This past week we have done quite a bit of more standard missionary activities. We have still had normal lessons and some dinners with members, but we have also practiced some stereotypical missionary things as well.
Elder Richards and I have done a lot of tracting in various parts of our area these past two weeks. So far in all my time here, I haven't really seen any visible success from it, but it shows the Lord that we are willing to put forth the effort. We have had a few fun things happen as well. One time when we approached an older couple on the street and made our pitch, they told us "we're sinners, and we love it" and kept walking. Another time, a resident called the cops on us, as they saw two men going door to door and thought we were soliciting (I think soliciting is against the law in that town). A cop pulled up and talked to us, but since we weren't selling anything or collecting money, we were still within the allowance of the law, so he let us go without any problems.
You can never quite tell what is going to happen when someone answers the door. I've talked to a Jewish woman who was really nice to us, and then another one a few days later who flipped out and slammed the door because we didn't see the little prayer scrolls on her door that apparently denotes a Jewish home. I also think it was her that called the cops on us as aforementioned. But for the most part -- nice or not -- most people seem to be happy with what they have.
If there is an (interested) Deaf person, I can travel outside the area to wherever I need to meet them, which doesn't happen very often. We try to physically meet a new person once at the far off location, get their videophone number, and then call them from a member's videophone. We had that happen once last cycle with a new hard-of-hearing investigator, but she dropped us just before Elder Filoso went home. I am teaching my new companion ASL, though he probably won't get to a point where he can actively participate in lessons. He is starting to do ASL prayers, so that is good.
We have a little box in the car called a "Tiwi" unit. Most of the missionaries here call it a Satan box, and every car in the mission but President's vehicle has one. The Tiwi is essentially a backseat driver on steroids; it yells at you for speeding too much, for braking too hard, for turning too sharp, and accelerating too fast. All this goes to the mission vehicle coordinator, and if you get too many violations, you could lose driving privileges temporarily or permanently.
We also did a "car fast" on Monday, which is when we go a whole day without using our car. We planned well so that we stayed in New Windsor all day, though we still did a considerable amount of walking. We ended up having a super awesome investigator drive us home after our lesson, which saved us probably an hour and a half of walking five miles. We made it work, and it was fun.
Stay awesome!
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
