Sketchbook: More or less

This quote from Elder Kearon's fireside stood out for me. Hope scrolling beats doomscrolling any day!
 

Keeping open tabs

I love it when stuff from the general leadership of the Church comes into my feed. Their content certainly helps beat back the doom and gloom of other sources!
 

Sketchbook: Instapistles

 

I often hear people quote from social media posts by general authorities. Which makes me wonder if generations from now we'll have canonized the First Book of Instagram? 

Light the World: Full Attention

Today let's take the time to put down our phones or other electronic media and pay full attention to the people around us when we're talking. Concentrate on the important things, like friends, family, finding food...
 

Light the World: Love Thy Neighbor

Have a conversation with your neighbor today! 
 

Doing the check-in

There have been a lot of adjustments made to the regular church routine as a result of the pandemic. One of my favorites is doing temple recommend interviews over Zoom. But I do like how we can use social media to maintain contact with our ministering families.

Editor's Note: Yeah, this would have been more effective a few months ago, but it still holds true.

Face Face Face Face Time

It's part of the calling

I know our local missionaries are usually a good influence!

There is plenty indeed for my two hands to do

Do you have a teenager in your home who constantly texts? Ask them to flex their thumb muscle — the one that looks like it's a bicep for your hand (I believe it's called the abductor pollicis brevis). It's probably way beefier than yours!

Fast times

I keep seeing posts that say, "I'm on a social media fast." And I wonder how could they be posting when they're fasting? Isn't that kind of like saying, "I'm going to start fasting as soon as I finish this bowl of cereal!"? It's probably just me...

Did you also notice that Pres. Nelson challenged the youth to a seven-day fast. He challenged the sisters to a ten-day fast. What's it going to be up to when he finally challenges the elders?

Sketchbook: If you have to ask...

A couple of things I found intriguing about the social media fast — one was how quickly other people picked up on it. It wasn't just Mormon kids who attended Pres. Nelson's fireside. Another thing was how Apple announced that in the next system upgrade, it was going to be a lot easier to control how much screen time you're actually using.

Maybe the prophet is on to something here?

A simple testimony

A night at the movies — with a purpose

The missionaries in our area were faced with a couple of concerns. One, there's a great misconception about what the Book of Mormon is and what it teaches, and two, members have had a challenge knowing how to share their testimonies of the Book of Mormon.

The elders were inspired. They came up with an idea to have ward members take a verse or a passage from the Book of Mormon and create a short video about it. The video is something that would be easy to share on social media. Showing a compilation of all the completed videos would also be a great excuse for a ward social!

Here's one that I did, repurposing an old cartoon. See what you think, and feel free to share!

Bonus! Going social

So, Sis. Kerry Jo has started an Instagram account. If you're on Instagram, give her a follow and keep up on her missionary activities!

And by the way, she's also on Pinterest, and that includes a lot more than her missionary stories. I guess she's trying to follow Elder Bednar's admonition to share the gospel on social media.

2017 Countdown: It's meme time!

As a prelude to the official yearly countdown, once again we look at the popular memes from this past year. We had some good ones!

In fourth place, the return of the Hobbit:

In third place, the Halloween safety messages:

Number two was the work zone safety Star Wars messages:

And No. 1 — from the event of a lifetime: the Eclipse!

Sketchbook: Many gifts, across platforms

There are lots of ways to share a testimony.

Thumbs up for missionary work!

I understand social media withdrawal is a thing now...

Sketchbook: Live from the chapel

It's a way to "bless all those who couldn't be here with us today."

Coming on line

Actually, there are some places where this might be a good idea!

Message to the world

Yes, it's time again for General Conference! I guess you could say it started last week with the Women's Meeting, then the Conference Bowl is on Friday, and General Conference is Saturday and Sunday.

There are lots of ways to view and share* Conference sessions, and don't forget the Mormon Cartoonist's Conference Activity Packet to help keep the little ones (and some of the bigger ones) engaged!

The most important thing, however, is to prepare yourself not only for the messages that will be delivered, but for the answers you need to receive. Watch with a prayer in your heart, and listen for the promptings of the Spirit.



*The Church even has a list of recommended hashtags to use on social media sites.