this isnt the general! i am just updating you guys. But President called on tuesday night which is super early for transfers so we thought we were in trouble haha but reid got sent to itapoá and is gonna be a senior already! he is awesome! Elder moore who is from my group and was with me in the mtc is gonna be my comp! its gonna be awesome! We are going to be the zone leaders of the joinville north zone but that doesnt really mean anything now because president called 18 assistants! how crazy is that? haha there are two for each zone and there are 2 zone leaders for each zone. so there is one companionship of ap's and one of assistants in each one. we have 9 zones and no one has any idea what is going on haha. as soon as i got the call i knew for sure elder william would be the ap because we joke about how he always is going to be my leader and sure enough william is the ap of the joinville north zone haha! how crazy is that? so i am staying where i am at, moore was in guaratuba and only stayed there one transfer.. crazy huh? so that will be really cool! reid just left this morning and moore is getting here in about 3 hours. but yeah this week was awesome! elder andersen came and he speaks portugues!!! crazy huh? ill talk about it in my letter this week. we only got to watch him because it was for the stakes in this mission not just missionaries but it was really cool!
but i love you guys so much and hope you are doing awesome!
General Letter :
Well this week was just awesome! First off Elder Andersen came to Florianópolis to speak to the stakes of santa catarina and so we got to watch a transmission of him and I'm going to talk a little about that later.
But first off Elder Reid is getting shipped out to Itapoá. He will be awesome there! My companion is going to be Elder Moore and I am really excited! We got here together and were in the MTC together so I think it will be a really good time! I will miss Elder Reid because we got really good at following the spirit together in lessons but I know Elder Moore and I will get the same thing and it's gonna be great!
But anyways about Elder Andersen... It was way cool! I didn't know this but he speaks portuguese too! Cool huh? So he was in the chapel in Floripa so we didn't get to see him but it was cool because it was a meeting just for these members down here so he told a bunch of cool stories about the temple down here and past general authorities and things like that.
But what I thought was the coolest was the fact that he had a really strong accent haha. Let me explain. So he served his mission in France and then later went back as Mission President there. Then right after he gets called to be a general Authority of South America and had to learn spanish. And in that mix he learned portuguese but he started out the meeting saying that it had been a long time and he was going to do his best.
What really stood out to me was that it showed a very humbler side of an apostle. Sometimes I think that they are these crazy powerful god-like beings that could call upon the spirit and speak a language perfectly at any time they wanted. But it's not like that. He spoke really well but you could also tell that he was working really hard at it and he was mixing in a lot of spanish haha. But it shows that every leader of the church is just a man. But a man called and empowered by God. And you know what, we are not perfect! And we cant expect perfection of others. I don't know how it is in the states because I didn't pay a lot of attention but here everyone goes less active because they say "the bishop is doing his calling right", or "the stake president said this" and ya know maybe they did mess something up but we aren't perfect and we gotta realize that! An Apostle of Jesus Christ was struggling with a language that he hadnt spoken in a really long time. It is normal and shows how they are just like us and have problems they have to work out as well.
But he talked about a lot of things but the biggest that stood out were gaining a personal testimony of the book of mormon and his testimony of Christ.
Elder Aidukatis of the seventy was there as well (and he is awesome) and they invited his wife to tell her conversion story. She said Elder Aidukatis met and baptized her after his mission but she wasn't really converted for a few more years after when we went searching for her own testimony of the book of mormon and studying it every single day! It is just like Elder Pearson's talk says from this past conference and that counsel that we hear ALL the time. Read and study the scriptures every day! And like Nephi says in 1 Nephi 19:23 - 24 we need to apply the scriptures and the words of the prophets to our own lives! And that is how he taught his own family and his own people! We gotta do it!
To wrap it up he talked about Jesus Christ and how he knows for himself that he lives and he bore very powerful testimony of the truthfulness that Christ leads this church and it is the same one he established on this earth 2000 years ago.
But I am out of time but I love and miss you all! My mission is the best place ever and I am so thankful for it!
Love, Elder Keller
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