Kai Clips

Subject: The Final Countdown (11/11/24)

Two friends will be baptized this next Saturday in Salto de Las Rosas!! Betty and Milton will be making covenants with their heavenly father, Elder Hawes will see his first baptisms in the mission, and the heavens will be shouting for joy! What an exciting time, anything happen in the United States this week?

KIDDING!

Withholding all political statements because it's against the norms for missionaries to discuss politics, the most important is always to know that regardless of whoever the President is, it is Christ who is King. I've long been a fan of Psalm 146, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God", it puts any political victory or defeat in a much more important context, an eternal perspective if you will. There is not a government of man which can hinder the triumph of the Kingdom of God, but this is not a call for relaxation or inaction, rather a trust in the inevitability of the Divinely established plan. Every man must vote his conscience, but one day the Lord Jesus Christ will return to the earth, and he is much more concerned about who we've become than about who we've been or what political cause we've advocated for on our social media. I tend to think he'll also be interested in what we've done to bring about his kingdom, are we as diligent in preparing the earth for his second coming as we are campaigning for our prefered candidate? Good question! I hope everyone of you will help me check myself as I return from my mission and once again head into the Lion's den which is politics. *GULP*

I've been reflecting a lot on the idea of how I can still be easily identifiable as a disciple of Jesus Christ even when I'm not wearing his name on a tag on my chest. This is something I which I could've done much better before the mission. Things can certainly get messy mixing politics with religion, I often saw many times people tend to find their politics before their religion, and then have the second conform to the first, when in reality it ought to be the other way around. Unfortunately I am still not quite sure how this whole dichotomy will work out after my mission, and I am certainly not wise enough to suppose I alone have found the solution, but I do hope you will all help me reflect on how I'm doing as I start my reintegration after the Mission.

For the time being I'm excited to keep working alongside Elder Hawes in Salto! Transfers came and we're all staying the same, only our district will get smaller, it's us 4 Salto Elders and the Zone Leaders, very epic stuff!!

Love you all, God Bless
Elder Kai Schwemmer

P.s. Guts is still alive!

Subject: Burning down the House (11/18/24)

What an incredible week, we truly are seeing some miracles!! We had 18 friends attend church this Sunday, the highest I've had in all my mission attend on a single Sunday, just the friends we've been teaching were 12 in total! It was a huge miracle, Milton also got baptized on Saturday which was an amazing moment, I can't wait to see the whole family join him in a few weeks!
Our branch president is chipper and quite content, and so are we, we had a reference from Facebook accept a baptismal date this week and then come to church, and the last member in Miltons family who didn't have a baptismal date just accepted one.
We won against 3 latinos in a game of Truco (like Argentine poker), and saw some of the most beautiful sunsets :)

Loving this area, it's a chosen land for sure, just wait, Salto 3 is right around the corner!!
Shorter email this week, just wanted to share some miracles, Betty will likely be baptized soon and we've got lots of friends on date for next month!

Love you all, God Bless
Elder Kai Schwemmer

Subject: I will Survive / It Never Rains in Southern California (11/4/24)

First things first... Guts is alive!! He did indeed survive the trip home and is looking chipper as ever, with some cool new scars, I don't know how he's still around but God must have a plan for this four legged pirate.

This was without a doubt the most beautiful week of the mission. The long walks we have getting from one visit to the next provide a great interlude of cloud watching and time to admire God's incredible creation. I once again find myself eating my words concerning the Argentine weather patterns. This week was full of storms and a ton more rain, and not just rain, but hail as well. In some parts of our area the hail falling was as large as oranges. Luckily we didn't get hurt, but we did get caught in one of the large storms which made for some cool videos of the lightning. The unfortunate thing was just prior to being caught in the storm I had made my new cardboard insoles, which after being caught in the torrential downpour completely dissolved. Nobody fret however, today I spoiled myself and bought two new insoles for my shoes, I even bought new socks! Feeling like I just got to the mission. Jesus once referred to James and John as the "Sons of Thunder" ; we might have picked up the nickname as well.

This week was amazing in all honesty, the highlight moment was when Betty, our friend preparing to be baptized on the 16th got up on Sunday and bore her testimony! She shared how her lifed has changed since we knocked on her door and how she's excited to keep sharing with the ward family and keep sharing about the Book of Mormon! What a legend. Nearly all the testimonies from the members included comments about missionary work, the relationship between the missionaries and the ward is so good right now and from our work together we're seeing a ton of miracles! On Saturday during our last visit we found ourselves at one member's house and she had over her two daughter in laws and her sister in law who aren't members, (we were there to teach her husband who's not a member either). A year ago in the mission I doubt I would've shared in this moment, whether out of fear of interrupting or simply to use the opportunity as a chance to chat and nothing more, I probably wouldn't have shared a gospel message. Recently however, I've been meditating a lot on the fact that when we aren't sharing something gospel related we are losing out on something important! Our message is the most special and most important thing we could ever mention to someone, so why not share it whenever possible? We asked if we could share a quick scripture, and doing so we also presented the Book of Mormon and testified of it's purpose to convince all men that Jesus is the Christ. When we finished we gave one of the daughter in laws a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it, she gladly accepted it and the invitation. The next day in church the member's daughter comes up to us and says, "Elderes! I heard you gave my sister in law a Book of Mormon!" We, confused, replied "well yes, we chatted last night and invited her to read it". "You don't know how much of a miracle that is Elderes!" She replied, "My sister in law is super Catholic! It's true that She doesn't go to church but she has always been resistant to even letting her children come to the Church of Jesus Christ with us. The fact she accepted a Book of Mormon is a miracle!"
We had no idea this had been such a special moment for their family. To us she appeared open, happy and curious. It is just one more testimony for me of the importance of ALWAYS sharing about the gospel, anytime we are given the chance to do so we cannot waste it, frequently it is our Heavenly father who has arranged the details how they are, a situation which may at first seem inconvenient or unplanned is very often a perfect and exact moment that our Heavenly Father has arranged so that his children may come to hear the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Anyway the Mission is going super epic, very much enjoying it, and excited for man

Subject: Danger Zone (8/12/24)

Finished my sister mission! I hit 18 months :)

Welp, had alcohol during the mission, who puts alcohol in Peaches!? The menu didn't say anything about it I swear!

Besides that fun situation during our lunch today we've had a very exciting week! For the first time in our month together in Palmira (Elder Scott hit a month in the mission! Yippee!) we went to Barriales, an area much calmer and further south than the city of Palmira itself. A member accompanied us and showed us where the majority of the member families live, there are only a few (for a the moment >:) ). It's a truly beautiful little city, one of the members lives 5km from the nearest bus stop and has a boat that he takes people fishing on on the lake nearby, I also learned that Argentinian fishing boats have grills to make asado, obviously.

We were running around a lot doing baptismal interviews as well, despite being the smallest zone, comprising only one district, we have the highest baptismal goal for the month of August with the hope that 15 souls will make a covenant with their Heavenly Father. Natasha Suarez was baptized Sunday afternoon! We're also seeing the fruits of our obedience, we wanted to stop by and visit the Suarez family but there was no adult male to accompany us. Despite the insistence of the family that we could enter the home and that it wasn't anything serious, or that the rest of the missionaries had done the same, we stood our ground and did all we could to find a man to accompany us. Searching for said members we ended up finding Ulysses and Joni, they couldn't accompany us, but we put Ulysses on date for baptism! It was a very exciting moment. After a long wait we finally found Luis, he accompanied us, we entered, drank some mate cocido, bizcochuelo, and heard a powerful testimony. After the lesson he gave us 3 great references and let us know his brother wants to be baptized! The fruits and miracles of obedience are so flipping real.

Another big highlight was getting a tiny book of Mormon that I can now use proselytizing, super epic.

By far the biggest highlight of the week was participating in the Missionary choir in preparation for the Mendoza Temple's open house. We sang incredible hymns, got to perform in la plaza de independencia (Mendoza's most central Plaza) with a great sound rig and were put practically on center stage in downtown mendoza on a saturday morning. The last two hymns were "Me encanta ver el templo" (I love to see the Temple) and "Las Familias Pueden Ser Eternas" (Families can be together forever). It was a powerful moment but we had time for one more song... the Elders started to quietly sing "Oracion del Profeta" (Joseph Smith's First Prayer) we said we wanted to sing that song and as we sing I swear my tired voice was lifted in strength like I hadn't felt for the entire performance. There, standing in Mendoza on that warm saturday morning with the sun shining through light clouds onto our faces, I felt as if there were Angels by our side singing along and as if I was there in the moment with Joseph in the Sacred Grove as we sang, "Qué hermosa la mañana; qué brillante era el sol. Pajaritos y abejas daban voces de loor cuando en la arboleda suplicó José a Dios,"

What a testimony of the reality of the first vision was made in that moment. One of the most sweet and sacred experiences of my entire mission without a doubt, I almost began to cry. (Yo soy re llorón).

Anyway, it was an amazing week! I even got to see other members from La Gloria

Love you all! God Bless
Elder Kai Schwemmer

Subject: She's on Fire (8/5/24)

This was without a doubt the most miraculous week of my mission. Sunday alone. Too much to write!

On Friday we invited one of our friends Natasha to be baptized, she's the only one in her family who hasn't been baptized yet. She wasn't sure and told us she'd let us know the next after talking with her mom (and her Heavenly Father we reminded her). Saturday in the morning Benjamin and Santiago were baptized, their friend couldn't baptize them unfortunately so we did, it was a very sweet moment, spiritually uplifting and the spirit was strong. The next day is when the miracles begin.

We had our Sacrament meeting and saw 3 friends who haven't attended during our time here in the reunion, Moises, Ulysses, and Oscar the father of and only member in the Sanches family who hasn't been baptized yet, his daughter Natalia opened her Mission call after the sacrament meeting and is heading to Resistencia where she might meet my CCM pals Elder Cummings y Elder Manwaring! Benjamin and Santiago were confirmed and in a miracle Celina, a young girl who was baptized 2 months ago but never confirmed, stepped forward with her father and was confirmed as well! After the sacrament meeting Moses came up to us and said to us "I have to talk with you two so I can be baptized". Sure thing! He set his own date for the 24th. The sanches' invited us to have lunch with them and some of their family who'd come to watch Natalia open her calling, we were able to teach 8 people there and give them books of Mormon with an invitation to read it and visit the temple! It was a very special lunch.
Not to mention we had the best empanadas I've had in the mission. I count that as another miracle.

Later on we were returning from a visit, we had to head back to the pension to get more books of Mormon (you already know we gifted them) and read that our friend who was going to accompany us couldn't make it to the teaching appointment with his friend Lucila. Buuuut right as we got to the house we see Benjamin who had just been baptized that morning, we asked him if he'd like to accompany us and he did!! He bore a powerful testimony of coming to know the church is true and that he ought to be baptized, we invited Lucila to be baptized and although she said she wanted to keep going to church first, she gave us a big "Yes." When we asked if she'd be willing to be baptized after coming to know it was true.

At night Moses and Natasha called, both needed to adjust their baptismal dates. FOR A WEEK EARLIER THAN PLANNED. Now we've almost got baptisms planned every weekend until the end of the month.

We're seeing miracles here, the Lord directs and guides his work, and I'm just grateful for the opportunity to witness it and be a part!!

God Bless
Elder Kai Schwemmer

Subject: Kids (7/29/24)

Oooh whenever there's a slightly bajón week we come back with a great one!! This week we switched up the routine and starting going out to new parts of our area, Barrios Aguaribay, y Romanof, which are both supposedly more "turbio" or "complicado" which means dangerous. However the experience Elder Contreras and I had in intercambios when we went for the first to Barrio Romanof was all the opposite! We got there looking for a Facebook reference who had contacted us some time ago, and as we walked in we were surrounded by 7 kids who excitedly passed us a soccer ball and asked us questions, we got them all rounded up into a circle, with their parents sitting behind them against some apartments and taught about the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. Kids from every corner of this little neighborhood started pouring in to listen. We quickly realized we didn't have enough Books of Mormon to hand out so we promised we'd come back with more, we later found out that one of the parents was the woman who had sent us the reference!

We had a sports night in the little cement court beside the chapel on Saturday and un montón of kids came by to play soccer and basketball (there were only 2 slight injuries).

Santiago y Benjamin had their baptismal interviews on Sunday and will both be baptized next Saturday! They're already down to go proselytizing with us, such legends. Later that night we went to a members house to chat with him about planning family home evenings in the ward with various families and we ended up finding 2 of the recent converts, one of the Elders Quorum councilors and one of the converts friends who's been pretty resistant to the gospel. For whatever reason we ended up talking about life after death and how having a living prophet called of God on earth today has helped answer so many of the questions about the topic, as we testified the spirit was very present, and Axel told us it was the closest he'd felt to going to church, we'll be with him again Tuesday so we're hoping for the best!!

Super exciting news: Elder Scott bought his first Maté! I'm such a proud dad :')

It was a great week here in palmyra and I hope you guys have all had a wonderful time as well, remember that you're all Children of a Loving Heavenly Father who very actively seeks to bring all of you home, trust in him!

God Bless,
Elder Kai Schwemmer