Letter to Mom,
This week we had not too many appointments fall through so that was
pretty refreshing considering that normally it is full of them and
nothing ever ensues up happening how we would like it to! But this
week we met some really cool people and were able to make some new
friends we doubled our teaching pool I think, we were at 3 and now we
are at like 6! Haha so progress is being made! We had a cool
appointment with a guy named Alexis who actually contacted us when we
were walking in the park talking to people, he came up and asked us
about our church cause he really wanted to come see ours and see the
differences between them. So we took his number and set something up
for later in the week! And actually we met him and had a good lesson
and gave him a tour of the church which is actually just like an
office space in Annecy, but we also taught him and he accepted to come
to church. So we waited and waited at church and finally 5 minutes
AFTER church ended he walked in! He has accidentally slept in and so
he missed all of church haha but he said next week he will make sure
he is on time cause he really wants to come. And we also met a refugee
named Yohannes and he speaks English, we are teaching his as well now.
He is super cool and he actually showed up to church just as Sacrament
Meeting was finishing, I translated for him for the rest of church. We
are going to be seeing them again this week too so let's hope they
want to keep coming back! But this week I will be going down to Nice
again to pick up my legality and I will be staying with Elder Huntsman
for the night! I am super excited cause I has been super long since I
have seen him. But yeah that was a little bit from my week! We also
had an exchange this week but I stayed in Annecy and all we ended up
doing was like contacting people and teaching an English class at the
end of the night so it wasn't that interesting, but it is weird being
with people that don't speak French that well, it makes me feel like I
know a little bit more what I'm doing and I love just talking to
people. Haha they love talking to people with accents like me 😊 I can
fool people who aren't French into thinking I'm French but not the
French people yet so I gotta keep practicing! But anyway that was my
week! Sorry I don't have pictures! I will take some this week
hopefully.
EBS
Letter to Dad,
As for skyping, I am pretty sure we will be at President Giles house
at this moment of our day, we had thought that we could do it at
around 6 or 7 that way you will all be nice and awake and ready to
talk about all the cool things you got and all the stuff you wanna
know about France and all the stories I have maybe not shared with you
yet (that one might be tough to remember for me) but I'm not positive
what time that would be there but that's just what we had thought of,
we also have an hour to an hour and a half to skype so we will have to
be efficient with our time. Haha
As for the work here, it is going pretty well we are talking with a
lot of people and trying to find new Amis so we don't have to just go
contact and talk to people all day in the cold weather. We have found
three new Amis in the past week and that doubled our base of Amis and
so it is going pretty well. We have gotten some praises for work, but
I feel like there is so much more I can do that I don't because we
have to be in at dark unless we are with a member (because of the
attacks in Paris) and literally ALL the members are with the sisters
so we end up just at home at nights. 😐 so boring! So we need to find
a way to get the sisters away from the members so we can jump in one
of these days and teach with them or go to their house! I have been to
two members houses since I have been here in Annecy.... Haha but I've
asked like 30 people so let's hope we can get a better ratio soon. The
sisters took like one ami, but they are trying to give him back
because he just talks about his 21 year old son and how they NEED to
meet him and so yeah they are trying to give him back to us. Haha so I
guess they just give us what they don't need... But this week idk how
much actually service we did out side of our normal service at this DI
organization type thingy, but we saw one of our new Amis named Patswa
and it is a real hard time for him right now. His wife is wanting to
leave him after 26 years of marriage and he doesn't really know why,
and he is getting probably kicked out of his house by the French
government who is giving everything to his wife and so it's just a
hard time. But we went to see him and we talked with him about it and
we just testified of gods love for him and we couldn't give him the
solutions to his problems (way over my knowledge level) but we just
shared the importance of faith in God and staying close to God through
trials rather than pushing him away. And he was so touched. He didn't
accept our invitation to come to church that Sunday, but something in
him seemed really profoundly pondering what we were saying and
accepting it. Afterwards he wanted to take pictures of us and thanked
us so much, but we are seeing him again this week... So idk why he did
that haha he is my favorite guy. He is a mechanic in Switzerland so he
makes good money as well (which I wasn't expecting at all). He kinda
looks like you too! But shorter. Anyway that was my week! I will see
you guys really soon! Like two weeks or so? Love you! Have fun be
safe!
EBS
December 21, 2015
Sounds like you guys had a super fun week in Hawaii! I will for sure have to go back with you guys! If that is something you will still want to do once I am back. But I don't have a lot of time today we were preparing for our Mission Conference in Lyon and finishing a bunch of stuff before that so I will probably explain most of the past week over Skype.I have had a crazy week, it went by really fast mostly because we were in Nice for two days! On our way to Nice, we had road problems and ended up getting to his house at like midnight which was super late, but our gps tried to take us through Italy so we had to back track a lot to come back onto the French roads and stuff. Luckily we caught it before we ended up in Milan Haha. I was able to see Elder Huntsman and do some stuff with him at the legality place and a little bit after at the church but then we had to get going cause it's like a 6 hour drive back to Annecy. We actually didn't even make it the whole way cause it was too late and we ended up in Valence and you know who's house we got to stay at? Palani! So we had a sleepover there haha then got up and finished the rest of the road in the morning which was about another two and half hours.
The members are coming slowly but surely, I think it was the elders a few transfers ago that kinda ruined the members cause they would stay super long and the members weren't too crazy about him so now I inherited that rep just because I'm an elder or something. But whatever, we are working on changing it. But our Amis are doing well!
We have Yohannes and Alexis who are doing really well, Alexis actually has a date to be baptized in January. We also had our branch Christmas party and I was a wise man in the nativity haha which basically means I got to tie a scarf around my head and then pretend to give s gift to a baby doll in front of a bunch of people, but it was pretty cool still! There were a ton of Amis and so we got to get a bunch of numbers and talk to a bunch of people.
But everything sounds like it is going well! I am excited to see everyone! But I have had a busy week and a busy day getting stuff ready to go to Lyon and have Christmas conference out there! I will get to see all of my friends! That's always fun! Oh and I bought a new Christmas sweater today, it was a good buy I think. You'll see it in pics probably before Christmas but yeah I like it a lot. So thanks for that you guys 😊 So I will be Skyping you at around 9:15-9:30 so everyone including Nate will be wide awake. I added you on skype and so all you have to do is login in and accept me. That way all should be working smooth and we can be efficient haha cause nothing is worse than a bad Christmas skype to the fam. I will see you and talk to you soon! I love you all!
EBS
Pictures and Comments below from Elder Palani Thangaraj about Mission Conference in Lyon:
"Pretty fun Christmas week out here in France!
The week started out with a mission wide Christmas conference in Lyon. It was way chill seeing all the homies and to just hang out for a few days. We hung out at the Confluence (where the two rivers in Lyon meet up), played at the park for a while, had our conference at the aquarium, played minute to win it, and watched lion king. It was a nice time."
Wishing all a Merry Christmas from Annecy, France!
Christmas Morning: Opening package from home
Family back at home missing our missionary son! Merry Christmas Elder Schettler:)
