week 41: a blessed week

This week seemed really standard until I started to think about it. Then a whole bunch of spectacular things popped into mind and wow was this a blessed week! 

On Wednesday two terrible things happened. My watch broke and I found out I needed glasses. This was the problem: I had 6 us dollars left for the entire month. Luckily the Lord provided for me through the Scotts (a senior couple.) When they found out my watch broke they called and said they had one for a gungy guy like me (a guy who likes guns apparently) and then they paid for my glasses until I can pay them back! It was amazing how kind and generous they were. Before I could not finish the 3 hours of study without my eyes dying and now I read like a champ. I'm short sighted and have a stigma in my eye or something. I don't know. All I heard was blah blah blah doctor thing doctor thing you need glasses. 

That evening we took Elder Scott teaching with us to one of the most amazing lessons I've ever had. (On a side note I totaled it and I've taught over 900 lessons in less that 10 months! Woo.) We visited Violet, a young mother from Limpopo. A week had passed since we had last seen her and wow a lot had changed. She decided to actually read and pray and wowsers guess what happened!?!?!?!?! She actually got an answer! Who would have thought? Oh wait... Moroni definitely thought that. Funny how listening to the words of a prophet actually gets you somewhere. I should try that sometime....any-who... She bore the most powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon I have ever heard (besides that of Elder Holland) and then proceeded to talk about all the blessings that would soon be coming into her life. I could not hold back tears as she spoke, mission is hard, but teaching the gospel is the most rewarding think I have ever done! 

Saturday all of our appointments dropped so we packed up the car and headed 2 hours north to Lydenburg. The journey there was like eating a cup cake. The drive back was perilous as I drove through windy mountain roads in such dense fog that it seemed to fill the car itself. We passed a sight that said "misty mountain" and me and ah Wong instantly broke into song "far over the misty mountain calls...." And then I swerved because a truck had come into our lane. Oh well. This is Africa. I actually just realized those events are out of order. That's okay though. 

The next day after church we drove to Sabie to visit the Weitsz family. I love them so much, they are kinda quirky and their house is a bit chaotic, but the Spirit in their home is wonderful. They are such faithful Latter-day Saints. The best part is when we were about to eat and looked over to see the cats feasting on dinner. I figured that If I had survived township food I could survive a "bit o'cat" flavoring. Awesome trip.

We came home and taught Thabiso a lesson. He will be baptized this Sunday! Woo, which also happens to be my 10 month mark. Mission is almost half way done, it makes me sad. 

This week I also typed up a branch mission plan. I looked up examples and wouldn't you know it, some people over did it again and they had novels from branch mission plans. That's stupid. I proceeded to type up a 1 page, 2 phase plan that related the baptismal covenant found in Mosiah 18 to their responsibility to share the gospel. Powerful. I guess it helps that I wasn't going to be going to some council meeting and shouting across the table "my plan is bigger then your plan"....

Any-who now that I got my  rant out of the way I do have to say, life is amazing. I love it. I feel like a big pimp in a little palace if that makes sense. And I mean the good kind of pimp, not the bad kind of pimp. 

The church and gospel is true. It really is, next week I will share a cunning reason why. 

Actually, testimony is more important then a time restriction. Settle into your seat for "Elder McClellan's lesson of logic #1". (I'm partially stealing it, but I'm expounding on it also). 

K let's look at Nephi breaking his bow. It is logical he will make another right, of course it is. Alright, bow is broke. Let's make another. But is it time to go hunting yet? I don't think so. You see, most people would not notice or realize this, but different bows need different arrows (length and weight of arrow matters a lot.) So Nephi, he makes himself some new arrows as well. Logical. However, is it logical that a poor woodsman and uneducated fellow such as Joseph Smith would include such a small and insignificant fact such as new arrows if his heart was set upon leading people into the fiery but figurative depths of hell? I think not. It may seem like a small thing to hang your faith on, but when you consider the hundreds of seemingly small and insignificant facts that are present throughout the Book of Mormon, it is not logical that they were all put into the book to deceive. In fact, they were put into the book by inspired men to offer little verifications of fact.  If anyone disagrees with this, please go hit your head against the wall until you drool uncontrollably because that may be the only thing that saves your hard heart in the kingdom of God. Probably not, but yeah. 

I love you all a lot. Stay good.

Elder Kelly McClellan 

week 40: Life is awesome

Life is awesome and wow was our trip to the temple amazing! We got to the temple at 4 for the 5 o'clock session. Unfortunately, they did not have people for that session so it appeared as though our trip was in vain. The Mission President heard of our driving 5 hours to come and he set up a special session of Sealings for us to do so that we would at least be able to do something in the temple. It was the first time I had done those and wow was it a spiritual experience, I really wish I could write about it. Darn sacred things! Anyways we were able to seal 40 sons to their parents and 10 couples in an hour, and then we managed to get into the 6 o'clock session! Woo! It was quite interesting though... It was an area office trip... so... the Area President was there as well as 3 other General Authorities and half a dozen other church leaders. (If i counted correctly.) It was a pretty cool thing. It doesn't really matter of their calling, as Sister Scott says "they put their pants on the same way as us," but it was cool to be able to see faithful leaders of the church in such a humble setting. 

While driving to the temple we had quite a weird experience. I was traveling at 120 kmph on the N4 and then all of a sudden I looked forward and a mini tornado thing appeared in the middle of the road! There was no way to avoid it, so we drove into it and it dragged me across the road into another lane and sped the car up to 135 haha. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen! 

Life is awesome. We had Zone Conference on Friday and wow that was powerful as well. We talked about everything from the Godhead to the power of conversion in the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome uplifting experience. The Dunns are very intelligent people, the way they ran the meeting and how the doctrine was taught was quite amazing. I love them. Equally as amazing as the Omers.

Life is awesome, but unfortunately we did not get to go to the caves. It costs 30usd and unfortunately that's all I have to my name... so it is either eat or go to the caves at this point. Sometimes I hate being poor haha. We did however get to see some amazing things in our travels. 

Life is awesome, last night I spoke to Brother Thabang Mothata on the phone. Wow he is doing amazing! I baptized him 6 months ago next week and he is already an Elder, he is now the Ward Mission Leader, and he is making his first trip to the temple this November! He is an amazing person and such a wonderful example of what a faithful convert can accomplish. His conversion is amazing and from what I hear he puts his heart into everything he does. I've said it before and I'll say it again - he alone is worth the sacrifice of two  years and I thank God daily for the privilege it was to be able to share the gospel with him.

I'm glad to hear the English classes are doing a bit better each time you email me. What is your favorite thing about the calling?

I love this gospel, I love this church, and most importantly I love Christ. 

I'm not really sure what else to share. Unfortunately time is pretty limited.

Also, there is a mail strike on. So if you have not sent the package yet hold off for a few weeks. If you have sent it pray it makes it ;)

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan

week 39: recipe for a "perfect man"

The confirmation of Nelly went quite well. She is an amazing person, her mom was unable to come so she walked 10ks to church by herself and was there early to make sure she would make the confirmation! 14 years old, only baptized one week, and is already willing to sacrifice more then most members in the States haha, powerful. I've confirmed quite a few people now and it's amazing to me to see how the Spirit directs it differently in each case. The blessings have varied so much, and at times I've said things I've never even thought about, the Spirit is pretty darn amazing. PrettY darn. 

It's just now starting to become summer, I miss fall. Here there are only two seasons. Hot and less hot. It doesn't really get all that much hotter than it does back home, but it's a different type of hot. The sun here feels different on your skin. It doesn't even really give me a tan. I hate it. If it's gunna be hot I at least gotta tan up a bit. 

After we travel to the nether regions of our zone to give a blessing later today, we are going to go out and view a few different waterfalls in the Sabine area. I've already seen them, but it's not too often back in the States you get to go to a jungle oasis, so I figure we might as well do it again. 

We got special permission from President Dunn to go to the temple on Thursday! I'm so excited, I haven't been in 10 months, so I'm looking forward to being able to attend a session and learn a bit more and then be reminded of things and stuff. Then Friday we are going to Pretoria to attend zone conference. Lots of driving over the next week. In fact 2 entire days will be travel because we are so far out haha. Oh well, I guess it's time for some edification. 

Next week we are hoping to go on a crystal tour. Basically you hike 2km into a cave to see some of the most spectacular crystal formations the world has to offer. Very excited for that. 

I've gotten to Job so far in the Bible. Job is the man, even when things are at their worst he is really flipping faithful. I wish I was more like Job; one thing I've noticed is that how it always mentions his integrity and in round about ways how he lives up to the covenants he has made. I suppose that is the recipe for a "perfect man". 

I love life, I love my mission, I love Africa. 

The Jehovah's Witness family is doing very well, we had a powerful lesson with them yesterday in which we helped them realize who Jehovah is. Basically we taught them the Godhead. They are coming around. 

I now have to talk to President Dunn , so I'll talk to you next week.

Love, elder McClellan 

week 38: baptism!

Dun dun dun dun! We had a baptism and it went absolutely amazing! Sister Nelisiwe Mdluli (Nelly) was baptized by Elder ah Wong as I had hoped and this Sunday shall be confirmed by the one and only me. Pretty excited for that, I don't really like getting wet, it just makes me miss swimming, but confirmations are outstanding to perform. The Spirit that is present is just amazing when they take place. 

It appears I have been made the conductor. The last two weeks I have conducted the baptisms in our branch and President said I would continue to until someone else was found haha. Last week was pretty terrifying. President Dunn was there and so was an audience of 100 people. That, combined with the fact that I had never conducted, left me with a tiny feeling of inadequacy. Apparently I did well because president Dunn complimented me on it and I have now been assigned to do it each time. 

This past week was pretty darn good. 6 weeks have passed since I got elder ah Wong as a companion and we have managed to average 16 lessons a week compared to the previous 9 or so (if I remember right) and have had a steady increase of investigators at church. Everyone from President Dunn to the zls (Zone Leaders) have commented on how well we are doing, so that's sweet. 

Not sure what else to report. Uhm. Really everything was pretty standard. 

Last night we did have the most amazing lesson with a new father led family we contacted about a week ago. He is Jehovah Witness and she attends another church, but man were they open! We managed to show them some Mormon messages and everything. They were pretty darn impressed it seemed. They have amazing potential and I'm so excited to be able to spend the next 6 weeks helping them to come unto Christ through the restored gospel. 

I'm sorry, but as for time it's kind of short. 

Love, elder McClellan  

week 37: happy with life

I'm happy with life. This past week was powerful. It consisted of teaching the gospel atop a cliff overlooking a rural African township and 2 exchanges! Oh yeah, and driving to Mozambique. There is that too...

Let's see here, lots of change took place this week. The best news is that we got a senior couple in our area! The Scotts,  recently living in Utah, but they are from SoCal. They were cops with the LAPD and man are they powerful people! This is their second mission and I can already tell that they are going to help the unit here grow by leaps and bounds. 

We also got a new Branch presidency and everyone I wanted to be in it is in it! Woo, the work here is just primed to explode. I'm so excited to see what the next few weeks will bring. 

Nelly passed the interview so we will have a baptism this week and then a week or two later we will be baptizing her brother! I'm so excited for them! They come from a very sweet family, unfortunately there father is a drunk and a chump. If he attempts to stop their baptisms again I will beat him to death. Luckily their mom is a member so that helps! 

We tracked about 20 hours this week it seems. We made a ton of new contacts, so I'm hoping that we can knock a few less doors each day and teach instead haha. Of course you always have to be finding, but it's fetching hot here, so more then an hour at a time turns into a bit of a drag. 

Yesterday after the baptism the Scotts told us they heard of a less active member who lives on the border of Mozambique who needed a blessing.... so what did we do? We loaded up the car and made the two hour drive to deliver. On they way there, Sister Scott (her first day driving on the right side of the road) dun crashed the car.... needless to say.... I drove home. Ha

After 9 months of abstinence I have failed. I was at a members house, they offered, and I accepted. Oh man.... I dun played with guns. It made me happy. I figure that rule in the hand book is only for the elders who are not a professional such as I... Uhm. But that's not exactly doctrine so don't quote me on that. :) 

Life is going good. This morning I read the entirety of Numbers in the Old Testament and man does it have some crazy stories! From a talking donkey to a group of rebels inside the camp. Crazy. My favorite one though is as follows. A prince of the Jews takes a local woman into camp as a concubine. Aaron's son hears of this,takes a javelin and as they are uhm... In the act... he kills both of them with a single stab. Fetching crazy, and I'm very grateful that God is a bit more lenient with us today. I'm pretty sure the world does not contain enough javelins to deal with all of the going ons in our day. And what is the moral of said story? Don't sleep with a harlot, and don't turn your back to the tent door. Ever. At least that's what I got from it, what Moses' intent for writing that story I'm not so sure. Maybe he just wanted his writings to be as weird as possible. Probably not, because he was inspired....but yeah. Probably should end this whole thought process. 

Life is amazing, I say this every time, but I'm not sure I've ever been happier. 

And yes the whole Les Mis thing was internalized denial of the highest proportion, but that's okay. It's over now haha.

Thanks for the thoughts on Isaiah, it still makes no sense to me. Life is hard haha. However, there is a verse in 1 Nephi when he is quoting Isaiah (I don't have my scriptures so can't give you the reference) that I like. It describes how the refiner's fire makes us purer. I've realized that if you look at tribulation and hardship through the lens of knowing it is for your benefit (most of the time) then trials, temptations, and hardships are a lot easier to pass through. Not sure why I told you that but there it is.

As I said, I forgot my scriptures and it appears my inspiration is broken so there will be no spiritual thought for the week...sorry. 

It's crazy to look back on the past 3 1/2 years and look at the changes that have taken place. From a not so good period of my life to being so happy I want to skip down the street. Well figuratively, I'm pretty sure I'm still to lazy to skip. But the point I'm trying to make is that the gospel is pretty dang amazing. Too many people see it as only being able to help at certain points of their life and fail to realize it is designed to better all aspects of our existence, whether we are currently rich or poor in spirit or as to things of the world. I've spent many an hour pondering Christ's atoning sacrifice for us and it is crazy to think about the sad state we would be in without it. I'm not sure I've ever told the people involved in bringing the gospel to me, but I'm so grateful for them. 

My dad told me that my grandpa passed away a few days ago. Looking back on such experiences in the past is hard; they were debilitating. I couldn't handle the concept of death, but as I read that ,I was actually happy and smiled a bit. Now, I do not delight in his death of course, I already miss him, but I'm filled with the hope and knowledge that I will see him again one day. And what I look forward to almost more then that is the opportunity I, or a loved one, will have to take his name to one of God's holy temples and act in proxy for him. I'm not sure who reads this, but that probably won't make sense to a few of you. If you'd like to learn more there are funny looking guys that walk around in white shirts and have a black name badge that came help you understand. 

This gospel has brought about a mighty change in my life, and without it I don't even want to imagine where I'd be. The greatest proof that I can think of that this is the church of Christ is to just look back four years ago. Anyone who knew me then knows I'm not at all the same person now, and nothing short of the power of God could have gotten me to this point. I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day the following passage:

" 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 know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. We do not see everything from Their perspective so at times it may seem hard to believe, but They never have and never will forsake us, it's we who forsake ourselves. The thoughts I shared may seem random, hopefully you can understand.  I'm typing on an iPad so it is a bit difficult. 

Not sure what else to say, I just received a phone call and that ruined my train of thought. The gospel is true. Live it. 

I love y'all a lot, I hope all continues to be well.

Wait, was that a spiritual thought after I said there would be none? Awkward. 

Elder Kelly McClellan

week 36: progress

Well let's see here... compared to last week this one was fairly tame. However, the work moved forward and that made it all worth it! We suffered a bit from appointment droppage, but we persevered and managed to have a handful of powerful lessons that led to a number of our investigators progressing!

We actually had enough investigators to have a Gospel Principles class! Apparently that was the first time in months that it has been held. We are gaining new investigators, dropping those that are fong kong, and pressing forth with the work of the Lord! We are still preparing a young woman named Nelizwe (Nelly... she is 14 and her mom is a member) for baptism at the end of this month. Her interview will be this Friday, so I'm literally praying all will go well as we enter into this last week of prep.

We had a ton of service this week! On Saturday we participated in our branch's "Mormon Helping Hands" service project. We drove about  45min north to a small orphanage for girls and did a bit of work there. My job was to do the cutting-in on the painting. I was on a ladder for nearly 3 hours in blistering heat. (Well at least the top of the ladder was blistering.) We mostly painted, but we also did some work on the palisades outside. It was an amazing experience in all honesty. Elder Ah Wong managed to pick up a girl friend, but he didn't know what to do, so he came to me and asked me to give her our number (he didn't mention the fact she was obsessed.) I figured she wanted to learn about Christ so I gave it to her. Sunday she called twice, both times I answered. The first time she said she wanted to be our friend.... I was like okay... well, we teach about Christ.... and then she hung up. That girl was matata (translation, kind of: trouble.)

Later that night we went to brother Maleka's and broke his walls as we took out shelf mounts. It was fun, but again it was flipping hot.

The Sabbath was great, we had a few extra K's left over so we drove to a place called Barberton. It is kinda crazy, my area includes over 10 major towns and tons of township and village. We have a lot of area to cover and a couple million people needing to be taught.

As I mentioned last week I have begun reading the standard works for the very beginning. I've finished Genesis. It's fetching weird, but now I actually understand why the Hebrews were in Egypt and how all the genealogy of the patriarchs worked out. They dun lived in a messed up world. I think my favorite story was when two of the sons of Jacob go and slaughter an entire city after they had convinced that city to be circumcised. It says something like they were sore, so they could not fight and died. Ha, crazy world. I also noticed that when one of the patriarchs would sleep with a servant or concubine it always says that they were married before hand. And when Jehovah speaks he always uses plural forms of words, not singular. So either He has a multiple personality disorder or He and God the Father must be different people. Logic for the win. I think too many people remove logic when they try to decide points of doctrine for themselves. It is a very illogical thought to believe God the Father, Jesus, and The Holy Ghost are the same person. I'm enjoying the Old Testament.

I received sad news last week, I literally have less than 40 dollars to my name. Oh well, who needs money haha. It appears I will have to get very good at living off of allotment alone. Budgeting! Woo. I would sell a kidney at one of the local surgery shops, but I don't really want to get aids. Life is good.

I came to another very sad realization this week - the Les Mis soundtrack is not mission appropriate. Not sure why that took me so long to figure out, but I shall forever mourn the loss of it. I'm getting really tired of the music I have. I'm starting to making grunting sounds for entertainment instead of turning music on.

I don't know what else to include. 

I love you all a lot. Miss you all a lot. Keep on doing the right thing.

Love, Elder Kelly McClellan

week 35: favored of the Lord

This week was full of ups and downs as far as "success" is concerned, but spiritually it was amazing. Among the experiences was talking to a mother who discovered she would soon be passing to the next phase of existence due to a sudden development of aggressive cancer and testifying of the restoration of the gospel to a room full of college kids.  Each were special experiences I'm not sure what I would do without at this point. The amazing thing I find about a mission is that no matter what's occurring there is something to learn from the situations laid before you. I'm not sure if I have become more mature and therefore see underlining meanings in all that happens or If I have just gotten really good at turning crap into gold. Either way, I'm learning a lot and at this point I'm not sure why/how anyone could avoid serving the Lord. 

We are having some success as far as numbers, and we should be having a baptism at the end of this month! Pretty excited for that, it is always nice to see some fruit come. 

Monday we had the outstanding experience of going to Krugar (again!) Most missionary's never get to go, I've gone twice. Pretty sure I'm favored of the Lord. (kidding....) Anyways, we saw 4 of the big 5 and had some amazing experiences there. As we were about to exit the park we came across a pride of lions; to get a better picture I leaning out the window. I dun got shambocked by a park ranger... Err... apparently it is a poor idea to hang out of a car 10 feet from grown lions... oh well. It was fun and fairly exciting. We saw just about everything you can imagine, but the cutest was a baby elephant not even two feet high. From Rhinos to hyenas, they were all there. 

I finished reading Doctrine and Covenants recently... can't remember when because the days blend together, but  any-who, it is apparent to me that that book could not have been written by a mere (how do you spell that? is it even a word?) uninspired man. The amazing thing about the Book of Mormon and D&C is that they don't contradict themselves. Anyone who has ever told a lie and is determined to keep it going knows how hard it can be to support falsehoods. Lesbihonest here (yes pitch perfect...) no one is smart enough to write near 1000 pages of "doctrine" and keep it strait. Plus Joseph, an unlearned farm boy, could in no wise have had such a vocabulary as is used in said scriptures unless he was inspired. Anyone who disagrees with any of that is stupid and illogical. (Don't remove that, my words must stand as said... well typed.)  :) 

I've gotten extremely bold in my testimony recently. Its really quite amazing. First off because it is fun and second because it invites the Spirit into any conversation. We have contacted a crazy amount of people over the past few weeks, even in township I've never had so much success while tracting. 

We are getting a new Branch President soon, our current one is moving to Benoni and I'm really hoping that when the new guy is called we can really turn over a new leaf here in the branch as far as missionary and council coordination. Members are the key to success, I'm praying that we can start getting more people involved! 

I'm starting to read the standard works from the beginning. I'm enjoying the Old Testament. Its all God being like "if you're bad I'll kill you" and the Israelis are all like "well, we worship this cow any-who" and then they die. Repent or be destroyed. I suppose that is a good policy, it makes for a good read at the very least. 

Not really sure what else to include. 

Love ya all a lot. 

Elder McClellan

Oh, and the church is still true.