"Exaltation Is A Family Matter"

Genesis 12:1-3


1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed


Abram (later Abraham) is being told to pack up his stuff and move. He's living in an idolatrous culture but the one true God has chosen him to establish a His culture, or covenant people, in a new land. That covenant culture has followed God's instructions (or tried their very best) ever since. The covenant to follow God through His representatives was passed on through the house of Abraham, the house of Israel, the Jews, the "primitive" Church of Jesus Christ, and the restored Church in the latter-days. And though God's covenant with those who follow Him, the families of this world have been and can be blessed. 


This includes the family of our friend Paula! She's 16 and has been coming to church and seminary for a while now, and she got baptized on Saturday! The more she progresses, the more her family acts interested. They've learned a lot just being around her and hearing sections of the lessons, and they've all decided to be baptized too! The branch is showing them a lot of support, and Paula's been a great example for all of them, so stay tuned for Pedro, Akira, and Paola's baptism in a few weeks after we can prep them. It's cool to see that the blessings of God are family-sized. We're excited to keep watching and helping them progress!


We also put one of our Dominican friends on date, is all goes well Angela can get baptized by the end of this month.


I did an exchange earlier this week with the guy we're calling "the new" Elder Sharp. He's got the same name as one of my trainers who went home a few transfers ago, and everyone in this mission loved. The new Elder Sharp is also a beast, he's been out about three months but has cracked Spanish. We had some cool lessons and he led out an awesome spiritual thought during one of our member visits. Exchanges are always the best.


Spanish Christmas culture


They love the wise men here... Spanish speakers call them the reyes magos or "wizard kings". They have names too- Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. And they get celebrated on January 6th like I talked about last year. Dia de Reyes also has a traditional cake, the Roscón, that I bought this week where they bake little toys into it. So now I have a little plastic snowman that I found in a slice of cake.


Feliz Navidad! 
Elder Curtis 


Google Photos is fixed! 
Post-rain
Midnight fog
Paula's baptism!
(The ward mission leader put us on the spot with the hermanas whose chapel we were stealing for a musical number with 30 seconds notice)
The graffiti demon is trying to tell us something about the Jehovah's Witness building...
Town nativity
Roscooooon
The new Elder Sharp and I at Harry's house










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