4 June Jacob Letter

Yes mom, I really need some short sleeve shirt! I only have one (never mind that I thought I would show up here in new york during the winter, instead the lord bless me by dropping me off in the midst of the hot summer!)

New York has been really awesome here. You already know my apartment adress so you should send all the letters including the care packages straight to it. The mission office is a no-no because it will be delay and I won't get the letters and packages until at the end of the cycles.

Well, a lot has happen here in New York. In just three short weeks, I have already been to Chinatown (let me just say this just once, there a lot of chinese people!), Times Square, Union Square, Empire State Building, and more importantly, the Manhattan Temple on my 1st day! That right I went to the temple on my 1st day (technically my 2nd day in my mission). That a very very rare oppournity. The reason because one of the ASL elder who finish his mission (he's deaf) and the one I replace, need a interpreter for the temple and a special testimony meeting after the temple. My companion, Elder Westra, is his interpreter. So we went to the temple and went through everything. It was really beautiful, they use a lots of woods, really beautiful. Wow, on my 2nd day! Sorry, I'm bragging, let move on.

Hey mom, I need the recipe for sausage gravy biscuits and how to cook a chicken please! As well as other simple recipes that I can cook, I would greatly appreciated it!

Hey family, here what you can do to make my mission in New York more memorable. Look up all the best musuems, restuarants (more specifically, the best pizza restuarants), and other fun places I can go on my p-day, thanks a bunch!

There are five other asl elders in my district (there are two more that are in the english program. One is not expect to come back because he have carpal tunnel. Ouch.) We have Elder Jolley, a big happy elder. We have Elder Paulsen, a very funny tall elder. We have elder Westra (my trainer) who is smooth with his drawing. We have elder Larsen, a jokester in the district. We have elder Christensen who is very savvy (and the only one beside me who is deaf and yes, he grew up oral like me). I will send you pictures soon in two weeks so you can know who I'm talking about. The district is awesome and I'm glad there are no burning hatred within it or a elder who just drive everyone crazy. Nope, we all seem to get along well and it has been a blast. And we have a lots of funny moment.

On P-Day so far up to now, we have been playing Risk (they district is really hook to that), Scotland Yard (you should buy that, it a fun game for a family), and yesterday, Elder Jolley and Larsen bought Monopoly for us to play today. I think we are going to buy one new board game every month because when I came here, we only had Scotland yard. Now we bought two new games. It was really fun and I'm doing my best to control my excitement (I really want to thanks Sis. Hessler for that, remember when she did that experiment to us when we were a kids? That help a lot! Thanks you so much Sis. Hessler! P.s. How carmen?)

Next week, we are planning to go to the Bronx Zoo so it should be really fun.

The deaf branch is pretty small but just what I imagine. There are about 60 to 80 active members, depending on the weather every week (beleive it or not, if it rain on sunday, you can expect about 20 to show up. It seem most of the deaf people have some fear of water, strange). They all sign in varience form of fluencly, depending on their education so it very mixed. It kind of sad because most of the deaf are low education because usually when they were a kid, their family don't know what to do with them. Their family don't know how to communicate so they just leave their deaf child alone. So that usually mean they don't get much education and don't have a desire to work. But most are happy just be part of the Church and we are trying out best to strengthen our testimony. It hard because education levels varied but we love them and we want them to be strong and happy.

Right now we only have one investigators. His name is Aruturo. His whole family speak spanish so they don't help much. His family is Catholic but as I mention above, they don't know how to communicate with him so they leave him alone but he a very smart man (he about 18 years old). He is searching for the true church because he felt the Catholic church is not right. We are currently teaching him but the work is slow. Still, we know, as we continued to use the Lord help, he can find what he is looking for.

Almost forgot, I got your letters, it truly brighten my day to receive a letter. That a very good article dad, it help me realized that If i want to teach better, I need to understand the gospel in my heart. So it really help. Thank you mom for your encouragement, it has good.

Dinners appointment here in the deaf branch is rare, we usually get one or none a week but that doesn't matter. We are very busy trying to help members, less active and investigators so meals is least of our concerns. Sufficeint to say, our jaws will drop if we get a dinner appoinment.

The subway has been pretty cool. Once in a while, we have crazy people performing inside the subway for money. We have a african group playing african drums. We have a old man who sing horrible, we have a bunch of hyper teenagers doing some extreme gymnastic moves, we have a blind preacher (Elder westra think he fake) who want the money, guitar player, a rapper, and the list go on. Sometimes it funny, amusing, and pretty cool. Sometimes we put in our pass along cards instead of money. Hey, the Gospel is richer than all the wealth in the world!

The ASL program is hard. Since we have a huge area, travel times take up most of our day. We are lucky if we can meet at least 5 deaf people a day. The work is slow but we still persistenct.

A couple of weeks ago, me and Elder Jolley went to Target on P-Day to buy Risk and when we got on a bus, Elder Jolley saw a woman reading ASL book. They quickly chat and he invite her to a free ASL class in Church that are held every tuesday at 6. She was excited because it was free (she took ASL class in college). She show up and was intrigue of the Church. Yesterday, Elder Christensen and Paulsen taught her, on her consent, on the Church beleif. She knew that the church is true and she have already consent for the baptism date! Almost forgot, she brought a friend with her and her friend know the church is true and they just finish with lesson 1, didn't even commit them to read the BOM and pray yet! Wow, the Lord has prepare us to find his children who are ready!

Yesterday, I spent two hours in the english program because my companion has to go with Elder Muktarov, the only elder in the New York City who know how to speak russion so they can go to Brooklyn (South Mission) to teach a Russion family whose son (he deaf) is already baptized. The father has already consent to be baptized in a couple weeks and the rest of the family will soon. So I spent a couple hours in the English program. We have a appointment so we met a hispanic man and taught him lesson one. Wow, the spirit was very strong and I hope he will read and pray to know if the church is true. It was a wonderful expereince!

I'm grateful to be part of this Lord work and I know it will bless many people. I know the church is true and I grateful for my testimony and the support of my family. Make your testimony strong!