week 31-New Changes

Alo!

Well this week flew by but with lots of big news:

Firstly, Carnaval finally died off. It peaked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but now we just have the aftermath of it. It's nice being able to go through town without worrying about people wearing clothes (or not.)  We're just thankful its over.  

Secondly, Saturday was transfer call day...and the verdict is...

With transfer calls you just get a call Saturday and you're told where you're going to be going, and who your companion will be and all that. Usually its just one of the Mission President's Assistants in the afternoon ,but if you get a call in the morning it's always from President Mehr. His calls only mean one thing: a leadership position.  So we're sitting at our desks Saturday morning studying  and the phone rings... after playing hot potatoe back and forth between Elder Smith and I, Smith loses and answers the phone... 

Elder Smith is being transferred! (which is what we assumed,) and he is headed to Remire to become zone leader!  Its deffinately well deserved (I mean he had to train me for goodness sakes).  But we were super pumped he gets to stay in French Guiana.  Elder Smith is talking to president and then his eyes get big and he hands me the phone explaining that I needed to talk to President too... So the minute I get the phone, Elder Smith starts jumping up and down and going crazy. 

"Elder Sackley how are you doing?" President says, "Well you have had a lot of successes so we're going to make you a trainer. His name is Elder Chidester.  Are you worthy?"

"yes president"

"Ok i love you and good luck"

And just like that I got thrown the curveball and now I am in the one in the Lion's den! Elder Smith continued to laugh and laugh as I wondered what in the world I had just gotten myself into. 

My feelings now? I am one of the youngest missionaries right now in the mission as there are many missionaries with 18 months or more. I am a little panicked because I'm not super sharp in french.. But my attitude towards it all is lets see what two young missionaries can do. I'm a little nervous and feel like I'm swimming in neck deep water, but I feel like we are going to rock these next couple of transfers. All I ask is for your prayers and support-we're going to need it!

Love,

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Well i guess you could say its monsoon season

Leno made the branch president's daughter emma sit in the corner as he tried out his sketching skills

some real missionary feet

Frere Litampha and Frere Bady

week 30

Bonjour!

This week has been sweet for sure. But it's always sunny in Cayenne...

Carnaval has now hit its "peeking point" these next few days. Apparently this is when it's at its worst so we're going to just be working the outskirts of Cayenne, since the city has nothing for missionary work. 

This morning we went to the zoo. The zoo here is super sweet, all you do is walk through all the exhbits and its just throughout this big forest.  It was dumping rain so the zoo gave us some umbrellas to use throughout. So of course, we got to this monkey cage and me and Elder Moux start yelling at the monkeys and these are just the classic monkeys- (I'm going to attach a picture) but just imagine the monkey from Night At the Museum. Well one is on the cage just shaking the bars and we began to egg him on. So being the smart guy I am I try poking him with an umbrella. Right as it is in reaching distance he shot out and just rip my umbrella to shreds.  It was all funny until I got soaked the rest of the zoo tour.

Ephraïm has been a real stud for us.  Friday he spent the entire day with us just teaching. Because he lived in Brazil, we refer to him as our weapon because he can speak Haitian creole, french and Portuguese. Lots of our investigators are Brazilian so it makes their lives a lot easier, since they can understand his Portuguese. So since we were working with him all day, we started to get really excited for him-and began discussing him going on a mission. He talked about going on a mission a year from now. 

I think that recent converts have the most powerful testimony.  Yes they are usually simple, sometimes just a couple seconds long-but what they say is so precious, you can just feel that it's real in the sense that they aren't stale in their feelings of the gospel. It is fresh in their minds rather than a faded experience. I just love it. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a recent convert invite someone to church or bear testimony.

transfer calls this Saturday: pray I get to stay in Cayenne! This place is too great to leave so soon.

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

ps: my shoes that i wore for the baptism were gifts from a member named frere bady i have sent pictures of him before he hooked me up

estfany is my valentine

me and my guy Boye Steele he says hes from america he has an american accent and he says he use to run it with flavor flav

Cayenne

check out this little guy

elder smith carrier me from lesson to lesson on his handle bars

i dont know what they teach the kids in school here but does that not look like a KKK costume?

i made a little friend

the snakes were all in cages i put my finger in and petted one but not this bad boy

CURSE THIS MONKEY

aint she a beauty?

Elder smith has begun 6 months till sexy as you can see

week 29

blog blog blog

First off Elder moux the lizard wrangler: 

After district meeting every Tuesday i get on my bike and I ride it behind the church because there always are huge iguanas and lizards in the sun and I like to chase them around.  I never get close to catching them but its funny anyways.  So last Tuesday I ride around and Elder Moux is on the other side of the church helping me try to  catch one.  But this time elder moux gets one to go into a bush... and pretty soon we had all the missionaries surrounding the little bush. We could see the lizard but everyone was too scared to grab it because these things are big.  After a couple minutes of jabbing the plant with sticks and lots of girly screams we sent in the Tahitian.  He shot his hand in and yanked it right out by the tail.  After all the screaming and freaking out we took turns posing with the little guy.  And as you can see he poses for the camera.

quote of the week:

"I need to change because this life I'm living... its just not a life"

Monday night we were sitting on the road waiting to meet an investigator to have a lesson, when this guy rides up to us and instantly we knew he had been drinking. He shakes our hands and says he has done something terrible and he is ready to change.  Since we are missionaries, and teach everyone-we opened up the Book of Mormon right there and started teaching.  However, he was still intoxicated so we shared a quick message and he asked us to come to his house the next day. Afterwards, he hopped back on his bike swervingly he rode away.  The next day I was on exchange in Remire montjoly.  That night Elder Smith told me they met the guy again, and his name was Manuel.  Elder Smith said Manuel had his head down the whole lesson but would talk to them throughout.  They set a baptismal date with him but it was kind of a weak acceptance.

So Thursday we went back to see him.  We called to him from the gate and the door whips open, and here he was with a big smile on his face.  He lets us in and tells us he read the chapter we gave him, (Alma 7), twice!  We sat down and had a prayer and afterwards he flipped open his book and started sharing the scriptures he loved from the chapter.  He looked at us and said "look i can change... it shows right here i can change.  I need to change because this life I'm living...its just not a life." 

I have never seen such a physical difference in anyone before.  He was so weighed down by mental and emotional things that it physcially showed before, and now he was so uplifted by this new spiritual thing that it showed. The power of the atonement was so apparent.  What a wonderful gift!  May we all use it to make this life a real one and not one that weighs us down but one that lifts us up.

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Elder Moux is a fearless champion for wrangling this guy

like i said cayenne is the ugliest area in the mission

happy birthday elder smith!

LONG LIVE CARNAVAL

week 28

First things first-GO PATS GO

ok that's all for that.  Quick carnaval update: yesterday we were headed into town to teach a lesson.  We knew  carnaval dominates main street sundays so we were going to take a different route... Once we got to the outskirts of the city we did a 180 degree turn and were out of there.  I can't believe how packed all of cayenne was!  And they were just raging the entire city-covered by a sea of crazy french people.  

(now the good stuff)

The conversion story of Frére Ephraïm:

(We were going to title this golden streams lead to golden investigator...sorry mom)

One night we were headed towards frere smiths house to teach a lesson.  Elder Smith has been holding it in for quite some time and he called for a detour.  We turned down a street and he was biking hard way ahead of me, as I was lagging behind, and that's when I passed by a guy who calls to me- "Elders Elders!" (side note: no one calls us elders here as they don't really understand what it means.)  So I slam on my breaks and this small Haitian guy runs up to me. He tells us he has been searching for us and that the Elders in Brazil said they would send his info to us but they never did.  He gave me his number and then took off telling us he would meet us the same place the next night.  

We had planned a lesson for frere Smith that night but instead we talked all about him baptizing this guy named Ephraïm..the guy we had just found.  From that day on smith was at every lesson.  

Ephraïm is amazing.  He knows the gospel better than most members.  On the day before his baptism I was sitting with him and we talked about our goals in life.  I told him my plans and than I asked him what he was going to do. With a grin on his face he said, "all the good stuff" to which I said "whats that?"

"Im going to go on a mission and get married in the temple".

I love it... "all the good stuff" It made me realize I want to be more like Ephraïm.

Love 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Eprhaïms baptism!

after the baptism 

baptism celebration

rain!

all the missionaries do here is EAT

Madison's note: ummm...where did he get these shoes?!

week 27

Halllllo,

This week was an excellent week-we had lots of great missionary work and things are going good in Cayenne.

Carnaval update:

I would like to just say I don't need more sleep on my mission...for the most part i am fine.  But from 10:30pm - 6:30am I am sleeping. That is my time.  Don't take away from my 8 hours of sleep.  So come 6 am Sunday morning I hear coming from outside:  

"SANS FATIGUE SANS FATIGUE"

I tried curling up in a ball to block the noise but even through concrete walls-the music was booming.  We quickly jumped out of bed and ran outside to find that the street was covered with hundreds of people. Carnaval had a dance party all night in town and then they did a march through the city in the morning.  so here comes this huge mob and there's just a huge truck covered with people screaming unintelligible words into mics.  I still don't know the exact reason for carnaval since most people are embarrassed to talk to me about it because they know I am a missionary...So I guess the battle will wage on.

Sunday mornings can be one of the most depressing times on a mission: You work all week to get your investigators to church, as in you leave your apartment early to go search for people and than when you get to their house they are not home or they can't come. It breaks your heart every time. And then it starts all over again the next week. Personally I'm sick of getting my heart broken on Sunday mornings.

So this past Saturday comes around and me and Elder Smith decide we are not going to get beat Sunday and we start a fast.  We fasted all day and saw all our investigators throughout the day, as we taught them we reminded them the importance of Sunday.  Then Sunday morning comes around and we go and find our most progressing investigator... He walks out with a big smile on his face ready to go. (!)

Later he told us his friends came to get him to go work (which he really never gets a lot of and is always looking for) in the morning, but he told them sadly that he couldn't work because he had church to go to. After Sacrament meeting he told me he knew he made the right choice.  

We had more investigators this past Sunday than we have had in weeks and one of the less actives who use to be in the Branch presidency and is an RM came to church.  Later that day he called us and were going to see him again later this week.

Sunday mornings are from now on going to be a happy thing and something to look forward too.  We're going to keep striving to find the extra little push that will make the difference!

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

I found Moses!

Moses lives in Cayenne

Carnaval go home your drunk

im going to whip something like this after the mission... sorry dad

Football team this morning aint got nothing on us

week 26 (6 months)

salut,

Looks like I will be starting my sister mission with my sister.  The first 6 months have flown by and just make me realize how short this time is in the mission. 

A little flash back:

I was sitting in the MTC watching as two missionaries went up to the front of the auditorium to share their conversion stories.  I remember sitting on the edge of my seat listening intently as two missionaries shared their conversition stories.  Both stories stuck in my mind until long after and I remember sitting in my bed that night thinking that nothing would be better than getting to play a part in someone's conversion story.

Last November Smith Carrenan got baptized and it was one of the best days of my life.  Something I never really thought through at the MTC or the day of Smith's baptism was how much joy I would find seeing them progress after baptism.

Something that I have grown to truly love is the testimony of a recent convert.  Often in the church we bear our testimonies making them very extravagant and long but I love the short simple recent-convert testimony. We love to take recent converts to lessons and sometimes right after the opening prayer they will blurt out: Read this book and pray you will know its true!  

(somedays as a missionary you just want to face palm when they say that but I see a lot more genuine love in this short burst of a testimony than I have seen almost anywhere.)

Smith has been working with the missionaries probably 4 times a week since his baptism and I can say seeing his progression after his baptism brings me the same amount of joy as it did watching him get baptized. This last Sunday he was called to be the sunday school instructor for the recent converts and investigators.  Lots of recent converts stay in that class for 5 months after their baptism then go to how to become a teacher class.  But Smith took the fast tract.

Yesterday it was Smith's first day on the job.  I sat in on the class and taught with him. It was an incredible experience because all the same feelings of joy were there. Being able to see Smith go from investigator to simple testimony to working with the missionaries every week to now teaching recent converts and investigators... Makes me really love being a missionary!

Love 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

So this is a chicken fighting house.  They dont have dog fighting here they have chicken fighting.  Im going to become the michael vick of chicken fighting

just trying to get a coconut

giving a talk at zone conference

week 25

Transfer 4:

And the verdict.... For the first time in the President Mehr era a companionship will stay together for a 4th transfer!  Legendary.  Yes some of you are thinking does that mean elder sackley is being trained 4 transfers? Disregard that thought and go back to the word legendary and keep that one in your head instead. We were both praying that we could stay in Cayenne, but we just never thought that we would stay together.  I was talking to the assistant on the phone and he told me the news, and I just started laughing and asked him to repeat it again.  We're really happy though- we have some unfinished buisness to do and we're going to take this city by storm.

Speaking of that...

Carnvial 2015 is building up here. Yesterday we were teaching a less active and we just started hearing drums...  Loud drums.  I turn to Elder Smith and we started a little silent monologue that only comes from being together for so long, and we ended the lesson and b-lined for the door.  Clowns were flooding the street and the city was lighting up with carnival shenanigans. After seeing all of this, we got on our bikes and did our best Lance Armstrong impersonation out of there. It's going to be a big game of cat and mouse seeing that our area is cayenne where the carnival festivities are for the next few weeks.

On a totally different note, I have been thinking a lot about the year 2015, and I realized that some of the people closest to my heart will leave on missions this year.  This year will also be my black out year of the mission, meaning I do nothing but missionary work.  And honestly I am excited! So here is a little of my advice to departing missionaries: 

Firstly, realize your calling.

People always asked what do you want to be when you grow up?  And I can tell you that my anwser has never changed. I wanted to be Batman (and still do).  No I'm not referencing 7 year old me-this is 18 year old me as a senior in high school. Who wouldn't want to be a superhero?  I have always loved the idea of a higher calling, A sacrifice I make that leads to helping others or in other words, something meaningful.  I think I have found that out here.  And I think that the best advice I can give departing missionaries is realize your calling as a missionary is so much better than any superhero-including batman.  Yes I dare say that.  He can save the city for the day but it will need saving again tomorrow. He can only bring temporal freedom, whereas you as a missionary can save someone for eternity.  You can save the city forever! Give them something incorruptible like the gospel.  A standard or something to chase.

No you will not have things like; Action figures made out of you, T shirts with your name on it, Kids pretending they are you in the street, and you wont have a statue in city hall and Police shouldn't be trying to hunt you down...But your Father in Heaven will be proud of you and the work you are doing.  And that beats anything the fame of a super hero can give.  Remember who you work for, where your calling comes from, and what you bring.  And than do everything you can to be the super hero missionary your Father in Heaven knows you can be and will be.  I'm so excited to hear all your stories! You all are my example, my standard to chase after, and someone I can look up to.  I love you all a lot and can't wait to hear about your adventures!

Wannabe batman,

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

since were going on four transfers its safe to say elder smith and i are dating

I am Batman

hit this son of a gun twice with an electric racket and it still was flying

A wild sloth i tried shaking him out of the tree but that bogger was hanging on for life

don't worry, he's still alive.