Monday, October 27, 2014

week 14

Salut!

Okay news from Guyana....  I saw my very first Anaconda and it was massive! It is one thing to learn about them in elementary school but when you see one in real life…Oh. My. Goodness.  A man had just captured it and he threw it over his shoulder and got on his scooter and rode off.  It was easily 10 feet and its body was the size of a tree trunk in diameter. It was nuts!  I was super bummed I didn’t have my camera to capture a picture of it. 

The worst contact ever happened this week.... Background: first a Haitian grandma is called a Mami and mamis agree with whatever you tell them…it doesn’t matter if it’s about God or anything else, they just love it.  So they’re kind of useless to contact because they’ll get baptized, and then when a new religion comes along they’ll just convert to that.  Anyways, back to the story, we must have been in Mami-ville because every house we contacted a mami or a papi (male mami) would come out.  It was funny, but kind of annoying because we were looking for people to listen to us.  So I contacted a house and instantly I saw a papi.  But he wouldn’t even talk to me.  All homes with mamis and papis have younger people in them as well, so I wanted to see if I could find out if his kids were interested in hearing our lesson… but this guy would not come out.  So I’m just waving my arms and dancing trying to get him to notice me but he wouldn’t come to the door.  That’s when I realized he was in a wheel chair.  So I just feel crappy cause I’m trying to get this handicapped papi to come outside.  So I run up to the house.  I got about 10 feet away when I realized he was about 80 and completely naked sitting in his wheelchair.  I blocked my eyesight with the book of Mormon, and then apologized and wished him a goodnight and took off running/crying. It was horrible!

          So on Friday we had probably one of the most difficult day as far as work goes on my mission.  We had all appointments cancel, and then all our backups fell through…honestly nothing was working out.  We worked and worked but we just got rejected over and over again.  The only people who talked with us just wanted to bible bash hard core and so we ended up leaving even those situations.  Nothing. Literally nothing for a whole day was working out. I felt like we were just sweat and wondering where everyone was.  I didn’t get it; we were working our best and trying our best but nothing but sweat and failure.  The next day we were reading in 1 Nephi 8 during studies. This is where the Book of Mormon talks about Lehi’s dream.  It talks about how initially Lehi wandered through darkness for hours and it was not until he prayed and called upon the Lord that he received help and the dream unravels into the tree of life.  Thinking of Friday, I realized we wandered through darkness for hours and not once did we call for help. Because of this realization, on Saturday morning we decided to make fervent prayer a part of our day.  After saying a fervent prayer on Saturday the change in our luck was complete night and day from Friday to Saturday’s work. We had tons of great lessons and contacts all day long.

In life you can work and work as hard as you can…You can give it your all, all day long and still gain nothing but sweat.  We cannot overcome trials or accomplish goals until we call upon the Lord for help.  Always remember that the most powerful being is just a prayer away and do not hesitate to ask for help.

Love,

Elder Logan Robert Sackley


STACKS
lazer tag for a branch activity-team missionary wrecked

Monday, October 20, 2014

week 13

Dear Friends, 

Okay, first a funny story, and then a sad/learning experience.

So its a French thing to “beezoo” (bisou or un-bisou) I don’t know how to spell it so I’m just going to spell it how it sounds anyways like the whole hug slash high five with your cheeks while making kissy noises thing.  So as missionaries we don’t do it and we really try to avoid them.  I was undefeated I’m very fast to stick my hand out for a handshake.  So we’re teaching a lesson and than the investigator like gives a head nod so I turn to see his daughter is like a foot away from my face and she has caught me.  No turning back I get beezooed agh it was awful elder smith sticks out his hand stops her in her tracks that jerk ahah. 

Ok so as missionaries in Cayenne we fast every third Sunday and first Sunday. The third Sunday is for missionary work anyways.  When we are fasting we start at 2 pm.  We bike all day, and it’s hot, we’re tired and thirsty and then we head back home at night.  Turn on our two fans, which is the only hope we have of staying cool than boom.  Power outage.  No food no water and now no fans.  We ended up sleeping on the tile floor cause it was somewhat cold I threw my sheet in the freezer for an hour but it was de cooled in about two seconds. Then once we were finally asleep in the middle of the night, the lights come on.  It was rough ahah.  But the blessings of the fast were evident: we had 8 investigators at church and 105 people at church total.  It was the most people ever at church in Cayenne.

So i wanted to surprise you all with our first two baptisms of Nelma and Stephanie.  Ever since I got here we have been teaching the two of them. It has been a rollercoaster ride but we had a date set for the 18th.  We were super excited.  Some complications came up and we needed Nelma to talk to a presidency member in Guadeloupe.  But we were determined nothing was going to stop us from getting her to baptism.  After she talked to him he wanted to talk to us.  He told us she was worthy but she had been renting a room from a male member of the branch and he wanted her to move out before baptism. 

Nelma currently has no job or family or anywhere to go.  It was definitely a hard hit. But we are going to make it happen. 

Now that I’m headed into my second transfer i have decided my motto for my mission.  I have loved sports all my life and a slogan that you hear time and time again is plastered in my mind.... Leave no doubt... I have been thinking of this a lot.  Leave no doubt - what does that mean?  The apostle Paul states in timothy almost a biblical or spiritual version of this when he said, “make full proof of your ministry.”  I have tried to really brew the two over in my mind.  Leaving no doubt and making full proof means... The people I meet and talk to need to have no doubt of what I’m here to do.  What type of missionary, man, or person I am.  To make others around me know that I gave it my all that I know I gave it my all and most importantly that my father in heaven knows I gave it my all.  Leaving no doubt does not mean being perfect or doing everything right. To me it means being perfect in trying and doing everything I can right. I hope and pray that we can all do everything our best and leave no doubt either in a spiritual aspect or just in an everyday life aspect.  

Love

Elder Logan Robert Sackley


caught our investigators kitten than thanked him for helping pay for my mission chem dry for life
me and my new friends

a fire in dowtown no one calls the police or fire depratment when something goes bad cause 1 they are illegal or 2 if the fire gets put out than they wont have an excuse not to work
primary program
the cayenne branch!! well some of them

Monday, October 13, 2014

week 12

bonjur!

Since i have been in French Guiana i would say its been difficult really communicating exactly how i feel.  I can talk and carry a religious conversation, but expressing how i feel to the people is really hard.  So we were contacting and it was hot. Elder smith's tire had popped, so we were on foot.  We were walking up and down a huge hill just getting rejected-no one wanted to talk.  

Than we saw two younger boys playing outside a long driveway and we decided to strike up a conversation and they invited us back to talk to their parents.  We get to their house later and there were tons of people there.  it was three families living together and we're thinking this is golden.  They are super friendly we start talking and we're just thinking "here we go this is great! big families, super friendly."  We bring up the Book of Mormon and they listen to us for a mintute than just say no.  I'm tired hot and frustrated and i just say a little prayer asking how we can help these people.  The word ACT came to my head.  So i whiped open my planner and showed an example about the Book of Mormon that i learned a long time ago.  The words were coming naturally and I felt really really good.  I testified did everything in my power-even at one point almost begging.  The women we had been talking to looks at me and says no. As we're walking away i'm just thinking why in the world did i feel so strong? why the word ACT if there was no result?  

It took me a couple days thinking it over to realize what i think the Lord was teaching me.  The word ACT wasn't to change the investigators prespecitve or to help us get a contact.  The prompting was for me.  I had never really tried so hard to contact someone or even talked like that in french.  The Lord was helping me understand that I was more capable than i realized.  I think often we recieve promptings to follow through and look around and see no result.  We second guess it or forget it all together.  Take the time to find what the Lord is or was trying to teach you.  And more often than not you will find the results were meant for an internal change not an external.

Love
Elder Logan Robert Sackley


jungle hike was a lot more sweat and big bugs than andacondas and jaguars unfortunatley
we drove 2 hours into the jungle cause why not
jungleeeee
the elders of french guiana just in our natural habitat
had my first Bami its a suriname dish its delcious
sunset over cayenne


so i decided if i want to teach the thugs i most first resemble one so this is the best we can do with a missionary ward drobe.... were working on it
this is a malta the teenagers here love it they say it taste like an unacholic beer and oh my goodness its horrible




Monday, October 6, 2014

week 11

hello all

Its another beautifully hot day in french guyana.  General conference was awesome except its hard to focus sometimes when you are crammed in a small room with 8 missionaries with no AC watching conference over a laggy internet connection.  Definatley not the same as sitting in your pjs eating homemade cinamon rolls.  

This week was excellent! I want to write about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon today: i have two seperate examples i would like to share. The first is nelma.  The first day i arrived in french guyana was a thursday.  that saturday nelma and her daughter stephanie were going to be baptized.  Nelma had some problems and it didnt work out.  First time i met nemla she was nice but she seemed very shy, a bit sad, and very doubtful.  Over these past few weeks we have taught lesson after lesson with very little change.  Finally we decieded to just restart and stress reading the Book of Mormon.  Slowly but surely she agreed to read more.  Over these past couple weeks we have seen a complete transformation.  Nelma is always laughing and smiling and happy to see us. We have seen that as she reads more, she becomes happier and less doubtful.  

the other example is Whitner.  Whitner is 17 and we have been teaching him and his two brothers.  Whitner has struggled with drinking.  There have been a few times where we have gone to visit him and the last time he had drunk was just a few hours before we came.  He really did want to stop but just couldn't seem too.  We promised him if he read everyday that he could quit drinking completely.  Whitner now cant remember the last time he drank.  He loves the Book of Mormon and you can see a physical change in him.  

As missionaries we are not salesmen.  We are not here to convince people or persuade them.  Its as simple as read the Book of Mormon and decide for yourself.  I love it.  We carry with us something that changes people lives spiritually, physically, and mentally.  If you have any questions about the church its quite simple just read the Book of Mormon and you can decide for yourself.

Love

Elder Logan Robert Sackley


"missionary gumbo is worse than it tastes"