Somos misioneros para de mudo

For those of you who don't read Spanish, the subject line means "we are missionaries for the deaf". For my friends who are serving Spanish-speaking right now, don't judge my attempt. Serving in New York City, which has cultures and languages from all over the world, by far the second-most common language to English here is Spanish. Pretty much the entire top of the island of Manhattan is Dominican central, and large parts of the Bronx and Harlem have heavy Hispanic populations as well. Many of our investigators and members live with Spanish-speaking family, so we in the ASL program have had to pick it up a little. Luckily, Elder Holloway can actually kind of carry on a conversation, so we aren't completely stuck when dealing with these family members.

The weather dipped a bit this weekend and we even got a dusting of snow on one night. One of those nights we were walking around the Bronx in about 40-degree weather -- I had my coat and beanie and gloves, and my Alaskan companion only had the beanie and gloves. He takes great pride in showing the world that he isn't from around here. As we walked, one woman who knew who we were and what we did stopped us and tried to offer him her jacket right off her back. They went back and forth a bit warmly, but he didn't accept the jacket, claiming he was fine. Some Alaskans and their pride.

The elders from the South mission had a baptism on Sunday, but other than that, nothing much else to report.

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

Bonus: Ryan sent me a short separate email with this library selfie, "Thought of you when I came."