It's beginning to look a lot less like Christmas!

For the first three weeks I have been here in Newburgh, the terrain has been nothing but white snow and dead trees, with the occasional evergreen. Over this past week, things have been getting a bit warmer, and the snow is melting! The land is changing from white to green, and I know that spring will be just beautiful.

I didn't really get too much snow driving practice, as my companion did most of the driving at those points. If I am upstate for whatever weird reason next year, I will be sure to get more in. I feel that my ASL has improved tremendously, and have even had several deaf people praise it. It has been nice having another ASL companion this cycle to ease me into managing the ASL affairs here, and I feel confident to take over should I need -- which is likely to happen in two weeks. I am doing alright in my personal goals, and we have a solid teaching pool.

Elder Filoso goes home in just two weeks, and it is getting harder and harder to keep him focused. We still are doing good work, but he is reminded daily of how close he is to being done. Hopefully my next companion isn't this close to going home.

As for the ASL program, the state of affairs is this. When I came to Newburgh, Elder Filoso's last companion, Elder Hill, actually took my spot in the city ASL program. He was called English, but then changed to ASL when he came to the city. This means that there are still two companionships. Also, we have heard about a new ASL elder coming to the mission in mid-April, and Elder Crockett is hopefully coming back in the next month or two. This means that we could have three companionships in the city, which hasn't happened since my trainer was very young in the mission. We'll see what happens, as for now I am outside that game.

Well ... can't think of much else to write. So, I think I will end it here. If you have questions, feel free to email me.

Elder Ryan Turner

New York New York North Mission

American Sign Language