Abby in Paraguay: June 22, 2016

HEY! LOVED all the pictures from NY! Looks like you had an amazing time! MATTHEW! HOLY COW! HE IS SOOOOO TALL! He emailed me saying that he is taller than dad????? WOW! So crazy! I´m sure dad loves that haha I am seriously so glad that Matthew was able to go to the Sacred Grove....hope he realized along with the others that the sacred grove is exactly where the Restoration happened. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God and I have a very strong testimony that God worked through him to bring this TRUE Gospel back upon the Earth. I managed to memorize the First Vision, but still need to work on the order...sometimes I miss or jumble the sentences. Would love to go there again. That was so awesome that you sang for the missionaries...and how cool that they know Elder Newbold! Matthew seemed to have a fun group! Love those girls. I emailed Kimmie and seriously LOVE HER! She left on Tuesday! She said her teacher served in my mission and she said everyday her teacher reminded her of me... she told her teacher that I was her best friend and she mentioned how she hoped that I would see her on the live broadcast... when I told her I did she was so happy....she was like yay for the Mexico MTC when Elder Bednar gave us a shoutout. This week I feel like I have grown and expanded my talents....I have been praying for that and will continue to do so... on Sunday I was asked to speak randomly about Christ´s Atonement...we usually know the topic before hand...but don´t know if we will speak or not until Sacrament meeting. Good thing I was prepared haha I actuallly had the feeling that I would speak so I made sure to put a lot of thought into it while I was preparing. The spirit was with me and I wasn´t nervous one bit. Luckily we can speak a bit in Spanish and English....I did the right amount of speaking in Spanish and then did the rest in English. The spirit was so strong and I know that what I shared helped everyone in our Branch. I mentioned Heidi and how the Atonement and the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation comforted not only me, but her family as well....didn´t even have that prepared, but the Spirit told me to share that along with many other things. I seriously love having the Holy Ghost as my companion....without him and the Lord I wouldn't be on my mission. Since we are getting a HUGE ammount of missionaries now...like 200 a week our District got assigned to a new Branch. We now have a new Branch President who I already love and appericate....President Gomez. He just got assigned. He has 3 sons...Diego,Eric oh sweet Eric ( he has disabilities ) and another son ah starts with a G...it´s very unique I´ll have to be reminded this Sunday. It was really special for them to pass the sacrament to us. It reminded me of watching my amazing priesthood holder brothers passing the Sacrament. After Sacrament I thanked President Gomez for assigning me to speak and I got to chat with his family for a bit... I mentioned how I had 5 brothers and they were so amazed and thought it was awesome. I´ll have to show them our family picture. CRAZIEST THING AND HIGHLIGHT! YESTERDAY ELDER PIPER - DADS COUSIN GAVE A DEVOTIONAL LAST NIGHT! WASSSSSSSS SOOOOOOOO GOOD! Everyone loved his words! I went up to him afterwards and told him I was related to him through dad and grandma...he said I sure look like a an Alexander. I´ll have to make sure to email Grandpa Richard. I know Grandma will be so happy to hear this since she gave me a picture of him. I sure love his emails. I am close with Herman fifita...Butchs cousins. Seriously adore her!!!!!! CARLI GOT ENGAGED?????? AH SO HAPPY! Love getting emails from Jacob..Love his words! Oh another cool fact... I sang a hymn in a lesson...we also have TRC which is teaching volunteers and some aren't LDS. It's so awesome to teach them and to get a feel of how it really is in the field. I only have 2 more weeks!!!!! AHHHHHHH! oh elder sterri arrived yesterday... was so fun to see a familiar face! Love you all and pray for you. Can't wait to hear from you! Love you!