Elder Sackley goes to the West Indies: 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