The whole week has been full of that at various times. Luckily, we were still able to accomplish the things that the Lord wanted us to do.
Some people have been asking me what we do for service up here. We have two planned service projects a week as a district -- helping at a food bank and one at a nature museum and trails. Recently, we have also been helping one of our investigators clean up her property, as neglect has cluttered it with all manner of trash and old stuff. We are helping her slowly throw away stuff and make the place look nicer. In part due to our service to her, she has been a lot more open to our message, and is accepting pretty much everything. She is scheduled to be baptized on March 26.
Our other main progressing investigator is also set to be baptized on March 26. He is the boyfriend of a member and is trying to find a church that was better than the one he grew up in. He came to our services on Sunday and absolutely loved it, and is feeling that this is the right direction for him. We are looking forward to his progress.
I'm staying warm, and I hope you all as well (except those of you in Arizona right now who don't know cold)!
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Bitter winds and warm rains
Weather patterns have continued to be rather interesting this past week. My mom told me while we were experiencing -20 degree wind chills, AZ was getting 80. After our weekend of brief utter cold and some snow, yesterday brought 50 degree heavy rains. One member told us because of the rapid change some of his pipes burst, and so did his neighbors. Weird stuff happening.
On the missionary front, the work is still going well. We recently began teaching the boyfriend of one of our active members, and it has been going well. He has real intent, and we are checking to be sure that it is more geared towards changing his life rather than to be more aligned with her. He hasn't really been Christian for a while, so teaching has been a little more challenging, for example, we had to clarify the difference between resurrection and reincarnation about five times. But at the end of the lesson when we invited him to pray, he finally accepted after some prodding and explaining. He was nervous that he would mess up, but as he prayed, he really opened his heart, and the Spirit was there. He is set to be baptized on March 26.
Otherwise, we are getting more records straightened out like I did in the city in the deaf branch. Bishop has a stack of envelopes that were sent out to all people on record in the ward, but these ones came back, so we get to look them up. Some have been looked up before, some even many times, so I am personally trying to make good enough records so that missionaries after us don't have to waste time doing them over and over getting the same result. All sorts of fun.
Just a little more info about the church, (sparked by Dad's question). In my mission there are four stakes: New York (the island of Manhattan), Westchester (the Bronx and some of Westchester county), Yorktown (more of NYC and the Connecticut part of our mission), and Newburgh (which covers everything in the mission west of the Hudson and and everything in the north part east of it). My zone is the Newburgh zone, which covers five units all west of the Hudson. There is another zone that covers the other half of the stake. Everything here is in the country with a few larger cities dotting the land. The West Point Branch is becoming a ward on Sunday, though I have heard that the stake is generally starting to decrease in active membership, which is sad. In this area we are fortunate to have both an English ward and a Spanish branch, whereas everywhere else in the stake I believe has Spanish groups in their wards and branches. Oddly, I have been in both of the only two districts in the mission without sisters -- this one and the ASL district.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
On the missionary front, the work is still going well. We recently began teaching the boyfriend of one of our active members, and it has been going well. He has real intent, and we are checking to be sure that it is more geared towards changing his life rather than to be more aligned with her. He hasn't really been Christian for a while, so teaching has been a little more challenging, for example, we had to clarify the difference between resurrection and reincarnation about five times. But at the end of the lesson when we invited him to pray, he finally accepted after some prodding and explaining. He was nervous that he would mess up, but as he prayed, he really opened his heart, and the Spirit was there. He is set to be baptized on March 26.
Otherwise, we are getting more records straightened out like I did in the city in the deaf branch. Bishop has a stack of envelopes that were sent out to all people on record in the ward, but these ones came back, so we get to look them up. Some have been looked up before, some even many times, so I am personally trying to make good enough records so that missionaries after us don't have to waste time doing them over and over getting the same result. All sorts of fun.
Just a little more info about the church, (sparked by Dad's question). In my mission there are four stakes: New York (the island of Manhattan), Westchester (the Bronx and some of Westchester county), Yorktown (more of NYC and the Connecticut part of our mission), and Newburgh (which covers everything in the mission west of the Hudson and and everything in the north part east of it). My zone is the Newburgh zone, which covers five units all west of the Hudson. There is another zone that covers the other half of the stake. Everything here is in the country with a few larger cities dotting the land. The West Point Branch is becoming a ward on Sunday, though I have heard that the stake is generally starting to decrease in active membership, which is sad. In this area we are fortunate to have both an English ward and a Spanish branch, whereas everywhere else in the stake I believe has Spanish groups in their wards and branches. Oddly, I have been in both of the only two districts in the mission without sisters -- this one and the ASL district.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
ESL and fickle snow
It has snowed several times the past week, though every time it almost completely disappears by nightfall. The weather is playing this game of going above and below freezing most days, which continually changes the landscape from white to green to white to green, etc. At least we haven't really had to shovel because of this.
The ESL I am referring to means English as a Second Language, not English Sign Language (which is what they use in England, which I know a little bit.) Serving with a Filipino companion has been interesting. His English is very good, but there are still times when he doesn't know the right word or something comes out a bit wrong, but I have been patient with him. We also work with several members and investigators that speak English as their second language, their main languages ranging from Ukrainian to Spanish to Haitian-Creole. My time in the ASL program accustomed me to being able to understand improper English sentences and grammar, so that has benefited me as I have listened to the people we teach and also allows me to teach in their terms.
Still loving all I'm doing, and I hope the Lord is pleased with my efforts.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
The ESL I am referring to means English as a Second Language, not English Sign Language (which is what they use in England, which I know a little bit.) Serving with a Filipino companion has been interesting. His English is very good, but there are still times when he doesn't know the right word or something comes out a bit wrong, but I have been patient with him. We also work with several members and investigators that speak English as their second language, their main languages ranging from Ukrainian to Spanish to Haitian-Creole. My time in the ASL program accustomed me to being able to understand improper English sentences and grammar, so that has benefited me as I have listened to the people we teach and also allows me to teach in their terms.
Still loving all I'm doing, and I hope the Lord is pleased with my efforts.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Monday, February 8, 2016
January pictures
Pictures taken by Elder Ryan Turner in January 2016
Ryan visited Rockefeller Center, with its famous Christmas tree
No surprise they visited the Rockefeller Center Lego Store too
A rainbow amid the clouds
Snowing in Highland Falls (outside of West Point) in his new area
Ryan was part of a trio for a week while they rearranged missionaries. Elder Arines, Elder L'Esperance, and Elder Turner.
Elder Arines cooked them a Filipino dish
Their car after Winter Storm Jonas, which slammed the East Coast but just brushed them north of New York City
At the baptism of 10-year-old Austin
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Bibles and baptisms
One way I know that the world has entered the last days is that it is currently 49 degrees and raining here in the east. Last year, it was probably about 18 degrees and snowing, and everything was covered in white. Last winter was very harsh, and then this one is super mild -- I think nature is trying to do some kind of interesting balancing act.
This weekend Ashton Quinones was baptized by his father and confirmed by the bishop, which was a wonderful experience. He has some good support, and now we need to help the whole family stay fully active. He is a smart kid, and I have enjoyed working with him.
One part of our work is something called media referrals. This is when people go to our website Mormon.org and request something, such as free scriptures, DVDs, or an actual missionary visit. We then go meet these people, deliver the requested item if that be the case, and try to share more about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We get these requests from the website via text with their information. Sometimes the person or address doesn't exist, and other times it's used by others as a prank (though recently in our mission some guy referred his brother as a joke, and this brother ended up getting baptized, so it isn't all bad). Other times it is all legit, and we have seen that most of the time we get requests, people have ordered their free copy of the Holy Bible. When we go and try to deliver it we also share with them the Book of Mormon, as both records of scripture testify that Jesus is the Christ, but often people are only interested in the Bible itself. It's a bit annoying when people play the system, but we keep praying that some of these people will actually want to learn more about our specific message.
Love,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York Mission
American Sign Language
This weekend Ashton Quinones was baptized by his father and confirmed by the bishop, which was a wonderful experience. He has some good support, and now we need to help the whole family stay fully active. He is a smart kid, and I have enjoyed working with him.
One part of our work is something called media referrals. This is when people go to our website Mormon.org and request something, such as free scriptures, DVDs, or an actual missionary visit. We then go meet these people, deliver the requested item if that be the case, and try to share more about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We get these requests from the website via text with their information. Sometimes the person or address doesn't exist, and other times it's used by others as a prank (though recently in our mission some guy referred his brother as a joke, and this brother ended up getting baptized, so it isn't all bad). Other times it is all legit, and we have seen that most of the time we get requests, people have ordered their free copy of the Holy Bible. When we go and try to deliver it we also share with them the Book of Mormon, as both records of scripture testify that Jesus is the Christ, but often people are only interested in the Bible itself. It's a bit annoying when people play the system, but we keep praying that some of these people will actually want to learn more about our specific message.
Love,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York Mission
American Sign Language
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