week 16: pictures!!

Okay, just got back from playing with lions!

This week was pretty awesome. So after email last week we went to the Polokwane Game Reserve on a hunt for rhinos. We found them! For some reason we thought it a brilliant idea to chase them. This logic is
flawed and will get you killed. DO NOT CHASE RHINOS! They do not like it very much haha, but each time they were about to charge us we backed off and then went after them again haha.... YOLO I guess.

The week was okay, we were still on the slow side but managed 20 lessons. We confirmed Thabang and we ordained him to the Priesthood. That was awesome.

Our area is kind of dying, so we will be applying liberal amounts of droppage to our investigators in the following weeks and start our teaching pool over anew. Who doesn't love two strait weeks of tracting (knocking door-to-door)? Well, this guy doesn't. Oh well.

We had a few cool experiences, but anyways a few weeks ago while on exchanges we were informed there was a roaming band of thugs searching us out to rob and beat and well do other stuff to us. I saw them three

days ago, but they failed to approach. It appears they are afraid of the two mahwhoas (white guys, spelled totally wrong) in the middle of a township. That's the second time thugs have failed to come at us when they planned to do so. Fun times down here.

The rains in Africa have not been blessed lately. It's been hot as flip, but it's looking like there will be an amazing storm tonight, so we are really looking forward to that! 

Today was amazing, we went to a place called "The Ranch". This is the place where they trained the lion in the Narnia movies. We played with cubs, half grown lions, and saw tons of full grown ones. We also played with a full grown cheetah. What an amazing experience. The cheetah was my favorite, his name is Milkbar. Just so everyone knows, lions and cheetahs are just big cats. The purr and everything. Anyways, Milkbar really took a liking to me and started licking me all over. I guess you could say it was love at first sight. I'm really glad humans don't do that, it'd be awkward. Anywho, it was so fun!

The baby lions (2 months old) are super cute. 

We wrestled with them, and of course I had to hold one up like it was Simba!

Pretty epic, also one was kind enough to pee on me. Where else can a missionary get peed on by a lion cub? I'm seriously in the best mission in the world. After the baby lions and the cheetah we played with 7 month lions, and those things are rather large. About the size of a German Shepard. They were very awesome, accept they tried to bite and scratch us. Oh well, battle stories to help woo my future wife I guess. 

Also hyenas are huge! Lion King does them no justice, they are bigger then a full grown wolf. They are also scarier then a full grown lion. Such an awesome time, and so worth that 15 bucks I spent on it! We also went on a guided safari in an Indiana Jones style truck, pretty darn sweet.

Yesterday a member invited to take us to the world renowned Kruger National Park! WOOOOO! We couldn't go otherwise, and I'm so excited. Plus he is paying for it! Such a sweet deal, I'll get to go there for my birthday basically. Nat-Geo films a ton of their Africa shows there. Like when you see videos of Africa, a lot of it is shot there.

Life is pretty darn swell, can't really complain to be honest. Had lots of fun this past week. My new comp is awesome. He is so much like Paul. They do almost everything the same haha. We get along great.

I didn't prepare a spiritual thought, I lost my debit card so I looked for it all this morning. :( dat sucks, but oh well. At least I got me a credit card haha. Just got to remember to pay the bill every week. The money they give us for allotment is not enough, the past three days all I've had is toast. haha. Oh well.

Let's see here, not sure what else to report. Life is shap. The work is good. Couldn't be much happier. Well, I could if I had a woman, but well - yeah. Anyways, hope all is well back home!

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan