Wednesday, May 27, 2015

week 44



ok lots of questions, lets see how i do

parting ways with Guyane was hard hard hard but Martinique is going super good already!  First off the island is beautiful.  Its been cloudy so the pictures arent stellar but it will come there are sail boats of the coast all day its calling your name pops.  Waking up is super weird because first i freak out PTSD because i realize im not in Cayenne and secound we have a beautiful view.

My comp Elder Belnap a little bit of background: he played football and was national champ power lifter dont be decieved i still smoke him on our morning runs.  He goes home in August so hopefully ill be giving him the hatchet hes teaching me his ways.  

Our area is fort de france and it is huge like tons of people houses and its just an urban jungle on the mountain side.  Lots of work to be done!  We inherited an area called Lamentin because of complications with transfers so our area is huge!  We have a car and im out of time.  We fly to guadelope thursday for conference!

Love 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

baptism of pierre louis and wilta

view from the apartment wake up to this every morning


Monday, May 18, 2015

week 43

This weeks later pains me to write: the phone rang Saturday and I picked up:
"This is Elder Sackley in French Guiana"

President Mehr:  "Elder Sackley in french guiana how many other elder sackleys are there out there?  well this is President Mehr in trinidad and tobago.  We're making you zone leader, are you worthy?"

"yes sir"

"Good! You're going to Fort de France Martinique to be with your old friend Elder Belnap good luck love you."

I can't tell you much about fort de france or martinique since I'm not there yet, as I leave Wednesday... so next email i'll explain and talk more about Elder Belnap as well.  All i know is i'll be zone leader and the acting senior couple handling all the money and apartments and boo boos for the missionaries is on the island with us.

But i feel like im cheating on Cayenne by talking about Fort De France.  Gosh dang it i dont want to leave Cayenne! I knew it was probably my turn to get the boot but that doesnt mean i wanted it to happen.  I love this place.  I havent really said many goodbyes that will be today and tomorrow but the ones i have said have killed me.

Oregon will always be home obviously, but Cayenne will be a close second place as I have been here for nearly nine months it feels like I'm leaving my family. i cant eloborate too much because its a joke trying to explain the pit i feel.  the worst song in the english hymn book and one of the best in the french is "God be with you till we meet again".  the reason i say that is in english we just repeat over and over the same words but in french it describes my feelings a lot better.  ill translate the chorus so you get my point a little:

 "Oh what joyful holy hope for those who follow jesus. We will see each other in his presence.  When Death, and despair are no more."

Never wanted to leave this place, but here I go...
Dieu soit avec toi la guyane

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

my big tahitain friend and I on exchanges earlier this week Elder Pollock

you dont want this noise..... second place in the priesthood ping pong tourney Elder Moux and his tahitian moves took me down

leno killing ping pong

mike mastey the realest and cat hunting partner

i hate cats

going to miss my brazillian friends

esthefany takes the heart

family narine one of my favorites

frere narine turns to us as we're walking out the door and says "elders have one last drink with me for old times sake and drank with all the parting missionaries.  (sprite) 


week 42

Bonjour

ok skyping home is really weird.  i cant really describe it but it was good to see the family.


The picture with me and mini Mike Tyson: We have a member named mike mastey that comes out with us a lot so we go over to his house to pick him up many times a week.  There is a little kid who loves me and hates Elder Chidester that lives there.  He always fist bumps with me and shows us how many push ups he can do.  He's 4 years old and has a six pack and back muscles.  Then after he's done his little show, i egg him on and he beats up elder chidester.  So of course he's cool.

We have been praying for a miracle the past few weeks, and as odd as it sounds, it came in the form of a recent convert being hungover and broke. It was weird, but exactly what I needed...I'll back up so you can understand a bit more: 

5 weeks ago i was sitting in Fréré Manuels house. At the end of the lesson he said he had a dream that God told him to leave the church and of course, that triggered the most intense conversation of my mission thus far.  He knew the Book of Mormon was true and that the church was true-he knew it all. Because of that, I didn't buy his story of wanting to leave, I just felt like something else was up.  We worked for the next few weeks with the Branch president and anyone else that would volunteer to help, but nothing worked. So thats when i started praying for miracles and one finally came.

We go over to Manuels house one day and find him looking the same as the day we found him for the first time.  Hung over and broken.  He spilled his guts drinking, fighting with his wife, lost his job, broke. 

We sat down and said a simple prayer and had a simple conversation with him. All was not lost contrary to his thoughts at the time.  We talked about his conversion and he admitted to me that this was the worst he's ever felt.  Even worse than the day we first found him. 

We talked about how he could get it all back. Yes, he fell hard into sin but with God the rise would be even greater.  We gave him the same chapter to read that we gave him the first day we met him and we're restarting his conversion.  We're going to re-teach it all and get him back to what he was and even better.

So I guess in one way or another, I am thankful that he fell so low that he could get back up again. That being said, I am thankful for the opportunity to restart with hung over recent converts.

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Mike Tyson junior

Eyvans the birthday boy this kid is everything i want in a child

Family night at Fréré Lenos house brazilians are the best

Ashley and Esthefany the two coolest girls in the world


Tuesday, May 5, 2015

week 41



Bonjur

ok so the zone leaders went to leadership conference in Trinidad this week so fearless district leader Sackley held down the fort.  It was fun being in charge but i think ill be content just hanging out at district leader.

This week was good,  for many reasons, so I will jot down just a few for you. I am first going to explain Danny the pirate.  He contacted us on the street by saying "which one of you is the older elder".  He is English guyanese and he a pirate of the caribean.  He stowed away on ships to the US throughout his life. It sounded a little off, and I was skeptical at first until he started talking about south bend Indiana and started naming random captials of states.  He is dope.  He says he wants to follow Jesus and then tells us how he stole 100 euros all in the same sentence...We are working on it.

Second, the talent show was crazy.  Like I have never seen anything like this before and I thought the building was going to come down it was bumping so much.  One day videos will help do it justice but i cant send them home.

I'm not going to go into immense detail into the next story because it's not my place to tell, but it's really touched me.  A lady named Soeur Narine lives in our area.  She has gone through a really ugly separation with her husband that I can't really go into too much detail about. The jest of it was that she was thrown out of the home.  Her whole family has gone less active and she bounces from friend's house to friend's house. This women is one of the greatest examples of charity I have ever seen despite all her difficulties.  I sit by her and talk to her every Sunday and every Sunday she tells me how she needs to feed the missionaries and how she wants us to go visit her friends.  She is always smiling and bares testimony every fast sunday of the Savior's love for us.  The other night I was talking to her and she said;

"Elder Sackley I want you to go to my family and get them all back get them to all come back to church."

Some of the people she was asking me to see she was so badly hurt by and yet she held no grudge against them, but was only concerned for them.  We fasted with her Saturday and we're going to go out and get her family back to church this week. Her story and her example have made me reflect a lot this past week.  What a perfect example she is of love.  

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

voodo mask

brazilians with cleats on... futbol is life

we say dont mess with texas in the states but in french guiana dont go anywhere near texas


Danny the pirate teaching me how to fix nets

MC Soeur Doulce held it down for the talent show

check the fresh new scripture case best 15 euros spent