Subject: King of the Road (4/27/24)

Being the housing coordinator's companion takes its toll on a missionary! We've not been able to get to our area much this week, in between department inspections, paying gas and electricity bills, and lots of pensions that have seen better days. To make matters worse, our van which we typically use for office work has been in service since Monday, and only yesterday did we get the estimate for the repairs which ended up around 13 million pesos, the equivalent of about 13,000 USD. We had to call a member to drive us to a city an hour away to pay one electricity bill worth 6 whole dollars that had expired so long ago that the only way to balance the debt of the ticket was to go in person. ELDER MELDRUM!

Being without the van has made this P day quite a basic one, we'll be off to play some futbol in a moment. However, the Lord continues to use us, even without us knowing it, as tools in his hands. Not having the van we had to take an Uber to get to one of our visits to a less active family in the ward. As we left the Uber the driver said Elder and we asked them how he knew the missionaries, he shared that when he was 14 he was baptized, but hadn't been to church in a very long time. He explained that he had been going through a very difficult time lately, and recently turned to chat with a cousin who's more active in the church. He wasn't sure if having picked us up was some kind of sign but he told us that he saw it as a gentle reminder from God that he hadn't and never would be forgotten or left alone. Reflecting on the moment while talking to my parents I realized that just by trying our best to do what's right the Lord will use us for the benefit of his children, and without even realizing it, we are instruments in his hands.

More of the nation's provinces, including San Juan have continued increasing the price of SUBE the public transport, and I'm receiving quite a few messages from missionaries who find themselves out of funds. These are complicated times, I often find myself echoing the Argentinian president's now infamous remark, ¨No hay plata¨ hate to be the bearer of bad news! It's even tougher seeing how this is effecting the people I love here in Argentina, so many good people find themselves in dire straits come end of month, but it drives me even more to want to share with them the good news of the gospel, that despite our worldly circumstances, we may have peace.

Hope everyone's doing fantastic, I want to share my testimony of and gratitude for the mission, I have no doubt that serving a mission is the best decision I have made and I hope all of you may feel the comfort that I am now able feeling more frequently that comes through and by the Holy Ghost

God Bless,
Elder Kai Schwemmer

Subject: Go Insane (3/23/24)

What a week! I'm not sure what happened but the work in the office this week went crazy, it was certainly the most stressful and most requiring week I've had as financiero, I'm pretty happy about it though. I recall a similar experience early on in the mission, La Gloria and the people there treated me so well that to some extent I did not feel I was having the 'Real Mission Experience', I had to get a few doors slammed in my face to really feel like I was in the Lord's service I guess jaja. The other day that happened for the first time in a while, we asked these two strangers we found for the address of another friend we were hoping to teach, they told us they weren't sure where the address would be, we thanked them anyway and I asked for the woman's name as a way to say thank you personally and introduce ourselves. She replied, 'Para que?' (For what?) I didn't really know how to answer, 'To know your name I guess?' I don't think it was her fault, in a lot of parts you just can't trust too many people all to much, or at least the social capital leaves a lot to be desired. The gospel, I have found, helps considerably in changing our perspective of the world. Every interaction of this kind makes me all the more grateful for Utah :)

Today my trainer, Elder Tevez, stopped by once again! We had a great reunion, chatted for about an hour and shared algunos matés. Very much an Alma 17 moment:

'Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.'

I hope to have many more moments like this one when I return from my mission, whether it be with friends serving here in Mendoza with me, those like Elder Robinson and Elder Tran serving in Cordoba, Elder Cummings and Elder Manwaring in Resistencia, or all the rest of the pals who are out serving all over the world, from Japan to Salt Lake and beyond, and to all those who will be home for me to see and greet when I return, it's so great seeing the effect the prayers of one can have in the life of another. The spirit of man is eternal, were all going to be existing together for a long eternity to come, we might as well become good friends now!

I'd rather not bore too much with the office stress of rummaging for receipts and going loco paying for light etc. so I'll just leave the email as is. Hope everyone is doing great! We went to an awesome maté store today that looked much more expensive than it turned out to be, it's nice to be surprised in that way with prices and not the other way around like how it tends to be. I'll soon have my very own custom maté!

God Bless, Elder Kai Schwemmer :) 
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One Year until Élder Kai returns from Argentina!