"Word of Wisdom Contacting"

Ni Hao! Another week here in the concrete jungle of Kuala Lumpur! Last week for P-day we went to Sunway mall. Sunway is a ginormous mall that has so much crap! Its how I imagine the great and spacious building! There is just floor after floor of stores! They also have a movie theater, an ice-skating rink, a bowling alley, a water park, a theme park, an Egyptian pyramid and big huge lion statue thing. Its the craziest man made building I've ever been to. Of course we didn't do any of that stuff. We were about to go ice-skating but it was too expensive so we just walked around and ate food. Today for P-day we will be going to the Batu Caves!! That's the place with the giant golden statue. And it has a lot of monkeys who steal your bags so I'm excited!

This week I have felt the spirit more then most weeks. Recently, Elder Avery and I have come up with a new contacting technique. We call it "Word of Wisdom Contacting." This is where we focus on the people who are standing on the sidewalk or outside of their car or something smoking cigarettes. We have noticed that almost everyone in Malaysia smokes, and that almost all of them don't like it and want to quit. Most of them have tried to quit before but have not been successful. So we start of the contacts by introducing ourselves and telling them that we come to share about Jesus Christ and how he can help us change our lives. Then we ask them if there is anything in their life that they would like to change. Almost every time they say they want to quit smoking. So then we share with them how God has commanded us not to smoke. After which we share 1 Nephi 3:7 and tell them that they have a promise from God that they can quit smoking because he has commanded them not to. Then we bare testimony of the atonement and the enabling power of it. Of course we don't say the same things every time or share the same scriptures every time, that was just an example, but when we follow the spirit and teach to their needs of wanting to change, the contacts always are super powerful and the people are always so much more willing to accept meeting with us. We have also tied this in with the new "Follow him and find new life" initiative and it all works and flows together wonderfully. In these contacts we also invite them to be baptized. To smokers and people with bad habits, a new fresh clean slate is something that sounds great to them and exactly what they need.  This I feel has been very effective because the people we are finding have a desire to change. And when they have that desire they will be more willing to keep commitments and really be converted and baptized. My faith has grown as I've felt the spirit testify to me as I testify to these people about the atonement and the redeeming and enabling power of it. I'm grateful for the hard times that I have gone through, as I feel it has helped me to be able to relate to these people more.

This week we have had some awesome miracles where Heavenly Father has given us new investigators. This week we had a goal of 2 new investigators. How we were going to find them we did not know. But as we strived to be more exactly obedient this week and do all we could, God has provided.

We were out contacting Monday night when we get a call from an man saying: "Can I come to the church right now?!" and we were like, "Of course!" He showed up about 5 minutes later and brought his whole family! We did not have this planned so we didn't have a member to come, but we quickly called up a member who lived near by and she came as quickly as she could and we got a surprise member present! The member helped to translate some things he couldn't really understand into Malay. It was a wonderful lesson and the man got emotional during it because he is so desperate for Gods help in his life. He and his family are new investigators.

We had this happen to us twice this week. Last night we were out word of wisdom contacting when a guy we've never met before calls us and tells us he's on the way to the church and wants to meet! Haha Elder Avery and I were so excited! We didn't know how we were going to get those 2 new investigators, but Heavenly Father provided. We taught him a powerful restoration and will be meeting him on Wednesday.

Thank you all for the love and support! Love you!

 

-Elder Schwemmer



I'm getting my two lil buddies ready for missions! :)

 

 

 

 

 

"The Gold Mine"

Heyoo,

 

This week was an awesome week! Last Monday we went and saw the Petronas twin towers! They are so tall it's crazy! This week Elder Nielson from the quorum of the seventy, who is also the head of the mission department for the entire church, toured our mission! He was awesome! He shared with us some really cool things about the Atonement and the enabling power of it! At the training I received a lot of personal revelation and comfort from the spirit. He also introduced to us a way to improve, which Elder Avery and I will be working on this week. He taught us about the "gold mine" which is the less actives of the branch. All the less actives have non member friends and family and at the same time, we will be helping them come back to church. So Elder Avery and I will be visiting a lot of less actives this week. 

 

My faith in the Atonement has increased a lot as a result of Elder Nielsons training. The insights and things he shared were very personal to me and met a lot of my needs. During the training, I was so blown away at how perfect the Atonement and the doctrine of Christ is. I always knew it was perfect but Elder Nielson helped me to re-strengthen that testimony and increase my faith in it. It is now time for me to turn that faith into action. I feel like my obedience has been lacking. Not because I'm doing anything wrong, but I feel like I could be more "exactly obedient." Elder Avery and I have reassessed our obedience and identified things we can fix (such as shorter weekly planning's) to become more "exactly obedient." I feel that I will feel a lot better about myself as I do so knowing that I'm doing literally everything the Lord is asking me to do.

This week I had a cool experience. Elder Avery and Elder Riddle had to go to East Malaysia for MLC so I went on exchanges with Elder Nevili Pei. We worked in his area. While in Subang we went and contacted a referral they had received. It ended up being the wrong address and the person who lived there wasn't very interested. The appointment we had an hour after that had been cancelled so we were trying to find something to do. We stopped and said a prayer and asked what to do. After the prayer nothing came to us, but I figured we had to do something rather then just sit around and wait for Heavenly Father to tell us where to go. So we went and talked to every single person we could see in this neighborhood. After about an hour of doing that, Elder Nevili Pei was tired and needed to sit down and rest for a few minutes. He sat down and called potentials while I read a little bit out of the Book of Mormon. As soon as I closed the book a very strong prompting came into my mind that said "Get to the bus stop now." So I immediately got up and hustled to the bus stop. As I walked there I kind of questioned if it was my own thoughts but decided to have faith that it was the spirit. When I got to the bus stop there were about 30 people there in which all of them but one were Malay. So I talked to her but it didn't feel right and in the middle of our conversation her phone rang and she walked off. Then I turned around and saw this girl that I didn't see before, hunched over on the bench looking like she was having a hard time. So I went straight over to her. I began talking to her but she couldn't talk back because she was very sick. Her throat was hurting and she was having a hard time speaking. So the first thing I did with her was offer a prayer. She was very thankful and we both could feel the spirit. I then continued to talk to her where I ended up sharing the first vision with her and I could feel the spirit so strong. She was so thankful and we set up to meet with her tonight (Monday) at 7. I am kind of sad though because she is not in my area, so I wont see her again until she's on the weekly email when she gets baptized ;)

 

Well that's all I've got time for. I love you guys and am so thankful for all the prayers, the fasting and the support you all are giving me, I think its working ;) Love you all have a great week!

-Elder Schwemmer

 

 

These are my boys from Nigeria!

This little kid is legit!

 

This is my lil buddy from Myanmar!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

This week was a great week! My sickness carried on for a few days and made the days hard to get through but I am finally better now. I am so excited to be serving with Elder Avery! He is so awesome! He is just a big fun ball of energy.

New companion Elder Avery!

 Every single morning the second the alarm goes off he is singing a song about ducks. Also this morning the second the alarm went off, he tried to strangle me so I kicked him in the knee cap and we wrestled, then for morning exercise I dressed up like Moses and chased around the other Elders with my PVC pipe. Haha things get weird around here now, but its super fun lol. He loves serving as much as I do and I'm excited to go hard this transfer. This week my faith in the Temple has increased. We went to a member named brother C*** house. After dinner we sat down to share a message and he ended up pulling out a ton of things and research he had done about the Temple. With the little time we had he showed us some really cool things he learned and it helped my faith grow in the Temple and the divinity of it. I just love how much the restored gospel has to offer. We have everything in its entirety and fullness. How blessed we are to be missionaries and full time messengers of the truth.

Moving in Elder Avery's things!

This weeks we had a couple cool miracles. One of our investigators is a S*** from India. He is a very kind humble guy. We love teaching him because he keeps every single commitment. The only problem is his English is terrible. He comes to church every Sunday and tries to read out of the Book of Mormon and pray, but we weren't to sure of how much he was understanding and if he really knew what we are trying to do so we were considering dropping him. But, yesterday we met with him and he told us something cool. So he was supposed to have an arranged marriage in India in a couple weeks. We were asking him about that to see how things were going. His response was surprising. He told us that its no more, the marriage is called off. And we were like "oh why's that?" and he said he told her that he's a Christian now and follows Jesus Christ. His future wife didn't like that and didn't want to marry a Christian, so the wedding was called off. Way cool! Our other miracle was just yesterday. The other day we met this guy on the street and as I was talking to him I had no idea what I was saying because I feel like everything I was saying was super guided. I just opened my mouth and words flowed out. Yesterday we met with him and he is so solid! He already has very strong faith and he mentioned that he is looking for something more, he feels like there is more to Christianity than he already has. We can fix that, haha. It was an awesome lesson, way powerful and he is eager to be baptized and discover more of the truth. Finding prepared people is so awesome. It makes the countless rejections worth it.

One of our members, sister S***, is so awesome. She's like the Sister Chris of Puchong. We have this investigator who is eager to learn about the church and her personality matches perfectly with sister S***. So we brought sister s*** teaching with us and they clicked perfectly!! They are like best friends now! There have been a couple nights where our investigator calls sister s*** on the phone to ask her questions about the church and they talk for hours! And just the other night sister s*** and her family invited J*** and her family over for dinner. The members here are so great. They are incredible at fellow-shipping. 

Thank you all for your awesome support. I love you all! Happy Valentines day!!!

-Elder Schwemmer

 

6 Months!!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!!!!!!! Or as we say in Chinese, Gong xi fa cai! 

This week was pretty good! As you know we rode ostrich's for pday last Monday!! That was probably one of the funnest things I've ever done!! Haha it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be! But I was a pro! I only fell off twice! Haha one year ago, never did I ever think that I would be riding ostriches in the middle of Malaysia hahaha. My whole life I've always wanted to ride an ostrich so I can now cross that one off the bucket list! Ostriches are the funniest, stupidest animals ever. The way they move and eat is just so silly haha. My ostriches name was Earl. He's a boss. The whole time I was riding ostriches I couldn't do anything but smile. Even when I was falling off the ostriches I was smiling haha it was one of my favorite things I've ever done.

"silly gary"

Elder Schwemmer is having too much fun with these Ostrich!

This week is Chinese new year! That means that this week missionary work is going to completely die! For Chinese new year all the Chinese people return to their hometowns and don't do anything but eat mandarin oranges and give each other money. Last night was pretty cool though! So the Chinese tradition is pretty cool, When it turns midnight on the new year, everyone lights off a firework. So last night I was laying there in bed when I hear one of our watches beep at midnight then not a split second later thousands of fireworks go off!!! It was like a war zone! Our curtains in our bedroom were glowing because of all the fireworks haha. And today there is not a single Chinese person in sight. Everything is closed and nobody is out. 

This week was a tougher week. This week I have battled Satan a little bit and have started my studies on the atonement. I feel like I don't understand the atonement well enough and don't have enough faith in it so this transfer I have a goal to read the whole book of Mormon and as I do that, I am going to mark and annotate every single scripture that has to do with the atonement. Hopefully I will find the answers I am looking for. I also got sick this week and have been in bed with a fever these past few days.

This week we had a cool miracle towards the beginning of the week. We were teaching one of our investigators about the Book of Mormon. We had a member there which was her same age and personality type which we thought would get along great. So we teach her about the Book of Mormon and it was a really good lesson! It was simple, it was short, it was powerful and spiritual. At the end of the lesson we closed with a prayer and we wanted our member to fellowship her so we pretended like we had to leave really fast and we left the 2 together. Well a few hours later during nightly planning we get a text from the member we had there and she told us that she sat there with her and talked for a while and our investigator shared with our member that she knows the Book of Mormon is true, that she can feel it! So that was way cool, I've never really had that happen to me on my mission yet so I was pretty excited!

Well transfer news came in today! I will be staying in Puchong but Elder Eggertson will be leaving. He will be going to JB! My new companion will be Elder Avery!!!! I am so excited!!! He is my favorite missionary I've met in the Singapore mission! He is super hard working and super spiritual and super fun! I think he will be really good for me! I'm really excited to work super hard this transfer with someone who has the same desires! He is also from Grammy Schwemmers ward back in Utah! Way cool! I'm super excited!!!

Well that's all I got, Love you all! Have a wonderful Chinese new year lol.

-Elder Schwemmer

 

 

 

 

Gave the little children CTR rings!

 

 

 

 

One of their investigators!

Chinese New Year!

 

 

 

Ostrich riding!!!

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I'm on so late! I spent the day racing Ostriches!!!! Hahahaha it was super fun!!! But I have literally no time to email today so I will send more about it next week! 

Sorry today I have no time! But this week was great! This week we went super hard again and beat last weeks number of 51 potentials with 52! We are setting Zone records! We also got 3 new investigators this week which were all member presents! We have been finding a ton of people! Elder Eggertson is feeling better and was great this week! He had fun and worked hard all week! It has been so awesome! Thanks for all your help!

Love you guys!!!!

 

 

- Elder Schwemmer







Some pictures from the Ostrich farm :)

 

 

 

 



This ones name is Jeffrey :)

 
 
 
 
 



"My new friend Robert! :)"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haha!

 

 

 

 

 



Just racing an Ostrich!!!

 

 

 

 

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Ni men hao!

Whats up everybody! Gong Xi Fa Cai! That is what you say around here for Chinese New Year! Chinese new year is pretty cool! Gong xi fa cai means like happy new year but the direct translation to English is: "Congratulations! Emulate wealth!" haha Chinese is cool. Speaking of Chinese, this week I have been going super hard with Chinese! It has definitely been improving! When I came to the field I had no idea what anybody was ever saying but now I am to the point where the other day I sat at a bus stop and had a 30 minute conversation in Chinese with this guy. It was way fun!

This week was Zone Conference! Zone Conference was super good! I didn't get to do anything in Singapore because our flight was later in the day, but the conference was awesome! It gave me a spiritual boost that I desperately needed! And then I just went absolutely crazy this week with missionary work!

This week was super good! At the beginning of the week I shared in my email how I was still struggling with some things, but zone conference was super good for me! I went into zone conference with the question of how to get over this dark time and how to move on. I didn't really find a direct answer but the testimonies and things that were shared were enough to give me a well needed spiritual boost. At zone conference I made a decision. My decision was that I was going to work as hard as I possibly could this week. When we got back to Puchong I just lost my mind haha I went crazy! I talked to everyone I possibly could! When the not so nice Chinese dudes would completely ignore me I would follow close behind them and keep talking just to bug them haha. I know I probably shouldn't have but it was fun. Elder Eggertson had to hold me back a few times haha and when he did I would just growl at the mean Chinese dudes lol. I literally went insane this week haha.

 

 

In Puchong, our problem is we don't have many investigators, and you wont do anything in a mission until you find. So this week I tried to put a huge focus on finding. Things with me and Elder Eggertson were going great on Wednesday. We were contacting people, laughing, joking, having a great time while getting a lot of success! And then Thursday rolls around and everything was still going great. Weekly planning went super awesome until companionship inventory. I don't even know what happened but a bit of contention came up and it was really hard. But I tried not to let it slow me down! I still worked as hard as I possibly could and by the end of the week I was able to get 51 potential investigators! And that is just from Wednesday till Sunday! The highest we were ever able to get in Ipoh with Elder Perritt was about 40. And the average is around 25. It was hard doing it, but it was very rewarding! Things got better with Elder Eggertson but then he got sick. I'm kind of worried about him. But my faith definitely increased this week! As I went as hard as I possibly could, I found my self happy. At the end of each day in my nightly prayers I was feeling great as I reported my efforts to the Lord. I felt less worried about my personal problems and was able to shut out Satan. I felt the closest I have ever felt to Heavenly Father this week. And I am definitely not going to let it stop! I am going to keep going crazy! I want Puchong to explode and help put KL on the weekly email every week! 

My miracle this week was definitely the 51 potentials! This week we had a goal of 15 but we reversed the numbers to 51! It was just a miracle that we found that many people willing to hear more about Christ. How we were able to help that many people possibly feel the spirit for the first time in their life. I am very excited about it and am hoping to get about 5 new investigators from it! 

This week we were supposed to meet with the branch president for a dinner appointment and were going to ask him for referrals but some confusion happened and we weren't able to meet up. But we will be meeting with him this week!

I haven't filled you guys in on P-days for a while. The first P-day in KL we went to a trampoline park for a zone activity. Then the next one we did nothing but relax. Then the next one we went to Singapore, and then for today we were going to go to an Ostrich Farm and ride ostriches but Elder Eggertson got sick :( I was so pumped to ride a stinkin ostrich. If you know me you know ostriches are my favorite animal hahaha :)

I love you all! Thank you so much for all the support and prayers you have all been giving me! Happy chinese new year! GONG XI FA CAI! :)

-Elder Schwemmer



Dream come true :)

 

 

 

 

 

Puchong