week 23: pictures

Yeah almost nothing happened this week. This letter is not going to be very good.

I do have a ton of pictures though, so that's good.

Monday through Thursday were just normal missionary work, except I did go on exchanges. I went to a place called Mokopane with Elder Kaufausi. I love that guy, the whole day we were just laughing and making jokes, while at the same time sharing the gospel. It was a sweet day. That night we went and got chocolate covered waffles. Tasty.

Friday we went to Tzaneen for Zone Conference. It was an amazing drive, I'd been there a lot, but since this is my last time going up there we stopped lots to take pictures. Most of the pics were taken on the drive up there. At ZC they just shambocked us for sucking for the most part. Oh well. I still enjoyed it.

While tracting this week we had two people in a row laugh at us. I was like... what the fetch... no one has laughed at us before. Not guna lie, when we walked away I told my comp " I hope they enjoy hell".... I kinda feel bad about it now... but they made me sad, well, and mostly ticked off. I'm just here like "hey my brew, let me share something with you that will bless your life" and they're just all "naw man naw... ha ha ha ha". Chumps.

Life is awesome, the church is still true.

Love

Elder McClellan

week 22: a spiritual thought

This morning I have a spiritual thought to share.

NOTICE: This does at times contain the doctrine of Elder McClellan, not always of the church. If you cannot distinguish between the two please refrain from quoting me. 

At our past zone conference President Omer gave us a challenge to read the Book of Mormon and look for the following.

1.) Jesus Christ, his mission and doctrine

2.) The doctrine of the Atonement and how to access it

3.) Answers to "questions of the soul"

During my recent Book of Mormon reading one thing in particular stood out to me, it is the ability we have to "choose liberty and eternal life through the great mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil." (2 Nephi 2:27)

I've spent quite a fair amount of time considering, "why is it that we would choose captivity and death?" The answer I found is really quite simple. " The natural man is an enemy to God"(Mosiah 3:19.) When we arrive at the age of accountability (Doctrine & Covenants 68:27) we change from having agency to moral agency. At this age some have been taught correct principals they can use to govern their lives, most have not. Fewer still understand why it is they should choose the right, again most do not. Though children of 8 years are unlikely to meet the pitfalls that come upon teenagers and adults, the natural man still begins to work in their lives. As we grow into adulthood the natural man begins to become more and more prevalent as our ability and understanding to sin increases. Its much easier to do "what feels right" rather than "what is right." 

The problem is that the natural man is just that... NATURAL. Often times it's just second nature to do these things, especially when you don't have a firm understanding of the gospel. I believe that the reason that we so often choose to follow the natural man is due to the instant gratification we receive. Though "wickedness never was happiness"(Alma 41:10)  we can get a temporary high of sorts from breaking the commandments. People are all to often perfectly fine following this path with the natural man as  a guide, however there comes a time when no matter what you do that high will be turned off. Satan will leave you without the pleasure that you once enjoyed and darkness enters your life. Eventually the reality of your addiction filled life will be internalized, and sorrow consumes you. 

We had an investigator by the name of Bobby (name changed.) For a long time Bobby was content with life, he was happy with the party life style he was living and it was routine to break the most serious of God's commandments. This life style began at age 13 when his mother passed away, and only ended when he met us (the missionaries.) After his conversion he wrote "When I met the missionaries I was at the lowest point in my life, my heart was hardened to a point where I could not take love. In fact I'm the one that walked up to them, seeing them pass by. Because I was at a state where I was exhausted by my stubbornness and my lack of spiritual strength."

Bobby has now been baptized, received the Priesthood, holds a temple recommend and is serving as the 2nd Counselor in the young men's presidency of his group. Looking back at the process of his conversion, from the day I meet him until the day I baptized him, I cant help but think about why such a mighty change was wrought in his life. One day I finally decided to ask him, he said " It was the atonement of Jesus Christ... Heavenly Father blessed my with inner peace. I stopped the loneliness by living the gospel... I came to realize that all the time I was in darkness the Lord never left, but it was I who had forsaken myself."

This powerful statement makes me thing of 2 Nephi 26:23-28:

"For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness. He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price. Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance. Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden."

I cannot pretend to be able to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, but I think I know a little. I do know a few parts of the atonement that directly affected Brother Bobby, and I'll take a minute to elaborate on each. The atonement of Christ accomplished 3 main things.

1. Gave people the ability to receive forgiveness for sins

2. Set a precedent for everyone to be resurrected 

3. The Lord has experienced everything we have, are, and will go through.

Let's talk about the first... first... ha. Christ was offered as a sacrifice for our sins, and "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18) Bobby went through the process of repentance and has overcome the consequences that the natural man had brought into his life. As we were meeting with him helping him to repent I recall him telling us how he could feel God's love in his life. 

Point two is self-explanatory.

Now for bullet point 3. Bobby had lost his family early on in life, and was left to the world until his aunt was finally able to take him in. As he learned of Jesus Christ and his earthly ministry he could feel support flowing unto him daily. As John 16:33 states:

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

As he came unto Christ, walked the path of repentance and began to exercise faith, Bobby was able to have support through his trials. He was given strength the overcome his addictions and prepare himself for baptism. At times we may feel alone or like no one understands what it is we are going through, but the fact of the matter is that those statements are quite untrue. Heavenly Father and Christ are there to help us through anything and everything. As Bobby realized, God was always there, he was just missing the outstretched helping hand.

The natural man is the great stumbling block of the human race. It is something that during our lifetime we need to learn to overcome (that is however a letter for a different time.) Due to our imperfect lives there will be times that, just like Brother Bobby, we have to use the atonement to overcome the different affects that the natural man brings into our lives due to sin. 

When it comes to the Atonement nothing is impossible. Forgiveness can be earned, broken hearts repaired, loneliness done away with. I believe its hymn 194, but one of the hymns states "I believe in Christ, so come what may." We may not be perfect, we may be falling backwards constantly, but if we keep strong in our faith and testimony of Christ there is no obstacle that is impassible. 

I don't know if the point I'm trying to get across worked. Hopefully It did. 

I know that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. I know that His love for us has no bounds. To those who choose to follow Him He has extended this promise (DC 76: 50-70):

"And again we bear record—for we saw and heard, and this is the testimony of the gospel of Christ concerning them who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just— They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial, being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the commandment which he has given— That by keeping the commandments they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is ordained and sealed unto this power; And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true. They are they who are the church of the Firstborn. They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things— They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fullness, and of his glory; And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God— Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. And they shall overcome all things. Wherefore, let no man glory in man, but rather let him glory in God, who shall subdue all enemies under his feet. These shall dwell in the presence of God and his Christ forever and ever. These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to reign on the earth over his people. These are they who shall have part in the first resurrection. These are they who shall come forth in the resurrection of the just. These are they who are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all. These are they who have come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of Enoch, and of the Firstborn. These are they whose names are written in heaven, where God and Christ are the judge of all. These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through the shedding of his own blood. These are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical."

Heavenly Father Loves you, Christ loves you. The beauty of Their plan is that all those who choose to follow Them may receive the blessings mentioned above. Better yet, we can enjoy them together. 

Hopefully you enjoyed this.

Love yall lots,

Elder McClellan

week 21: life is sweet

Alright, so this week was pretty sweet. Basically what we are focusing on is our less active and inactive members. We are right on the verge of becoming a Branch (small congregation) and at this point reactivation is more critical it seems then conversion, though we are still finding new people to teach. We are having amazing success! Got quite a few LAs at church this Sunday! Wooo! That was awesome to see.

So right now in my flat its me, Brasher, Haynes, and Deichman. I love these guys, we get along so well! Having a blast with them. This morning for companion study we were not really feeling it so we decided to have a flat hymn hour, it was awesome! We sang all of our favourite songs, the spirit was super strong.

Not a whole lot is changing to be honest, though I am having problems with a recent convert whom we baptized in March. She has got a hankering for Elder McClellan it seems. She enjoys touching and pinching and doing all sorts of other unspeakable things I wish would not happen to me. Unfortunately she discovered our phone number last night. This is turning into a fiasco. I hate it. We may just have to drop a RC... that's kind of an awkward thing to do!

Honestly not a whole lot is going down right now. Last Monday I convinced the ZLs (Zone Leaders) to let me drive the 3 hours to a transfer I was supposed to go to but didn't really need to go to. That made me super happy, got to see all my mission buddies.

After a month and a half break I decided to finish Jesus The Christ. What an amazing book! It has a ton of amazing insights and info that help one to understand the technicalities that are occurring while reading through the New Testament.

Hmm right now Skrillex is playing in the shop. I like it lots.... but I guess I probably shouldn't :(

We are going to the game reserve today, we hear there is now a baby rhino there! So what must we do? We must chase it! :) And no this is not mean, he is still the size of a car haha. Also Elder Deichman has never seen any of the African animals, so we are going to show him the ropes! Oh yeah, fun fact. We recently learned that this reserve we run around in quite often has leopards and hyenas.... fun stuff. Also, hyenas are more dangerous than lions...just so you know, haha. And yes, they really do that laughing thing like in Lion King. I hate that as well.

Well, I'm pretty darn proud of Joe, good work kid. Don't worry about what haters say, Mormons gunna Morm, and that means choosing the right! John 15:18-21 "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own:  but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me."

Not a whole lot else to report, but uhm yeah. Life is sweet. :)

Love,

Elder McClellan

week 20: transfer news - staying put!

I have literally no time today. Sorry. P-day (preparation day, when missionaries can take care of personal business like laundry, shopping and emailing) is Monday, but Africa has a stupid holiday every week so we often can't email until Tuesday because everything is closed. I hate it. 

The week was aight. Lots of lessons. Lots of walking. Hmm Pitbull just came on in the internet café... I hate Pitbull. Anyways, transfer news came.... and I'm staying. What the flip? Like that's pretty rare haha, 6.5 months in the birthed area (the area a missionary goes to from the Missionary Training Center)... I'm very ready to move on to be honest!  My companion is the new District Leader.

Woo Bronte graduated! That's pretty cool. She looks pregnant now haha. I guess that happens.

Flip yeah... no time!

I'm sorry this letter is lame.

Love,

Elder McClellan

week 19: a day late, but great

Last Monday was amazing, I went zip-lining up by Tzaneen. Best birthday present to myself ever. There were 11 lines down a jungle valley, we went over 2 water falls. The largest water fall was 50m and the smaller was about 20. I'm not sure I've ever been somewhere as beautiful as that! I'd send pictures, but I forgot my thumb drive. 

Seshego is getting difficult. African holidays last two-three weeks. Literally all of our investigators left our town-ship, we had 3 investigator lessons last week. :( Worst week ever. We did however still manage to have 23 lessons. We did LOTS of  IA and LA (inactive and less-active church member) work. 

Joe looked really good in those Mormal photos, he was shap shap. 

Yesterday we had a zone activity, we went and played sport in a park in the colored area of town. ("Colored" is not a racial slur in South Africa, it is the name given to half white/ half back people.) We played football and rugby, but decided to leave when some people in the corner of the field began to make a porn movie. That was awkward, but from a distance we made sure to let them know that God was not happy about their actions. 

Since I've been on mission I've kind of just been in a "yolo" (you only live once) kind of mood. It's quite fun actually, I'm doing things I never would before. Chasing rhinos and elephants, zip-lining in ghetto Africa. The thing is we have to have enough fun on Monday to last the rest of the week. Sure missionary work can be fun, but it's hard to see it when you walk 20ks a day. 

I've now been here about 5 months, that was really fast. Not sure where the time went there haha. 

Last night was scary, we were on exchanges so I was the only one who could drive the car. I was deathly tired by the end of the day, and well, I literally almost killed us 4 times. It was terrifying and I'm pretty sure the only reason we are alive is because God has a work for us to do. ish....

Uhm lets see here... yeah life is good. 

There is a Mormon message called Earthly Father, Heavenly Father that you should watch. Its powerful. 

Here is the link.

Love, Elder McClellan

week 18: not much news

Well let's see here. Okay well yeah.

This week sucked mostly. I was literally on my death bed for half of it. I had a temp of 103 for a few days. That sucked. Luckily I felt well on my birthday though. Saturday we were at correlation and this is when I began to feel the most sick, by the time we left I was drooling on my self and could barely walk. Went home and passed out. 

My birthday was pretty darn good. 4 people from around the mission called me and sang happy birthday over the phone, then the senior missionaries took us out to dinner. Got your package Saturday night. It was amazing and made my life, thank you! 

We have 3 correlations with different people throughout the week, but Tuesday we meet with the Harwards (Senior missionaries.) As I walked in Sister Harward told me that I was baptizing someone on Sunday....alright haha. Yesterday I baptized Thapelo MMekeke Thomas Molepo. He is 8 years old, and literally the size of one of my legs. He is a tiny dude haha. I've had a lot of cool experiences on my mission, but I think this one was the best. After I baptized him he got up in front of everyone and spoke what has to be the sweetest testimony I have ever heard. Brought tears to my eyes, what a great day. 

Not a whole lot else happened this week, the computer won't let me upload pictures. Today we are going ziplinning. Looking forward to that. 

Love, Elder McClellan

week 17: Kruger National Park

So much to write, I'm going to forget half of it again. 

To start out with, we had a terrible week. Our entire zone did terrible in fact. It was a school holiday, people were drunk, everyone was out of town. Had a whopping 15ish lessons. We are dropping 75% of the people we teach because they're all fairly fong kong. The APs (Assistants to the President) are going on exchange with us today... that won't look very good, but it's alright. The fact is that in the year previous this area had 2 baptisms and since I've been here we have had 5, and they are all fully understanding of the gospel which is even more amazing. We have many many hours of tracting in our future, I'm almost hoping I get hit by a taxi haha. I hate tracting. Oh well, guess its just time to put my shoulder to the wheel. 

Last week Saturday was quite interesting. Everyone was drunk, we were sitting across from a tavern waiting for an investigator, when a fight broke out. Pretty epic. One guy destroyed another, and then they both almost got ran over by cars. The cops showed up, but all they did was buy a beer and leave.

Yesterday may just have been the best day that ever existed, anywhere, at anytime. A member took us to Kruger National Park. For free. He paid for food, cold drink, entry fee, lunch, dinner, petrol, and a car rental. Brother Sekhula is amazing haha, he is 35ish and a self made man. He is probably the wealthiest man I've met to date, and he is also the most generous. So we left the flat at 4:30, it was pitch black and cold. We had a 2 1/2 hour drive to one of the entry gates. Just before going in we stopped at a garage and all six of us missionaries were talking about what we wanted to buy. He walks up and asks, "are you holding a zone conference or something?" We laughed and then he says "get stuff, today our budget is huge." That took us all back, that's when we realized he was paying for everything haha.

Elders -me, Johnson, Rueckert, Bro. Sekhula, Davis, Brasher, Haynes

So we finally got into the park. We would see a giraffe or zebra here or there, but then we found it - a full grown bull elephant feasting on Mopani trees! TV, movies, and American zoos do this animal no justice. They are MASSIVE. 

After viewing him for a time we moved on. We saw all sorts of stuff, elephants, zebra, impala, waterbuck etc.

zebras snuggle... ha

Then things got real. We looked out into the river, and what did we see? Crocodiles feasting on a zebra that they had just dragged into the river. It was crazy to watch, sad, but amazing at the same time. Crocs are a violent animal. I tried to get video, but it just didn't happen. 

crockie mate, its eating a zebra

After we watched it, we drove to another place where we could get out. (You have to stay in the car unless marked due to lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and the like). Anyways, we got out on a bridge that was marked safe, and we look down in the water and there were hippos! They are fat as flip. After some more viewing we moved down the river and saw some hippos mating, that was something. 

hippos

After moving on quite quickly we came across some more elephants and Bro. Sekhula had a great idea! He looks at it, then at us, and says, "hmm, well.... let's make this thing mad." That we did. You may recall a few weeks back we chased rhinos - that was a bad idea. Angering an elephant? Well, that's a very bad idea. After a time he tried to spray us with his trunk, then charged us.... that was terrifying.

this is the one we made angry.... 

However I have marked three things off my bucket list!

Chase rhinos (check)

Anger an elephant (check)

Wet pants while being attacked by elephant (check)

Each  becomes increasingly unfortunate as you go down the list. Any-who, after we left the elephant we kept going. And going. And going. Eventually we got out and we were 3ks from the border with Zimbabwe and 20 from Mozambique. We were very far from home. The day was amazing, it's something else to see all these animals in the wild. Oh yeah, so we saw lots of baby things. Zebra, elephants, impala, but nothing compares to a baby monkey. It literally could have fit in the palm of my hand. I wanted it. Also! We took a turtle for a ride... not sure why, but we did. I have now seen all of the big 5 accept for a leopard. 

The country side in Kruger is amazing. They literally just took a chunk of wilderness and put a fence around it to keep (well, to try to keep) poachers out. 

We left before sunrise and got back after sunset

Last Friday we got back to the flat to find that all of our stuff was turned upside down, moved around, and hidden. The Zone Leaders broke into our flat and screwed will all our stuff. The only good that came from it was they left a fish in my water bottle. We decided to keep it, and put it in our bath tub. For a few days he flourished, he was the pride and joy of the flat, and we gave him the name of Marlin. He was such a happy little fish, but unfortunately when we returned from Kruger he had gone belly up. Though it broke our hearts to see him go we flushed him and moved on. I miss watching him swim around as I take my morning pee. 

We don't have General Conference yet, and we won't for three weeks. It did give us a chance to have testimony meeting... it began with poor conducting and some things that would have been better not said and it ended nearly 2 hours later. In that time only 7 people shared testimony... accept there was no testimony about it. It was all stories and gratitude and this person is doing this and I'm not so sure about that. It was everything it shouldn't have been. By the end I was on the verge of stabbing myself in the throat with a pen. Sundays are nerve-wracking here - all we do is worry, what will the members say this week? Who is going to be offended? It sucks.

A few weeks back I had it in my mind pretty darn firm that I wanted to be a farmer, but after yesterday at Kruger talking to Bro. Sekhula, I'm not so sure anymore. He owns a engineering firm and well, I may just have to switch teams. Everything he said he does sounded like tons of fun. May just have to do that.

Two weeks ago I lost my debit card, so Thursday I canceled it. I got to call Manson! It was weird to call home and not talk to family. Though it was nice to be reminded of what it's like in a small town. All I had to do was tell her my first name and she took care of the rest, haha. Gotta love it. 

Life is pretty swell, and it appears that I'm approaching my 19th year of life. It really weird how you don't remember most of what's happened. I don't really like it. For my birthday we are not really doing anything, just tracting. Yippie! Hope all is well back home, can't wait to be there. 

Love,

Elder Kelly McClellan