Traditions

Your family history starts NOW.

If you’re me, and you typed (or read) something like that and then thought, “No, history is forever ago. It’s already happened,” well. You’re not wrong. When we think of family history, we generally think of our grandmothers, or great grandmothers, or great-great-great grandmothers who crossed the plains and churned their own butter and sewed their own dresses. But I think we can look at family history from a different point of view. Instead of thinking broadly, I propose we think of the people living around us. What is their history? What is your history? When you study the scriptures, what thoughts do you have? How will those thoughts change or help you in a year? Family history starts now.

When I was growing up, my mother was a very big part of the 90s scrapbook revolution. She knew every trend, taught all the classes, was in loads of magazines, and took SO many pictures. I didn’t even realize that “not being in a picture” was an option. She made page after page, commemorating trips, accomplishments, and just every day moments. She wasn’t documenting history, she was just documenting now.

Flash forward 10 (cough, twenty, cough) years, and now? Those pages are our history. My sisters and I can still spend an hour or two looking over those books that we’ve looked at a thousand times, laugh at jokes we’ve made before, and remember things that didn’t seem significant at the time, but are. Suddenly we’re grateful for all the times mom made us stop and take a picture. Those moments we spend looking at those books are special and sacred to us.

Elder John H. Groberg said, “In a very real sense, our properly written histories are a very important part of our family scripture and become a great source of spiritual strength to us and to our posterity.”

Family scripture. Have you ever thought of your journals or notes that you make about your history as scripture? We know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are simple records of people and families doing their best to follow the commandments and succeeding and failing and learning. Doesn’t that sound like our lives? The definition of scripture is “sacred writing,” and when we are moved by the Holy Ghost to write a thought, isn’t that sacred?

Recording our histories can feel like a chore or even unnecessary, especially when nothing “important” has happened that day. When we study the scriptures, we might not have any visions or astounding impressions. But what doesn’t seem astounding or important today will prove to be significant and a blessing tomorrow. You will see how the Lord has shaped your thoughts to prepare you for what was to come. You are writing the record of your people, as you go through trials, make mistakes, and see so many blessings come from your diligence, just like Nephi and Mormon.

My friend and I are the owners of Line Upon Line, creators of the wide-margin, Journaling Edition of the Book of Mormon, and one of the things I am most excited for is reading my own notes in my Book of Mormon a year from now, or two years. I’m excited to let my daughters read my notes and thoughts as I studied Lehi’s family or read over the wars in Alma or learned from Christ’s visit to the Americas. I know that even if what I write isn’t the most profound thing, it will be a blessing to them when they’re older. My thoughts on scripture can help my children get to know me and help me get to know myself. Knowing they’ll read it helps me write for them in their day, just like the prophets in the Book of Mormon wrote for us in ours. Heavenly Father speaks to us through revelation, for yourself and your family, and the more we write down and act upon that revelation, the more He will send.

My company has also created a Primary Edition of the Book of Mormon, the text of the Book of Mormon, designed with kids in mind. It has coloring pages, testimony pages, wider margins—so much space for your little one to write down and color their thoughts on the gospel while you’re reading together. If that isn’t sacred, something you’ll keep forever and turn to over and over, I don’t know what is.

Our hope for the Primary Edition of the Book of Mormon is to teach our children to interact with their scriptures and take ownership of their own spiritual grown, and we’ve seen that. As we’ve watched our own children study the scriptures, we’ve seen them learn to write down what they’re thinking, and in doing so, examine their thoughts on the stories and lessons in its pages. They are building lifelong habits that will hopefully give them a bank of family history and scripture to learn from and use to teach their own children.

We hope we are teaching our children that family history starts now and they don’t need to wait to begin recording their own spiritual journey. What they write or draw today can help them grow tomorrow. And similarly, what we write today can become what we need to hear tomorrow. Heaven is waiting to pour out words of comfort, of knowledge, understanding, peace, and by writing them down, we are showing we are diligent and willing to do the work it takes to record and build that family history.

Family history starts now. It might not be officially history when you started writing it, but it will be in a year or ten or twenty. We all know this, but regret is the worst. Almost every adult was given piano lessons when they were seven, and almost every adult wishes they didn’t quit when they were eight. Don’t quit on recording your family history. Don’t quit on reading your scriptures and recording your impressions. Learn to write your history now and you we be so grateful to yourself a year from now.

I know that family history is important and that if we pray for even the desire to begin to record our histories, we will be blessed, and our prayers will be answered!

Written by: Emily Liddle
IG: @lineuponline Website: lineuponlineco.com

When people hear our love story it is just a bit too dreamy and well, Italian. My Love caught my attention with a bowl of spaghetti. Our date was set, we would meet at his apartment, he would cook for me, we would go to the opera.

I arrived at his apartment and he greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and before starting, He TIED MY APRON on! Then we started cooking–or should I say, he started cooking and I watched. I mainly watched his hands. They moved quickly, methodically and gracefully. Chopping parsley, smashing the garlic and then quickly mincing it faster than I knew was possible. He gave me one assignment–dice the tomatoes. As I diced the tomatoes, he managed to boil the water, set the table, finish prepping everything else and I had only finished two tomatoes. He came over and asked if I would like any help. I handed him the knife. He took it and I watched this man dice the tomatoes like someone dicing butter. It was fast, smooth, and I wished I had not offered to dice the tomatoes. I also wished he had not stopped. It was so attractive! I guess you can say he had me at first dice, not first bite. This man had skills and I couldn’t wait to get to know him better!

Within 20 minutes he managed to make us a gourmet Italian meal. Spaghetti aglio e olio con i gamberi , and salad. There was no need for dessert, it was that amazing! I had no idea Italian food could be so delicious, refreshing, and full of flavor and with so few ingredients.

That night we drove “come i pirati” (like pirates–which is to say blazing) to the opera, we held hands, and when I got home I downloaded an app to learn Italian. I never looked back.

This first dish on this first date was the beginning of my culinary journey into the land of Italian cuisine. I am now a self-proclaimed olive oil snob and gelato obsessed American. My taste buds and cellular structure have continued to evolve and change to the point that I look more Italian than my husband and I cook and relish in wholesome, love-filled, homey southern Italian dishes.

I have to give credit where credit is due. My love is who I learned to cook Italian cuisine from. He is the brains, the heart, the hands and the home of my knowledge. His mother is his culinary tutor and her mother was hers and so the story continues back and back. Cuisine, food, family and friends are the heart of Italy. Everyday when I cook I am cooking a piece of our heritage and family history. When I write the recipes I am preserving generations of stories passed down through little speech; and mainly gestures and taste. I teach classes to give others the ability to see, savor, and feel what I experienced that first time I put into my mouth spaghetti made the correct way. The way my husband’s great-great-great grandmother would have made it. I honor all of his ancestors when I make a dish correctly. I honor them when I feed my children their dishes, their recipes, their beautiful culinary creations that are not just full of flavor, but full of nutrients that bring life and sustenance and joy.

Everyday that we teach our children how to cook we honor nonna (grandma) and we save a piece of our heritage. We help our children and family and friends experience our ancestor’s life. As simple as a piece of bread in milk and sugar, or as elaborate as lasagne made the Napolitan way….We honor our family’s heritage.

Buona Forchetta UT’s main purpose is to bring family and friends together—with amazing food and to help preserve our Italian heritage and culture through the recipes that were passed down through generations. This way, when our Grandchildren ask what their bis-nonna (great grandma) ate when she was young; my son will make them a bowl of spaghetti and all will know it came from Nonna’s life in Italy such was and is the tradition.

We are the last link for my mother-in-law’s family and my love and I have decided to make it our quest to preserve the heritage and untold stories that were passed down through the hands and kitchens of the nonnas of our family.

Isn’t it amazing that just by eating a bowl of spaghetti on a first date my life could turn into saving the culinary heritage of the Vinci and Petrucci family! I am and will forever be grateful for the beautiful Italian culture and for stories told over and through a bowl of spaghetti!

Kristin Petrucci is the founder of @buonaforchettaut and @KristinPSpeaks. She is the mother of 5 children and resides in Utah. Her husband David is from Terni, Italy. All of his immediate family resides in Italy. They both love to cook and eat Italian food and share with others their passion for life, friendship and food.

Family History Starts Now

Love, Food & Family History