week 27: transferred!

(First paragraph is in response to news that he is an uncle - Bronte and David's baby is here!)

Well then, she's pretty darn beautiful haha and I'd rather be home at the moment. I have to give it to Bronte and David, most newborns are funny looking, but she is not. Not really sure what else to say about that... hmm... yeah, I'm sort of having a lack of words at the moment, pretty darn amazing.

This week was flipping crazy. Transfers were on Tuesday, so I got a new area! I am again way the fetch out in the middle of nowhere! Woo! I've been transferred to a place called Nelspruit* in Mpumalanga Province. It's a rich town (lots of mines in the area) and... there are white people! I have to admit, I missed white people, this is nice. Before I was in the land of milk and honey but now... I'm pretty sure this is the garden of Eden. The landscape is amazing, baboons and monkeys run rampant. The city is rich enough that its almost like America. Also, I have a chapel now! Also, our area is huge! Our branch president lives 100ks away, we made a 65k drive to a place called Sabie on Saturday to teach seminary. Sabie is the location of the largest man-made forest in the world. When we went there we had to wear jeans instead of slacks because we had to walk through the woods and such haha. Pretty darn sweet. Within the bounds of our area is Kurgar national park and Gods Window. Both of which are absolutely astounding.  

My new companion is Elder Brackett from northern Cali. He is a pretty sweet guy, has about 6 months left. He reminds me a ton of my brother actually, so we get along fairly darn well.

The branch I'm in from what I've seen is not in such good shape. I experienced the most irreverent sacrament meeting of my life on Sunday. The members however are amazing! We have a handful of white members which is pretty cool, haven't had that before!

The work is pretty slow, we don't fill our days too well, but I'm hoping that within a few weeks that will change. We have town, township, and village in our area so that's kind of nice. Unfortunately, most of our area is too far to teach in. Our K limits are awful, I hate it. (Missionaries have mileage limits on their cars.) Not really sure how this whole hastening the work is supposed to happen with limited resources.

There are two other missionaries within 30ks of us, but besides that you have to drive 220ks to see any others. We are very isolated. We are close to the border of Mozambique and Swaziland.

That's my weekly report!

Love,

Elder Kelly McClellan

* Nelspruit – or Mbombela – is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River, Nelspruit lies about 110 kilometres (68 mi) by road west of the Mozambique border and 330 kilometres (210 mi) east of Johannesburg. For more information, click here or here.