September 1, 2015: Saying goodbye to Marseille, France
Yeah it will really cool to be even more on the coast, I guess on a
good day we are able to see Italy and we will be in a trio in Bastia,
there are two cities with missionaries in them so we are only 6
missionaries considering there are two trios on the whole island! Yeah
the coast will be really cool! I have already been by the coast but
now I will be completely surrounded by water! It is the most beautiful
place in the mission according to everyone though. We have a branch of
about 20 members and my comp is branch pres. My comps are Elder Landry
(who will be the driver) and Elder Frost (who is branch Pres.) and me
senior comp haha we are taking a huge ferry that takes 10 hours there!
More boat time for me I guess ☺️⚓️🚤🚤🚢 haha but it should be very
interesting, we only Leave the island once a transfer. People in the
Marseille ward were just really nice and love the missionaries so it
was easy to get along and build friendships. And I took some peoples
emails and expect to stay in contact with them, one of those people is
Frère Faudin. He helped me a lot while I was in Marseille to become a
better missionary and gave me a good example which is the best way you
can help a missionary really is just setting an example for them. And
the experience that made my faith grow the most was the experience we
had with Philippe and when we randomly called him and he was looking
at the picture of baptism just the night before and wanted to start
taking the lessons again.
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Frère Faudin helped me a lot while I was in Marseille to become a
better missionary and set a good example.
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| Pointing to the wall that Elder Schettler helped dig the hole for. |
Frère Faudin Family with son, Mathieu
But yeah this week we just went and said goodbye to the people that I
wanted to see before I left and all the last goodbye stuff before
Monday. But we also went out to cassis with Berthe and had a lesson
and took dinner out there by the side of the sea it was a really fun
change to the normal lessons and scenery we had at all the other
lessons. We had a cool talk about prophets and stuff, then when we
were coming back we had a total miracle. So we came back and I guess
during summer the bus time had changed but on the paper we looked at
first didn't have the summer times so we ended up missing the last bus
so we asked a guy to help us and he just like runs out and stops this
tour bus and tells him we are going to the Gare and the guy just lets
us get on with out paying! And then we realize as we took this bus it
would have taken us at least 45 minutes to walk there which would have
made us super super late.. But we get to the Gare and everyone runs
off the bus and gets on the train as the whistle blows and so we ask
the conductor who had his window open if we can just buy ticket on
board and he is like "nah don't worry about tickets, just get on" so
we got another free ride just at the last moment! And so we got on and
ended up getting home perfectly on time! Miracle huh? It was super
cool! But we also had district meeting and we talked about obedience
and about efficiency. Cause it's good to be obedient but we need to
remember that it isn't always the most efficient thing to just go
contact all day, or things like that, sometimes we need to but it's
more important to be organized and have plans on accomplishing the
things you have planned to do.
Anyway hope you liked my pictures! Love you all!
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| Alexandre Bourlet |
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| Sister Gregori |
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| Matthieu and Jimmy (the big black one) |
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| Henri |
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| Berthe |
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| Frère Robinet |
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| Michel Delens |
Elder Schettler
September 7, 2015: First week in Bastia on Island of Corsica, south of France, west of Italy
(Letter to mom)
As for the changes since I have been here in Bastia are for sure the
size of the branch and the influence of the church is super super
small here. It has only been open to missionaries for a few years, it
was closed for awhile and pres. Roney decided to open it back up a
couple years ago so that's kinda cool that I have the chance to be a
missionary here. It is super beautiful here though, Marseille was all
buildings and that was the big city life, now it's all small villages
and small town people so it is an adjustment for sure. But the scenery
here is to die for. The members (the 11 that are here) are super nice
and really cool. There isn't a lot of priesthood holders here, aside
from the missionaries I think there are 2 others that come every week.
So the missionaries sorta run this place which needs to change. So we
have some work to do. My companions are Elder Frost who is from
Arizona and played soccer in high school. He has been on Corsica for 7
months already and starts his 6 month downhill this transfer so number
12. And elder Landry is actually my other companion and he started his
mission in Lyon when I was with elder crawley and we lived in the same
house... So yeah I already knew him haha he is from Georgia and played
football. So I'm stuck around a bunch of jocks haha elder Landry is in
his 7th transfer so yeah. I'm elder frost is the middle child like me
with two older sisters and a little brother and sister so that is
interesting and elder Landry... Um he is.. Idk he just really cool and
funny. We have a lot of inside jokes and laugh a bunch. Our apartment
is super big here in Bastia! We also have ac which is SUPER rare in
France. We a,so have an amazing view of the ocean cause it is not far
from the beach. But the teaching is mostly porting now. Which means we
go and port and just hope we teach some one haha and aside from that
we have some Amis that we see I guess, they are all really interesting
people some are mostly just old people that like talking to us so we
need to change that maybe a little. Get them doing more stuff but it's
all good. But just pray for the part member families in our branch
cause there are a lot and we need these husbands to start coming and
being baptized. So just in general the families of the branch need
prayers. This week was really cool though and I'm excited to work here
in Bastia.
Love you all
Letter to dad:
The transfer was good, we took the boat and barely slept then it was straight to work the next day with a move of a member who is leaving
Corsica sadly. But yeah then we unpacked and got settled a little bit more on Corsica. The coolest thing I saw this week was probably Italy.
On a really clear day from our apartment really for in the distance you can see Italy! Haha it's crazy to know we are that close to it and
so far from France... That and all the beautiful mountains and sea views all around Corsica.
But the peach pie was always good, but if you remember I never had a chance to eat it since I was like 8 years old. We can't really determine if I thought it was good or not cause I never ate it haha would have been a $300 piece of pie... But yeah I always like playing
those fun little competitions that come from the friendly games like
that with the family. We are a family of smack talk and cheaters
(outside the box thinkers) which always is a funny mix. That kickoff
was sweet!! I LOVE football, I am so jealous you get to go and watch
it live! All I see is BYU highlights from other elders so they are
cool but.... It's byu... I can only imagine what the Utah ones are
like. And I will for sure gonna need to see those Oregon unis and
some footage. Haha Utah state is pretty good tho it should be a good
game right?
My new comps are really cool we all were "born" in Lyon in the same
apartment and elder Landry was with elder haws when I was loving there
so we have already lived together. They are both athletes so we are
gonna play a lot of sports probably in finding people and teaching
which I will love to do, and yeah we have a car and elder Landry is
the only one who is allowed to drive cause he has a permit still, mine
is up and can't be used anymore. So I get the back seat or front seat
sometimes but I don't know how to give directions cause I'm new so
mostly back seat for me right now. And as for this being the coveted
land.... Hahaha.... Maybe a little... Or a lot. The only people that
ever come here are the people that serve here and the AP's for an
exchange one time a transfer so it's kinda like everyone knows about
it but not many get to come here. There are only 6 of us on the whole
island and there are about 20 members so not a whole lot of church
influence here. But yeah Corsica is a beautiful place for sure, they
only send certain missionaries there. So idk how I got sent here...
The church was interesting experience, we had two elders in elders
quorum iPad they are both high priests so they shouldn't have be even
been there haha but we don't separate so yeah, and one was a visitor
from Toulon actually. We taught the lessons, blessed the sacrament,
led the music, said the prayers and bore testimonies haha so we have a
little say in the church here as missionaries... But it's a new
experience. It should help me a lot I think which I am excited for! I
will give you more updates when I learn people's names and more stuff,
but it is super beautiful and will send pics I took.
Love you
Email: benjamin.schettler@myldsmail.net
New Address in Bastia, Corsica
Les missionnaires
Résidence du Parc
Avenue de la Liberation Lot-228
Bat B
20600 Bastia
Corse
France
