Our church here in Cairo is doing a special activity for Christmas. They cut out red peices of paper in the shape of Christmas tree ornaments and wrote one chapter of The Book of Mormon on each one. They then asked people to write their names on the ones with the chapters that they were going to read. Once someone reads the chapter they can then decorate the ornament however they want and hang them on a special Christmas tree that's set up at the church. This way, in a very short amount of time, a small group of people is able to read the entire Book of Mormon (collectively) and meaningfully decorate their tree. I randomly chose four different chapters that I have now read and I'm decorating their respective ornaments today. I had my wife send me pictures of each of our girls that I am pasting on the ornaments along with writing their names. So, even though I wasn't able to bring them to Egypt with me, I told everyone here about them and their names and pictures will be hanging on a Christmas tree in the branch here to help decorate the tree and so that other people can enjoy their beautiful smiling faces.

As I was reading one of the chapters I had chosen, 3 Nephi 26, verse two made me think of when we give people scriptures for the first time, like how we just got Carrie her own set of scriptures when she turned eight. Among many other wonderful things, the chapter teaches about scriptures, baptism, and children. Though I am taking the verse a little bit out of context and changing a few of the words, I think the application is still interesting: "[The] scriptures, which [we recently gave you], [Heavenly] Father commanded that [we] should give [them to] you; for it was wisdom in him that they should be given unto future generations."

Our oldest daughter Carrie is such a good reader. She has such an excitement for the scriptures. I hope she continues to read from her scriptures every day and that she continues to share her love for the scriptures and for reading with her sisters by reading to them often. I look forward to being back in Brussels and reading the scriptures with them all soon. I know that our Heavenly Father has given Holy Scriptures to us for a wise purpose, that he has commanded us to study them, and also to share them with others.