week 50

Well let's see here. I'm in a pretty sour mood. So... let's see. I'm alive. The week sucked. I got no money so there is nothing fun to do today. Part of my allotment vanished. 

Hope thanksgiving goes good!

I'm trying to figure out calling home at Christmas, but it kinda seems unlikely. I got no money to pay for it, nowhere to do it at, and there are no senior couples here... So don't get your hopes up. 

Love, Elder 

McClellan

(Editor's note - obviously, Elder McClellan has had a bad week! Hopefully he will explain in his next letter what happened to his monthly allotment; from his short description, I am not sure if he had cash stolen or if something happened on the banking end. It's hard to get such a low letter when we can't call and check on him. Just like the rest of us, missionaries will have bad days. Please pray for Elder McClellan's money to show up and for him to have a better week - thanks.)

week 49

For Christmas mail, use the Discovery address, DHL or UPS. Since it is a private courier I don't have to pay, and there is no risk of it getting stolen, so all is well.

Alright let's see here. Hmm, basically I got transferred because my last area was not for me. I went and accomplished what I needed then President Dunn, being the great and inspired man he is, sent me packing, and for that I'm pretty darn grateful. As for Hammanskraal, I completely love it, but it is not doing so hot. There have been definite improvements over the past two weeks though. We have about 10 solid investigators. Not terrible. The problem we face is that the chapel is forever away from our area. It costs about R40 ($4) to get there, which seems pretty minimal, but when you are talking about people who only have enough for the bare essentials at times it is pretty hard to get them to church, and by extension to progress and become converted. The branch is well staffed as far as leaders go, the Elders Quorum president (at least I think he is...) is absolutely outstanding! Best elders quorum lessons I've ever had  by far. The area has only had 1 baptism this year, but we just may get 6 next month.

However, I have had 15 baptisms in the past year, so I'm pretty darn happy with that. The mission standard is 24 before you leave, so hey, I'm doing good. South Africa really isn't all that easy to baptize in. The problem being that this is the new Sodom and Gomorrah haha. People love what they are doing, and most never act enough to find a reason to change. Oh well, I love this place. 

Man, Joe looks darn good in the Senior pictures you sent. 

Dropbox is being a tad bit difficult, so I'm not sure if these pictures will ever upload, but hopefully! (note from Shannon - file was empty, sigh. Hopefully we'll have better luck next week!)

Life is going good, oh and hey, I found a new internal evidence that testifies to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. When Nephi and his brothers head out to get the plates from Laban they say that they are going "up" to Jerusalem. It kind of just annoyed me to be honest. Just because you go north does not mean you're going up. So I investigated, and come to find out, Jerusalem is at a higher elevation then just about anything else in the middle east. Then again, I'm sure a young farmer from New York in the early 1800's would have known that. 

Also another thing I found was the over use of the word "and" in 1 Nephi 2:4. ("And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness.") I know the guys translating this were by no means rocket scientists, but it doesn't take much intelligence to know that the verse is written so poorly it hurts. I looked into it and discovered that when translating from ancient Semitic languages to a modern tongue the over use of the word "and" is impossible to avoid because of their ancient writing style. Then again, I'm sure you would learn that over the years while feeding chickens and milking cows. 

Well that's all I've got for you today.

Love, Elder McClellan

week 48: new companion, new area

Alright, crazy news. I'm in a new area! Woo, so happy about that haha, because this place is so fluffy I'm going to die. On Wednesday I talked with President and he informed me to start packing. By Thursday at 8 am we had already left, and at about 1 or 2 I was in my new area. It is called Hammanskraal (part of the Soshanguve branch, Pretoria stake.) My companion is now Elder Silvester from Clenton Utah. We get along like pees in a pod. We had such a powerful end to the week that the APs (Assistants to the President) called us to see what it was that's working so well. I'm really glad to not live with an African anymore. Great people to mingle with, not so great to board with. 

Also, Elder Brackett is in this district. He was with me up in Nelspruit. We just have boat loads of fun now that we don't serve together. For example, we all went to the ZLs (Zone Leaders) flat last night and upon arrival we found a bag of bouncy balls, PVC pipes rapped in foam, and a tazer. What did we do? We had a war. It was one of the funnest things I've ever done. I chased Elder Riley around the flat with the tazer a bit, attacked Elder Brackett with a chair, and then watched my companion nearly knock his teeth out with a bouncy ball. We fled once the neighbors began to get angry, haha. Great Times.

In a few weeks we are going to go play with monkeys.

That's pretty much the update for the week. Yeah.

I love y'ah all lots. Hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan

week 47

First off, the postal service here has pretty much collapsed. Don't send anything by USPS... if you really really want to send something you can send it by UPS or DHL. Send it to this address:

3 Phillips Ave, Discovery 1709, South Africa

Don't feel like you need to send anything. Also, as far as my companion is concerned, he has more money than me haha so he is fine. Not all Africans are as poor as people think, and his family seems very supportive.

Let's see, where to start. Hmm, as far as Ebola, it is not a concern. There has only been one person in South Africa to have it, so in all reality it is more dangerous in the States, and I doubt you have lost any sleep over it being there. 

I can not tell you how badly I want to watch Frozen. You broke my heart a bit with that and the news of red cups at Starbucks ;) and I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss our Walmart trips as well. However, I'm loving my mission, so I guess I can't complain too much!

This week was pretty quiet really. Now that I know how to get around, I've kinda started taking over and we are having more success definitely! We gained an amazing investigator on Sunday and in all reality it was the highlight of my week. Her name is Maggie and she is the cousin of a returned missionary. Though she is only 14 she is amazingly intelligent, and more importantly her heart is in the right place. She just may be the most earnest seeker of truth that I have encountered to date, but only time will tell.

I don't really enjoy church here to be honest. Testimony meeting turned into more of "preach what you want" kinda deal and I'm in the most stereotypical Elders Quorum you can imagine! It is all "do your home teaching", "why did you not bring your books?","home teaching", and then the lovely Elders Quorum president we have tends to get upset and yell at people. The lesson Sunday was on giving blessings. First off, anytime someone mentioned oil he would say "we are not talking about that today" then at the end of class he started talking about it. He was making it sound as if consecrated oil is not important in the slightest, so I quoted from a church manual the importance and symbolism behind it. To which he got a wild look on his face and went off on how we have no healing oil. how we do not worship the oil, and so on and so forth. I was so appalled by his ignorance that I had a hard time not leaving. He also taught that priests could participate in blessings, they just can't give them... oh boy, me correcting that false doctrine opened up another can of worms. Sometimes life is just hard.

Nothing all that fun happened this week to be honest. I'm good. Not sure what else to say, I've already used up my patience for typing today. Sorry. Had to send a few long emails to others.

Thank you for everything!

Love, Elder McClellan

week 46

Life is good, this week was quiet. Unfortunately I had a bout of the flu and was unable to work every day, but with the time we did have I feel a difference was made. 

Our area is not doing all that well, I came into a pretty dead area and we have yet to get it back to snuff. Then again, the two weeks I've been here have seen some progress. Starting today we are starting a massive "talk to everyone" campaign. Should be fun. You meet all sorts out in the township.

As I did in my first area I already seem to have a "heroism" of sorts. Not that it is wanted; it is a side effect of being a white guy out in the township I suppose. Any-who, it does make me feel appreciated and each day my self esteem gets a bit of a boost ;).However, being followed does get a bit old. I'm glad we have a car! It is fairly often we have to make a speedy get away.

Last Friday I went on exchanges to Germiston with Elder Allan who is from WA! It was sweet, accept for the rain... and the fact we were on bikes, but all things considered it was great! I gained a lot of respect for my former self tearing all over Leavenworth on my bike, It was really quite physically demanding.

Elder Rini is from the eastern cape of South Africa. He is Cosa and has been out on mission for 9 1/2 months. (Today is my 11 month mark by the way.) He was in Serria Leon when Ebola broke out and he got Emergency Transferred to the Johannesburg mission about 3 months ago.

We finally watched General Conference this week! It was pretty darn outstanding. I need to re-watch it though to be honest. The creche  (kinda like a preschool) we meet in was extremely hot and it made it hard to focus. My favorite talk thus far was the "Which Way Do You Face" one by Lynn G Robbins. It was outstanding. (Click here to read the talk.)

Anyway, I think that covers it this week...

Love, Elder McClellan

week 45: a work to do

My new area... hmm. First impressions are bleak. Sorry for the poor quality. I refuse to take my camera to the area so I use the phone.

I'm in Katlehong which is a township outside of Germiston. Here are two stories from my first week that tell you how it is. 

1.) First day in the area we go to a recent convert's shop and have a lessons with him. While teaching I hear "pop pop pop" outside. I froze. I thought I knew what it was, but I was really wishing that wasn't what it was. Then I hear another burst. "pop pop pop pop pop" Crap. People start running. I Look out the door and people are scattering. Shots are flying. We pulled down the metal roll up door on the shop. Believe it or not 1/16th inch of steel is not very comforting when a few fools with AKs are running around. After a while it gets quiet. We finish the lesson and go out a different way than what we came. I wasn't all that keen on seeing the outcome of the event. The cops didn't even show up for over an hour. 

2.) We are dropping a member off Sunday night and I notice a man in his 40s seems to be following a girl who is about 12. We stopped in front of the members house but the whole time I have my eyes concentrated on the exchange that is now occurring between the two. The first time I saw her fall the adrenaline started pumping and by the end I was about ready to beat the guy to death. Long story short. She got away and he woke up (probably) the next day with a hell of a lump on his head. I don't take kindly to the assault of women and the cops are less than worthless. 

Church went all right. We got there and had to rearrange the meeting schedule because there were no sacrament cups. None of the speakers had prepared talks haha. Interesting. I'm back in township. Yay... As bleak as this may seem I am still amazingly excited to be here. I see so much potential and I can not wait to see what the next few months will bring. The people are prepared and are very much in need of the gospel.

All three areas I've gone into so far have been pretty dead. It seems that I'm meant to revive all of them haha.

My new comp is Elder Rini, my first African companion. I love him, but it is hard to live with someone who has a totally different culture. Very hard. On the bright side he is a very, very humble man. For that I love him.

I'm a bit distracted at the moment so I'm going to cut this email short. Also, don't worry about me haha. I can tell I have a work to do here and until that's up all will go smoothly. I have absolute faith in that.

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan

week 44: transfer calls

The sad news came Saturday that I'm being transferred. It just about killed me haha; for the rest of Saturday and Sunday we went about saying goodbye to people; that was sad as well. In my first area I was that awkward little missionary that didn't know up from down; now that I actually know what I'm doing, I had the opportunity to form some truly amazing relationships with people. A few people cried, everyone said how much they would miss me. It is times like this that I hate serving in Africa. Chances are I'll never see them again in this life, and that is not a fun thought to entertain. As I went about trying to do my last few bits of good in this part of the Vineyard I could not really help but be happy as I thought back over the past 4 1/2 months that I've spent here. From 7 lessons a week at the start to 65 in the last two weeks, we have had some amazing growth! I've baptized 3 people here and next transfer 5 more of the people I've been teaching will get baptized. When I first got to this area I thought it was a bit of a punishment based on the reputation it has throughout the mission; however, it is amazing what happens when you press forth in faith. Nelspruit is known as a "dead area" and the "refiners fire", but it turned out to be 4.5 months of absolutely outstanding missionary work. It feels a lot like leaving home for a third time. 

We had the chance to work very closely with Elder and Sister Scott this week and wow was it fun! We spent about 10 hours in the car one day when we drove from Nelspruit to Sabie to Whiteriver to JoJoJo to Hazyview to Sabie to Nelspruit and it was amazing. We drove through some truly African village areas. It is a humbling thing to experience and it kind of makes you think of the "first world problems" so many people are experiencing back home haha. 

In the past three weeks we visited the Weitsz family three times I think, and it's really been quite fun to go and see them. Brother Weitsz is in private security so one time we went out there he showed me all the toys from body armor and night vision to a newly developed pistol caliber. Quite fun. When we went out there yesterday we went romping through the woods for a "family" style outing. They are such a wonderful family and have really made my time here in Nelspruit amazing. 

As for fun adventures, there really hasn't been a whole lot of that. We have been so busy that we have been unable to do all that we need to. Not to mention it has been hot as fetch. African summers.... I love it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die when I come home. From summer in Africa to winter in Washington. Maybe i should pay a villager to make me a lion skin coat.... Probably not. Plus I'd most likely get arrested at the airport... but I suppose those really are just technicalities. 

Nelspruit is such a beautiful place. Now I'm leaving it for ugly old Joburg. Bleh. Filth. On an interesting note, Jozi central (not where I'm going) is one of the highest crime cities in the world. Elder Scott (who worked for the LAPD) said it was like Wats on steroids. Fun times haha, maybe that's why Elder Cook ordered the missionaries to be taken out of there. Hmm, we are the Johannesburg mission yet we have no missionaries in Johannesburg... fun times.

Not sure what else to say; hope all is well. Remember who you are!

Love, Elder McClellan