Things have been getting better here in the NYC ASL program. Elder Aston and I got one of our investigators to church on account of a strange dream she had, and she is going to be baptized in March! She is super motivated to attend church and become clean, and it is awesome to finally have an investigator who is actually progressing in the gospel. We have also had some success with some less-active members in getting them to start coming back to church, which is awesome. The work is finally starting to move as the cycle comes to a close.
Transfer meeting is on Friday. It would normally be today, but the new missionaries are arriving tomorrow, which is a bit odd, but that's how it is this time. My world is getting flipped around, as I am being transferred out of NYC to another place in the mission that is more upstate. I am being transferred to the Newburgh area, which is south of Poughkeepsie, NY and on the west side of the Hudson River. The area mainly consists of the city of Newburgh, the town of Newburgh (yes, there is a difference), New Windsor, Cornwall, and a few other towns and villages in that area. Our apartment isn't in the CITY of Newburgh, but the town of Newburgh, which is much nicer. For what I can tell everywhere but the city of Newburgh is quite nice and peaceful. We will have some work in the city itself, but a lot of other work in the surrounding areas.
This is really the only other area we as ASL elders can go and still use our specialized ASL skills. This is because in that Ward there is a deaf group, a few deaf members in a hearing Ward, that we interpret for each Sunday. Most of the actual missionary work we do is in English with an English companion, so it is a good break from full ASL work in the city. The only odd part is that I will be companions with Elder Filoso, an ASL elder who has been there for two cycles and goes home in one more (6 weeks). I have served with him in the deaf branch here before, and now I will be his companion for the last six weeks of his mission. I am excited for this change.
It seems that the work in my companionship here is finally starting to really move, and now I am being moved away from it. I know that I have learned what I have really needed here for now, and now God wants me to continue learning in a different environment. The past six weeks have been all about personal change and less about actual missionary work for me, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I have grown so much from it, and am ready to take on the next thing the Lord wants me to. I am ready.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
(p.s. Ryan's address to send letters and packages remains the same -- see the right-hand sidebar at the top of the blog)
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
February
It is still fairly cold here in NYC, though I hear that it's so warm back home that everyone is freaking out. I would agree that 95 in February is a bit ridiculous, but it's at least preparing you for the 120 summer ahead! It's 27 and sunny here, and I am feeling fine.
This past week has been emotionally and spiritually changing for me. I finally found the root of my sorrows and anger these past years and seven months of my mission, and addressed it head on. I had the help of my awesome companion and fellow ASL elders, and I have made some goals and resolves to change myself. Internally, I have felt the best that I have in years. The work is still a bit slow, but I feel a change within that will allow me to be a better missionary.
Our branch had their Valentine's Day party on Saturday. The good news was that there weren't any fights, as there is typically at least one at every good branch party. The bad news is that at the end of it, one of the members had two seizures! We helped the EMTs get her out of the building and onto the ambulance, and two of our sister missionaries went with her to interpret and help out. They got out at around midnight, and our member is doing fine.
I know that we can always turn into Christ at any time and in any situation. I now have hope that I can change, and I am doing just that. The Atonement of Christ is real, and though it, we can go from misery and sorrow to peace and light. If any of you have lost hope in whatever you are going through, I promise you that you can still change. I have seen many use the Atonement to do so, and I finally have. You can do it now!
Love you all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
This past week has been emotionally and spiritually changing for me. I finally found the root of my sorrows and anger these past years and seven months of my mission, and addressed it head on. I had the help of my awesome companion and fellow ASL elders, and I have made some goals and resolves to change myself. Internally, I have felt the best that I have in years. The work is still a bit slow, but I feel a change within that will allow me to be a better missionary.
Our branch had their Valentine's Day party on Saturday. The good news was that there weren't any fights, as there is typically at least one at every good branch party. The bad news is that at the end of it, one of the members had two seizures! We helped the EMTs get her out of the building and onto the ambulance, and two of our sister missionaries went with her to interpret and help out. They got out at around midnight, and our member is doing fine.
I know that we can always turn into Christ at any time and in any situation. I now have hope that I can change, and I am doing just that. The Atonement of Christ is real, and though it, we can go from misery and sorrow to peace and light. If any of you have lost hope in whatever you are going through, I promise you that you can still change. I have seen many use the Atonement to do so, and I finally have. You can do it now!
Love you all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Saturday, February 7, 2015
January pictures
A selection of pictures from Ryan's memory card, taken in January 2015.
This is the maximum amount of fun you are allowed to have as a missionary on New Year's Eve
The snowy chapel roof
A visit to the 9/11 Memorial
Missionary Ingenuity #1: Rubber-banding your iPad to the top bunk to study ASL signs, in bed
Missionary Ingenuity #2: No chessboard? Use pennies
Using a videophone setup to teach a lesson to a new convert remotely
He's got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you
The four ASL elders on the Brooklyn Bridge
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Six more weeks of winter
Well, February 2 came, and there was still snow here, so I'm taking that as a sign that winter will continue onwards. Had an ice storm on Sunday night, which really only left soft ice sheets all over the city. There are some more storms predicted later, but so far the city hasn't seen anything too bad.
Went and got a second journal this morning, as I am nearly through with the one I got before my mission, starting it the night of my setting apart. I have almost seven months of my life in 200 pages thus far. I have written in it every night without fail. Guess where I got my new one? Only the world's largest Barnes and Noble bookstore! It's five floors of books, games, and other things. Elder Aston said he could spend months in there, and I'm sure Brooke could spend even longer!
I have really nothing else to talk about. The work is still dragging on, and investigators are still hard to reach. The thing I am noticing is my ability to see God's hand in my life and in the work is improving. There has been more than one time this past week where God has reminded me that He is in control of this work, and I am but a simple tool in spreading His message of happiness. It's been truly remarkable to see this.
Love you all, and hope for the best.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Went and got a second journal this morning, as I am nearly through with the one I got before my mission, starting it the night of my setting apart. I have almost seven months of my life in 200 pages thus far. I have written in it every night without fail. Guess where I got my new one? Only the world's largest Barnes and Noble bookstore! It's five floors of books, games, and other things. Elder Aston said he could spend months in there, and I'm sure Brooke could spend even longer!
I have really nothing else to talk about. The work is still dragging on, and investigators are still hard to reach. The thing I am noticing is my ability to see God's hand in my life and in the work is improving. There has been more than one time this past week where God has reminded me that He is in control of this work, and I am but a simple tool in spreading His message of happiness. It's been truly remarkable to see this.
Love you all, and hope for the best.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The storming Northeast
The view of what the storm left at 7am yesterday morning. The roads were all even plowed before we got up! I love this city.
The work is still pushing along. We had a good number of less-active members at church on Sunday, which means that people that haven't come very often or for a long time came to church! It's interesting to see how being away from church can skew one's perception on certain doctrines and teachings. One of our main focuses in working with these people is to clarify and correct these misconceptions. We have had to fix some of the craziest things.
A focus we have right now is cleaning out our branch records. There are around 300-350 people on the records, but there are a number of them that have moved out of the branch and never informed the church. So we are taking the steps needed to get their records moved so that we don't waste time trying to visit them at the apartment they left 10 years ago. We are hoping to find other less-active members this way that we can bring back to church.
Through the cold and snow and deaf we continue forward. This mission is definitely the most unique and life-changing experience of my life. I love being here and growing to know myself and my Savior better.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
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
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
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
As the temperature falls ...
It has been consistently colder and colder as the year ages. I don't think it has gotten above freezing all last week or this, and I hear that it isn't going to improve. Luckily, I have very good snow and cold weather gear, so I am doing alright.
I just hit my six-month mark on Friday, making a quarter of my mission complete. Oh how the time has flown, and how it will continue to fly faster and faster!
With the plunging weather, our teaching has gone down as well. When I became companions with Elder Aston, his area wasn't doing too well, and hasn't really gotten better yet. Church attendance is down, as it typically is in the winter due to colder weather. For some reason, deaf people aren't as willing to come to church when it's cold outside, and a few think it's even closed because of the weather. It would have to take another hurricane to not have church, and even then, we still might. It has been a struggle to teach, but I have been learning a lot about my new companion and about myself.
Probably the most interesting day was Friday. That evening, we went to the restaurant Max Brenner's for our 6-month mark, which had some amazing Mac and cheese and flatbread pizza. Then after teaching a youth group some ASL, we discovered a pipe burst in the women's changing room of the font in the basement. It wasn't horrendous, but it was even slowly filling the font. We got a mechanic from the hearing Ward over to fix the problem, and rolled out at around 10 pm. We then got on the subway with a drunk guy who said some not nice things about us and the church at us. We just signed to each other and feigned deafness.
Hope you are all doing alright, and keep being awesome.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
I just hit my six-month mark on Friday, making a quarter of my mission complete. Oh how the time has flown, and how it will continue to fly faster and faster!
With the plunging weather, our teaching has gone down as well. When I became companions with Elder Aston, his area wasn't doing too well, and hasn't really gotten better yet. Church attendance is down, as it typically is in the winter due to colder weather. For some reason, deaf people aren't as willing to come to church when it's cold outside, and a few think it's even closed because of the weather. It would have to take another hurricane to not have church, and even then, we still might. It has been a struggle to teach, but I have been learning a lot about my new companion and about myself.
Probably the most interesting day was Friday. That evening, we went to the restaurant Max Brenner's for our 6-month mark, which had some amazing Mac and cheese and flatbread pizza. Then after teaching a youth group some ASL, we discovered a pipe burst in the women's changing room of the font in the basement. It wasn't horrendous, but it was even slowly filling the font. We got a mechanic from the hearing Ward over to fix the problem, and rolled out at around 10 pm. We then got on the subway with a drunk guy who said some not nice things about us and the church at us. We just signed to each other and feigned deafness.
Hope you are all doing alright, and keep being awesome.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
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