To Be A Pioneer

You don't have to push a handcart,
Leave your family dear,
Or walk a thousand miles or more
To be a pioneer!

You do have to have great courage,
Faith to conquer fear,
And work with might for a cause that's right
To be a pioneer!

(To Be A Pioneer, Children's Songbook, p. 218-219)

Well, the Mahans are pioneers once more.  Today in our church meeting, the boundaries of our local Montrose wards (congregations) were rearranged, and, in addition, a whole new ward was created!  This is old hat to Mike and Cindy...we lived in Broomfield, CO for 22 years, on the same street, and experienced these changes from the comfort of our own home at least 3 times!  We learned quickly that this type of change is a good thing.  It occurs because the population of our church in the area is growing, and that is always a positive change!  When we left Broomfield to 'pioneer' in Montrose, it was a mere 5 months later that, for the first time in 30 years, a new ward was formed in this area, and guess who lived in its boundaries?!  Yep, that would be us. (We wondered if we brought it with us when we moved!)  And now, 6 years later, we are moving once again --  without packing a single box!  We are now members of the Mount Sneffles Ward, which will meet in a brand new building south of town!  I've never met in a shiny, new-wood and new-paint church before, so it will be fun!  Am I a little sad to be separated from the friends I've made in my old ward?  Of course.  But these kinds of changes create new connections, and I feel like, in many ways, they bring us closer together as a whole. 

But that NAME!!! When I moved here and first heard of Mt. Sneffles, all I could think of was Mr. Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street!  It's a goofy name, in my opinion, but now that I'm going to be attending a congregation with that tag, I decided I'd better do some research on it.  So, listed below (courtesy of Wikipedia) is the explanation of what and where Mt. Sneffles is...don't say that you never learn anything when you read my blog!! Ha!  Tally ho!

Mount Sneffels

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For the town named after this mountain, see Sneffels, Colorado.

Mount Sneffels
View of Mount Sneffels from the north
Elevation	14,158 ft (4,315 m) NAVD 88[1]
Prominence	3,030 ft (924 m)[2]
Listing	Colorado Fourteener
Location
Mount Sneffels Colorado
Location	Ouray County, Colorado, USA
Range	San Juan Mountains
Coordinates	38°00′14″N 107°47′32″WCoordinates: 38°00′14″N 107°47′32″W[1]
Topo map	USGS Mount Sneffels

Mount Sneffels is a fourteen thousand foot mountain peak in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is listed as being 14,150 feet high. It is the 27th highest 14er in Colorado. It is located in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness of the northern San Juan Mountains, in Ouray County approximately 5 miles (8 km) west of the town of Ouray. The summit of Mount Sneffels is the highest point in Ouray County. Mount Sneffels is notable for its great vertical relief, as it rises 7,200 feet above the town of Ridgway, Colorado 6 miles to the northeast.
The primary route to the summit follows a creek bed up from Yankee Boy Basin. A secondary route follows a ridge line to the summit from the saddle of Blue Lakes Pass.
Mount Sneffels was named after the volcano Snæfell, which is located on the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in Iceland. That mountain and its glacier, Snæfellsjökull, which caps the crater like a convex lens, were featured in the Jules Verne novel A Journey to the Center of the Earth. An area on the western flank of Mount Sneffels gives the appearance of volcanic crater.^{[citation needed]}
Seen from the Dallas Divide on State Highway 62, Mount Sneffels is one of the most photographed mountains in Colorado.