Weird weather

Apparently, the winter this year is not normal in terms of snow and cold. Compared to the past few years, the city has gotten very low amounts of snow and the temperatures haven't been as low. Yes, the weather is still around freezing, but should be somewhere in the 10's and 20's most of the time. I'm not complaining, but have been adjusting rather well.

Sunday was my first experience with freezing rain, which isn't fun. This is when up in the clouds it is above freezing, and ground level is below. That makes the rain that hits the ground turn to ice, and it is everywhere. My companion and I almost slipped four times walking one block to the bus station. I heard that upstate is was even worse, and some churches cancelled services because of black ice. But, the branch still ran as normal.

We decided to change out most of the yellow lightbulbs in our apartment and replace them with white, natural spectrum lightbulbs. It makes such a difference, especially as the days are shorter. Something about having more light keeps our spirits higher as we plow forward. We also got another couch, so now each of the four of us has a comfortable spot to sit, and makes the apartment feel more like a home. Ever since I've been here, I've seen a lot of improvements made to our living space.

There are a lot of difficulties to teaching deaf people here in NYC. Written English is difficult for them, so you can only imagine how hard it is to read the Book of Mormon in Old English. The Book of Mormon ASL DVD is done in the purest form of ASL (or Utah ASL as my companions call it), and most of it still goes over their heads. I have heard a couple of success stories of deaf members here learning pure ASL and English better by struggling with the Book of Mormon, but for the most part people aren't willing to exert the effort to really figure it out. We do a lot of summarizing and explaining the scriptures. It is also hard to teach over videophone as some people's connections and screens aren't the greatest, and it is impractical or impossible to face-to-face teach them outside of church (ex: they live in Yonkers or NJ). We have to make sure we are teaching very simply, or else they don't get it.

But, there are so many awesome things involved with my work. When we get someone who is really motivated, it brings me true joy. This is the case with Ariel, my only baptism so far. He is active, continuing to learn more and more, and on his way to receive the Melchizedek priesthood in the coming months. The deaf at church are naturally very accepting of others. We had a hearing girl from our ASL class come to the branch for the first time, and though her ASL was limited, everyone seemed to accept her. Most are a very humble bunch, and have pure faith in Christ. Working with them has been a great blessing to me.

The work is still moving slow for us right now, but we keep on going and praying that more people will be open to our message. But, we are learning so much about ourselves and each other as we work. Missions are truly awesome experiences.

Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language