One Man's Mountain Pass...

So back in September of 2014, after dropping Ellie off at college, Steve and I planned to drive up to Billings, Montana, to visit my Aunt Carol.  We looked at the options and decided that cutting through Yellowstone would be the most reasonable route, especially as the interstate system cut quite a large right angle. The Northeast Passage didn't look too bad, though it was interesting that it was closed much of the year and mid-September was pushing into the time they often closed it.  We checked, it was open, and no weather was forecast to change that. And indeed, it was a lovely drive.  

However, it was not what I expected for a mountain pass. To me, a pass is a lower point in a mountain range that is easier to get through.  I did not expect to climb and climb and, well, as you can see--some men's mountain passes are other men's peaks.  We did not, as expected, get to Billings before dark, even though we left Yellowstone just after lunch. But we did get back down out of the mountains, and it was only another hour to Billings.  

This was my first attempt at a video slideshow with music. I will occasionally share more, though right now I only have 2 that are fully complete.  I try to keep them down to 3 minutes or less, as I did with this one, but that is mostly because I want to use a particular piece of music as much as it is in deference to the attention span of my audience. Enjoy!

Missionary Moment Thought of the week

Sometimes an Idea is Inspired

So last year I decided to do Missionary Moment Idea Memes and Post them to the Ward Relief Society Facebook page. It was a way to help support the sister missionaries and the ideas were from a list that the other counselor had picked up at a regional church meeting and the Relief Society president wanted to get out to the sisters of the ward.  This seemed like a good way to share them.  Above is one of my early attempts and I felt pretty good about them.  But I can see that I improved over time and the results are more polished.  

 I went from creating my own backgrounds to often using Canva for free backgrounds and fancy fonts.  Thought I did use some of my artwork occasionally--and Ellie's once. 

 

Of course, the original list was fine for the first couple of months when the pandemic was just starting to rear it's ugly head, but then those suggestions on the list that could adapt to social distancing friendly ideas soon ran out.  So I came up with Missionary Moment Thoughts based on recent talks or postings by General Authorities.

After offering a chance to the sisters in our ward to provide ideas, I finally got help from the other counselor, Jennifer Wassink, and she is now suggesting Family History/Temple work ideas that can be alternated with mine.  Plus Stake Conference gave me a bunch more ideas, so I am off and running again for this year. Hopefully we are in the home stretch.