September 14, 2009 Miracle donation from Japan and most hilarious missionary story yet!!!

Hola Familia,

This was kinda an uneventful week but I feel like Im learning tons of spanish. Yesterday was exactly the half way point. Its totally flying by. Can't wait to get out of here tho. I love it but I wanna be in Texas. I'm working super hard in my new companionship. We are doing are best to not waste any time and are talking a ton of spanish to each other. We speak spanish at all meals now. I'm pretty sure I can teach the whole first lesson is Spanish now. We'll find out on thursday. Were gonna practice a bunch tho before then. Im surprised at how easy it is seeming, everything clicks most of the time. 

I bore my testimony in church yesterday, in Spanish. It was pretty cool, I said basicly what I wanted to say. I was the only person in my district to do it. My comps and I decided this week that we want to be a lot more mature, that representatives of Jesus Christ need to be more mature. Obviously we havn't been screwing around, we just used to occationally get off task or whatever, or laugh at jokes that we shouldn'. So we are really working on that and also on following every rule. I feel lame doing it sometimes but I know the blessing will be great if I follow all the rules. 

I got the package, loved it. Loved the pictures and the leters. Are you going to send me some shoes and a memory card tho?  Thats soooo AWESOME about the person that gave us that money from Japan! If you are reading this, whoever you are in Japan, muchas muchas, muchas gracias for the money! You have no idea how grateful I am. It will help pay for my bike!! And to Grammy Barbie and Papa, thank you so much for paying for this month. You spoil me way too much :) 

So have you sold my car yet? Or my phone? Hopefully, I've been praying for that. Coach Lopez will take that program somewhere. Tyler, I hear you actually started working out with Auddy so thats good. Hows off season with Eddie? I bet you guys do a lot of abs and running. Work your butt off kid. Your sophmore year is when you need to get in really good shape for varsity. Do work. Cassidy hows volleyball going? Do you play. Oh yea I think I know one of the girls on your team. She was at Deweys house a couple times cus shes friends with Deweys sisters, Niki and Dani. Do you have any classes with them? Seminary starts tomorrow Im guessing! Have fun with that haha. I'm just kidding you guys have a great teacher, it will be fun. HOW CRAZY IS IT THAT BYU WON! I'm so disapointed I missed that. I'm guessing it was number 1 or 2 on sportscenter that night. What a crazy upset. They announced it over the pulpit in our stake confrence like meeting we had yesterday hahaha. 

I bought this photo ablum at the book store. Its pretty nice and holds 204 pictures! and its was only $4.71! So great, so if you wanna send me some more pictures go ahead, such as Costa Rica pics or bball or something, idk. We got a new teacher for our classes. She is brand new but she is way good. She is teaching us a ton of spanish and doesn't have to cry every lesson like our old ones haha. Speaking of teachers how are everyones teachers so far? Kallie you got the same teacher for the third year in a row!?! And Lauren and Sydney are in the same class? So cool. I miss you guys a lot. How's being in the middle of the middle school Hagen. I hated 7th grade but that doesn't mean you have to. I havn't gained any weight in like a week :( Im stuck at 182. I really need to gain another 8 lbs in the next couple weeks! 

So Idk if I explained what the RC is here but its a place where we go and make phonecalls to people to see if they got there BOMs our whatever. But on another floor it has the same things but it has inbound calls and chats. I love doing it. We have people call in and ask us about the gospel or whatever. I chated with this guy for like 80 minutes on Saturday, he was mostly trying to bash but I bore my testimony like 5 times. I tried to help him the best I could. Then yesterday I went and this guy was trying to say we dont need to be baptized, so I showed him Matthew 3 and whatnot. He was saying its not literal and all this stuff. I'm supposed to love him but I'm not gonna lie he was an idiot hahah. He kept saying how we dont need works to be saved and stuff and how works will drag us to hell. I'm like have you read James 2? I think he was a JW. All you can do in that situation is just bear your testimony. It sucks how bad peoles understandings are of the Bible. On a funnier note I had a guy call in and ask if God is magical haha. I was like well, he can do anything but I wouldnt say he's magical. I could tell they obviously wern't really interested. Then he was like (sorry if this is innapropriate) can God make monkeys come out of my butt? hahahaa I was like sorry dude Im here to answer questions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Then he hung up. You just gotta laugh at how dumb people are sometimes. 

Especially cus I fall into that category a lot. I had to get up to use the bathroom at like 4 AM this morning, so I went out, did my buisness, and when I went to go in my room the door was locked! The door is never locked! I was like what do I do? I didnt wanna wake up my comps but I had to. So I knocked quietly but trying not to be loud if that makes sense, and finally after like 5 minutes I decided to say a prayer and sure enough he opened the door all confused haha. I was about to sleep on the ground outside my door if he hadn't opened it right then. Well that's prettymuch whats going on in my life, how are things back at home? Is it still hot, its starting to get cold here. That's okay tho cus im in church clothes all day. Can't wait to here from you guys! LOVE YOU!
Su hijo, hermano, y amigo,
Elder Given