week 71

follow up on last week this will be a long letter

Elder Wilsons letter to me

How the freak is Martinique man!? I sent you an email with my updates and stuff on it so hopefully you got that. I just want to thank you so much for giving me the blessing that night. That meant so much to me and it really helped to comfort me and know that everything would be okay. One thing that really stood out to me was when you said that my mission wasn't over. That gave me so much peace knowing that whether I go back to Barbados or not, I will still be able finish my mission. 

I just want to thank you for being such a great zone leader. You were a huge example to me of a great missionary! You helped me to know that you can still have lots of fun but also work hard. You have a fun personality and you are also very spiritual! Those are two things I am working on balancing haha. I hope I can come back out there and have more good times with all of you!

Thank you so much for everything and for being a good example to me! 

Je vous aime bebe,

Elder Justin Jay Wilson

Pierre Joesph

I went and saw him on Wednesday.  He was chilling in a netted tank top smiling like always.  The cancer is actually in his pancreas and he underwent surgery this past Friday and will get it removed this January.  his eyes were a sick yellow from his pancreas not functioning properly.  It was really hard to just be cheerful and talk like it was all normal.  Im going to go see him Tuesday before I go

so that's the news

All my transfers have been done by telephone but since president was on the island this time around I figured id get it in person.  But not the way it happened.  

So we had to meet President and the Assistants at the hotel when we got there president rolled out in a white Mercedes and said "Elder Sackley hop in Elder cox, the other assistant, will ride with Elder Okano we need to debrief you on your assignment"  So I hop into the back of this white Mercedes President and Sister Herrington were in the front and Elder Broadbent the other assistant was in the back with me.  They had a stack of white papers and I fully expected to be given a couple black and white photos of my targets with a brief case containing a pistol and a silencer.

So once Elder 007 Sackley came back to earth President said "were sending you to Guadeloupe Elder Broadbent tell him his assignment" So Elder Broadbent starts telling me all about the island itself and what not and president cuts him off saying "no Elder Broadbent cut the clouds out tell him why hes going there" Elder Broadbent looks at me and says " well Elder Sackley Guadeloupe is struggling" president cuts off again "and youre going to fix this"

So for the next 30 minutes they spelled out the problems.  both previous zone leaders left the island and me and my old buddy Elder Moux are taking it over.  Im going to be blanking an area called Lamentin with a half trained elder who got separated from his companion beacause of... well issues between the two of them.  My area hasn't baptized in over a year and there are a couple elders that "you have to exchange with weekly"  im also the senior couple.  And my debuty Elder Moux is 45 minutes away from the rest of the zone in basse terre so im on my own in that sense.  apparently there is some beef and dis obedience because of it between the Tahitian elders on the island and American elders.  Elder Moux is Tahitian and just a baller so I guess were the boom squad in that regard.

Closing thoughts to all of this.

President came to inspect our apartment and he called me into our study room.  He was staring at my picture of Grandpa and said "how are you related to Elder Sackley" we talked for a while about him and when I dropped him off at the airport he gave me a tight reassuring hug and said "you can do this... live up to your name"

Guadeloupe on Wednesday.  Training, zone leader, white washing, some problems to fix, and an island to baptize

hurrah

Elder Logan Robert Sackley