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

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

week 40

We brought the thunder this week. Plain as that. 

There is this old super in shape man that I always see running in cayenne.  He is in incredible shape, and he always wears the same shirt that says "I love the Chaos".  That being said, the two things that I've learned from him is I am going to be a tank when I am an old man and run and do crazy stuff like he does, and two; I already love the chaos.

I think the old man has given me my life motto, because this week was chaos.  Monday night we were riding our bikes home I heard Elder Chidesters bike snap and voila we were stranded.  We dropped his bike off at the shop the next day and became foot soldiers for a good part of the week.  (You think this would slow us down, right?) But let me tell you: it could not slow us down.  

I then woke up Thursday morning with my left eye swollen shut.  I pried it open and figured I seemed to have contracted a good case of the pink eye. Not only that, my eyes were also super sensitive to the sun.  I could not for the life of me keep them open.  So I wore glasses for a good part of the week and in lessons I just taught with my eyes shut. (Try picturing that will you?) It was rough but it didn't stop us, as we fixed five baptismal dates this week and made progress with one of our less active Return Missionary/ Ex branch president.  

We reactivated a women named Suzane earlier this year and these past couple weeks we have been working on starting to teach the rest of her non-member family.  We went over to see Suzane one day and her husband Christiano was outside working on one of their cars.  Suzane has told us time and time again he is not interested and that he does not like the church.  He belongs to a Brazilian church that summons spirits or something wild like that. (Madison side note: yep that's a real thing).  So we went inside and right as we sat down, we told Suzane that we were going to go get her husband and teach him.

I walked outside and talked to him about the car briefly, and then invited him in for the lesson. When we went back inside Suzane's eyes were big and she told me I must have "some courage".  Christiano was really cool and had a lot of questions about the church.  We left him a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon and came back later in the week to an ecstatic Suzane. She just kept saying "he read he read!" We then taught Christiano and their daughter (keep in mind my eyes were swollen shut and all). Turns out he was more receptive then Suzane thought, and we set baptismal dates for both Christiano and for their daughter on the 16th. 

I mean, how can you not love the chaos?

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

me and my boy mike make it mastey

Damarcus got his heart broke and wrote his ballad the wall.... poor damarcus 

Some english guyanese pirate invited us into his crib so we made ourselves at home... featuring my pink eye

When we have FHE we make it count

week 39

bonjur

My first born child in the wilderness Elder Chidester had his 12th birthday he's getting the aaronic priesthood soon; it was precious.  No just kidding, he turned 19 on Thursday.  I made him pancakes and treated him to some West indian pizza for lunch but besides that it was just another day on the job.

As district leader I get to teach district meeting every Tuesday. Which means there is a solid hour long lesson I have to teach about which ever topic I feel most fitting to help my district.

Last week I taught about finding and teaching.  And more specifically finding and teaching the well off.

Our Branch President approached us this past week and told us he needs us to start finding families with cars. That might sound funny, but the branch here is an averaging  80-90 people every Sunday and it's made up of primarily singles or part families. There are about five whole families that hold the place together, and the branch president told us to go find a new generation.  

This means we are going into the nicer neighorhoods finding and teaching the more well off.  I know in the US we say the rich are prideful but believe me when I say you've never seen pride until you have talked to a french man in a nice house with a pool who is living in a country full of people he believes are inferior to him. So far i've learned that talking to the wealthy takes persistency, guts, and a little bit of charm...

Other things I have learned? Rich people have big dogs. I now am afraid of big dogs, however, if I ride my bike fast enough I can get away from big dogs. Also, if I tell someone I have something and hold out a pass along card for them they will leave their luxurious hammock and come see what it is just out of human curiosity. Another win? If i can get a man to laugh i can get a rendezvous (lesson with them).  Also pretty much every part of contacting a rich person is mental. It's all a mental game, you've just got to believe you can. 

Its no secret missionaries avoid the nice neighborhoods regardless of where in the world they are.  It's a stereotype that has been proven that we all avoid the uber rich.  We can find and teach if we stick to slums or apartments, but the true expansion will be found on the backs of families. Wish these metropolitans (wealthy people)  luck this week, as they're going to need it- we're bringing the thunder this week

Elder Logan Robert Sackley 

best believe i can cook pizza west indian style

i had to break into the zone leaders apartment because they lock the keys out so i scaled the wall and made it rain

Your going to have to build a bigger gate 

Service service

happy birthday to this dingis Elder Chidester. hes 15

got him some birthday cake

brown ocean how i love you

week 38

haalllo!!

I don't have a lot of time to write this week, as the power went out here...so hopefully I'll get everything down...

There are some weeks in the mission where it's just hard.  Things are just tough, and you're stressed...like you run out of toliet paper, Investigators fall through, and members are upset with one another... you know?  

But I think thats what I have enjoyed most about my mission.(Not the running out of toilet paper...) I think I have really learned to appreciate and enjoy the tough moments. Since playing sports my whole life, I feel like I now am fully understanding the idea that you've got to learn to roll with the punches- the best players or athletes are the ones who can respond to adversity and it is true of missionaries as well! 

You learn the most about a person when they are under pressure and when things go south.  You see what they're made of, and i love that.  As missionaries we ask people to change their lives by repenting and improving themselves.  Perfection was never found in the tri zone or the end zone or on the score board-instead it is found in the weight room, falling down on the squat rack, losing at the last moment, and coming short of a championship.

It's our failures or the hard times that have always pushed us to the achievements that define us.

That's why this week was so good.  Because there were some failures and for sure hard moments that continue to push me to the achievements that will define me-and for that i am always grateful.

My dad sent me a quote and I'm going to steal it because it fits well with my thoughts today: 

The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

That really encompasses perfectly how I feel today.  Don't ever let the lows hold you back but let them push you to the high points.  The tide is turning to the better, and it's time to push forward to perfection.

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

just getting my brazilian cook on

look at those beauties

me and my carnaval doll

My two trainees Elder Chidester and Mike Mastey.

week 37

Bonjour!

Transfer calls were last saturday so lets get to it....

Saturday morning I woke up in a panic.  I did not want to leave my area! It is safe to say that the entire morning was spent worrying only about transfer calls. Finally, the torture ended the Assistants to the President called.

"Elder sackley how are you?  should we make you wait a little longer for your call?  no?  ok you are staying in Cayenne!  and we're going to make you district leader there, we have a lot of trust in you as a leader love you bye"

It was a quick conversation and I think I initially only thought about how excited I was that I would be staying in this area for another transfer! I love cayenne.  I dont want to leave ever! And then after all that excitement wore off, I started realizing I had been called as a leader as well. I still feel like a baby in the missionary world and the call is deffinatley a humbling one. 

Anyways, so Elder Chidester has been begging me to cut his hair for him.  I really wanted to shave his head because he loves his long hair and hates buzz cuts. We got home this past Saturday night and were dead tired but I decided it was then or never for Chidester to get a haircut. As he was getting into bed half awake I told him that Sunday morning I would cut his hair and we'd both get buzz cuts because it was a new transfer, and I decided we should go Seal Team 6 Super Soldiers. He half consciously agrees and then passes out. 

Of course, the next morning I wasted no time after prayers to go and grab the clippers. He was still only half awake when I sat him down and took out the clippers and cut off his long wave of hair. It took him literally an hour to realize what I did to his hair...and needless to say, he wasn't too happy about it, but it's only hair, and he's all good now.  

General conference was sweet!  We all crowded around a little computer in the church and i will tell you conference is better than super bowl sunday for a missionary.  

I'm excited for a new transfer-we are working with a couple families right now and I am ecstatic to be in cayenne for some more time.  We have big things coming around the corner and now that we're all buzz cutted up Seal Team 6 is taking down Cayenne.

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Peace out to the realest gangster Amanda shes taking off to France to do her studies

CONFERENCE AKA SUPER BOWL SUNDAY MISSIONARY STYLE

 Bouillon d'awara  The traditional Guyane dish of Easter dang good

easter lunch

easter dessert!

hazing at its finest

Going full west indian on em chop chop