Traditions

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been long and busy.  But it has been good.  I only have two more days of school and then it is Thanksgiving break!  I am so excited.

It's gotten cold here and has snowed twice.  It's never been a lot, but just enough to leave a thin layer of white on the ground.  Everybody in my family knows what that means--Waffles Supreme!  My family has a tradition that the first time the snow sticks, we make waffles and smother them with ice cream, chocolate sauce, and candy toppings. This tradition was a genius idea by my mother to get us excited about the snow and to stop the complaining.  So, last night I had some friends over and we had our own little waffle supreme party.  It was delicious and fun to share this tradition with my friends.

Today, I'm going to talk about traditions and share an analogy.  Just like my family's waffle supreme tradition we all have traditions in our family that we love.  They may be holiday traditions, birthday traditions, or just random family traditions.  But they are important to us and we love them.  These traditions are also fun to share because (I believe) it is a universal fact that it is enjoyable to share with others what we ourselves love.

The same applies with the Gospel.  We have traditions in the Gospel of Christ that we love.  Going to church and partaking of the sacrament, reading our scriptures, ward Christmas parties, etc. Some of them we love because of the Spirit we feel and the way that they uplift us.  Others we love because they are fun and unite us. But all of them have one thing in common-they are fun to share!  Although it is often terrifying to share the Gospel, anyone who has done it will admit that there was a joy to it.  The Gospel is our most precious possession, and we should share it because every time we do others gain what we have without us loosing any!

So be proud of you family traditions and your Gospel traditions.  And don't be afraid to share either!

Con amor,
S. Olsen