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?!