week 52 (One Year)

lots to say not much time to write

This week was really good!

First off we have an investigator named shenor who loves the gospel but his comprhension just isnt quite there.  it helps us a ton when we have members with us.  So after church on sunday we sat down shenor, Frére Noel, and a couple other members.  We had a plan in our mind and than Frére Noel took over.  He set a date for shenors baptism (1st of august) and than proceded to set rendezvous for the next two weeks coordinating with each member to come with us.  So ya baptism next week thanks to pere noel ahahah hes a killer!

ok in honor of hitting hump day this week i want to just reccount my first day as a missionary because it feels like it was seriously a week ago.

I will be forever grateful i left so early in the morning.  My head was elsewhere and i didnt really have time to process anything.  Quick hugs and a security check followed by a final wave and i was off.

I sat down next to two other missionaries an elder and sister one was going to california the other philipines.  A taller elder joined us he was going to mexico and i sat next to him on the flight.  He actually was at dance festival he did the electric dance or what have you so we talked for a while. to try calming the nerves i joked about watching a movie on the plane.  He didnt think it was funny.  When we got off in Utah i tried convincing him to run away with me and we could just live normal lives ahahah. once again he didnt bite.  So there i was.  I went down the escalator to be greeted by a big family that had a big sign saying welcome home!

Thats when my stomache turned realizing i wouldnt see anything like that for 2 years ahahha.  I plopped down in the airport and talked to a bunch of new missionaries who were equally nervous.  Uncle allen came and got me we rode a bus to his car in the parking lot.  we went and saw grandpa at the rest home he told me a story about one of his companions who tried sun taining while they contacted.  Than we ate some phili cheese steaks.

Thank goodness uncle allen despite his pink shorts doesnt tolerate cry baby stuff he hugged me and i was off.  i was ushered by an elder going to russia.  when i told him i was going to the carribean he asked me if that was even a mission living on tropical islands.  I got my books and was plopped into class looking across at my future MTC comp Elder Argyle who had taken 5 years of french and helped me understand what the teacher was saying to me.  

I ate chicken cordon bleu and a lot of ice cream to numb my brain. i plopped my head on my pillow and realized i was a dead man ahah.

And the reason i reaccount this all is because the first year flew by SO fast.  I cant believe it.  i loved every moment of it and im so pumped for this next year.  I love you all 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

home boy jerson

trinité church

Trinité is real pretty

Fort de France

im a french man

You can't escape me! 

week 51

this week was killer

Firstly, the new mission president is in the house.  He flew into Martinique on Tuesday and Elder Belnap and I  met them there so they could follow us to the church with their rental car.  They are SUPER nice people, and are  very warm and friendly.  It's going to be sweet working with them, I can already tell and it makes me way excited. We had a "get to know you" meeting and then interviews with President, and then we were off to work with the President. 

The very first thing we did with the President was that we found a car that had broken down on a hill and so we all hopped out and pushed a car up a hill in the blazing sun. It was HARD.  We were all sweaty after that, and then went to our first appointment.  We taught a really good lesson and set a baptismal date in front of the president just to show him what sup (hahah).  Then we went and saw Pierre Joesph, who absolutely loved the attention and the chance to meet the mission President! He talked our ears off and we had a good time talking with him.  As we were leaving to drop president off at the hotel he asked us what we were doing for dinner- (Its just mission culture but no one eats dinner here-we eat big lunches and then work the rest of the day...so we rarely ever have dinner appointments.)  So he invited us to dinner with him his wife and the branch president. and uh we werent going to say no to that!

Intially it was supposed to be on top of the hotel which is SUPER nice but the restaurant up there wasn't opened so we went to another restruant.  Amongst the missionaries we always joke about how we want to eat there but none of us have enough money to buy even a salad there.  So we were about to pee our pants when we walked in.  I got a big ol steak and it was heavenly: best meal of my mission.  We got to talk to our new mission president and his wife and our branch president.  It was legendary to say the least.

And then on Saturday Pierre Joesph got baptized.  It was real sweet, he's a cool guy.  From day one when we walked up to him and he said "oh the jesus men are here to save me" until now he has been a super star.  A couple days before his baptism he got hit by some anti mormon literature by some friends and they told him the church was the devils church and in reply he said "well i guess i love the devil." (obviously joking).

what a goof

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

yes desert too

president lovin some pierre joesph

the hotel

Elder moux caught a bird

baptism!

week 50

bonjur!

I have no idea how it's july already. It's kind of hard judging what time of the year it is when its always the same weather.  But wow july is here and its going good already.

First off: the new mission president is on his way to Martinique tomorrow.  He speaks french but who knows how much french that means.  He gets in tomorrow at 10 and we will pick him up and then have a meeting with the zone at 11. He then is planning interviews afterwards, and he wants to take a swing at teaching with us in Fort de France with us for a couple hours!  Should be fun, I'm real excited and we're not quite sure exactly what we want to do but we're going to go real hard on him.

In other news our investigator Pierre Joesph is going to get dunked this saturday (as in he's going to get baptized!)!  He's a refferal from Frere Noel and he is super excited about being baptized.  He never stops talking about the temple and asks eternal marriage questions all day every day but i love him.  his first sunday at Church was the fast and testimony meeting in june so afterwards he told me he was going to bear his testimony in july.  I didnt think much of it but yesterday i was sitting in Church with him and his eyes were just fixed on the pulpit and i asked him hey do you still want to give your testimony? It seemed as if he was waiting for me to ask him if he wanted to, because halfway through my sentence, he just sort of got up. It was one of those proud parent moments. 

He bore his testimony on the Book of Mormon and the Church and declared I'm getting baptized saturday!

And hey we're not going to deny the man of his desires! 

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Grilling on P-day!

Look what we found! 

Cows run this town. 

week 49

Bonjur!

Well, remember last week about how I was making fun of the locals for their fear of the sand pollution? Some how karma came back to me-I don't know if  the allergic reaction was from the sand exactly, but I am going to blame it on the sand. I have woken up the past couple mornings with my eyes swollen... Mom relax im doing fine its just this dumb sand.  

This week was cool.  And when i say cool i mean COOL.  I am at a loss of words to describe it any other way, but anyhow we will suffice with cool.  First thing first the West Indies Mission is dead as of this week. It would seem I am one of the last west indian borns.  We have now become the Barbados Bridge Town Misison.  but I still will bleed WIM.  Here is the last letter I received from President Mehr:

I would love for you to stop by the house and let's eat a steak together. It has been wonderful to know you and I think that you are an outstanding missionary. You will do and have done great things in the mission. You are a great leader and I'm so excited for the future with you in it. And the Lord continue to bless you. You are truly one of his great ones. I will miss you tremendously.

With love,

President Mehr

When i got to Martinique everyone talked about the lack of member work or the work not progressing.  Well a couple weeks ago my companion and I decided to fast. A challenge President Mehr gave us was after you fast and before you eat write down your experience of the fast, as in how you felt, what you saw, impressions you may have had. He said that if you do that before eating, you will end up writing down revelation...and i mean, who doesn't want to prophecy? So we did it.   

At the very end of our fast as we were writing, I wrote down the thought that Frére Noel would play a huge role in the misisonary work here.  Since that day he has referred to us to 10 people.  And not only just referred us to his friends, he also has gone to all the lessons and taught and bore powerful testimony with us.  The fruits of this work with Frere Noel has so far brought 3 baptismal dates that we have a LOT of confidence in and will set a couple more later this week. 

The man is on fire!  Even yesterday we were teaching one of his referrals and  since a member of the District President was with us, we decided we'd give frere noel a break because he works with us a lot and we had a member with us already.  We sat down to say the opening prayer and when the prayer finishes we look up and frere noel is walking down the hill, coming to join us. The entire lesson long it was like the spirit was on fire and being channeled through Frere Noel. He's incredible! 

I realized after working with him that he just knows how to do missionary work all on his own! Also, that more often than not, we as members really need to have the spirit of Noel in giving referrals to missionaries. Oftentimes when missionaries ask for referrals, members feel like they've already done their work-as in, they've taught a lesson once or twice with missionaries before and therefore their work is done. Rarely do members take missionary work on their own backs and work for themselves in every day life.  We try balancing our social life and spiritual life rather than meshing it together.  I believe Frére noel is just getting started and he's going to continue killing it with sharing his testimony. Imagine if we all decided to have a little noel fever?!

If we stepped outside of our comfort zone and started being who we proclaim to be - full time members of the Church who are always being an example and sharing the gospel you know and love.

I love you all now go out and get some noel fever! we need you in the mission field with us

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

Let's go sailing in Martinique dad!

Frere Noel leading the way

never cry for someone who wouldnt cry for you

week 48

Bloggg time

So right now in Martinique there is a lot of "pollution" as the locals would put it.  This polution is actually sand from the Sahara Desert...YEAH. Apparently this time of the year big gusts of Wind pick up the sand and carry it across the ocean and blast poor Martinique. (There's something you didn't know!)  It really just looks like foggy all the time and it doesnt effect breathing or anything... at least i have not noticed it but its just another reason for them to complain ahahah

We have been praying a lot to start getting the trust of the members here because seriously the auxiliaries we are working with are SHARP.  They know what they are doing but are not super thrilled by missionary work because of the lack of succsess in previous years.  This week we gave about 10 priesthood blessings to members and were in and out of the older generation member homes serving and helping them and stealing away their friends' contact info.

I'd say right now is probably the most excited/hungry for successes i have been my whole mission.

So this week we were contacting and we were getting numbers and some doors shut on us when Elder Belnap says "elder sackley we were forordained to be the missionaries in Fort De France and i bet people came up to us and said you better find me when you two are together..but how will we know when we find them?"  I replied a little sarcastically "because they told me they live in door 4!" And then knocked on "door 4" but no one anwsered so i turned and knocked on door 3 and a lady opened up and said

"I looked through the peep hole and i knew that seeing the two of you had to be a sign. Come in!" 

And then we met Sondra. She's 45ish she has two kids and a nasty case of cancer.  She is a practicing catholic church goer and as she put it at the end of the lesson  "I am willinging to drop everything to join the Church if this message is true."

Do you think Sondra is the end of the curse of Fort de France?

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

week 47

Bonjour

This week was a killer. Martinique probably has one of the smaller branches on the french side of the mission, but probably also has the most solid members.  All the members are firm in the gospel, and have 20 years in the Church...Which is great, but we've been feeling like they're in retirement...so we are slowly trying to push them back to working with us.  One member in particular from Canada named Fréré Noel turned into Père Noel (Santa) this week as he started giving us presents. 

At one point this past week we went to meet with an investigator named Pierre Joesph and the way he greated us was: "the men of God have arrived, now i am happy" Of course he accepted a baptismal date and we are excited to "dunk" him soon. 

I went on exchange with a really young missionary who has been having some stress and lack of will problems.  He came into my area for the exchange, so i was determined to make sure this Elder felt accomplished.  We had been teaching these guys named Carl and Jean paul and i knew we could commit them to a baptismal date so i set the return rendezvous to be with this young missionary.

When we got there I told the green we were going in guns blazing-no way we were going to get denied.  The lesson was going really well and i turned to this elder and in English just said fix the date for july 4th and then kind of sat back and let him do the rest.  It was one of those moments where you hold your breath and have the confidence the greenie could do it.

He stumbled over his first couple words and he seemed a bit nervous, but he finally extended the invite. Both investigators sat and thought for a minute.  (By this point I was purple in the face from holding my breath) And they accepted! 

When we walked out of the lesson this elder had a strut in his step swagger going on it was sweet!  

My whole mission i have wanted to be the best missionary possible.  I thought i would find the most satisfaction in improving my missionary skills in going out contacting, setting dates, and doing what missionaries do.  Now being zone leader for roughly a transfer i have found a lot more satisfaction in seeing a young missionary find that strut in his step.  

Booyah

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

our Church is a room above a car shop

week 46

Bonjur

Hopefully i will have more time to write today but we will see

i feel like i owe you all a better picture of what this place is like so thats what im going to try to do: Martinique has one branch in Fort De France in a little room above a car garage.  It has a group on the east side of the island that is consistently about 10-15 people.  The branch is at about 55-60 people. Statically it is one of the smaller branches and slower places of missionary work we have on the French side of things. 

The branch itself is built on the back of a bunch of RMs and young RMs at that.  So it is SWEET because we all seem to be on the same page. They just get it. They know what the branch needs and are determined to get it going.  The Branch president's name is President Lagin. He served here 4 years ago maybe a little more and the Elders Quorum president is Fréré Telga who was AP when i came into the mission.

My area is Fort De France which is the biggest city in the french side of the mission or at least i believe so and its just an urban jungle of tiny roads and houses built on unstable slopes.  The island is beautiful and super green with big mountains all in the distance.

And honestly i love it on Martinique.  The problem we encountered in Guyane was lots of new members with not enough older stable ones.  Here, it's a lot of old stable members and not very many new ones.  So we're going to start lighting them up.  We just fixed some zone goals for baptism and key indicators and we're calling it TURNOVER8 which has meaning behind it so I will explain it one day maybe.  But the zone is fired up.

Martinique is a big sleeping giant and we're going to wake her up.

As for me and my comp we're doing really good.  On french side something i have come to realize is that you cannot fluff things up with investigators. we teach with sledge hammers not feathers because its the only thing people respond too.  If we dont teach with power and authority they eat us up.  And we saw how great it can be when we do throw it down this week when we stated boldly the doctrine and bore testimony. they could not reject it.  We are gracious in our approach and contact and lethal in our teaching and boldness.

Float like a butterfly sting like a bee

Elder Logan Robert Sackley

you so purty martinique

Hi MOM!

look at these baby path ways they call roads here

We dressed up like little French men. It's my new style.