Christmas Softens People's Hearts

Yeah sounds like you guys had a pretty busy week! But usually when

lacy and Katie are down there you guys have some pretty good videos of

funny stuff Lacy did! But maybe not this time I guess. The year is

winding down and things are wrapping up just to re opened for the new

year! I am super excited during this Christmas season! There are

Christmas markets and everything out here and it is so fun to see them

and all the people and all the good food. Mmmmmm I love good food.

Haha especially this high alps food. They have some really good cheese

and meat stuff out here! You'll have to try it! It's called Raclette

and they have Tartiflette as well.

But the things that were really cool this week was that we found a

couple new Amis and we started teaching them and they actually invited

us back! Haha it's not everyday you get return invites, we met a

family from the islands and they want to feed us and a guy named yves

and he wants to feed us and a couple families too in the branch. But I

guess it must be the Christmas time that softens people's hearts. A

cool miracle actually so yet eddy we needed some more convos for the

week so we decided to go right by lake Annecy and contact some people,

we had a couple good convos but no one was too interested in learning

more, but after about and hour or so we pass this lady and I

recognized her but I didn't remember where from... And then we just

started talking to her and her husband and then it hit me! She was

from this place we do service once a week and so we just SPARCed her

up and had a good convos and got her our number and she wants to have

us over to her house soon! Just goes to show that service can really

open people up to us, because her husband REALLY didn't want to talk

to us at first but she liked us so much that he warmed up a little

bit. So we will see where that goes! Our mailing address is 24

boulevard du fier, 74000 Annecy, France. And the most beautiful part

of Annecy is by far the lake! There are cool mountain places around

but I haven't explored that yet! And there are beautiful parts in the

city! You'll just have to come and take it all in for yourself

pictures don't do at justice at the beauty of this place.

But you don't need to do anything to serve me! But something I was

thinking about today was maybe you could send me a special Christmas

bread recipe or something that I can do out here for Christmas to give

to memebers or Amis or anyone. That would be super cool! And also one

more thing... When you and Brittany play Sleigh Ride next time, will

you film it and send it to me? I do t wanna miss out on ALL the

Christmas traditions at our house! Haha #ThankfulForiPads but that's

all the service I need. Thanks you so much for everything you do! I

love you all so much! And tell Nate I say hi! And if he wants me to

write him on his mission he better write me sometime soon. Haha I've

resorted to black mailing him I guess.

Love you!

EBS

Mailing address: 

24 Blvd du Fier

74000 Annecy

France

Transferred from Corsica to Annecy

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.