Unless your friends are in the same area (i.e. Village Greens, Zen Gardens, etc) as you, then you will not see them on your PDA or Recrewt list.
If you don't see them while still in the same area, then they are probably on a different layer. In order to get to their layer, open your PDA, make sure you have Blue Dots turned on, and click on the greyed dot of them. This will transport you to their layer.
Or if you're more creative, you can type /invite Username into your chatbox and that will invite your friend to your crew, wherever they are, so you can find them easily.
Also, please do not bump your post unless it falls off the first page of forums.
zOMG! Forum is a very slow-moving place, so bumping is considered a bit spammy.