things that we can do, and skills that we have. Then, no matter how out there they may be, we can take them to the Lord and He will make them work. Some of the ideas that we have come up with were a hot chocolate stand on campus, drawing cartoons of people, and getting a small group together and singing hymns on campus. Any other ideas that we might try? :)
Saturday there was a football game at MSU. The ward was doing a tailgate activity on campus with the rest of the school (it's become a wet campus. We were one of the few dry groups) and Bishop wanted us to go to that so we did. It was a little bit strange as a missionary. There was music going and a lot of loud noise in general. We had three investigators there though that we got to talk to so that was good. :) We left once most everyone had been through two or three bottles of beer though. Didn't want to stay and see all that craziness.
Sunday was a good day as well. We got 6 lessons. One of the doors that we knocked on in the evening a guy from Nigeria answered. After talking for a few minutes he asked where my name came from. I told him that it was an English name and he said he wasn't surprised, he could hear a slight accent. WHAT?! Then he told Sister Reese that she looked like she was English. We both went away from that door very happy and were talking about accents the rest of the evening.
We had dinner with the Mangelsons last night. There daughter, Kaite Gamble, is in the singles ward. They are a crazy family! Just to give you an idea, we talked about constipated goats at dinner. Yeah. Good times!
Well, I better email president now.
I love you all! Have an awesome week and remember to say your prayers :) Prayer is so important! I have really been learning that. I can't do any kind of missionary work without the Lords help. He is the one that moves his work forward. I just need to keep pace and I do that through prayer. By asking, He is able to involve me in the work :) Prayer works!!!
Love, Sister Cryer
Forgot a story:
I had a neat experience on Tuesday. We went out to dinner with a member at a little soup and sandwich place. While we were there we saw a little family come in and look for a table to sit at. Their little girl (she was SO cute) really wanted a booth by the window, but there were none available. So they sat down at a table in the middle of the restaurant. I felt like we should offer them the booth that we were at, but I wasn't sure how to approach them and say "I couldn't help listening to your conversation, do want our booth" in a way that wouldn't sound weird. I should have just done it, but I didn't. Any way, they ended up sitting in the booth right next to us when it became available. I talked to their little girl a little bit, and then we finished our meal and left. As we walked away I couldn't help but feel like we should go back and talk to them about the gospel. Before I knew it though we were in the car and driving away to go visit someone else. They weren't home though and we were still close to the restaurant so I asked if we could go back and explained that I thought we should talk to that family. So we headed back. Stopped at a stop light right by the restaurant we could see the family through the windows getting up from the booth and leaving. NO!!! WAIT! The light turned green and we zoomed into the parking lot and jumped out of the car just before they got into their car. I walked over and started talking to the dad about family home evening after the initial introductions. I asked if he and his family would be interested in learning more about how to have family home evening. He said he didn't think so but he really appreciated us coming back to talk to them. We gave him a Book of Mormon and a pass along card and invited him to call us if he ever had any questions or if he ever became interested in learning more. Even though nothing came from it that I can see, I am so glad that we went back! The Book of Mormon is in one more home than it was before. :)
Monday, November 3, 2014
LOTS OF NEW INVESTIGATORS
Hello all!!!
Sam, that penguin is so cute! I love it :) Is it the type of clay that you bake?
The tables look really good! How long did it take to do that? Three years? Something like that.
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM! Lest you doubt my affection in any way I will tell you that you can expect a letter from me brimming with devotion sometime this week. I will write it today :) I meant to write it last week so that you would have it on your birthday but I didn't write it down on my to do list so I forgot.
Well, this week has been a really great week! WE GOT FOUR NEW INVESTIGATORS! We got one on Tuesday. Brittney. She was a referral from Brother Dela Fuente. She is so sweet! She is super excited to learn about the church and the gospel and she wants to be involved in the church as much as possible. She loves coming to the activities. :)
We got another on Thursday. A few Sundays we had tracted into a girl named Ashley. I think I told you about her. It was right before we had dinner with Whitney. Any way, Sister Reese and Sister Erickson taught her when I was on exchanges and the lesson went super good. They weren't able to set up a return appointment right there though. So we had been texting and calling and trying to set something up but with no response. So on Tuesday we stopped by. We knocked a few times and then just before we left, who should come walking up the stairs. Ashley! We were able to talk to her for a few minutes and then set up an appointment to meet with her and teach her more. Bingo! New investigator.
We got another new investigator on Saturday. His name is Mark. He was an investigator a while ago, but he was dropped. We got back into contact with him because Ryan had let him borrow his scriptures and he came back on Monday to return them. We got to talk to him and set up an appointment. His lesson on Saturday was really good. We didn't teach the restoration like we were planning to, but we learned a lot of stuff about Mark that we needed to know. We have a lot better idea of where he is coming from and so how to help him and work with him. The end of the lesson was my favorite part. We were talking about how he would know if our message was true. We read Moroni 10:3-5 with him. Then we asked him if he had ever received an answer from God before about anything. He said yes. The answer had come in the form of the questions and doubts about the church that he had been attending. He said that it happened over time but he broke away from that church and he knew that was the right call. We asked him how he knew that. After a pause he said, pointing to the scripture we had just read, "I guess through the things it mentions here. That's what I did." It was so cool to see that connection happen for him and to have been an instrument in helping him to make that connection!
Then we got another investigator on Sunday. Remember Sydney, Antwains girlfriend? Yup. She came to church! That was a miracle because we thought that they had broken up, and Sydney doesn't have a phone so we had no way to contact her. So we met with her and Antwain after church and answered some of her questions about church. She said she had really liked what she saw and she is excited to learn more :) WOOHOO!
And lets give credit where credit is due. Bishop wanted us to get 40 lessons this past week. ...That is a lot of lessons. We usually get around 20 and that is the mission standard that President Shumway has set. But, we tried to do what Bishop wanted, so we worked really hard to get lessons, and though we only got 21 lessons, I honestly think that we wouldn't have gotten as many investigators if we hadn't been been working so hard to get to Bishops goal.
Really quick, funny story. So me and Sister Reese have kind of taken up matching up the older members of the ward. It is so hard not to do because there is no reason that these people should not be married! Any way, so we have some fun conversations before bed at night. And so far our match making is totally working out and coming true!!! It's pretty crazy but we are totally calling it!
By the way, Sam you should move out here. There is a guy in the ward named Caleb and I think you might get along :) He is super smart, he speaks Spanish fluently, he travels for work (so he wouldn't be around all the time lol), he has been to Jerusalem, he plays the piano, I think he sings as well; yeah, he is just great :) So...just sayin'.
Well, that's all I have time for. Got to save some stuff for the letter!
I love you all so much! Have a great week! Keep being awesome! The gospel is true!
Love Sister Cryer (Letter dated November 3, 2014)
P.S. I have been learning so much about the atonement. Something that I have known for a long time but have just started to really connect and understand is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is how we access the atonement.
A lot of people think that we lay too much store in our works. That we work out our own salvation and that we believe we are saved because of our works, but that is not really true. If you look in the scriptures it tells us that in order to be saved we must rely wholly on the merits of Christ. So, by the atonement and by grace we are saved, absolutely, but it that saving is made conditional on our faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. Ah! This is just so cool. I could think about it for hours!
Monday, October 27, 2014
AN AWESOME WEEK
Ok, that is a pretty cool bow tie. You can tell Brother Farrier that I approve :)
Lookin' good mom. Haha! Dang those rolls look good! We had some pretty tasty rolls that Sister Bird made for us at the zone outing last week.
THAT IS A TON OF WOOD CHIPS! Wow. ...I don't even know what to say! Haha! I wish I had been there to help. One thing I have noticed on my mission is that just about any kind of physical labor is really enjoyable. I do so much mental work now that I miss all the cleaning and yard work and dishes and everything. Is that weird?
Well, It has been a really fantastic week. And guess what? I remembered to bring my little note book with me, so I can actually remember what happened. :) I don't think I will get all of it in the email, but I will have time to write a letter today too, so have no fear.
A couple of funny things first though, before I get into the details of the days of this last week.
I got your letter on Saturday Sam. :) Hurray! Thank you for all of the rules that you sent regarding the letter A. I liked the color coding by the way. That was really nice. I do have to correct you on one thing though. You said something to the effect that you hoped I was staying ward in the chill October weather. No worries there! We have only had one really cold day so far. For the most part it is in the 70's or 80's still. Sunny and warm/hot. The trees are changing color but nothing else seems to be aware that ITS OCTOBER. Pretty crazy. Thank you for the well wishes on staying warm anyway though. I am definitely doing that. Haha!
So funny story from a Sunday or two ago that I don't think I ever told you about. In sacrament meeting one of the talks was on faith and how it works and how to use it. It was a really good talk, but I won't go into much detail here except to say that there was a story about two sister missionaries who ran out of gas in the middle of no where and decided to put water in the tank and pray for it to turn into gas. After all, Jesus turned water into wine. It didn't work and the point of the story was to illustrate that unanswered prayers don't mean you don't have faith etc., etc., Any way, after sacrament meeting Jon ( He was baptized a little bit ago.) came up to me and said that during that story he was thinking "Cryer would do that." What?! I laughed and said, "Yeah well, it would have worked for me. I would have had enough faith." That got both of us laughing.
Ok, so on Tuesday I had an exchange with Sister Smith.
She is one of our Sister Training Leaders. I had a blast serving with her for a day! It was super fun. I got to go to her area which was nice because I didn't have the stress of trying to make sure we had things scheduled for every minute of the day. I didn't know the area, so I could help and advise, but in the end it wasn't my decision. That was awesome! It was a really fun day though. Sister Smith is a hoot!
The first lesson that we taught that day was with Sister F. She is a less active, and it was really different for me because she is around 40 years old. I am used to teaching YSA's so that was kind of different. It was an interesting lesson. We were talking about family history and how people who die without a knowledge of the gospel need our help to progress. That got her onto a train of thought about the spirit world and we found out that she believes that peoples spirits go into animals after they die, and while they are waiting to be resurrected and receive their own body again. ...Uh... not really! Haha! We tried to talk her out of it, but to no avail. Eventually we gave up and just moved the conversation on. The other thing that was kind of bad was I called her by her first name. Singles ward has ruined me.
Our second lesson of the day was with an older couple. They are less actives as well and they are so sweet! I love them! Brother N actually used to be a branch president. So he has a lot of knowledge and he hasn't forgotten any of it, he is just out of the habit of going to church. We taught them the restoration. I was able to recite the first vision and the spirit was so strong! Brother N told us that he knows that what we were saying was true. "I know this is true" he said. Yes! Now he just needs to know it enough to do something about it. I think they are getting there. :) Sister N is really receptive to it as well, she just has trouble with coming to church because Sunday is when they do things with their kids and grand-kids. Any way, it was a really great lesson, and we got Brother N to cry. He felt the spirit. He knows it is true. It was so good. :) That was my favorite lesson of the day.
After that we headed back to the apartment to do the exchange report. Sister Smith gave me a ton of good advice. I have been a little overwhelmed with all the things that I am trying to do and study. She said that as long as I am living the five anchors I am good. She also suggested that I try color coding things and categorizing everything under one of the five anchors. I thought that was a great idea, so I am going to try doing that for a while and see what happens. :)
Quick funny story. Sister Smith asked what my favorite type of music was. I told her that I really liked the old jazz and big band. She said she wasn't surprised because my tone (when we were singing the hymn that morning) kind of sounded like that style. Really?! Sweet! :)
We also taught Hermico and Skylar. They are Samoan. Skylar is 9 and Hermico is his mom. My first time teaching a child! AHHHHH! I felt SO unqualified. I didn't do a whole ton of talking, Sister Smith did most of it, but I helped a little. :) It was a good time though. At first we weren't sure if we were going to be able to teach them because we were knocking on the door for a while and no one was answering. Samoans sleep a lot. We just kept knocking and after a while we heard movement in the house. Then we saw the curtains on one of the windows move and suddenly there were cute little brown faces peering out at us. We went over to the window and tried to tell the kids to go get there mom. Then we went back to the door and knocked some more. We got in eventually! and were able to teach a lesson about baptism.
We had dinner with Sister N. I ate everything except the mac and cheese. You have spoiled me mom! The stuff was so grose. I tried to eat it, but eventually I had to stop. I felt like if I ate anymore I might be sick. I felt bad that I hadn't eaten everything. But I honestly think I did my best!
We tried to contact a referral after dinner but no luck. As we were getting back into the car a dog ran around the house and got to the car right as Sister Smith closed her door. He got up on his hind legs and looked into the car and then walked around a bit. He actually looked like a pretty friendly dog, but you never know. Any way, that is my first dog story :)
I GOT TO PUMP GAS FOR THE FIRST TIME! That was really awesome! 
I have never done that before. We had been thinking of going to get Andy's but we didn't have time. Pumping gas was just as awesome though! I didn't even mind that we didn't get Andy's :)
We have had some miracles in the area! We have been doing a ton better on getting lessons, and we have been working on finding every day so that we can meet the standard of 2 new investigators a week. When I got back from the exchange we were already almost at 3 new investigators and 7 lessons. We are usually at 7 by Wednesday or Thursday, so we are definitely seeing Heavenly Fathers hand in the work! Fasting really does work!
So that was Tuesday :)
We had an awesome District Meeting on Wednesday. We talked about the atonement. My favorite part was when Elder Swainston had us all share our favorite scriptures about the atonement. It brought the spirit into the room so strongly! And the really cool thing was that all but one or two of them were from the Book of Mormon.
We had a lesson with Anthony, and then we were planning to have a lesson with a potential but he never showed up. Dang it! I was really hoping. He had sounded like he really would come when I talked to him on the phone. Oh well. We also contacted a less active and he is going to be coming to the Halloween party that the ward is doing this Friday. He has a friend named Felix as well that we got to talk to a little bit. Well, I say we. Really it was Kalia, one of the members with us, that talked. We could hardly get a word in edge wise! I had to laugh about it when we got back to the apartment. So, who was the missionary in that situation? haha!
Thursday was a really good day. We have a less active that we are working with named Jon Mayer. (I try to convince people that he is the singer, but no one seems to buy it.) He is doing good. We are working with him on prayer right now. He has done some things in his life that he regrets and he doesn't see how God can trust him or why he would want to hear from him. We are helping him to overcome that. Any way, it was a good lesson. After that lesson we went to see a girl named Alex and ended up teaching her as well as her room mate Bonny! That was awesome. They are super open to new ideas and learning, we are just hoping that they are actually learning to find truth.
Cool experience in that lesson actually. We asked Alex what it would mean for her if our message was true. She said that was a great question, and could she ask us a question. We said sure and she asked what we would do if the Book of Mormon wasn't true. The minute she said that I felt the spirit testifying to me that the Book of Mormon is true. It was amazing and I said that in answer to her question, I couldn't tell her because the Book of Mormon is true. It just is! I suddenly realized that I had come to a point in my testimony where I literally couldn't deny the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing and I got to bear my testimony to them that the Book of Mormon is true. It was so cool! :)
After dinner we didn't have any one signed up and no scheduled appointments so we headed back to the apartment to start weekly planning. As we sat down on the couch to start we both had the feeling that we needed to be out working and talking to people. I looked at Sister Reese and said, "Do you feel like we should go out?" "Yes" she said. Dang! It was a little chilly, not to mention dark and we didn't want to do it. But we did. The minute we got outside the apartment we saw a guy sitting on the other side of the street. We walked over and talked to him for about 20 minutes, gave him a book of Mormon and got his number. It was awesome! We also got to contact a referral that we had gotten a long time ago and give her a book of Mormon.
Friday was a bit rough. Not much happened. Most of our lessons canceled. Zach, he was our golden investigator, texted us to dump us. That was a bit depressing. He is trying to patch things up with his girl friend and he doesn't want the church to get in the way. NO! We tried to get him to meet with us one more time, but he said no. For now we have asked him to pray about it, he says he is going to keep reading in the Book of Mormon, and we are praying for him.
Saturday was pretty slow as well.
Sunday we went and had lunch with Alex and Jenny (another one of her room mates) and Travis (Jenny's boyfriend). Travis is a religions major and he had a bunch or historical biblical questions for us. Eventually we told him that we couldn't answer all these questions he had, but if he was interested in learning if the church is true we would be happy to help show him how he could find out for himself. He didn't really ask any more questions after that.
Sunday night we did a little bit of tracting and were able to meet a few people. Michael, we left him with a Book of Mormon, and offered to teach him more. He seemed interested but he wasn't sure that he could commit to anything because of his schedule. We also met a girl named Lyra, and set up a time to meet with her on Wednesday. We are not sure what her interest level is right now, but we will find out!
Love you all! Hope you have a great week :)
Love, Sister Cryer (email dated 27 October 2014)
She is one of our Sister Training Leaders. I had a blast serving with her for a day! It was super fun. I got to go to her area which was nice because I didn't have the stress of trying to make sure we had things scheduled for every minute of the day. I didn't know the area, so I could help and advise, but in the end it wasn't my decision. That was awesome! It was a really fun day though. Sister Smith is a hoot!
The first lesson that we taught that day was with Sister F. She is a less active, and it was really different for me because she is around 40 years old. I am used to teaching YSA's so that was kind of different. It was an interesting lesson. We were talking about family history and how people who die without a knowledge of the gospel need our help to progress. That got her onto a train of thought about the spirit world and we found out that she believes that peoples spirits go into animals after they die, and while they are waiting to be resurrected and receive their own body again. ...Uh... not really! Haha! We tried to talk her out of it, but to no avail. Eventually we gave up and just moved the conversation on. The other thing that was kind of bad was I called her by her first name. Singles ward has ruined me.
Our second lesson of the day was with an older couple. They are less actives as well and they are so sweet! I love them! Brother N actually used to be a branch president. So he has a lot of knowledge and he hasn't forgotten any of it, he is just out of the habit of going to church. We taught them the restoration. I was able to recite the first vision and the spirit was so strong! Brother N told us that he knows that what we were saying was true. "I know this is true" he said. Yes! Now he just needs to know it enough to do something about it. I think they are getting there. :) Sister N is really receptive to it as well, she just has trouble with coming to church because Sunday is when they do things with their kids and grand-kids. Any way, it was a really great lesson, and we got Brother N to cry. He felt the spirit. He knows it is true. It was so good. :) That was my favorite lesson of the day.
After that we headed back to the apartment to do the exchange report. Sister Smith gave me a ton of good advice. I have been a little overwhelmed with all the things that I am trying to do and study. She said that as long as I am living the five anchors I am good. She also suggested that I try color coding things and categorizing everything under one of the five anchors. I thought that was a great idea, so I am going to try doing that for a while and see what happens. :)
Quick funny story. Sister Smith asked what my favorite type of music was. I told her that I really liked the old jazz and big band. She said she wasn't surprised because my tone (when we were singing the hymn that morning) kind of sounded like that style. Really?! Sweet! :)
We also taught Hermico and Skylar. They are Samoan. Skylar is 9 and Hermico is his mom. My first time teaching a child! AHHHHH! I felt SO unqualified. I didn't do a whole ton of talking, Sister Smith did most of it, but I helped a little. :) It was a good time though. At first we weren't sure if we were going to be able to teach them because we were knocking on the door for a while and no one was answering. Samoans sleep a lot. We just kept knocking and after a while we heard movement in the house. Then we saw the curtains on one of the windows move and suddenly there were cute little brown faces peering out at us. We went over to the window and tried to tell the kids to go get there mom. Then we went back to the door and knocked some more. We got in eventually! and were able to teach a lesson about baptism.
We had dinner with Sister N. I ate everything except the mac and cheese. You have spoiled me mom! The stuff was so grose. I tried to eat it, but eventually I had to stop. I felt like if I ate anymore I might be sick. I felt bad that I hadn't eaten everything. But I honestly think I did my best!
We tried to contact a referral after dinner but no luck. As we were getting back into the car a dog ran around the house and got to the car right as Sister Smith closed her door. He got up on his hind legs and looked into the car and then walked around a bit. He actually looked like a pretty friendly dog, but you never know. Any way, that is my first dog story :)
I GOT TO PUMP GAS FOR THE FIRST TIME! That was really awesome! 
I have never done that before. We had been thinking of going to get Andy's but we didn't have time. Pumping gas was just as awesome though! I didn't even mind that we didn't get Andy's :)
We have had some miracles in the area! We have been doing a ton better on getting lessons, and we have been working on finding every day so that we can meet the standard of 2 new investigators a week. When I got back from the exchange we were already almost at 3 new investigators and 7 lessons. We are usually at 7 by Wednesday or Thursday, so we are definitely seeing Heavenly Fathers hand in the work! Fasting really does work!
So that was Tuesday :)
We had an awesome District Meeting on Wednesday. We talked about the atonement. My favorite part was when Elder Swainston had us all share our favorite scriptures about the atonement. It brought the spirit into the room so strongly! And the really cool thing was that all but one or two of them were from the Book of Mormon.
We had a lesson with Anthony, and then we were planning to have a lesson with a potential but he never showed up. Dang it! I was really hoping. He had sounded like he really would come when I talked to him on the phone. Oh well. We also contacted a less active and he is going to be coming to the Halloween party that the ward is doing this Friday. He has a friend named Felix as well that we got to talk to a little bit. Well, I say we. Really it was Kalia, one of the members with us, that talked. We could hardly get a word in edge wise! I had to laugh about it when we got back to the apartment. So, who was the missionary in that situation? haha!
Thursday was a really good day. We have a less active that we are working with named Jon Mayer. (I try to convince people that he is the singer, but no one seems to buy it.) He is doing good. We are working with him on prayer right now. He has done some things in his life that he regrets and he doesn't see how God can trust him or why he would want to hear from him. We are helping him to overcome that. Any way, it was a good lesson. After that lesson we went to see a girl named Alex and ended up teaching her as well as her room mate Bonny! That was awesome. They are super open to new ideas and learning, we are just hoping that they are actually learning to find truth.
Cool experience in that lesson actually. We asked Alex what it would mean for her if our message was true. She said that was a great question, and could she ask us a question. We said sure and she asked what we would do if the Book of Mormon wasn't true. The minute she said that I felt the spirit testifying to me that the Book of Mormon is true. It was amazing and I said that in answer to her question, I couldn't tell her because the Book of Mormon is true. It just is! I suddenly realized that I had come to a point in my testimony where I literally couldn't deny the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing and I got to bear my testimony to them that the Book of Mormon is true. It was so cool! :)
After dinner we didn't have any one signed up and no scheduled appointments so we headed back to the apartment to start weekly planning. As we sat down on the couch to start we both had the feeling that we needed to be out working and talking to people. I looked at Sister Reese and said, "Do you feel like we should go out?" "Yes" she said. Dang! It was a little chilly, not to mention dark and we didn't want to do it. But we did. The minute we got outside the apartment we saw a guy sitting on the other side of the street. We walked over and talked to him for about 20 minutes, gave him a book of Mormon and got his number. It was awesome! We also got to contact a referral that we had gotten a long time ago and give her a book of Mormon.
Friday was a bit rough. Not much happened. Most of our lessons canceled. Zach, he was our golden investigator, texted us to dump us. That was a bit depressing. He is trying to patch things up with his girl friend and he doesn't want the church to get in the way. NO! We tried to get him to meet with us one more time, but he said no. For now we have asked him to pray about it, he says he is going to keep reading in the Book of Mormon, and we are praying for him.
Saturday was pretty slow as well.
Sunday we went and had lunch with Alex and Jenny (another one of her room mates) and Travis (Jenny's boyfriend). Travis is a religions major and he had a bunch or historical biblical questions for us. Eventually we told him that we couldn't answer all these questions he had, but if he was interested in learning if the church is true we would be happy to help show him how he could find out for himself. He didn't really ask any more questions after that.
Sunday night we did a little bit of tracting and were able to meet a few people. Michael, we left him with a Book of Mormon, and offered to teach him more. He seemed interested but he wasn't sure that he could commit to anything because of his schedule. We also met a girl named Lyra, and set up a time to meet with her on Wednesday. We are not sure what her interest level is right now, but we will find out!
Love you all! Hope you have a great week :)
Love, Sister Cryer (email dated 27 October 2014)
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
IMPORTANCE OF SERVING ONE ANOTHER
Dear Family,
So we had another zone outing today. Super fun! We played a game called quad ball. You play with a volley ball on a basket ball court and basically you score a point by either shooting a hoop, scoring a goal, getting a touch down or knocking down one of the opposing teams chairs in the corner. You can only throw or kick the ball, and you can't move when you have the ball. It's super fun actually, even though I was absolutely no good at it! I did help to score a couple of points. :)
We carved pumpkins too! It was SO FUN!
Me and Sister Reese were very matchy in our Nothum shirts and matching hats that Brother Bird gave us. We get to keep those hats! We were sitting on the swing and the sun was in our eyes and the next thing I knew Brother Bird was offering us a handful of hats and told us to choose whichever one we wanted and we could keep it. SWEET!
So that's what we've been up to today.
The week has been pretty good. Our teaching pool is so small right now. We only have two investigators! But it's ok. There is so much potential in the area, we just have to keep working and be patient. I am studying patience right now! haha
Yesterday was awesome! Me and Sister Reese were a bit stressed about our teaching pool so we decided to fast and we saw so many miracles! We had a goal of 6 lessons and 2 new investigators. And guess what????? We got our 6 lessons (the exact goal too; 4 member present and 2 other) and we got one new investigator. We tried SO hard to get a seconed investigator but it just wasn't meant to be I guess. It was still really good though, and even though we only got one new investigator, because we were working so hard to get another one we were able to set up three appointments with potential investigators for this week.
I will just tell you some of the miracles that made yesterday so good :)
So, we got our first lesson right after church with Zach. He has recently broken up with his girlfriend and so he wanted to stay busy. He asked me what he could do and I said, "How about a lesson?" because we need lessons! I didn't say that part, but that's what I was thinking! So that was great. Then Whitney sat in for his lesson and invited Sister Reese and I over for dinner. She had invited Helena and Laura as well, so we could share a message and BOOM! That was another lesson! Before going to Whitneys house though we went over to 'The House' and taught Jessyca's friend, Antwon. NEW INVESTIGATOR. Then we headed over to Whitneys house. Dinner wasn't quite ready yet so we decided to go out and do some tracting and OTMing in the mean time. We walked outside and I saw a guy across the road. I yelled 'Hi!" across the road and waved. He looked at me like, "Do I know you? I don't think so." It was really funny, but we were able to get across the road and have a lesson with him! Woohoo! Ten we did some tracting in an apartment complex. Only one person opened their door of the eight that we had time to knock on, but she was awesome! She actually let us in and we were able to talk to her and have a lesson. Not a new investigator, but we set up a time to meet with her again and she seemed really interested! Went back and had dinner. Shared a message/had a lesson with Laura and then tried to go visit a lady named Rose. She has a non member room mate that we wanted to talk to but...she didn't want to talk to us. So that didn't work out so well. NO! What were we supposed to do now? That was our last lesson and new investigator! We said a prayer and then made some calls. Sister Reese made me call because she says I am better at it, I guess because I sound happy and excited. Any way, we were able to get a hold of two potentials, one of which we have been trying to get a hold of for forever! and set up appointments for this week! Whoohoo! No new investigator yet though, and we still needed one more lesson. We headed back to our apartment and talked to the girl that lives below us. I have been wanting to talk to her for a while, so we finally did! We gave her a book of Mormon and had a short lesson with her, but no luck on the new investigator front. We had a few more minutes until 9 so we walked over to see a memeber, Christine, and follow up with her about her room mates. She had said that they might be interested. We got to talk to her, but no luck on the room mates. Ok fine. We admitted defeat on our second investigator, and I was a little discouraged for a minute, but then as I looked back at the day and saw all those wonderful things that happened and all the things we have set up for this week, I couldn't help but see how Heavenly Father had blessed us. It was such a great day! When we do our part (and we did! We worked so hard!) Heavenly Father blesses us.
So, a bit of a side note here. Flippin' everyone in the YSA ward is getting married it seems like. What's up with that?! I mean, I know that's the point and everything, but seriously!
Ok, so you know Laura? We were teaching her English. She is going back to Colombia! NOOOO!!!! We are going to miss her so much, and it's so sad because she doesn't want to go back. That's the hardest part is she is not happy about it. She want's to stay. But any way, she is going back for an interview to try and get into a really good teaching position I guess. We will miss her. I am disappointed because our last lesson with her is on Tuesday and I will be on exchanges! She is leaving on Wednesday. I will have to see if I can get a picture with her today.
We got to do service on Saturday :) 
That was really fun. It was at a place called Habitat for Humanity (we got lost on the way there. Just sayin'). Basically people just donate things like tools, furniture, light fixtures, paint, gardening tools etc. to this place and they re-sell them. They also had this ancient bible in a glass case. It looked like it could have been the original that Nephi took from Laban. Hmm. I guess they probably wouldn't have been paper though. It was really old looking though. Anyway, our job was to open all the paint cans and put a dab of paint on top of the lids so people could see what color was in the can. I was paint dabber. It was some good times. I love giving service!
So, I found a really cool scripture today in 2 Corinthians ...4 I think. It talks about how representatives of Jesus Christ need to act in certain ways and it pretty much lays out what we should be doing as missionaries and members of the church in order to set a good example for those around us and to teach the gospel effectively. It's good stuff.
I'm trying to think if there is anything else I can tell you right now. The week has been kind of slow just because our teaching pool is so low. Sunday was pretty much the only exciting day! Haha! We have been visiting a lot of less actives. (Can I just say, I am really learning the importance of home and visiting teaching?)
Well, I ran out of time! Love you all! have a wonderful week :)
Love, Sister Cryer (email dated October 20, 2014)
Me and Sister Reese were very matchy in our Nothum shirts and matching hats that Brother Bird gave us. We get to keep those hats! We were sitting on the swing and the sun was in our eyes and the next thing I knew Brother Bird was offering us a handful of hats and told us to choose whichever one we wanted and we could keep it. SWEET!
So that's what we've been up to today.
The week has been pretty good. Our teaching pool is so small right now. We only have two investigators! But it's ok. There is so much potential in the area, we just have to keep working and be patient. I am studying patience right now! haha
Yesterday was awesome! Me and Sister Reese were a bit stressed about our teaching pool so we decided to fast and we saw so many miracles! We had a goal of 6 lessons and 2 new investigators. And guess what????? We got our 6 lessons (the exact goal too; 4 member present and 2 other) and we got one new investigator. We tried SO hard to get a seconed investigator but it just wasn't meant to be I guess. It was still really good though, and even though we only got one new investigator, because we were working so hard to get another one we were able to set up three appointments with potential investigators for this week.
I will just tell you some of the miracles that made yesterday so good :)
So, we got our first lesson right after church with Zach. He has recently broken up with his girlfriend and so he wanted to stay busy. He asked me what he could do and I said, "How about a lesson?" because we need lessons! I didn't say that part, but that's what I was thinking! So that was great. Then Whitney sat in for his lesson and invited Sister Reese and I over for dinner. She had invited Helena and Laura as well, so we could share a message and BOOM! That was another lesson! Before going to Whitneys house though we went over to 'The House' and taught Jessyca's friend, Antwon. NEW INVESTIGATOR. Then we headed over to Whitneys house. Dinner wasn't quite ready yet so we decided to go out and do some tracting and OTMing in the mean time. We walked outside and I saw a guy across the road. I yelled 'Hi!" across the road and waved. He looked at me like, "Do I know you? I don't think so." It was really funny, but we were able to get across the road and have a lesson with him! Woohoo! Ten we did some tracting in an apartment complex. Only one person opened their door of the eight that we had time to knock on, but she was awesome! She actually let us in and we were able to talk to her and have a lesson. Not a new investigator, but we set up a time to meet with her again and she seemed really interested! Went back and had dinner. Shared a message/had a lesson with Laura and then tried to go visit a lady named Rose. She has a non member room mate that we wanted to talk to but...she didn't want to talk to us. So that didn't work out so well. NO! What were we supposed to do now? That was our last lesson and new investigator! We said a prayer and then made some calls. Sister Reese made me call because she says I am better at it, I guess because I sound happy and excited. Any way, we were able to get a hold of two potentials, one of which we have been trying to get a hold of for forever! and set up appointments for this week! Whoohoo! No new investigator yet though, and we still needed one more lesson. We headed back to our apartment and talked to the girl that lives below us. I have been wanting to talk to her for a while, so we finally did! We gave her a book of Mormon and had a short lesson with her, but no luck on the new investigator front. We had a few more minutes until 9 so we walked over to see a memeber, Christine, and follow up with her about her room mates. She had said that they might be interested. We got to talk to her, but no luck on the room mates. Ok fine. We admitted defeat on our second investigator, and I was a little discouraged for a minute, but then as I looked back at the day and saw all those wonderful things that happened and all the things we have set up for this week, I couldn't help but see how Heavenly Father had blessed us. It was such a great day! When we do our part (and we did! We worked so hard!) Heavenly Father blesses us.
So, a bit of a side note here. Flippin' everyone in the YSA ward is getting married it seems like. What's up with that?! I mean, I know that's the point and everything, but seriously!
Ok, so you know Laura? We were teaching her English. She is going back to Colombia! NOOOO!!!! We are going to miss her so much, and it's so sad because she doesn't want to go back. That's the hardest part is she is not happy about it. She want's to stay. But any way, she is going back for an interview to try and get into a really good teaching position I guess. We will miss her. I am disappointed because our last lesson with her is on Tuesday and I will be on exchanges! She is leaving on Wednesday. I will have to see if I can get a picture with her today.
We got to do service on Saturday :) 
That was really fun. It was at a place called Habitat for Humanity (we got lost on the way there. Just sayin'). Basically people just donate things like tools, furniture, light fixtures, paint, gardening tools etc. to this place and they re-sell them. They also had this ancient bible in a glass case. It looked like it could have been the original that Nephi took from Laban. Hmm. I guess they probably wouldn't have been paper though. It was really old looking though. Anyway, our job was to open all the paint cans and put a dab of paint on top of the lids so people could see what color was in the can. I was paint dabber. It was some good times. I love giving service!
So, I found a really cool scripture today in 2 Corinthians ...4 I think. It talks about how representatives of Jesus Christ need to act in certain ways and it pretty much lays out what we should be doing as missionaries and members of the church in order to set a good example for those around us and to teach the gospel effectively. It's good stuff.
I'm trying to think if there is anything else I can tell you right now. The week has been kind of slow just because our teaching pool is so low. Sunday was pretty much the only exciting day! Haha! We have been visiting a lot of less actives. (Can I just say, I am really learning the importance of home and visiting teaching?)
Well, I ran out of time! Love you all! have a wonderful week :)
Love, Sister Cryer (email dated October 20, 2014)
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