Of all the various Spanish cultures in the city, I would say Dominican culture has to be the most interesting. There are literal tons of them here, especially in the north part of the Manhattan, and they constitute probably about half our regular church-goers in the branch. Their dialect of Spanish is nothing like you've ever heard, they cook burnt rice on purpose, and the Merengue beat penetrates many parts of upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Que lo Que, papi.
We think something happened with Daaiya, who was really progressing up until this last weekend. The lesson didn't go as well as we had thought, and her promise that we would never have to worry about her coming to church weakened sometime over the course of the week. She didn't come to church, and canceled our most recent appointment. We think her roots in her former church are taking stronger hold somehow, and her concept of faith being confirmed by evidence clashes with our belief that "Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, but are true" (Alma 32:21). We really worry for her and her daughter, who was also super pumped to come and learn.
As I was on a split -- switching companions for a day -- yesterday with one of my Spanish zone leaders, we were asked halfway through the day to split with the other two ASL elders in my district. Thus, I did a split within a split, which was a bit odd. Everything is back normal now, though because my companion is going to a mission choir practice today I am splitting yet again with another Spanish elder. The week has been a bit odd, to say the least.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
October pictures!
Pictures Ryan sent home from October 2015
Ryan buzzing Elder Holloway's hair
Ryan's caption: "Proof that Mormonism is a cult." In actuality, a diagram including the cultural hall.
All of the ASL missionaries
Ryan's caption: "With my strongest mission friend"
Always check your Costco grapes for lizards, because missionaries aren't allowed to have pets
Ryan and Elder Bell enjoy autumn in the Bronx
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
The great and spacious building
NYC really is the heart of everything worldly. We definitely have to watch our step and make sure we don't find ourselves looking at the wrong thing or going into the wrong place. In 1 Nephi chapter 8, the prophet Lehi describes seeing in a vision a "great and spacious building" that mocked and scorned those who pressed forward holding to the rod of iron. Nephi then explains in a comparable vision that the rod is God's word, and the building represents the world. I've definitely seen the world oppose the right here, but have also seen those who have held to the rod and found safety and joy.
One of those is our main progressing investigator, Daaiya Connors. She was a referral from a member who lives right by her, who has helped her a lot with coming to church and such. Daaiya is very humble and a very devout Christian. She went to another church before but found problems in it, and fell away awhile, and is now looking for her path once more. She knows the Bible well, but is super open to our message. She and her daughter came to Sacrament meeting last week and were touched by the Spirit strongly, and have made a solid commitment to continue coming. Each of the two lessons we have had with her so far have been awesome.
We are having a dart war today, which is where we use PVC pipes as dart launchers to pelt each other across the gym. It's tons of fun, especially since I'm sneaking a Nerf gun in this time.
In other news, Elder Bell and I have been transferred! ........... to another apartment. We swapped living spaces with an English companionship at the request of President Smith. Now we live with the Spanish zone leaders, and the other ASL elders live with English elders in the 125th St pad. Elder Bell and I only moved six blocks up in Harlem to what us missionaries call "the great and spacious building." It's a massive apartment structure that has over 1100 apartments and 5000 tenants, and truly appears to be great and spacious. The main downsides to moving are that this place has one bathroom for four people, laundry we have to take down and pay for in the building, and no Wifi (though I am talking with President Smith to get us that and a videophone, as that's essential to our work). Our work and area are still the same, we just live in a different pad now.
One of those is our main progressing investigator, Daaiya Connors. She was a referral from a member who lives right by her, who has helped her a lot with coming to church and such. Daaiya is very humble and a very devout Christian. She went to another church before but found problems in it, and fell away awhile, and is now looking for her path once more. She knows the Bible well, but is super open to our message. She and her daughter came to Sacrament meeting last week and were touched by the Spirit strongly, and have made a solid commitment to continue coming. Each of the two lessons we have had with her so far have been awesome.
We are having a dart war today, which is where we use PVC pipes as dart launchers to pelt each other across the gym. It's tons of fun, especially since I'm sneaking a Nerf gun in this time.
In other news, Elder Bell and I have been transferred! ........... to another apartment. We swapped living spaces with an English companionship at the request of President Smith. Now we live with the Spanish zone leaders, and the other ASL elders live with English elders in the 125th St pad. Elder Bell and I only moved six blocks up in Harlem to what us missionaries call "the great and spacious building." It's a massive apartment structure that has over 1100 apartments and 5000 tenants, and truly appears to be great and spacious. The main downsides to moving are that this place has one bathroom for four people, laundry we have to take down and pay for in the building, and no Wifi (though I am talking with President Smith to get us that and a videophone, as that's essential to our work). Our work and area are still the same, we just live in a different pad now.
Good luck to all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Practice and patience
That's really all missions -- and life in general -- are about. We're here to learn to work, to overcome disappointment, and touch the lives of others. Though others may use their God-given ability to choose unwisely, that's all still part of our mortal existence. I've learned that tons for 16 months now.
Ever since Elder Bell got here two months ago, the Lord has really been testing our patience. The work has been slow and at times discouraging, but we have trucked through it together. I'm really impressed by his resilience, and have been finding mine really growing. But, the Lord recently blessed us with getting back in contact with our only real investigator, who we visited last night. She is a super honest seeker of truth, and though she may be a bit skeptical of us because of what friends have told her, she is willing to learn and to ask God about the things we offer. We also recently got a solid referral from a member who we ended up not meeting with last night, but successfully rescheduled. This woman is going deaf, and wants to learn both about ASL and the church. We see a lot of potential in her.
Buildings here are interesting. In most places they are packed in side by side without any room in between, often sealed to one another. Some of these buildings are taller then their neighbors, and while their fronts are nicely crafted, the sides thereof are ... not. They're just a bunch of bricks with random patterns and stray windows here and there. It's also odd to see these kinds of buildings standing alone, completely flat on both sides but with nothing tall around them. There are also remarkably less of these the farther south you go in Manhattan.
The dryer is still not working right. Elder Bella had I pulled it out onto a table in our thin hallway out of a thin closet, which was quite strenuous. We didn't find anything wrong, and when we unplugged and replugged it in, still didn't work for very long. I will call the super today about it. "Phone games" has been interesting -- we've tried over 300 numbers so far. There have been only two new people that even have remote potential. Many of the numbers weren't VPs, many others didn't pick up, and most who did weren't interested. It is in essence deaf tracting. Many people asked us how we got their number -- some puzzled and others angry -- and we legit just called it randomly.
Love y'all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Ever since Elder Bell got here two months ago, the Lord has really been testing our patience. The work has been slow and at times discouraging, but we have trucked through it together. I'm really impressed by his resilience, and have been finding mine really growing. But, the Lord recently blessed us with getting back in contact with our only real investigator, who we visited last night. She is a super honest seeker of truth, and though she may be a bit skeptical of us because of what friends have told her, she is willing to learn and to ask God about the things we offer. We also recently got a solid referral from a member who we ended up not meeting with last night, but successfully rescheduled. This woman is going deaf, and wants to learn both about ASL and the church. We see a lot of potential in her.
Buildings here are interesting. In most places they are packed in side by side without any room in between, often sealed to one another. Some of these buildings are taller then their neighbors, and while their fronts are nicely crafted, the sides thereof are ... not. They're just a bunch of bricks with random patterns and stray windows here and there. It's also odd to see these kinds of buildings standing alone, completely flat on both sides but with nothing tall around them. There are also remarkably less of these the farther south you go in Manhattan.
The dryer is still not working right. Elder Bella had I pulled it out onto a table in our thin hallway out of a thin closet, which was quite strenuous. We didn't find anything wrong, and when we unplugged and replugged it in, still didn't work for very long. I will call the super today about it. "Phone games" has been interesting -- we've tried over 300 numbers so far. There have been only two new people that even have remote potential. Many of the numbers weren't VPs, many others didn't pick up, and most who did weren't interested. It is in essence deaf tracting. Many people asked us how we got their number -- some puzzled and others angry -- and we legit just called it randomly.
Love y'all,
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Autumn
It's strange as I am here in the city a second time for Autumn in New York. It's a bit weird experiencing holidays like Halloween again and seeing the leaves change once more. I'm getting old ...
We have a few solid potentials right now, but it's hard to contact a couple of them, and another keeps rescheduling. We also started to do what is named "phone games" to try to find more. The south mission found that videophone numbers tend to be in various groups where the first seven digits are all the same, thus giving us 100-number batches to try. They've found reasonable success wherein most of those 100 were VP's, and most of those they contacted in those groups lived in the area. They have had one baptism directly from that, and a few other investigators, so we're going to try it. Hopefully it's effective for us.
Elder Bell and I still get along super well. We also acquired a guitar from the south sisters, as their mission recently outlawed instruments in apartments, whereas ours still allows it. Elder Bell has been ecstatic about this, and has been arranging various guitar hymns, filling the pad with soothing music. I am thankful for his talents, and for his willingness to get out and work.
This week, our Internet, dryer, and two different wall outlets all stopped working. I spent almost an hour and a half on the phone with Verizon, who ended up not being able to help. However, the Internet miraculously started working again last night, so all is well in that field. We're currently having to air-dry our clothes in the apartment until I can get the dryer fixed -- all it is is that the condensation hose is detached, but we physically cannot get back there to reattach it ourselves. Maybe the mission office will have a better suggestion.
I hope winter winds don't get here super soon. That, and I'm currently the eldest ASL elder in the apartment, and the only one to have survived a NYC winter. It should be fun to see them adapt.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
We have a few solid potentials right now, but it's hard to contact a couple of them, and another keeps rescheduling. We also started to do what is named "phone games" to try to find more. The south mission found that videophone numbers tend to be in various groups where the first seven digits are all the same, thus giving us 100-number batches to try. They've found reasonable success wherein most of those 100 were VP's, and most of those they contacted in those groups lived in the area. They have had one baptism directly from that, and a few other investigators, so we're going to try it. Hopefully it's effective for us.
Elder Bell and I still get along super well. We also acquired a guitar from the south sisters, as their mission recently outlawed instruments in apartments, whereas ours still allows it. Elder Bell has been ecstatic about this, and has been arranging various guitar hymns, filling the pad with soothing music. I am thankful for his talents, and for his willingness to get out and work.
This week, our Internet, dryer, and two different wall outlets all stopped working. I spent almost an hour and a half on the phone with Verizon, who ended up not being able to help. However, the Internet miraculously started working again last night, so all is well in that field. We're currently having to air-dry our clothes in the apartment until I can get the dryer fixed -- all it is is that the condensation hose is detached, but we physically cannot get back there to reattach it ourselves. Maybe the mission office will have a better suggestion.
I hope winter winds don't get here super soon. That, and I'm currently the eldest ASL elder in the apartment, and the only one to have survived a NYC winter. It should be fun to see them adapt.
Elder Ryan Turner
New York New York North Mission
American Sign Language
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
The work continues
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
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 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
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