Dearest family,

Hey thanks for the letter Dad. I'm glad that everything is ok with you guys and your health. Wow Khodie got his mission call already. Wow thats pretty awesome that he's going to the deep south. He will have a lot of success there with some hard work. Tell him congrats for me. Tell jarem that I want to hear some stories from his work and see some pictures if he can send me some :)

Well let me update you about whats going on in the mission. So we had changes today. Elder Clanton got transfered to another zone close by and is gonna be with a latin missionary which will be great for him. It was a good experience training a missionary. I probably learned more than he did. He's a great missionary and a good guy. He will progress a lot. So I'm still here in Lo Prado 2 and my new comp is Elder Saenz from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He arrived in our mission about 3 months after I did. I'm still district leader here also. Elder Saenz is really great. We're gonna work really hard this transfer and have a lot of success I know. I'll send you some pictures. Also Elder Coats, my companion from the beginning of the mission who's the red head is now in the same house as me, he's companions with Elder Petersen. It'll be great to be with Elder Coats again also.

As for this week... it was really good. We found a lot of new investigators. We found 2 Columbians that are really receptive. Ronald had his baptism interview and decided that he wanted to wait another week to be baptized. He's very sincere because he still came to church yesterday. His mom came with him like usually but his dad also showed up. That was a great step for him. His mom, Carmen, said that what she wants most right now is to get baptized. Now we just have to work on getting them baptized. We are preparing some people here for February, and we know that there are plenty of other people waiting for us to be baptized. We're gonna find them, through a lot of prayer.

So yesterday, for the first time in my whole mission, I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. It was really awesome actually, I enjoyed it a lot. I gave a talk about how we can gain the confidence of God. What I realized is that God has a lot in store for us, a lot of opportunities. We need to deserve them. In my talk I mentioned that I was a lifeguard and everyone seemed to pay more attention. I related how we need to gain the confidence of our boss so that he can give us better positions and jobs. How as a lifeguard I had more opportunites my second year because my boss saw what I did the first year and gave me a better job. I know that we need to gain the confidence of God. How can he trust us with so many important things especially the souls of His children if we cant be trusted. God requires faithfulness, consistency, and obedience. If we show that than he will trust us with more. We don't need to aspire for anything just to have the trust of God, and know that if He wanted, he could call us to do anything. I know that its the best feeling knowing that the Lord trusts in you. I love this Gospel and I love you guys. No se olviden que Dios les confia mucho y les ha escogido para cumplir con una gran obra. Chao,

Elder Webb

ps, pictures of us in the cyber cafe here. I thought you would enjoy that. Also of our zone and leadership from San Pablo

Querido familia,

Thanks for the letter mother dearest. So little Clayton is gonna get married in April? Man... tell him thanks for nothin for waiting haha jk. Hmm You could cook up some chilean dish for them, that would be pretty cool. And the food here is pretty dang cheap so you could save some money haha. Well I do have a suggestion. Here they make something called papas rellenas, or stuffed potatoes. They are really good and easy and fill you up. Look up the recipe. You could make that with some meat or something. But anyways I'm sure everything will turn out fine. And with work, the Lord sees your sacrifices, with working in the temple also and will never fail to bless you and fortify you guys constantly.

This week was pretty great! Franco didn't end up getting baptized this week. We were all ready, we talked with his dad and he was excited and signed the form and everything then about 20 seconds later, his aunt that always takes care of him walked in and started making them doubt by saying he was too little and doesn't know how to make decisions... that was a trial of patience. But in the end we talked and they decided in two more weeks he can get baptized. Hopefully I'll still be here but we have transfers next monday so I dont know what´ll happen but at least I´m sure he´s gonna get baptized. Also, Ronald has been progressing really well. He actually asked if he could get baptized on Jan 30th because his birthday is the 31st and we said of course! Really, he is an amazing investigator. We're so pumped for him. I'm pretty sure my companion will be dressed in white this sunday with Ronald. His mom also wants to get baptized but she has to wait longer because she's not married (thats a problem that exists everywhere in Chile). So for now we have two investigators or maybe 3 that for sure will be getting baptized in February. If i'm not here I'll found out soon how that goes. I love founding out that old investigators get baptized. I dont know if you remember but 4 people from Recoleta that I've taught have gotten baptized. Its exciting to know that the Lord really uses you to influence the lives of many many people. I love this work. Every day is a new oportunity to go out and show Heavenly Father how much you love Him and how dedicated we are to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that my mission has been the greatest priviledge so far in my life. Thanks for the sacrifices that you guys make. I love you guys!! Les amo, y espero que llenen sus pensamientos con cosas virtuosas para que sus vidas sean consagradas al Señor y para que tengan el espíritu santo. Chao,

Elder Webb

Dearest family,

Well sounds like you guys have had plenty of exciting news this week. So Clayton is finally engaged?? Man isn't that a miracle haha jk. Felicitaciones!!! Congrats Clayton! You better print out a life size poster so that I'm included in your wedding! Sounds like you guys will be kept busy for the next couple of months.

Down here this week we had some success!! We had quite a few investigators come to church. One of them is going to get baptized this Sunday and so we're excited for him. His name is Franco. He is a nine-year-old that is dang smart and knows the lessons back and front. We talked to his family and they're happy at how excited Franco has been by coming to church. Also the family we found last week in la feria are amazing!! Wow. Ronald and Carmen came to chuch. We visited them after church and ronald said... "To be honest, I didn't really like church... I loved it!!" His mom also loved it. They already have made their decision to be baptized. We're really excited for them. The Lord has blessed us a lot. Also we are still making our little stand in la feria and finding a lot of people. One lady just walked on up to us and said, Hey, I really like the story of Joseph Smith. I asked her, "Are you a member?" She said, "Nope." Haha but she doesnt live in our area. She lives across the street in another area. But we've definitely seen success as the Lord puts us in the path of his children. I've also been realizing how blessed we are to study the scriptures everyday. I read a scripture today in 3 Nephi 17 : 8 that says

8 For I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your afaith is bsufficient that I should heal you.

Now we need to be able to have sufficient faith for miracles. If we are looking for any type of sign from God in order to have more faith then it will never happen because faith is power and miracles are manifestations of the power of faith. Miracles are nothing more than the natural outcome of obedience to God's commandments. I know that Jesus Christ heals our lives and provides us the means to become clean. My faith is increased everyday as I realize that faith yields miracles. Thanks for everything!! Have an amazing week. Chao

Elder Webb

ps: Nuestro mente es un teatro y solo una cosa puede mostrarse a la vez. Concentren sus mentes en cosas que animen a si mismo y a los demás. No pierden el tiempo y enfóquense en lo que quieren más. :)

Mi familiacita,

Hey thanks for the letter Dad. I'll answer your questions first. So the dog whistle does work about half of the time. It doesn't affect some dogs. Haha that reminds me, the other day we were walking to an appointment and three stupid dogs come running at us like a bunch of crazies and were lunging after us and almost got my companion in the leg. Basically in this case all you have to do us chuck rocks at them. So I picked up a rock and gave it a nice peg and they scampered off. But man, I'm pretty sure I don't want any dogs, Santiago has made me into an antidog person haha. No not really but yes there are some dogs I want to give some rat poison. And about transfers, they are at the end of January but I don't know what will happen. We'll see. But the shirt fits good thanks a lot! Its nice having a nice white shirt.

About this week, its been good! We had some investigators come to church and are finally progressing. One of them should get baptized on the 23rd sí o sí (it means yes or yes, basically its sure). We've been teaching them a lot and they want to keep progressing. There are some young kids that live in front of the church and their parents want them to go to church. Ideally one day soon the parents will also listen to our message and come to church which is literally 10 feet in front of their house. We also had a cool experience this week. Here in chile like three times a week in every neighborhood they have something called la feria, where they shut down a street and line it up a sell fruit, vegetables, and other people sell random stuff like a garage sale. Well its always a great missionary oportunity because a ton of people go to them. This week, we put out a table and offered pictures of christ and BoM for free and got a lot of good referrals. But one lady came and talked to us and said that the day before she was praying so that God put someone in her path that could help her out and help out her son. So she came and talked to us in la feria. Well we taught them yesterday and they seem like that will be really sincere investigators with the desire to go to church and progress. It was a great experience and strengthened my testimony of the fact that God always is preparing His children and always answers their prayers. I love it when I can be a tool in God's hands to help fulfill His wise purposes.

Well I don't have much else to say. We're working hard and having a lot of neat experiences. Thanks for the support and everything. Tell all the family that I love them and miss all you guys. Yo sé que vive mi Señor and que Él redimirá a todos los que vienen a él y participan de Su salvación. Chao, les amo

Elder Webb

ps we have a zone activity right now thats why I don't have much time. I'll send you guys some sweet pics next week!

Dearest family,

Hey yeah yesterday we heard about that earthquake but it was too far down south. We didn't feel anything here. But yeah I guess I'm just an earthquake magnet, its pretty cool. I don't know if we'll have another big aftershock this year but we'll see. Elder Amado from the 70 told the chileans the need to prepare themselves for this year. But he didnt say for what haha. Well we'll see. Things have been everything but calm down here. Its been pretty nuts. First of all the New years is a pretty big thing down here. Everyone goes out in the streets at 12 and gives out hugs (most of them are drunk) but I thought that was a pretty neat culture fact. There was a lot of noise and we couldn't sleep so we went out on the balcony and saw the fireworks. Also its supposedly a tradition in Peru to make a little doll of old stuff and burn it. I'll send you guys a picture of that. Oh and some more funny stories, the first sunday of every year they have a tradition where they all go out in the streets and get everybody wet that comes by. They open up the fire hydrants and just spray everyone. We watched some as the got buckets and dumped them in the open windows of cars that came by. Some people got pretty upset but all in all it was pretty funny. We walked passed them a block down the street walking fast and they saw us and I heard them shout, "Hey, lets go get the gringos wet!" Some guys with buckets of water came running after us haha so we took off down the street. Luckily we had a lesson so we got out of the streets. Pretty fun. Oh and I haven't really heard much from Eduardo. I heard that they're having some family problems but I'm not sure how he's doing. I'm gonna write him letter soon. But I did hear from Gustavo and Jeremias and they're still going to church and working on going to the temple =) woo! Hopefully I'll still be here.

Well this week we made a give up smoking plan for Meriam. She seemed a little bit worried if she would be able to do it but we're gonna help her and the ward is willing to give her support. Actually today we're gonna have a family home everning with a really awesome family and Meriam and her family. That'll help a lot. We actually had a really awesome week. We talked with some kids that have come to church before and play soccer with the ward a lot that live right in front of the church. Their parents are always working on sundays and so they haven't helped them go to church but said they want us to teach them and bring them to church. They told their parents they are going to get baptized on January 23rd and she said, yeah thats fine! Now obviously our goal is to help them have support from the ward, friends, and family. But I've never seen kids so excited to get baptized. And there are 4 of them! All about 10 years old. That was a great blessing! We're pumped to teach them. Also, the stake president has prepared a family of 4 that are starting to come to church activities and want to learn about the church. We should start teaching them next week! Yay referrals from members! Really we're really excited for the work this month! Just hope and pray that Satan stays out of the lives of those kids and that family. But I know that as my Savior lives, He desires the salvation of God's children and with His will, everything is possible. I love this gospel and my mission. I know this is the Lord's vineyard, His work and His glory.

Well I have you guys enjoy this week! I'm glad you had a good new year with a lot of explosives. Take care and behave yourselves! Recuerden que las verdades eternas son eternas y nuncan cambian, entonces, que sean verídicos y nuncan cambien. Chao, les amo

Elder Webb