Preparing the Messenger

I love phrases with multiple interpretations.

The title of this post could convey a topic about how missionaries -

including us - need to get ready to serve.

But actually, this is intended to celebrate the final piece

of my duties puzzle: the publication of the every-six-weekly

mission newsletter, which is titled "Messenger".

(Below is the printed copy front page.)

When we arrived here at the NH Manchester Mission office,

the electronically-distributed newsletter had been assigned

to Sister Stephenson, a live-at-home "young" sister 

(she would use the word "young" to describe 

the other missionaries, since she was a couple 

of years older and wiser than most of them) 

who was serving a part time mission

to assist Sister Larsen whose assignment I took over.

Sister Larsen was the Mission nurse, a 24-7 job,

and some of the other tasks needed to be separated out

to allow her to fill that critical role.

Sister Stephenson would take our "saved" information folders

of baptismal info, birthdays, President's message,

mission event photos, etc., and compile the newsletter

(with a little bit of help from her digitally-creative father).

As I tried to learn this task, half of me was confident

because it includes a creative component using

digital design software that I have been trained for

from work in other business ventures. But the other

half was a bit lost and just a little terrified: unsure how

to prepare a document that was up to 22 pages long

and be able to store it in a format that could be sent

by email across the Mission.

 I did as much prep work as I could, asked questions,

got advice, etc., from Sister Stephenson. But her

mission ended a couple of weeks before the last transfer,

at which time the current stats and events are collated

into the newsletter. Transfers happen every 6 weeks,

determined by the Provo MTC schedule which dictates

when the new missionaries arrive.

In the end, I reached out again to my talented graphic

designing daughter Kenzie, clear out there in Tucson.

 She was able to answer my questions, 

open doors of my imagination, make

suggestions about where in my program suite

to find the InDesign component that would let me 

"publish" like this, and once again give me 

confidence to proceed.

Now I know that this is something I can accomplish,

over and over, and with greater ease each time

the due date approaches.

This week -- and for the past couple of weeks --

my lamp has been filled by Kenzie.

I am celebrating what she has taught me over the years,

and her continuing understanding of a world

to which I am a relative new comer

I am SO proud of my first newsletter:  

Ta-Da!!!!