Transfers were today, and I am still here with Elder Bell. Elder Holloway is going up to reopen the Newburgh area that I closed four months ago. The other note is that I have been assigned as the district leader for my small band of four ASL elders. Now I have the added responsibilities of reporting to other higher leaders, going to a few more meetings, and collecting district mail every week (which may be the most important one yet). Otherwise, the work goes forward.
We finally got another new investigator this week, and she seems to have a lot of good intent. She has learned about many different faiths and is always concerned about "false preachers" as Christ warns us about in the Bible, but is open to us. What I love about our message is that she or anyone else doesn't just have to take our word for it, but can ask God, the source of all truth, if what we teach is correct. I know it is, and am not afraid to share how it is that I know my Savior, Jesus Christ.
As I review the words of prophets ancient and modern, I notice that the message is always so simple -- have faith in Christ, repent of sin and change for the better, and make a commitment to follow Him. Oftentimes we stumble and fall because of our own pride -- our unwillingness to change even though we know our actions to be wrong. I especially liked the recent General Conference address by Elder Lawrence of the Seventy that is all about asking God what it is that we can improve, and that we will receive a specific answer from the Holy Ghost. I invite you all to follow his invitation to soon ask that same question. I know that as you do, something will come to you that you can change.
Love you all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
The drags of New York
NYC has a lot to offer. Pretty much anything in the world can be found here, though one has to know how to find it. However, there are also plenty of downsides to living in a huge city such as this, like high prices and rent, public everything, and those people that just like to make life more annoying for others. Such is the society of this place.
Genesis juked both our appointments we set with her, saying she was mixed up for the first, and we found that she had lied about the second. She said she was going to NJ to visit family, and then through her friend we found out she was actually shopping with friends in Manhattan. We are a bit unsettled by this, and will need to figure out more closely her interest in the gospel. We also are dropping our other investigator, as he hasn't come to church at all and isn't progressing. If he reaches out to us or finally comes, we will start teaching him again. If not, we are wasting our time. It's hard to let people go sometimes when you have few others to teach, but needs to be done.
In terms of service opportunities, we help at a food pantry once a week on their delivery day. We also sometimes get interpreting gigs and sometimes help in a community garden that a member helps manage. Nothing super exciting, and service ops are a bit scarce for us, as our branch isn't really service-oriented. That's one thing I liked about Newburgh.
Transfers are next week, and we are unsure of what will happen. As there are five of us, we think one of us is going elsewhere, but that is yet to be seen.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Genesis juked both our appointments we set with her, saying she was mixed up for the first, and we found that she had lied about the second. She said she was going to NJ to visit family, and then through her friend we found out she was actually shopping with friends in Manhattan. We are a bit unsettled by this, and will need to figure out more closely her interest in the gospel. We also are dropping our other investigator, as he hasn't come to church at all and isn't progressing. If he reaches out to us or finally comes, we will start teaching him again. If not, we are wasting our time. It's hard to let people go sometimes when you have few others to teach, but needs to be done.
In terms of service opportunities, we help at a food pantry once a week on their delivery day. We also sometimes get interpreting gigs and sometimes help in a community garden that a member helps manage. Nothing super exciting, and service ops are a bit scarce for us, as our branch isn't really service-oriented. That's one thing I liked about Newburgh.
Transfers are next week, and we are unsure of what will happen. As there are five of us, we think one of us is going elsewhere, but that is yet to be seen.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Say no to drugs
The weather has been quite nice here in NYC. The trees are once again changing colors, something I really didn't see in Arizona. Two falls in the city has been nice.
Overall in the past 15 months, I've seen the (Deaf) branch improve overall. There are still times when all seems in chaos, but for the most part it is steadily slowly improving. The stake has been talking about putting in some more hearing people to fill some of the administrative callings, but nothing has happened as of yet. It will be interesting if it does happen.
Now, I will explain my title. Last Thursday we went to see our main investigator -- Genesis -- at her home. Because no other men were home and the member we had with us was a female, we couldn't go into her apartment, so we held the lesson down in the front lobby area. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it worked. The first ten minutes or so were good as we followed up on commitments and began teaching.
Then, a group of guys barged in and became super rowdy, saying things like "it's about to get hiiiiigh in here!" They didn't harm us or anything, but our investigator got super uncomfortable and the spirit left. As they got settled and their loud music playing, one tossed me a bag of weed. I promptly tossed it back and lightly stated that I didn't do that stuff. We tried for about a minute to move on with our discussion, but the environment was not conducive to teaching. So, we moved to the adjacent building's lobby, where we had a great lesson in relative peace. Moral of the story: say no to drugs, amongst other things.
That was probably the highlight of the week thus far, and everything else was just about normal.
Love y'all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Overall in the past 15 months, I've seen the (Deaf) branch improve overall. There are still times when all seems in chaos, but for the most part it is steadily slowly improving. The stake has been talking about putting in some more hearing people to fill some of the administrative callings, but nothing has happened as of yet. It will be interesting if it does happen.
Now, I will explain my title. Last Thursday we went to see our main investigator -- Genesis -- at her home. Because no other men were home and the member we had with us was a female, we couldn't go into her apartment, so we held the lesson down in the front lobby area. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it worked. The first ten minutes or so were good as we followed up on commitments and began teaching.
Then, a group of guys barged in and became super rowdy, saying things like "it's about to get hiiiiigh in here!" They didn't harm us or anything, but our investigator got super uncomfortable and the spirit left. As they got settled and their loud music playing, one tossed me a bag of weed. I promptly tossed it back and lightly stated that I didn't do that stuff. We tried for about a minute to move on with our discussion, but the environment was not conducive to teaching. So, we moved to the adjacent building's lobby, where we had a great lesson in relative peace. Moral of the story: say no to drugs, amongst other things.
That was probably the highlight of the week thus far, and everything else was just about normal.
Love y'all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Voices of truth
General Conference, the worldwide meeting of the church where we receive counsel from church leaders, was awesome this weekend. What a blessing it is to have modern-day prophets and apostles, just like it mentions in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. One of the themes I noticed was about how skewed some views of the church are from the outside, and how to clarify truth. This will help me as I go about correcting false doctrine and myths, and enable me to shed light on some concerns that people may have with church organization. I especially liked the talk by Elder Christofferson about the need for organized religion. I know their recent addresses to be true doctrine from Christ himself.
Got a haircut today, and the guy asked me if I wanted a part. I said yes, thinking that he would just comb it at my part to make it normal, but he took the buzzer and etched my part in, making it a lot more definite. It isn't bad, but I think I won't get it again. I also buzz-cut Elder Holloway this morning, which was my first time cutting hair. It turned out alright.
Other than that, not a whole lot else significant. Enjoy the weather wherever you may be!
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Got a haircut today, and the guy asked me if I wanted a part. I said yes, thinking that he would just comb it at my part to make it normal, but he took the buzzer and etched my part in, making it a lot more definite. It isn't bad, but I think I won't get it again. I also buzz-cut Elder Holloway this morning, which was my first time cutting hair. It turned out alright.
Post-haircut
Other than that, not a whole lot else significant. Enjoy the weather wherever you may be!
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Monday, October 5, 2015
Two months of new photos!
Photos Ryan sent home from August and September 2015
Color-changing rainbow stairs in a store somewhere in midtown/lower Manhattan (based on surrounding photos)
Subway station selfie
His caption said "legendary waffle"
The five ASL missionaries with their mission president and his wife
The extremely tiny bedroom Ryan and his companion share (the bed extends from wall to wall)
Roosevelt Island, from the tram
Ryan was extremely proud that they fit everything in that shopping cart into their Bronx cart (right)
The ASL missionaries have divided Manhattan into rough areas and given them shorthand Biblical and Book of Mormon names like Bountiful, Jericho, and Ammonihah
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The life of five
Life with an apartment of five is a bit hectic at times, but otherwise a fun experience.
We haven't been able to see Genesis, our investigator with a baptismal date, for a week, and she is pretty hard to contact. Our other main investigator Matt doesn't have the best memory. He's almost always at the home of a less-active member where we found him at, and when we make appointments to be at his apartment, he is never there. He lives in a building with a doorman, so we can't go up and check. We're a bit frustrated about that.
Elder Bell and I have been organizing old records like crazy. There are various groups of deaf people that live in a close area, though we have been finding that many of these groups are a bit mixed. We have been using paper maps to set boundaries to these areas and moving people into their correct ones, so future lookups will be easier and better streamlined. It's a bit fun, and we give the areas scriptural names to help us better remember them.
The Newburgh ASL/English elders area has been closed since I left it for the city. However, the APs recently said that they are thinking about switching the sisters still there with elders again, and that one of us will likely go up. It's an exciting prospect. My guess is that if it happens, Elder Holloway will go, as he's spent over a year in the city.
Until next time,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
We haven't been able to see Genesis, our investigator with a baptismal date, for a week, and she is pretty hard to contact. Our other main investigator Matt doesn't have the best memory. He's almost always at the home of a less-active member where we found him at, and when we make appointments to be at his apartment, he is never there. He lives in a building with a doorman, so we can't go up and check. We're a bit frustrated about that.
Elder Bell and I have been organizing old records like crazy. There are various groups of deaf people that live in a close area, though we have been finding that many of these groups are a bit mixed. We have been using paper maps to set boundaries to these areas and moving people into their correct ones, so future lookups will be easier and better streamlined. It's a bit fun, and we give the areas scriptural names to help us better remember them.
The Newburgh ASL/English elders area has been closed since I left it for the city. However, the APs recently said that they are thinking about switching the sisters still there with elders again, and that one of us will likely go up. It's an exciting prospect. My guess is that if it happens, Elder Holloway will go, as he's spent over a year in the city.
Until next time,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Officially fall
The second fall of my mission has officially begun! I still remember last fall in the city last year, which is super weird. The weather hasn't been as bad these past few days, and hopefully it stays that way.
Getting groceries for five is fun. We recently changed how much we spend each week (it was double the first week of every month and then normal the other weeks) into a little more each week. We found we go through food fast, and so this is an overall better way, as we are now replenishing more expensive items more frequently. Elder Bell and I got $150 worth of food into our Bronx cart and a large carrying bag, and had fun slugging it home. That Bronx cart and large Costco bags save us a taxi each week, which is a huge blessing. The axles are looking a bit strained, though ... If it does break, the mission will reimburse us for a new one, which is nice. We recently got an email from the mission office saying that they have a lot of extra supplies with the closure of various apartments due to a decrease in mission size.
The NY NY Stake had stake conference this past weekend, which I helped interpret for along with the other ASL missionaries. Some speakers are just super hard to do, like President Buckner. Elder Bell was interpreting him, and just gave up halfway through. The investigator we picked up again last week came to stake conference as well, and enjoyed it. We visited her last night, and now she has a baptismal date set for Oct 18th! She says that she wants church more in her life, and has a good friend that is a recent convert who we are using to help us teach.
We were stopped various times this week by random guys who wanted to know who we were and what we did. Some of them had some odd views on the church, like the one guy who heard that Joseph Smith got lost in Arizona and found the gold plates there. We correct myths as pleasantly as we can, and then invite them to find out the message for themselves by reading the praying about the Book of Mormon. I know that those who pray with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Jesus Christ will know of its truthfulness! I have seen it time and time again.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Getting groceries for five is fun. We recently changed how much we spend each week (it was double the first week of every month and then normal the other weeks) into a little more each week. We found we go through food fast, and so this is an overall better way, as we are now replenishing more expensive items more frequently. Elder Bell and I got $150 worth of food into our Bronx cart and a large carrying bag, and had fun slugging it home. That Bronx cart and large Costco bags save us a taxi each week, which is a huge blessing. The axles are looking a bit strained, though ... If it does break, the mission will reimburse us for a new one, which is nice. We recently got an email from the mission office saying that they have a lot of extra supplies with the closure of various apartments due to a decrease in mission size.
The NY NY Stake had stake conference this past weekend, which I helped interpret for along with the other ASL missionaries. Some speakers are just super hard to do, like President Buckner. Elder Bell was interpreting him, and just gave up halfway through. The investigator we picked up again last week came to stake conference as well, and enjoyed it. We visited her last night, and now she has a baptismal date set for Oct 18th! She says that she wants church more in her life, and has a good friend that is a recent convert who we are using to help us teach.
We were stopped various times this week by random guys who wanted to know who we were and what we did. Some of them had some odd views on the church, like the one guy who heard that Joseph Smith got lost in Arizona and found the gold plates there. We correct myths as pleasantly as we can, and then invite them to find out the message for themselves by reading the praying about the Book of Mormon. I know that those who pray with a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Jesus Christ will know of its truthfulness! I have seen it time and time again.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
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