What Was That Again?: In Which Elder Derbidge Doesn't Have an ID for That and Eddie Always Knew I Was an Eskimo

Hello, good people! It has been another week here in the good old Olde Oaks ward, and I am excited to be writing to y'all again - because I love y'all. #tender

It's been a week. We've had a lot of ups and downs, and we've done a lot, it seems.

This last Monday, we went to the Blue Bell factory. For those poor souls who have never tasted the deliciousness that is Blue Bell, I shall elaborate.

Blue Bell is an Ice Cream

Blue Bell is Delicious

Therefore, You Need to Eat ALL THE BLUE BELL.

(Mr. Sorensen would be appalled at such an illogical syllogism)

Which I have, so naturally, we needed to see the birthplace of such deliciosity. In the words of my mother, it was a veritable ice cream wonderland. Sister Hudgens said it made her almost as happy as Disneyland (I don't fully agree with that one...) Michelle said she wanted to swim in a bucket of sprinkles and eat all of the mess ups. Sister Bates said that she was going to shove loaves of Texas toast down her throat when she was on her deathbed - she's a Celiac. (That has nothing to do with Blue Bell, but she's freaking hilarious, so I had to put one of her quotes in here.)

As for the whole missionary work thing, it's just chugging along.

We saw Betty this week, and SHE'D BEEN READING THE BOOK OF MORMON. At least, that's what we thought. She wouldn't admit to it. We read with her and she showed us a notebook from when she was first baptized. It had the most beautiful testimony in it, and I almost cried. I know her testimony is strong, it's just buried underneath a whole lot of junk.

We met with Jessica again this week. Oh my goodness, what an amazing lesson. We taught the Restoration, and she accepted everything as soon as we taught it. One of the most precious experiences I've had was being able to tell her the First Vision and watching her eyes tear up. She could feel it! She made a comment about the feeling when I finished and said that she wanted to be able to see the Savior. Ah - incredible. We read Moroni 10:4-5 with her, and she made a comparison between that and James 1:5 that we'd read earlier. Holy cow - who does that? She accepted the baptismal commitment at the end of the lesson, which was just the cherry of all cherries.

Jessica is just my little miracle.

I had my last full exchange this week. It was pretty great. Sister Combs is a boss, and I love exchanges because you can be as bold as you want. That, plus the fact that I'm a dying missionary and am super bold anyway, made for some good lessons. If we confront the real issues with love, we save so much time and are more able to help people. It's awesome.

In addition to all of this insanity, we had zone meeting and interviews this week.

We had an awesome role play in specialized training during interviews where Elder Field pretended to be a grocery store checker for Elder Derbidge, the missionary. In the middle of their conversation, Elder Field picks up the hymn book he's pretending to check out and says, "Do you have an ID for this?" Elder Derbidge's response?

"Uhhh... that's not mine."

I didn't hear much else of the role play because I was laughing so hard. Oh man, it was funny.

In other news, we crashed a Super Bowl party yesterday. This guy said we could come back, but apparently didn't think we would actually come back. We did. We got to talk to about 10 people about the gospel, though, and we handed out a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon. And we got DELICIOUS smoked meat and some rice and beans. And they offered us beer about 17 times. #nomeansno

I also did some more studying on covenants this week. The gospel is so cool! Here's what I found - in my mind, covenants are those same guidelines that we are given all through the scriptures that help us become more like God. He knows how important they are and just what needs to be done in order for us to become more perfect, so He sets the terms and requires commitment. In exchange, however, we receive incredible power and divine Help to accomplish those commitments.

Covenants are ways to live better, and are how we become more like God. When we choose not to make or keep these covenants, we deny ourselves of blessings.

Bottom line - covenants help us become who we are, and they help us become who God is.

That's all. I sure do appreciate all that y'all have done for me! I feel so much gratitude for those who have supported me and still support me. I am incredibly blessed.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

LLQJ

P.S. Sister Hudgens saw Eddie and Tiffany while I was on exchanges, and she told them that I make good Eskimo cookies. (True statement.) Eddie's response? "I always knew she was an eskimo."

The Blue Bell crew.