Practice and patience

That's really all missions -- and life in general -- are about. We're here to learn to work, to overcome disappointment, and touch the lives of others. Though others may use their God-given ability to choose unwisely, that's all still part of our mortal existence. I've learned that tons for 16 months now.

Ever since Elder Bell got here two months ago, the Lord has really been testing our patience. The work has been slow and at times discouraging, but we have trucked through it together. I'm really impressed by his resilience, and have been finding mine really growing. But, the Lord recently blessed us with getting back in contact with our only real investigator, who we visited last night. She is a super honest seeker of truth, and though she may be a bit skeptical of us because of what friends have told her, she is willing to learn and to ask God about the things we offer. We also recently got a solid referral from a member who we ended up not meeting with last night, but successfully rescheduled. This woman is going deaf, and wants to learn both about ASL and the church. We see a lot of potential in her.

Buildings here are interesting. In most places they are packed in side by side without any room in between, often sealed to one another. Some of these buildings are taller then their neighbors, and while their fronts are nicely crafted, the sides thereof are ... not. They're just a bunch of bricks with random patterns and stray windows here and there. It's also odd to see these kinds of buildings standing alone, completely flat on both sides but with nothing tall around them. There are also remarkably less of these the farther south you go in Manhattan.

The dryer is still not working right. Elder Bella had I pulled it out onto a table in our thin hallway out of a thin closet, which was quite strenuous. We didn't find anything wrong, and when we unplugged and replugged it in, still didn't work for very long. I will call the super today about it. "Phone games" has been interesting -- we've tried over 300 numbers so far. There have been only two new people that even have remote potential. Many of the numbers weren't VPs, many others didn't pick up, and most who did weren't interested. It is in essence deaf tracting. Many people asked us how we got their number -- some puzzled and others angry -- and we legit just called it randomly.

Love y'all,

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