Life in Lyon: November 2015

Hey so I don't have a ton of time his week, but I think you guys all know already but I got transferred off of Corsica! Haha I wasn't there for too long which was too bad because it was beautiful down there, but at the same time I got moved to probably the next most beautiful place! Elder Landry went to ClermontFerrand and I am now in Annecy right by Switzerland! No more wearing short sleeve shirts and walking around town, it is big boots, coats, gloves and everything for Elder Schettler. I got here last night and it was freezing! It is really cool here! I mean like literally cool, as in cold. I got here and it was 1 degree Celsius. It was like 25 down on Corsica! They trying to kill me? I don’t know how I am not sick already haha. I am with Elder Sebra now, he is from California and is a little bit newer to the mission I will be teaching how to be a missionary and what not, but we should have a lot of fun anyway! We are here in a branch but it should be turning into a ward soon I guess. It is a really cool place, it is like Zermatt but in real life. Btw Zermatt isn't that far from me haha the real one in Switzerland! Just s cool fact.

This past week we were just doing normal stuff though down on Corsica we were on an exchange the day of calls and I was down in Ajaccio so I didn't really have too much time to say good bye to everyone that I wanted to but we got to give talks in sacrament meeting where we were able to express our love and appreciation for the gospel and the people in the branch down in Bastia! They are the coolest people ever down there and I would love to see them grow even more but I got called away! We didn't really have much time to go porting or anything the last week cause we had so many preparations to do before we left and also we had a couple Europe-wide meeting that we had to watch with everyone so we lost some time doing those things, but the hardest good-bye from this past transfer was saying good bye to all the people I was serving with. We all were so close down there and now we don't get to see each other as much haha I know you are glad I had good companions but I assure you I was even more glad. Haha they really did become like my best friends and that's what the mission is all about. Elder Tihopu also went home this past transfer so another friend is gone from the mission! I will have to visit him in Hawaii while he is at school... Haha jk. But Elder Sorenson finished as well. He is from Draper and was one of my best friends out here. If you hear anything about him you should try and find him haha he would love to meet you I'm sure.

And no French people celebrate Thanksgiving... But thankfully in Annecy we have American families who invited us over this Sunday for a Thanksgiving dinner! Haha we have a few American families here I guess and I am excited to get to know them! And the French ones too of course!

From Palani's email on November 23, 2015

I had to pull some strings to make it happen, but I was able to make

it up to Lyon today, so I could say bye to Elder Sorenson (who's going

home) and finally see Elder Ben Schettler (One of my homies from

Olympus). So that was pretty sweet. Wasn't really supposed to go to

Lyon since im staying in Valence.... But hey you gotta do what you

gotta do. The office elders weren't too stoked about it, but it was

the last time I'd be able to see Sorenson before he goes home and I

haven't seen Ben in 14 months, so wasn't about to pass up that

opportunity.

Lyon was pretty sketchy today though. A lot of us were chillin in the

Gare (train station) when we heard there was an attempted terrorist

attack at the mall right next to the gare (the police were able to

stop it before anything happened). The police then blocked off one of

the entrances to the gare and were clearing people out of that area

when we heard an explosion. It turned out to be a controlled

explosion, by the police, of a bag that someone left by the entrance.

But since none of us knew that at the time, everyone just started

running.

November 30, 2015

All those pictures made that trip look so fun! I miss having a good

old time just with the family over some good old home made cooking and

a warm toasty fire when the snow is coming down. Haha here we only have

wall heaters, if you could call them heaters haha they are more like

warmers. Because the most heat they pump out is warm at best so I

always have a couple layers on even when we are at our house. Haha

My first week in Annecy can be decried in a couple letters... COLD.

seriously thought I walked into Antarctica once I got here! I know it

is the Swiss alps and everything but come on.. Corsica was so nice and

perfect and now it's snowing! I woke up to snow my first morning here

and I about had a heart attack (idk if it was good or bad) but it blew

my mind it has been a long time since I have seen real snow! But as

any new missionary in a city with a blue would do I just went around

and tested the waters a bit with a new missionary and let me tell ya,

it is really different than most of the comps I've had up to this

point. But the sisters here got white washed so no one knows anything

about this place! Haha it's interesting, but a cool thing is that we

have a car here cause neither of the sisters have a driving permit so

we get to take the car until they get things figured out! We went

around and saw some Amis this week, we also did contacting to see what

elder Sebra had in him haha I would let him start and then pick it up

once he lost track of what they were saying he actually did pretty

good! But the highlight of the week was def thanksgiving on Sunday

where it was all the Americans in the ward who came over! We had a

huge meal and got to talk in English which is funny. Oh and my branch

president who I met Sunday used to live on Hillside drive across from

the church right behind Albertsons (or so formerly known) so we talked

about that for a good while! We literally lived like a mile away from

each other!! He has been here for about 3.5 years and his name is

Jarom Giles. He works for Unisoft making assassins creed he is a

producer... Yes... The game that I would spend countless hours on,

came from this mans brain... And he lived a mile from me... 😱 but

anyway! There are really cool members here and I'm excited to be here

with a blue and do everything kinda more my way now. Haha but yeah we

are up in the mountains with all the cool cabins and everything and it

is so beautiful! We live right across the street from the soccer

stadium so sometimes we hear the games going on too which is fun at

night. Haha I will try to include more names as I learn more names

cause for now I can't remember anyone.

As for Christmas I already added you on Skype a couple months ago so

you just have to go accept and it should all be good! Cause I will be

using my iPad so it will be super simple hopefully.

November 16, 2015

Wow.... So I don't even have to explain to y'all what happened in France this week cause I'm pretty sure you know already. Considering it was instant world news and the gravity of the situation and events that happened this past weekend. Thankfully, for me I am far away from the sites, but still sorta shocking that this is happening in a country I am in. I don't know how to express all the feelings I had when I heard about this Saturday morning but I was shocked for sure. Because not even a year ago there was the Charlie hebdo shooting in Paris and a couple of attempts throughout the summer, and it seems like things are just escalating now. I just feel bad for all the people who lost their loved ones and had people injured in their families, and hope they will be able to find a source to help them

through this time. But here on Corsica there haven't been too many changes, we are about as far away as we could get from Paris but there are French flags hanging to honor the 130 or so deaths in Paris. Our travel has been cut down a lot, we have to be in at dark for most people (we don't cause of our car) but they also are not able to take trains or metros. Only buses and trams. So things are moving slowly up in mainland right now I'm sure haha

But this week we had a lot of service occasions this week and we went at them full force haha we helped this members friend Cathy who has met with the missionaries before move all her stuff to her new apartment not to far from our house and while we were doing that we got some time to talk to her son, brother, cousin and a friend and they ALL thought we were the jehovah witnesses haha but we explained to them who we were a little and by the end I think we ended up getting 4 numbers and they all invited us to go eat at their houses soon! Haha so it was a miracle of service I guess that pushed these people to open up a little bit and actually talk to us. They were really impressed that we give up 2 years and aren't payed to do this. Sometimes I forget how strange that is... Haha we actually didn't take our p-day on Monday last week that's why I was late emailing you! We decided to save it for this past weekend cause we knew we would be going down to Ajaccio and we wanted to take the long road home (the scenic route) so those are all the pictures you have.

But we went down for the baptism of Marie-Rose who I had the honor of teaching multiple times while on exchanges down there. She made some huge changes in her life and it was so fun to see her get baptized! I love going to baptisms! And it was actually the day after the attack so we had to

get special permission to go outside and perform this baptism, but we got it done and she is doing super well! We had district meeting down there too and had the baptismal interview which took us basically all day to drive back and forth and everything so we lost a day basically just driving. But we got to see Dominique this past week and she ended up coming to church! And of course someone here knows her so she had instant friends! And then Cathy came to church as well and they both loved it I'm sure! This week we spent a whole day porting as well and I have never had so many doors shut in my face in one night haha it was a tough night to be a missionary... But you're only a missionary for two years so might as well just do it while you have the excuse. Cause soon I won't be able to just go knocking around looking for people to talk to.

Letter to Dad on November 16, 2015

As for the attacks on Paris.. I can't really even make a reply to that which could contain my thoughts exactly how I would like to express them so I will just give it a shot sorta.. It just that these people

are going to get exactly what they look for, until the consequences come then they will not be able to choose. But the French government will do the best thing for France and we will see what that produces.

Transfers are this week and either me or Elder Landry will be leaving the island because elder Landry no longer has his driving permit and I don't have a legal permit either anymore so for sure one is leaving. I have no idea if that will be me or him but let's hope for the best! I know I will be sent where I need to be, but I would like to stay here if possible haha but President Brown is a good guy, I like him as a president. He really cares for his missionaries and want to love them the most as possible. He still has that blue fire as we call it where he is just ready to take on the world and it is super awesome and funny sometimes ha. But I am glad I have the opportunity to serve under him, you can tell he is inspired and he does things by the spirit. (Like bringing me to Corsica) haha never thought I would be here... Usually it was all the exemplary missionaries... Idk what made him send me here then haha I felt way under qualified to be here.

But I have prayed a lot about schooling and my decision has basically been that I just need to go, and take life by the horns when I get back. I don't want to come home and just fall into old high school

habits, but I want to be independent in my own way. But I want to be close enough to you that I am always there if you need. If I don't jump in to the cold water I fell I will get too comfortable with the

air temperature outside the water. But I thank you for everything that you do for me! And I will be see you in just a few weeks! We will be able to skype from my iPad! Won't that be fancy??