Hosanna! June 11, 2012

Yesterday was an amazing Sunday. We got to watch the dedication of the Manaus temple. It was a marvelous service. The Manaus has been a long awaited temple here in Brazil. The members from Manaus had one of the hardest journeys to get to the temple. When the São Paulo temple was built, it was the only temple in South America and the members from Manaus had to travel 15 days by boat/bus to get to São Paulo. Manaus at the time was also one of the poorest areas of Brazil. Members made enormous sacrifices such as selling all their possessions, quitting jobs and eating only bannanas during the 30 days of travel. But now they have a temple. Elder Uchtdorf presided the dedication. It was really neat to watch the session in Portuguese. The Hosanna shout is also fun in Portuguese.

We are finally starting to have some more success in our zone. The districts had some baptisms on Saturday finally, with more planned for this week and one in our area scheduled for Saturday. It´s been a struggle but it seems to finally be pulling together.

Next Monday is the start of my last transfer. I can hardly believe it. I´m also most likely going to be transferred. The mission president for sure won´t leave Elder Bean and I together. It´s too hard to have two zone leaders leave an area at the same time so it wouldn´t make sent for us to stay together for our last transfer. I´m actually excited to have another area. It´s just a bummer that I will only have 6 weeks there. I´m really excited for these last few weeks. It´s unfortunately setting in that it´s almost over. Lots of strange mixed emotions. I´m going to be really sad to leave the country, but no missionary can deny the excitement for seeing family and the beginning of the next phase of life.

I´m finally starting to feel better. I had this terrible cough all week long. I called the mission doctor again and he decided it must have been some kind of bacterial infection instead of a normal virus and he prescribed an antiobiotic. I took it for three days and it cleared up the cough/stuffy nose really quick. Also Vick´s cough Syrup has been saving me. We seemed to be cursed as a companionship with health issues though. As soon as Elder Bean came back I got the stomach flu and then this bacteria. And now that I´m doing better he isn´t doing so hot. I think he as been pushing it too hard after the surgery. I try to tell him to take it easy but the urgency of the message is pushing us perhaps faster than we should.

Well, I guess that about sums it up. We are going to have a zone p-day activity bowling this afternoon! It should be quite the experience because Elder Bean won´t be able to do any type of exertion, such as throwing the ball. We´ll see how it turns out.

Love, 

Elder McLelland

Manaus Temple June 4, 2012

Elder Bean is back in the area. He has to take it a bit slow to avoid getting a hernia but it´s great to have him back. Unfortunately however, Elder McKeen was transferred. We thought he would stay with us in a trio but he got sent to a different city. It was a fun few weeks with him. I decided to call him MacGyver because he was always tampering with things and making nifty contraptions out of scraps.

 

I got some kind of virus over the weekend. I had a lot of diarrhea and vomited all night on Saturday. I´m feeling better now but still need to rest a lot today. My zone has been cursed lately with bad health. Sheesh!

 

I spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday. I´m not sure how understandable I was. Plus we were notified at 10am that we would be speeking yesterday afternoon. I spoke about Elder Holland´s talk about the parable of the workers in the vineyard. I loved that talk and the great explanation that Holland gave. ``Be kind, be grateful that God is kind. It´s a happy way to live.´´ Probably my favorite quote from last conference.

 

Well, in nine weeks from Wednesday I will be home! Is that believable? That´s the amount of time I was in the CTM. It´s really strange. It´s sad to think how little time we have left, but at the same time I can´t wait to get back to see everyone and go to BYU.

 

Have a great week everyone. I love you all!

 

Elder McLelland

The Bean is Back! May 28, 2012

Elder Bean is back in the area. He has to take it a bit slow to avoid getting a hernia but it´s great to have him back. Unfortunately however, Elder McKeen was transferred. We thought he would stay with us in a trio but he got sent to a different city. It was a fun few weeks with him. I decided to call him MacGyver because he was always tampering with things and making nifty contraptions out of scraps.

I got some kind of virus over the weekend. I had a lot of diarrhea and vomited all night on Saturday. I´m feeling better now but still need to rest a lot today. My zone has been cursed lately with bad health. Sheesh!

I spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday. I´m not sure how understandable I was. Plus we were notified at 10am that we would be speeking yesterday afternoon. I spoke about Elder Holland´s talk about the parable of the workers in the vineyard. I loved that talk and the great explanation that Holland gave. ``Be kind, be grateful that God is kind. It´s a happy way to live.´´ Probably my favorite quote from last conference.

Well, in nine weeks from Wednesday I will be home! Is that believable? That´s the amount of time I was in the CTM. It´s really strange. It´s sad to think how little time we have left, but at the same time I can´t wait to get back to see everyone and go to BYU.

Have a great week everyone. I love you all!

Elder McLelland

 Birthday Pizza

Biscuit and Gravy

May 21, 2012

This was a strange week. It felt like nothing really went right. A lot of our appointments fell through. A group of 5 men from Maranhão we have been teaching are progressing really well, but all of sudden they decided not to be at home when we went to pick them up for Church yesterday. But, somehow we managed to get 12 investigtors to Church yesterday! I was so surprised because eveything seemed to go wrong during the week but we had a good turn-out at Church.

 

We also had a zone conference. Every three months we have zone conference and a tradition that the mission has is that all of the missionaries going home soon bare their testimonies. I bore mine! I have spent the whole mission thinking about that event happening and now it did! I can´t believe the end is so near. It´s exciting but sad all at once.

 

Elder Bean is doing well. He should be coming back to work with us this week. He had his stitches removed on Friday and is going to the doctor today to find out how much work he will be able to do. Most likely he will have to take it pretty slow for a couple of weeks still to avoid getting a hernia. I´m just excited to have him back soon.

 

I have decided to call Elder Mckeen MacGyver. He loves gadgets and fixing things and making stuff out of nothing. For example he made us a water filtrationg system out of 2 liter soda bottles, cardboard boxes and small water botter filters. It´s really funny and not all that necessary, but why not! right?

 

Well, I hope you guys hve a great week. Love you all!

Elder McLelland

Feliz Dia das Maes! May 14, 2012

Mother´s day is so great! And I´m not even a mother! It was great to see everyone yesterday with Skype. Technology sure is great. I can´t believe that I will be seeing you all for real in a couple of months. The time is just flying by so fast. I can hardly believe it.

This week was pretty good. I was quite surprised to find out Tuesday morning that I´m training again! I wasn´t going to have a companion for a little while until Elder Bean got better. But on Tuesday morning an unexpected Elder showed up from the CTM. 8 were supposed to arrive but Elder McKeen came un-scheduled! It worked out great to have a companion now. It´s been funny to see the expression of a brand new American all over again. He is from Milton, Washington. a small city near Seattle. He´s a great kid, and veryexcited.

Elder Bean is doing well. He gets his stiches out on Thursday and hopefully will be coming back to the area soon. I sure miss him. He´s been my favorite companion of all. He´s been living the priveledged life at the Mission home with Sister Prieto. Today they have the chore of making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! We are gonna have to stop by and do some taste testing. mmmmmm

Well, I guess that about sums it up for me. It was strange to have my last phone call of the mission yesterday. I felt a little out of place and didn´t seem to have much to say. It´s all ending so fast. Two and a half more months to take advantage of! Until next week!

Love, 
Elder McLelland

Tranfercitis May 7, 2012

Well, this was probably the most hectic week of my life. Last week I talked about how Elder Bean was a bit sick. Well, turns out it wasn´t just a little bit. He had apendicitis! He has been in the hospital since thursday. He should be getting out today though. I was also supposed to be transferred to the São João da Boa Vista zone. My companion was going to be Elder Antone, but I´m going to end up staying here for at least a week or two until Elder Bean get´s better. I might get transferred afterwards. I kind of hope so actually, it was my first zone and I would love to get to go back. Also I was really excited to hear that I might be companions with Elder Antone. We´ll just see how it works out.

Elder Bean and I went to the hospital Wednesday morning because he was having a lot of stomach pain. But they didn´t really do anything (the socialized health care of this country is TERRIBLE!) They gave him a simple medicine and sent us away. It kept getting worse and worse. We went back to the hospital on Thursday at about noon and they finally did and ultra-sound and found out that his appendix had already burst! They took it out and had to do a lot of internal cleaning to get rid of toxic fluids in his abdomen. But he´s doing well now. I´m exhausted from having slept on a small couch in his hospital room at night. I´ll be taking care of the area single handedly for a while it looks like. It´s gonna be tough.

Despite having only worked one real day in the area last week we still managed to get 7 investigators to Church yesterday. It was strange doing basically nothing last week. Also President and Sister Prieto have been giving me so much preferencial treatment. It´s strange. They have been buying Subway and Burger King for me (which is a big deal in Brazil. A simple combo at Burger King comes out to about 12 dollars, way expensive) I also will be staying with Elder Bean at the mission home for a little while too while he recuperates. It´s going to be an interesting experience.

Well, this week should be interesting. The ward was really excited that I´ll stay a bit longer in the area. They had alreay been planning some birthday surprises for me on Wednesday that they are happy to still carry out. Thanks for all the birthdya wishes folks!. Have a great week! love you all.

Elder McLelland

Letter #8

Boa Tarde!              
Well here goes my last email from the CTM. I can hardly believe I have just one more week here and I'll really be in the field doing real missionary work. This past week has been great, and watching conference absolutely amazing. Last Friday we went to do street contacts again but this time it was in the middle of Sao Paulo. I haven't been around that many people in one place I don't think. It was intense, but awesome.            So we had a goal as a district to ``contact" 100 people in our two hours there. We defined a contact as talking to someone and getting further than just a ``hello". Our district made it to 86, and the reason we fell short was mainly due to me and Elder Walker. We ended up talking with one man, Marcos, for about 40 minutes. We found out he already had a copy of the Book of Mormon, but he had questions for us. His main worry was that if he joined the church he would have give up his family and work to serve a mission like us. He didn't understand that that wouldn't be required of him. We explained that the best we could and we talked a lot more about other stuff in the book of mormon too. He also hadn't ever talked to missionaries so we gave him the phone number that usually accompanies the Book of Mormon they recieve. He didn't have it so we wrote it down for him and he said he would call it to find out more. He seemed pretty excited to understand to understand more about the church.             
Elder Bashford, my district leader, is an amazing violin player and he had a really cool experience using his talent while we were contacting. He saw a guy playing a violin on the street to get money from people so elder Bashford went up and started talking to him about the violin. After a while the guy asked him to play so Elder Bashford play from memory Glory to God on High. He really amazed the guy and he accepted a Book of Mormon. While Elder Bashford played, his companion Elder Anderson talked to the people that were slowing down to see what was going on. They gave out some pass along cards as along witht the Book of Mormon. It was a really cool experience for all of us, even though it dumped rain on us for about 30 minutes. Luckily for Elder Walker and I the 30 minutes of rain happened to be while we under a bridge talking to Marcos. So we lucked out.           
 So it seems funny stories have been a common request, so I'll share a story. About 6 weeks ago I bought a tie from who we call ``the tie lady". SHe owns a little shop around the corner and sells cheap nice ties. So I bought a really nice blue tie that has black stripes on it. I was wearing it about 3-4 weeks later and Elder Bashford was also wearing a blue and black striped tie to so I said, ``hey, our ties match today. I got a blank stare from Elder Bashford. It turns out my nice ``blue" tie is actually a nice purple tie. It took me a month to find out. I love being color blind.              
Conference was absolutely amazing this weekend. It was one of the most relaxing weekends because we watched conference and had free study time in between. It was really nice. We watched conference in English, which I was really glad about. Also the Seventy that spoke, Jairo Mazzagardi, is Brazilian and he was one of our devotional speakers we had a few weeks ago here at the CTM. I got to meet him when he was here. I'm totally blanking on who said, it was one of the Twelve, that talked about the 5 steps to living a consecrated life. Was that Eyring, maybe?   I can never remember if I don't have my notes with me. I also really enjoyed the one from Patrick Kearon, the one who told the story about being bitten by a scorpion in Saudi Arabia. I absolutely love general conference.             
Well I have just one week left here and I can hardly believe it. I am sooooo excited. We leave really early next tuesday morning for the airport. we have to leave the CTM by 4AM for a 30-40 minute plane ride to Ribeiro Preto. But I am getting so excited to go. I feel really quite confident in my speaking skills. I still don't understand a lot but definitely enough to get by. Even today while waiting for Elder Walker at the Post Office I talked to a man who is a motorcycle courier. They have a lot here in Sao Paulo and he was telling be about how dangerous it is here. One person dies every day from a motorcycle accident here in Sao Paulo.But it was really neat to talk to him a little bit about me and the church but more importantly to just have a casual conversation with a complete stranger. It definitely has been boosting my confidence. I can't wait to be teaching people and helping them find the way to true joy and happiness. We have preactice lessons everyday and I promise people blessings in our fake lessons. But I still feel the spirit so strongly as I do it because I really know it's true.          
Well I hope all is still going well at home. How has it been babysitting Lily? Leah and Brian, you will haev to tell me all about your nice vacation. How is all the extended family doing? I hope all is well. I look forward to hearing more soon.          
Love, Elder McLelland

Gripe! April 30, 2012

Last week was a much better week. We had to kind of start over finding new people to teach. It happens so frequently on the mission that you kind of run into a dead end and you´re teaching group needs to be cleansed. We found a whole bunch of new investigators. We are teaching a group of 5 men from the ages 18-26. They all are from a state called Maranhão and are here to work. They have been here for three weeks and went to Church with us yesterday and are loving it. If all works out they should all be baptized in a couple of weeks. It´s really cool to see how humble they are. We are finally finding some new people that actually can be baptized. Next Monday will be transfers and it´s unfortunately pretty likely that I will be transferred. I really hope not. I want to see these people progress in the Gospel.

 

We are both feeling a bit sick today. Elder Bean got a stomach ache and a migraine and I am getting a bit of ´´gripe´´ or the flu. It´s a good thing today is preparation day for us to be able to rest. We were planning on going to do some fun stuff but we are just going to sleep. We were going to make sloppy joes, but it will wait for another day.

 

We had another fun ward activity last wednesday. We played a game that I remember playing once at a family night with the Underwoods we did several years back. Everyone writes a random question that starts with ``what would you do if...?´´. Then you pass all the questions out to other people to respond. Then you read the question on your paper aloud but the person to your left reads the response they just wrote down. The answers come out hilarious. One was, ``whhat would you do if Jesus Christ returned today?´´ ``I would invite him over for breakfast´´. It was great. We had several investigators there and they were all avle to see that it´s possible to have good clean fun without alcohol, etc.

 

We are really working on being bolder and inviting people to baptism right from the very first lesson. Preach My Gospel teaches us to not hesitate to invite people to baptism but we were for some reason forgetting this. As we have been showing our faith to be more bold and clear in our teaching and inviting we are seeing the Lord bless us with more committed people. It´s one of the biggest struggles here on the mission: find people who will accept commitments and fulfill them. There are so many people content with living in the ghetto, earning minimum wage, spending the excess on alcohol, drugs and loud sound systems in their cars. It´s amazing how common it is to be content with this type of lifestyle. But we had the best succes last week I have ever had finding new and devoted investigators.

 

Well, I hope you all have a great week. I hope to be writing you next week from the same area. I really don´t want to be transferred (cross your fingers everyone).

Elder McLelland

O Domingo Vira April 16, 2012

Well, it was another kind of frustrating week. But it ended nicely. We have still been struggling to find people eligible for baptism. The first half of the week we had basically no success finding people but between Saturday and Sunday we found 11 new investigators! It was quite a miracle. An answer to many prayers too, because many of them don´t have the customary law of chastity problems we always encounter. I entitled this letter ``O Domingo Virá´´ because of Elder Wirthlin´s talk ``Sunday Will Come´´(attached file),  which has always been a favorite of mine.I had a real nice expereince yesterday in Sacrament meeting feeling a great peace within to comfort me int he lack of baptismal success we are having. But our mission purpose is much more that baptism. It is to help others to come unto Christ, which is done not only by baptism. Sunday came both literally and figuratively yesterday.

We had a really fun ward activity on Wednesday. We made a life-size version of Chutes and Ladders. the people were the pieces and we took a cardboard box and made a giant die. It was so much fun. It took us a while to teach the rules but once everyone got a hang of it, it went really well. Then the children had fun ripping up all the stuff taped on the ground to help us clean up. 

We are now kind of working in 6 elders in the area now. It´s only me and Elder Bean that work in the area every day. But there is now a companionship of Assistants that work in the area most of the week when they aren´t in the mission office. Elder Botello and Elder Brower (his sister and Leah are friends from Dayton!). there is also a companionship of Travelling Assistants that work throughout all of the mission on weekdays and in our area on Saturdays, Elder Beck and Elder Bell (from my CTM district). I´m thinking of changing my name to Elder BcLelland to fit in with the other 5 elders that have B names.

I´m getting so excited for BYU lately. It´s so much fun to hear that my apartment arragements are getting set up and that all my classes are scheduled. That year at BYU was one of the funnest years ever. I can´t wait to go back. (I´m not trunky, don´t worry!)

Well, I guess that about sums up the week. 
Amo todos vocês!
Elder McLelland

Oh, the iniquity! April 9, 2012

This week was rather dissappointing. We have so many great investigators but they all have long-term commandment problems that is delaying their baptisms. We are teaching a guy that has a cocaine addiction, that´s at least 6 months of being drug free before he can be baptized.  And a ton of other couples that need to be married. I´m really frustrated!! Also the lady we had ready for baptism last week had to travel to another state to have a cirgury done. She doesn´t come back here until december. Oh, well. The mission is supposed to be tough right?

 

But other than these difficulties it´s going great. I got a call from one of the Assistants on Saturday telling me that I was being emergency transferred! It was all a joke. What a crummy thing to do to me. They all know I really don´t want to leave here and thought it would be funny to trick me. I nearly cried.

 

Today is nap day. I went three p-days without resting because of errands we had to do in the center of the city and I am dead tired. I haven´t felt so exhausted in all my life. It´s the sign of being an old geezer on the mission.

 

On wednesday we are planning a ward activity that is going rto be super fun. We are going to make a life size version of the board game chutes and ladders. The people are going to be the pieces and we are going to make a huge set of dice. I´m really excited. Pictures to come next week!

 

Well, it was a pretty normal week. Things are going great. Also I can´t believe how little time is left on the mission! I love you all!

Elder McLelland

April 2, 2012

Conference is the most fantastic thing of my life. However, my thoughts and inspirations were very different this time that the other 3 conferences I watched on the mission. The first three were obviously very missionary related. This time I was thinking much more about the future. It´s so insane to be thinking about my after-mission life. It´s so close.

 

Today is the start of another transfer. Elder Bean and I stayed another transfer together. It was definitely the answer to my prayers. We have marvelous investigators here that are progressing so well. I hope it continues in the same way. Many of them went to conference this weekend. A lot of miracles happened to get them there. Our area is a little bit far away from the stake center and it made it difficult to get people there. But things worked out well. We had a lady go that should be baptized this week> I showed here the notes I take as I watch conference beforehand and she was inspired to do the same. She wrote down a ton of notes during the session. It was really cool to see. We also got a family there that we have been working with for a while. they are not married yet and need to marry to get baptized. The original plan was for them to go to the first Sunday session but they ran late and missed their ride to go. But it was actually a blessing because they went to the second session and they heard Elder Ballard´s wonderful talk about family and the blessing of a marriage centered on Gospel principles. The session most centered around families was the one they got to go to. I´m so happy about that. We also got a recently reactivated family there too. I´ve never had so much success getting people to conference on the mission. It´s usually a major challenge.

 

We had a council with all of the Zone Leaders in the mission on Tuesday. In the program from 1:30pm to 3:00 it was scheduled as a surprise. It was bowling! We got to go to the local bowling alley and shoot some pins. It was a really fun experience. Most Brazilians have never bowled before and it was really fun to watch. I did terribly however.

 

Well I don´t have much time. I ]´ll write more details next week. I love you all.

Also I´m so excited to hear about Jake Hohsfield´s and Jared Foster´s mission calls! It´s gonna be awesome!

Elder McLelland