Week 96

Bonjour

Hmm this week has been a lot better than the past two.  Not because the area has changed a lot, but my perspective has.  I have got two stories.

So we have been trying to be creative in our finding efforts.  So this week we had a whiteboard with "Qui sommes-nous?" written on it just "who are we?" Yeah, we're elders. We're not too creative but the gest was to transition into talking about children of our Heavenly Father or talking about who we are as missionaries just sort of depending on how the reader takes it.  So I'm talking to a guy and than a nice Mercedes rolls up and starts talking to my comp.  

I finished my contact and come up to the door and start talking with the guy as well.  He's got a super nice car, nice clothes on, nice shades, big ol watch and just a nice grin.  He introduces himself as an evangelist pasture and hops out of the car.  

He's from Africa and he starts explaining as disciples of Jesus Christ, how we must preach and no joke just goes off about how we can in a sense "convince" or "sway" people to believe.  He's pulling out all the stops showing us how to use our hands and how we must yell and shout. It was unreal.  It was really more comical until the thought "2 Nephi 28 3-4" came to my head.  It's a verse about preaching or teaching to edify oneself.  I thought I do not want to set off angry pasture right now. I'm not looking to pick a fight.  But the thought wouldn't leave.  So I opened up and start reading and bore testimony that the only thing that matters is the Holy Ghost and no amount of yelling or hand gestures can bring its presence.  

He paused for a second and agreed, backed off a bit and agreed to let us come on his television preaching program.  We're still undecided about that though ahaha.  

Second part is I was reading in Alma 38:3-5.  It's Alma talking to Shiblon explaining how proud of him he is for being diligent and faithful even when things were hard.  And I thought about that a lot this week.  There have been parts of my mission where I knew Heavenly Father was proud of me for a baptism, a lesson etc.  But this scripture shows how proud a father is of a son for remaining faithful when things weren't going well.  

And I guess thats a bit of my motivation. Things haven't been easy at all lately.  I have been really stressed and just having a hard time in general. Maybe the hardest time of my mission. But I know that if I remain diligent, if I remain faithful that that will be something far more precious for my Father in Heaven, something He will be really proud of. 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

voici Elder Crapo

Give it here Malfoy or I'll knock you off your broom!

beach volleyball this morning for p day

the martinique boys climbing on the slavery statues

Week 95

June 6, 016

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!

I was pretty sad when i got wind that ALI died.  So i have been quoting him all week.  It doesn't translate as well in french and no one understands the reference.  It's more for me i guess.

So i didn't write a blog last week but i have a new comp!  His name is Elder Crapo from Utah.  So officially there are 3 elders in all of french side who have never had a tahitain companion.  I'm the only one over my year mark and it being my last full transfer i think i will go undefeated against the tahitians.  Still not certain if i'm happy or sad. Anyhow, my new comp has been out about 10 months.

So a couple of weeks ago i quoted a DC scripture and than Dad gave me the challenge to memorize DC 121: 33-46. I have it down in english now and i'm going to memorize it in french too. 

Things have been really hard lately.  To be honest, it's been a real challenge.  The group is doing good but just missionary work in general has been tough trying to find effective things to do.  We're getting creative though or at least somewhat using our brains right now.  We set up a table on the board walk with a BOM and some pamphlets on it.  Than a white board behind and we kept changing what it said like "what makes you happy?" etc.  It was good fun but we didn't see fruits from it in the moment.  A couple days later, during some contacts people said "oh yeah i saw you on the board walk the other day" bof (whatever) will see if it goes anywhere.

So what i'm saying is send me some good creative proselyting ideas. 

i'm desperate

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

finally got a pic of Darius' baptism!

Week 94

no blog today because im just not feelin it. 

Mount Pele! (Hell Mountain)

Week 93

Salut

This week was tough i dont feel like highlighting much except one story.  

DC 121:38 Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.

One of our biggest successes in the recent week was getting new investigators, one of which was named Madeline. She was a Catholic meaning she read Psalms ocassionaly and prayed to Mary when things got rough.  We discovered a huge upside with Madeline when she told us she was good friends with a slightly active St. Lucian lady named Sr Anthony in the group.

So we arranged a lesson with the two of them and the son of Madeline.  We had role played with 

Soeur Anthony before she was ready and we were excited.  The lesson started and immediately creole began to fly all over the place.  Madeline was upset about something and Sr Anthony was even more upset.  Elder Brimhall looked at me for some translation but i was lost.  Ten minutes later, Sr Anthony stands up and says "elders push in your chairs we will not stay here!"

Now I'm mad.  Sr Anthony storms out and i follow her out half confused, half angry. She just dropped our investigator and I'm mad at the way she acted in front of her as well.  So i asked why she did that.

Sr Anthony has a son named Marclin.  Marclin was baptized a couple years ago and after some misconduct was excommunicated from the church.  I have talked to him a bunch.He's friendly. He even gave us a ride a week ago.  But Marclin had apparently heard we were teaching this lady and went over to her house a day before and told her his excommunication story and just loaded her up with anti Mormon materials.

NOW IM REALLY MAD

So for the next couple days I'm just hunting for Marclin.   Yesterday we finally crossed paths and i just bluntly asked what was going on and why he was acting like this.  He just shrugged me off and denied it all.  There is not much resolution to this letter other than my testimony that the island can be filled with all the anti, all the winds and storms the devil can conjure up - no matter what, the work of salvation shall go on and Trinité will keep moving forward.

elder logan robert sackley

Week 92

sigh

No update on the group progress because President Otto, the district president, came this past Sunday and since technically we're apart of the FDF branch, we had to go to FDF church and lots of members don't have cars and didn't come from Trinité.  But will be back at it this next week.

Things are going slowly in Trintié.  It's really hard, to be honest. It's always been the big challenge to find effective things to do between 12-5 because everyone is either working, napping, drinking, or naked on the beach.  We have been working hard all day.  

Since I have gotten here, we probably contact at least 5 hours a day and in the first three weeks we got three new investigators.  Which was a blessing but not the fire we need to make a group into a branch.  This past week things started to click.  We got 7 new amis which was huge.

Since the area didn't have the most 'diligent' missionaries the past couple transfers before, there really has been no teaching pool since I have gotten here.  I don't have any particular stories to share, but we're battling our way back up.

I wish I had more stories to share, but what happened this week will just be better in a different setting.

I love you all.

elder logan robert sackley

ahhh p day in Martinique never looked so good

more p-day fun

showed my comp how to make a sweet bannane and bannane pesé  - this right here is how you get fat

i took second place in a branch activity on Martinique trivia... they weren't happy

teaching in a bar - we got in a chant off between us saying WATER and them saying BEER and than we all ended up chanting MORMON MORMON MORMON together

random pic barrage

Week 91

Salut

Well i got to talk to the family for a moment yesterday but ill share a couple different thoughts from the week.

I haven't been in Fort de France since i got here because it's too far and we don't have the kilometers to just drive there all the time so i haven't seen Pierre Joesph, the recent convert who got cancer before i left.  So here's the run down.  i had been talking to him on Guadeloupe. He had been flown to France to get better treatment. The cancer is in his liver and pancreas so he was in France for 2 months and we talked on the phone often.  He's now back in Fort de France and since i was driving to the church in FDF i decided i would drop by to see him.

It was weird being back in the old area. It hasn't been terribly long but it was weird being there again.  I called into his house and he could see it was the missionaries so he said "come in." When i walked in i was "fawaka" which is talkie talkie for what's up. It was just something he always said to me when i was here and he jumped up and said SACKLI!  He grabbed me and hugged me for a while and he just kept saying "my friend my friend" over and over again.  It was a real special moment. i love pierre joseph.  We caught up for a while. He's going to start another treatment later this month till November.  He's lost a lot of weight but he's doing well.  He wants to come to the US in 2017 so me and elder belnap can hang out with him ahahah.  I have it all on video and its my favorite video ever.

A rather insignificant moment that i have been thinking about a lot this week...

We were contacting a house and a big white metropole lady came out instantly stating "there is no God i don't want to hear it. There are wars, sickness etc.  There is no God." Somehow i salvaged the contact and we talked for a moment and she said "ok ill show you a miracle."

We walked onto her porch and she showed us a hummingbird's nest and than went on to show us A TON of beautiful photos of the hummingbird feeding the babies and it was actually really impressive.  Like i was loving it.  The thought came to me "this is the proof of me. Wars, sickness, etc is a proof of the opposition."  I didn't roll my eyes at the thought, but i was still like "Ok, yes but this is a white metropole. She's going to bite my head off"  but the impression came again and so i testified of all things pointing back to a God and a supreme creator and that her photos were a testimony of our message.  The things that were stopping her was proof of a devil not a God.  She stopped for a moment the spirit was very strong, and than she just pushed back in with "no god no god no god" but i knew she felt it and if anything else it was a moment for me.

Yessay

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Random stuff ...

A whole bunch of shenanigans from the week ...

Fort de France

Ok he never smiles in photos. I don't know why, but it was a good day!

Back in Fort de France