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.

Transfer to Bastia, Corsica

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. 

Frère Faudin helped me a lot while I was in Marseille to become a

better missionary and set a good example.

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!

Alexandre Bourlet

Sister Gregori

Matthieu and Jimmy (the big black one)

Henri

Berthe

Frère Robinet

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