When Elder Peter M. Johnson, General Authority Seventy, envisioned God’s work of salvation at the first meeting of the Church’s American Sign Language Board of Education, in November 2022, he stated, “We [the board] are committed to help everyone learn and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ in their own language and culture,” referencing 2 Nephi 31:3.
With support of the board’s missionary work subcommittee members, 55 deaf, deaf-blind and hard-of-hearing members of the Church and their families — including youth and Primary-age children and grandchildren — from the Rochester ASL Group in the Rochester 3rd Ward, Rochester New York Stake; Union Square 2nd Branch (Sign Language) in the New York New York Stake; Washington D.C. Branch (Sign Language); Atlanta, Georgia; and Utah gathered Aug. 9-11 in upstate New York for a Church history tour. Many members of the Union Square 2nd Branch previously had never left New York City.
On the first day of the symposium, hosted at the Rochester New York Stake Center, President Thomas B. McCoy, president of the New York and Pennsylvania Historic Sites, opened with a keynote address on the importance and value of the Church historic sites and why The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preserves them. After his remarks, he invited Elder Christian Pirtle from Ogden, Utah, serving in the New York Syracuse Mission, to recount Joseph Smith’s First Vision and to bear his testimony.
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