week 11: this week was outstanding!

I've felt pretty terrible for the email I sent all last week. I was having a terrible day and well... yeah. This week was outstanding! 

The mail strike is over! I got the package yesterday from President Omer and it made my day! That was a perfect package and I can't really put into words how much I appreciate it. I love the little hand outs you give me. The investigators love them as well. My clothes are becoming destroyed already. The African sun really has a way to kill slacks. 

On Friday I drove us up to Tzaneen (Zuh-neen) for our zone meeting. It was a beautiful drive! You go through mountains, rain forests, and forests like the ones that Oregon has. I almost ran over a baboon who decided to dart in front of the car. On the way back the fog rolled in, that was terrible. It was super sketchy, the roads are terrible and well yeah. TIA (This is Africa.)

The crowning point of the week was the opportunity we had to give a blessing to a young woman that would soon be leaving this world. We gave the blessing with Elder Harward (a senior missionary), and in all honesty when I left that hospital room I was heart broken. For the next few hours that followed I just could not get my mind off of her condition, and it really was hard for me. Later that night we had a meeting with Elder Harward and he shared with us that a few hours after the blessing she passed on. I'm not sure I have ever felt as happy as I did at that moment. I had a peaceful feeling come upon me, and I was no more troubled by the experience. When we left the hospital I thought that I was sad because of her impending death, but thinking back on it now I have realized that it was just because of her state. That was quite a testimony builder of the plan of salvation, and it is something I know that I will never forget as long as I live. I wish I was better with words so that I could better convey the experience to you.

Since coming here I have pretty much given up meat. I can't afford it, and the way Africans cook it is nasty. Oh well haha. I kind of enjoy not eating it, fruit es muy bueno. 

On Friday I had the opportunity to give a sick 4 year old a blessing, it was so bad she was nearly hospitalized. The next morning she was perfectly fine. That was pretty great.   

Yesterday we had district conference and Elder Bricknell of the Seventy presided. This man is outstanding! He is hilarious when interacting with us missionaries. He put one of my friends in a head lock haha. He is a great man. The two key speakers here were him and President Omer (another outstanding man). The topics included the work of salvation mainly, but branched off into most principals of the gospel. 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:
During one of his talks Elder Bricknell mentioned the time Peter walked on water (Matthew 14: 25-31)

"And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

His mention of it yesterday prompted me to study it this morning. At first I was thinking, what the flip. How on earth can I apply this to me? After a few minutes I finally figured it out. At first all is fine with Peter, he walks across the stormy sea without incident, but eventually the storm becomes too much for him, he takes his eyes from the Savior and begins to sink. Luckily the Savior was there with an out-stretched hand to save him.

Let's compare the walking on the sea to our life. Just like the Sea of Galilee there will be times of calm and times of storm. It seems to me that every time we have a great spiritual experience or are doing what we are supposed to (study, prayer, church) it is relatively easy to keep our eyes on Christ, but if we shirk off the things we are instructed to do and put them as naught our faith begins to waver and we are too consumed with the storms of life to remember to keep our eyes on Christ, and without a doubt we will begin to sink.

Luckily, just as Peter did, we have a loving Savior with his had outstretched to us at all times. All He asks is that we cry out in faith, and He is willing to save us from the inevitable. (John 16:33). 

It is, however, a much better idea to just avoid sinking at all. No one I know likes to be spiritually "wet". We have been instructed from the prophets of old as well as modern that in order to brave these storms with strength all we need to do is  study the scriptures and pray. If we do these simple, but important things, it is much harder for the adversary to pull us down to his level.

Elder Bricknell taught that in order to become a spiritual giant of sorts all we need to do is look towards the example of the sons of Mosiah. (Alma 17:2-3). "The three steps to increasing our spirituality is to first- pray like crazy, second- feast on the scriptures, and third- fast regularly... That's the best recipe for spirituality I've ever seen"- Elder Bricknell

Hopefully this can help y'all. 

Last week I read Paul's words in 2nd Timothy where he says:

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:  and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

I honestly want nothing more than to be able to say this at the end of this mission as well as my earthly mission. Before reading this I had lots of desire to do better, but had struggled with putting that desire into action. This was just the motivation that I needed. Sure I've always worked hard, but I always knew I could also do better.

Kind of running out of things to write. I hope all is well back home. Mission is going swell. 

Love, Elder McClellan

week 10: some bumps in the road

(Elder McClellan had a hard week last week.  These things happen during a mission, and I know he will overcome his obstacles, but it is still discouraging to read.  Short letter - I hate to put it out there on the blog, but this is how he was feeling when he wrote.  We can all keep him in our prayers.)

We had permission to confirm Rachel, but the branch first counselor said we couldn't because no one ever told him, and she left before we could figure things out. She will have to go another two weeks without the Holy Ghost. 

This week was okay. We met all the Standard of Excellence. Had a baptism. I  hate having a companion. hate it. hate it. hate it. Thursday we got into a fight and I was about to knock him the flip out but I decided to walk away. Never getting married, going to be a hermit when I get home. I do not like people.

Also there is a mail strike on, so there is a good chance the package you sent me got burned.There is also a good chance everything I sent last week got burned, so I doubt anyone will be getting letters for a while.

I'm glad my grandma enjoyed the flowers.

Not sure what else to say, I was sick yesterday. Sick today. Yeah. 

Can't wait for the March 18th transfer (change of area/ companion.) I kinda wish I could go into a coma until then. 

Picture is of Rachel, and a snake I saw.

Love Elder McClellan

week 9: protected

This week was something else. Very unproductive. Oh well, these weeks happen. Only had 16 lessons :(. We dropped about half of our investigators for being fong kong. We tract (go door to door) a few hours a day now in order to get our teaching pool back up to spec. 

I don't include dangerous stories to scare you, it is mainly just because that's how it is haha. This week we were talking to our investigator Thabong, and we asked him why he walked up to us on the streets. He said "it is because you're protected". We asked him to explain, and he proceeded to tell us for weeks his friends had been planning on mugging us, but it never worked out. About 3 weeks ago we walked past them in an alley and I was sure they were going to jump us, and Thabong said they were planning on it, but they were too afraid to do anything once we actually got there haha. He said "two white guys in Seshego? No way, you guys should be dead". It was quite the sharing time haha. Apparently he has since told his friends to leave us alone, so it is what ever. I don't fear much with the Lord on my side, though I don't use that as a reason to act stupid. I have abandoned my backpack, and just carry my scriptures. They don't seem to be interested at all now that I don't carry anything.

The spiritual thought for the week also comes from Thabong. During the law of chastity lesson he said this. "Yah know, here in South Africa it is just normal to go at it at a young age, and for a long time I didn't realize that was wrong. When I turned 16 I found Christ, I took time and read the scriptures. The world teaches these things are okay, but I took my time and got out of the world, and it is because of that I know that this is a commandment of God". I was amazed at this. I wrote it down immediately. It is so rare to find someone like him here, I just think that we can apply that to our lives as well. Sometimes we don't like commandments, but when we take the time to study them out, there is no way we can come up with any logical reasoning to not live them. Thabong is on date for baptism for the 23rd of March.

Yesterday we attended 5 baptisms and had the opportunity to participate in a confirmation. Next week we are baptizing Rachel, she is 16. Elder Wadsworth is baptizing her and I will confirm her the following Sunday.

No way about Bronte! That's amazing! Woo haha. Girls are better anyway! 

Not much happened this week. Oh yeah, I gave a talk yesterday on the temple. They left me with about an hour to prepare a talk haha. The people here feel like if they just don't want to do something the missionary will do it. I wish you could see the shock on their faces when they hear us tell them "no, we will not cover your responsibility". It is priceless!

The church here is very new, people know almost nothing about conducting meetings and it can be extremely painful when investigators are present. On Sunday Brother Dube got up and shared a war story about when they were fighting Zimbabwe. He says "Yeah we were set up for an ambush, but a guy wanted to smoke. He lit up and guess what happened? (he then starts yelling) THEY KILLED HIM ( he hits the stand) AND THAT'S WHY I HATE SMOKING!" I could not stop laughing. Good times down here in the Land of Africa.

Hmm lets see here. I think we may go play with crocodiles after this. In a few weeks I'm hoping to play with baby lions. They are a lot like kittens really. Just big, and well, have sharp claws. 

Not much really happened this week. Elder Kafusi joined our district. He is pretty awesome. It sounds like I may train immediately after I finish my training. President told me everyone says I'm doing excellent, so I guess that's good haha.

Oh yeah, we got a new car this week. Its a manual so that's been fun! Driving left handed stick in African traffic! I'm actually pretty good at it now though, and it is a lot more fun to drive. I got pulled over Tuesday going 84 in a 60... oops :). 

Hmm, yeah. Not much else to report. Wish I had more to say. 

Hope all is well, I miss you all very much. 

That whole Bronte thing has me really happy. I love babies :)

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan 

week 8: Life is great!

Life is great! For the most part. The work went very very very well this last week! We did lots of teaching, we have 3 golden investigators on date for this month, and we got a lot of new people to teach! Friday we went tracting and stumbled into a house full of people. We went back Saturday and taught them, which went surprisingly well, and then a few came to church! WOO! That's pretty much a home run, first week church attendance? Almost unheard of, people here have no clue what a commitment is. The work is progressing, and the Branch President said he could not be happier with the results we are having. He then proceeded to insult the other missionaries and members in the branch haha. Seshego for the win again!

I WENT ON A SAFARI TODAY! WOOO! It was amazing, it was self guided so it was super cheap. Saw everything but elephants, rhinos, and cape buffalo. We literally chased and played with giraffes for an hour! It was the best day of my life, I love giraffes so much! Then I found a giraffe knee bone and I took it home. We saw a baby giraffe, springbok, and warthog. All were very cute and could barely run. Giraffes running is hilarious, look it up on YouTube. Last P-day (Preparation day, when the missionaries do their laundry, go grocery shopping, write letters and have a bit of free time) we went and played with a tank! 

Seshego is getting more ghetto by the day. Sunday our group leader didn't show up. We stopped by his house and he was looking super haggard. We asked him what was wrong and he told us he had been out all night searching for his brother. They found him at 4am, his head was twisted around backwards and he was beaten to a pulp. Somehow he is still alive. This is the second member to be attacked since I got here. Then Saturday we were driving through Blood River, a section of our area that is super ghetto. It is pretty much gangsters everywhere, and they were following us. We proceeded to get out of Blood River asap and we have since marked it as a no fly zone.

On Friday we were walking down the street and this gangster dude rolls up in his Bentley and screams "MY NIGGGAHS" to us. To which I screamed "My Brew" which means my bro. Everyone on the street starts laughing and the guy just pulls away. It was great haha. I love the people here.  Oh yeah, we saw a lambo (Lamborghini) the other day, it made my heart race. I think if it was legal to marry a car I would.

My finger is doing fine now the swelling went down after a few days. However, I stepped on a thorn today that was 2 inches long and it went threw my foot. That blew. That blew a lot.

Also baby warthogs are super ugly. Not at all like in The Lion King!

I'm so happy the Hawks won. I think I could die now and be a happy man.

Woo go Joe! You now have more baptisms than me ;) But far less converts so I think that equals out.

Yah know senior missions are something else. There are so many different types and they range from awesome to suck. Luckily, you still pretty much get to do whatever you want. They live the cheese boy life haha. I'm sure if you want to the Lord will bless you with the ability to do so.

Spiritual thought:

I again left it but hopefully I can remember it. So we are taught in 1 Corinthians that our bodies are temples. When the temple was defiled Jesus purged it all out, even to the point of violence. So I suggest we take the advice in Doctrine & Covenants 88:124, where is says "cease to be idle and cease to be unclean." We must take it upon ourselves to make an effort and purge the bad from us and the Lord will make up for that which we can not do.  Yeah it would have been better....Sorry.

Life is good, I'm so very happy. Also, if possible you should write me hand written letters as well. Its really really really really really nice to get a letter haha.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and I know it without a doubt. Remember to doubt your doubts more than you doubt your faith. Credit to the German guy who's name I can't spell but who gives the best talks. (He is referring to Dieter F. Uchtdorf, you can find his great talks at lds.org) 

Also, I'm in the middle of nowhere in north South Africa. I only get packages and mail every 6 weeks. So Feb 4th, then March 18th, then April 29th. Just so you know. I'm in one of the most far north areas, so no one comes here much from Joburg. Its really far away. Like my area goes from Seshego to the boarder with Zimbabwe which is 2 hours away.

Hope all is well, please continue to not forget me.

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan

week 7: doing the Lord's work

Well let's see, where to start. Let's start with the suck, then we will get to what's shap (it means good.)

 

The Suck:
Our golden investigator James Teffo is leaving us. He is an amazing soccer player and he is going pro. :( He is going to Petoria. I know one of the missionaries there, he was in my group, so he should be in good hands. We met with him after church and he bore his testimony to us. It just about made me cry.  Then Brother Mashishi told everyone there his conversion story and that did it. Wasn't a dry eye in that room I don't think. 

 

We had to drop Paulus. He would not give up coffee. For 4 lessons he went on about how it would help him get a family and have kids. He is 61. Then he went off about how he is going to a lawyer to get a special coffee. Brother Mashishi told him "Next month I will be of 60 years, in all this time I have never heard anyone speak like you!" It was Hilarious! And it made me start laughing. Don't worry I repented of it.

On Tuesday I'm going on exchanges with an AP (Assistant to the President.) That was a "well flip Elder" kind of moment when I found out. Should be fine since I'm such an amazing person and missionary, but it is inconvenient at best. I'm sure he will enjoy my humility the most.

 

I punched a cabinet in the kitchen because a spider scared the crap out of me while I was cooking toast. I can't bend one of my fingers now and it is all swollen. Luckily it was my left hand so it will not affect my ability to baptize a nation.

 

At a lesson a member kept interrupting me to the point I just stopped teaching. I could not get a word in. I told him "I am never, ever, ever, ever taking you to a lesson ever again." I was furious. I repented of this as well.

The Shap (supposed to be sharp, but they cannot pronounce R's here):

 

We had an amazing week! We meet the Mission's Standards of Excellence in almost all categories, including lessons and such. It was a great week! Also our chapel was full on Sunday! First time ever! Woooo! Yipppiee! It was amazing, and better yet the speakers didn't go off on deep doctrine; it was the first time they have not since I have been here!

 

Gospel Doctrine class blew. The lesson was supposed to be on the Savior, but the teacher just talked about Lucifer the whole time....What the flip? So, so off topic. 

 

Priesthood went well. Me and Elder Wadsworth taught how to conduct the Sacrament properly by request of the group leader. Then Tini, a RM (Returned Missionary) took it upon himself to try to counter everything we said and made it sound like we were lying. That chump. Then Brother Mashishi taught a lesson in Spetie. By the way, I can say hakuna matata and people understand me. I love it.

 

The primary is wonderful! Under the direction of Sister Harward they called us in and sang for us. They then gave us cookies and told us how much they loved us for how hard we were working to make the group into a branch. It was the best thing ever. 

 

So here you ask people "how's it?" and they usually say "I'm fine". The other day I asked a guy "how's it?" and he responded "number one". What the flip does that mean? I have so, so, so many stories to tell upon my return. I'm keeping a journal of funny stuff I hear and see.

 

The work went well this week, we are working super hard and putting in very long days and it is finally paying off. Very rewarding. 

 

I've started writing again. Mainly poems, but also papers on different gospel topics. It helps me study better, and it is the only thing I can currently research. I may write a story today, depends if we get money or not. Oh yeah, we are out of food and they failed to send money again. Its okay, I'll just look like I survived a concentration camp when I return. Probably not, but yeah.

 

The spiritual thought: 

I left the paper at home. Oops. Read Alma 30:8* (I think) and make a decision. 

* "For thus saith the scripture: Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve."

 

I miss home, but I don't. Honestly I think that when I return my heart is going to stay in South Africa. It literally pains me to contemplate leaving. Oh yeah, tomorrow will be two months! That was really fast. 

 

This week I have been able to take advantage of the Preach my Gospel manual in a new way. There is a section called Christ-like Attributes. My companion and I are opposite people, and as such it causes friction. PMG is helping me quite a bit. 

 

Jesus the Christ is an amazing book. Everyone needs to read it. It is so obviously an inspired book. Plus he wrote it while he lived in the temple, so it is pretty much good to go in my opinion.

 

Paul wrote to me and I wrote back. Honestly that was the happiest I've been while emailing ever. I really, really, really miss my friends. A lot. I hear from most of my best friends every week though, so that's nice. 

 

This week I've spent a lot of time studying the Atonement and Plan of Salvation. I've come to two conclusions:

1.) people who investigate the church and don't join are either a.) dingbats or b.) a fool of a took. 

2.) The church is so very, very true.

People too often rely on their own knowledge and just about everyone fails to realize our purpose for being here on this earth. If we could change these two things, people would be much more accepting of the plain and precious truths that I have come to know. The Gospel as we present it is just so common sense, if only people would pray when we ask them to. 

 

Well time is about up. Life is good. The Church is true, and I only have 22 months left to do the Lord's work :(

 

Oh one last thing. I was thinking, members of the church often think that it is a hard thing when the Lord asks them to devote two years of their life to serving Him. They fail to remember that the commandants are for our benefit, not our hindrance. The greatest blessings in my life have come in just the past two months.

 

No time left. 

Love,
Elder McClellan 

week 6: lots of fun, and not fun

We have our water back on luckily! That is quite the blessing. So our car; well it just sucks. We got it back Friday, it broke again Saturday. We had to walk for hours to get back. We took it in today, and they said they know what it is now. Stupid. Its only cost about 10k rand to get the flipping thing fixed!

 

Not sure what to write... uhm.

We have 4 people on date, 3 will almost 100% get baptized next month. I finally realized why I've been sad, we are working so flipping hard and we don't really seem to be making a difference. 90% of the people here are too uneducated to understand what we are saying, even the members were shocked this last Sunday to find on that Jesus was the one who created the earth. It's extremely frustrating. One day this week we literally had to walk 3 hours to get from one appointment to another. Our area is so big that you can drive two hours and still be in it. Our area goes almost to the border with Zimbabwe apparently, there is just no reason to go up there. No one would come to church. However we had one amazing experience this week that made everything worth it. James Teffo, one of our investigators, is golden. He is amazing at soccer and is going pro this month actually. He only has to do one more thing I think to be on the Kaiser Chiefs. Anyways in Elders quorum he raised his hand and said that he knew the church was true, that what we were teaching him is true, and he has already read of all of 1 Nephi in a week since we gave him the Book of Mormon. In all honesty I almost cried. It was so awesome. 

 

I had a spiritual thought, but I forgot the paper at home. Sorry, I know I suck. 

Through some wheeling and dealing I have acquired some hand carved statues. A wildebeest, lion, 3 monkeys, and a hmm... well woman thing that is quite scary to be honest. 

 

We have been walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking and walking. I'm very tired of it. And every time we walk it's either blistering heat or a flipping monsoon. Apparently walking in the rain makes your future wife more beautiful. I must be marrying, well... honestly I don't think anyone could be beautiful enough to make up for all this rain and lightning. We were walking the other day, and as we walked by a transformer exploded, that was terrible. So loud. 

 

The highlight of my week was last night, I was using the toilet when all of a sudden something was crawling along the ground. It was a baby albino lizard! I played with it for a while before letting it go outside. It was about half the size of my pinkie. It was great, I'll upload a picture. Well flip, my camera card is not working. Sometimes I wonder why nothing ever goes right, then I remember I'm in Africa. Anyways, it was a really cute lizard, and I miss it.

 

Yesterday while on our 15 kilo trek, a armed escort of soccer players drove by us. It was really cool, they had all sorts of guns and stuff. I really miss my guns. I guess they need to be protected because they are millionaires. The average wage here is 70 cents an hour apparently. They practice in Seshego and then play in Polokwane. The city is already preparing for the world cup in June. 

 

Two great songs:
In Christ by Owl City

Hello by Book Of Mormon Musical (don't listen to the others, they are terrible, well mostly.)

Music seems to be fairly relaxed here on my mission. I like it. A lot. It always makes me feel better when I'm considering hitting my head on the desk so that I don't have to walk anymore. :)

 

The best part is that we get fresh lemons, limes, and mangoes as much as we want. They grow year around and I really like that. 

Tuesday we had interviews with President Omer. He is awesome! I'm probably going to cry when he leaves in June, he is such a great man. He said that he can tell I'm going to be a "powerhouse" missionary. Woo! I guess haha. Apparently I'm doing pretty darn good in his eyes.

I've realized that probably the best thing I have learned so far is to never give up. Sure I'm bitter about it afterwards, but when we are in the area I manage to just keep going and going and going. I really don't mind it until I get home and my feet and back are killing me. 

 

It's hard, but for some strange reason I love it and can't really imagine ever going home. The scriptures are true when they talk about how great your joy when you are bringing souls unto Christ. 

 

Sorry for the negative email, a taxi almost ran me over on the way here so I'm still a bit upset about that.

 

Ive been told that no one will mug me because I am "huge." I've never seen a black person my size or bigger. They are a very small folk. Its funny, well, and scary - at night people walk around with bricks or tire irons so they can protect themselves if they get jumped. Okay, there is nothing and I mean nothing in this world more terrifying than an Albino prostitute. They are terrible, and should be kept in... well... I don't know but removed from this area at least. 

 

It's interesting, if I wanted to I could be a "prophet" and make tons of money. The people here just believe and believe all these "prophets" on TV. You should look up TV Joshua. He is a "prophet" if I've ever seen one ;)
 

Though I complained earlier life is great, and I love it here. Having lots of fun, and not fun. The work is progressing even if it is quite slow. My area is apparently known as the dead zone for mission work. The Polokwane branch president got really fired up the other day in Sacrament meeting apparently. He scolded the congregation and said "all the good members have moved to Seshego." It's funny, we are just a group, but have more Priesthood members and higher attendance than them. I think it's more because we are working so hard, no members have actually moved to Seshego, so I have no clue what he is talking about. :) 

 

Someone asked me in an email why I don't come home. I thought about it, and it's because I know that I'm serving God in the only true church upon the face of the earth. If this wasn't so, I would have been home long long ago. It's amazing to see the Spirit soften hearts, to see the gospel bless lives, and to be guided to the people who actually are prepared for the gospel. I was just looking through former investigators when I found James, the Spirit prompted me to call him and man was he prepared this time around. He is our top investigator, and will most likely be my first baptism. Elder Holland (I think) said something like: "They may doubt what you teach, but they can never doubt your testimony." This is true, a testimony can soften hearts and lead to an amazing investigator coming into the church. I hope none of you ever doubt my testimony, I know the church and what we teach is true, or I would not be here. 

 

Please ignore my negativity. I'm sick and almost got murdered by a taxi, so I'm not in a great mood to be honest.

 

I love you all very much and am so grateful for your influence in my life :) I pray for y'all daily, do what you can to stay alive.

 

Love,

Elder Kelly McClellan

week 5: no water and walking

(view from Elder McClellan's flat)

To start out with I have to get this off my chest. The mission rules say I should write with uhm... class basically. I thought about it, I know most missionary write all professional like, but that's not me.

 

Spiritual thought! dun dun dun:
2 Ne 9:39 "Remember to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually minded is life eternal." I think in this life we all care too much about things. We want a new this or that, and often times we forget what's important which is the Gospel. Jacob 2:18 says "Before ye seek riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God." I kind of want to expand on this thought. This second verse is in context talking about earthly possessions, but it can also just be applied to earthly activities. It's really easy for me to say this given my current predicament of being on a mission, but we all need to do better at focusing on God and his will. Too often we think about what we want instead of what He wants. We have faith in Him, but as we live our lives we tend to put Him in the back of our mind as we go throughout our life. It's been hard, but as I continue to get off my high horse and get in line with the Lord's will I have been majorly blessed. Just a thought, apply this to yourself how you will. Maybe your already perfect at it, I don't really know.
 

This week was unproductive! We had 20 lessons, and well yeah it was hard. I envy elders in the USA! They live such cushy lives with their chapels and active members and their water. Oh yeah we have been without water for a week and our car died! We now walk everywhere. We live about 15ks from our area, and as you can imagine this is quite inconvenient. That coupled with the inability to take a shower makes for a very grumpy missionary at the end of the day. One or the other would be fine, but both together is rough. Luckily the ZLs (zone leaders) are going to let us use their shower later today. Some days we walk well... until my feet bleed haha. Oh well, Curtis emailed me and gave me some tips on how to deal with it so hopefully that will help.

I began reading Jesus the Christ this week. It's not hard, people talk it up a lot haha. It's simple to understand and has an amazing mass of information that everyone should know! I love it, I'm only about 25% through it so far. 

 

The other day I was praying at the end of a lesson and I said "in the name of Jesus Christ" and then started looking around. I forgot Amen, oops. Everyone laughed at me and it was just wonderful :).

 

Last night we were at a DA (dinner appointment) and the Harwards (Senior couple) were supposed to pick us up. They forgot. We were in one of the sketchyest neighborhoods in our area too haha. Luckily they made it back before someone killed us and threw us in a ditch.

 

Its been fairly boring this week. Lots of walking, lots of people shouting "mahua" (white guy), and lots of canceled appointments. Our area is so big it can take us 3 hours to walk from one appointment to the other! It is annoying to say the least haha. 

 

Thursday we had a DA, Elder Wadsworth called to confirm and the person he called said they couldn't do it. He called the wrong person, and about 8:30 we got a call from a very nice old lady saying "well, the food's ready. Are you coming?" That was a "well flip elder" kind of moment! 

 

Life is good, the sun is hot, and the days are long. We got an investigator by the name of James. He is amazing, came to church and he is actually going to come back! Woooo! 

Got interviews with president Tuesday. I'll have to tell him about all the bad things I do and all the girl friends I have haha.

Went to Mokopane Friday on exchange. Was with Elder Jenson. He is funny, we didn't do a whole lot. He is dying (this means his mission is ending), only has 4 months left.

As for everything else, well the work is pretty good. The church is still true, and I have yet to see a lion.

The best way to get me money would be to send a prepaid debt card you can get at Walmart. That's what we use here and they work well. Just make sure it's a visa. If it has a pin then send it via email not in the package. And hide the card in something else. The mail people will steal it. Sooo like send it in a pair of socks or something... Idk. You have to be creative to not get jacked here.

 

My new camera is working well. I feel like this letter has been terrible, I'm sorry. I'm very grumpy.

I've kinda been down at times lately. Don't really know why. The work isn't any harder than before... well it is, but that's not it. I'm not homesick. So I don't know what the problem is haha. I guess it's about that time to walk the 6ks back home. Hope all is well, praying for y'all lots!

 

Love,
Elder McClellan