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

week 36

bonjourrrr

Weekly letters home are a joke and i feel like any RM can understand why-  I can write a massive letter for everyday of this week because there is just so much to tell! The week was so great, but I will only share two different moments:

Saying bye to Ephraïm was a depressing moment for sure. 

People told me before my mission that I would meet specific people that have been waiting for me to teach them. I feel like Ephraim was one of these specific people that I needed to find and teach so that he could teach me. As I reflect on our time together, I've realized he taught me a lot more than I ever taught him. When you start a first lesson your investigator rarely says; "I need to get baptized so i can have the holy ghost with me at all times so when can i get baptized?" and even if that does happen, Ephraim is probably the first ever to then say; "My baptismal date is too far away can i get baptized sooner" and  "My goals in life are go on a mission and be married in the temple and have a big family"

Maybe you have seen this, but Ephraim is the first I have ever known to leave the country and everything behind to insure he could realize this goal

But that was Ephraïm.  He will be in a city in the north for the next couple of months and then travel to Goiana. After a couple months there he plans on going back to Haiti and tackle all his goals.  Im going to miss him a lot for sure!

The Second story is of a less active man named Frere Anthony. 

We set off this week to find him, but all we had was a disconnected phone number and an address. His house is hidden back in a tight neighborhood...As in we squeeze through alley ways to get to the houses close to his. After walking through all the little alleyways, we finally got to the address and called out for him....and of course, there was no answer. We had gone all that way however and decided instead of turning back that we would hang out and ask some neighbors a little more about Anthony...of course, nobody could help us so we turned back down the alley and started walking back down the normal road. 

My favorite thing to do is to contact the first person I see after a lesson falls through-I honestly believe there are always reasons why the lesson falls through, and since we are in the area, there must be some reason for us to be there besides the canceled lesson....So down the road comes gold teeth sun glasses and some black shiny shoes. I comment on his fresh shoes and we start talking to him. After a while of talking though, I realize he wouldn't look me in the eye and kind of ventured off and went into the alleyway we had just came from.

Elder Chidester looks at all confused about what had just occurred...and right then I realized we had just found our less active. We both kind of paused for a second, and then of course ran right back through the alleyway and straight to the house we had just left...just in time to catch him going inside. That's where i decided to get all sneaky on him and called out; "Frere Anthony i didnt recognize you!"

He then shrunk into looking like a child caught stealing candy. We started talking and I saw his garden was in bad shape.He then agreed to let us come back this wednesday to help him in the garden.  

As we were walking away Elder Chidester asked me how I knew it was Anthony. 

I realized that I had no idea how I had figured it out, just that I knew I needed to contact him. 

It was a simple remnder that if we do all we can we will always be in the right place. 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

They don't have lawnmowers so instead I cut the grass with a machete

Storm over Cayenne

Goodbye to the realest Ephraïm

wedding reception

well dont mind if i do

Raphiel was looking like Metro Pole Tony Stark

this brazillian RM we found he doesnt speak a lick of french but he loved showing us his tats.  Were working on it

Elder Chidester made friends with a drunk brazilian grandma

i

week 35

hi!

hmm this week was dang packed so I am just going to start listing stories off:

1. There was supposed to be a flood this past Saturday. The ocean apparently was supposed to rise 4 meters and everyone was telling me it was going to be the end of the world: "Worst flood ever."  Well it ended up being super hot on Saturday and I honestly think that the ocean went down four meters instead of up...Moral of the story: the hype is never real.

2. I am going to have to rewind a couple months to give this story justice...

It was a Sunday morning and we were standing outside of a little shack building where our investigator Ephraïm had been renting a room- he came outside with his eyes full of tears and told us that he was completely out of food, and felt like he just couldn't keep living-he felt as if there was nothing he could do to improve his situation. Well how does a 19 year old boy from America respond to that? Easy. You don't. Collectively, we made the decision to go to church with the hope he would be given some blessing for attending church. For the next few months, Ephraim was able to find little work, but not enough-as in he has enough food and a place to sleep but that's about it.  

We have worked with Ephraim for months on helping him find work. He has been meeting with the Branch President and finally this last Wednesday I went to see him and get blindsided as he told us he was leaving for Brasil. 

....what??

He goes on to say that he had found a stable job there that would help him much more than anything here, and he can progress in the church work towards his goal of a mission by having such a stable job. 

I dont think I have felt so down as I did last Wednesday. I am excited for Ephraim, but I feel like I am just going to miss seeing him progress so much! I love that guy, and it's hard to accept he really is leaving. The first night I met Ephraïm we talked for maybe a total of 2 minutes, but I knew he was someone special-someone I feel very grateful to know.

He will leave this week for Brazil- so I will write a little more about this whole experience next week, but until them remember him in your prayers! 

3. So this past weekend Elder Cornish of the seventy came and visited Cayenne.  Everyone was so excited to have him come so we had a big fireside on Friday night with him presiding.  Frere Smith was asked to give the first talk which was essentially his story of conversion.  It was a super good testimony-he killed it! Elder Cornish ended up referring to Smith's experience throughout the fireside, which made him feel good. Our zone conference with Elder Cornish was the next day.  He shared a story with us which I am going to do my best to retell...

There once lived a poor boy with his widowed mother. They lived in a shack on the outskirts of a town.  They owned one cow and were dependent on it for survival. If the grass did not grow as much one year the cow did not eat and the family suffered. One day a wise man entered the village. News spread fast that he was there and the boy ran into the city to talk to the man in hopes of finding some cure to the family's poverty. After hearing the boy's story, the wiseman exclaimed that he would like to help the family, so they went back to the boy's home. 

So they went back to the shack and the wiseman went to the cow. He then walked the cow to an edge of a cliff and gave it a nice shove and of course then, the cow fell over the side to its death.  

The wiseman then looked at the boy who was stunned beyond comprehension and told him that he would return to see the boy again in 10 years.

-10 years pass-

The wiseman returns to the city to find a huge mansion built right at the city center.  He asks a man walking on the street who lived in the beautiful home...(And of course after some peering around, the wise man found that the young boy and the widow lived there.) The wiseman nodded in acknowledgment, and then left the city. 

Elder Cornish then relayed that to our mission work, in that sometimes we limit our capabilities by simply living off a "cow".  We become totally dependent on something to the point that we no longer see our full potential. The message of course then, is to kill your cow- eliminate the things that are holding you back from your Heavenly mansion. In other words, set your vision on a higher standard and create bigger goals then what you think you could possibly do. God sees our full potential like the Wiseman saw the boys potential, and allows us to go beyond our comfort zone in order to get there.  

Have the faith to kill your cow, 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

young bloods challenged team missionary in soccer.  Church is true we won 10 4

there is no one quite like Fréré Bady

week 34

brothers and sisters bonjur!

So I am walking down a road with my companion and we're passing by the chicken fight place for the millionth time... But this time the door is open and a guy is sitting outside the door. So I decide that we just have to get in there and see it.  So I tried to convice Elder Chidester to contact the guy, but he wanted no part of it.  So I took matters into my own hands and I walked up to the man and put my arm around him and said;  "You know I am quite the chicken fighter."  He starts cracking up and we talk for a little while.  I inch my way to the door with a grin on my face and asked if we could look around.  He's still laughing and he lets us in.  It was super sweet.  Grand stands with two drop cages above the ring.  Its 5 euro a person...maybe I'll drop in when they have an actual fight?

Spits balls and less actives

"1/6 of you will be inactive 2 years after your mission."  7 months ago I was sitting in the MTC when this statistic was anounced.  It has been on my mind ever since then because well, how is that even possible?

Now, as a missionary I am now more convinced then I have ever been before that when we are baptized and become members of the church, a light is opened up inside of us... some sort of chamber or part that was never there before.  This past week we spent a lot of time teaching less active members of the church. And after teaching so many this week, I have realized that even if one goes inactive in the gospel, when the chamber opens it never can be fully closed.  

Sitting across from someone who claims they have no testimony or don't believe in the church any more is a tricky game.  You can try helping them realize they do or that they have had real experiences but more often then not they have no desire to remember such experiences. It really can become a game of shooting in the dark as we attempt to find their inner light they've somehow forgotten they possess. 

This week we taught an inactive youth an inactive Returned Missionary and an inactive mom.

That being said, there was a lot of us shooting in the dark, and attempting to find some sort of connection they had with the gospel. After each lesson however hard it was though, I knew we had found that inner light in each of them. However dull the light within them had become, when we began talking about their testimonies their lights would begin to light up again. I have been working with the inactive mom for a while now and she has been able to come 3 weeks in a row (which means she has officially become active again!) 

With all three cases this week I realized that we needed to ask God for help. I realized quickly that there was no sure answer for everyone's problems, and therefore we really relied on the spirit throughout the lessons. I know as we strive to stir up their remembrance of what once was that they will come back.  It takes time and sometimes a lot of throwing out random questions you don't think will mean anything to them, and yet it somehow works out. I realized this week seeing a chamber be renewed with a less active is more joyful for me then seeing it be opened for the first time with an investigator.

I know with all less actives and inactives they can come back to the gospel and be stirred to the remembrance of what they once knew to be true-all it takes is stepping into the dark and finding that light switch. 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

CHICKEN FIGHT

the arena

my life motto

just taking my goats out for a walk