The Doors of Opportunity

 

Hello everyone!

This has been a pretty great week for me so far. I had my first in person zone conference with the the missionaries near Cookeville. That was pretty great! During one of the sessions, I heard an interesting thought. 

Imagine we are sitting across the table from our Heavenly Father. We offer a lot of things to serve Him, but we have something hiding behind our back. He wants us to give the thing that is hardest to give up. The best thing is that not only may we get it back, we will get it back better than before. 

I had an interview with my mission president, President Graham. We just talked about the area and how I am doing. He did mention some changes that will probably happen soon, so I will include that in my next email. 

On the way back from zone conference, we had the chance to visit a member in the ward. His name is Benny. We pull up to his house and we see him doing some work. He leads us a quarter of a mile to his house down a muddy hill. I look at the house he lives in and see a strange pattern on it. I look a little closer and see his entire house is made of DOORS. 

He leads us inside to his two room area. There is only one lantern, so it's very dark. I see this super fat little dog struggling to walk about the place. He is a fun guy, but man the people here can be very interesting. 

We had the chance to talk with another member who lives in our area. He was a fun guy to teach. He owns like 1,300 acres and lives alone. Land around here costs about 1,000 dollars per acre. I think sometimes it wouldn't be too terrible a life. I could just buy a bunch of land in the middle of Tennessee and become a hermit hmmm....

My companion, Elder Cohn, comes from a long line of Jewish heritage. His dad is a converted Jew, so we had the chance to celebrate Passover. That was a good experience and I enjoyed learning about another culture. 

An update on Angela: she is doing really well and is all set for baptism. She came to church again this Sunday, so she is all set. We are super excited for her to continue on and become a strong member in this church. 

One great thought that really helped me these past few weeks was from a talk given by Elder Holland. This talk is one of my favorites called Songs Sung and Unsung. I remember hearing this talk when it was first given and how much impact it had on me. He related how we can all be a part of God's choir. In this choir there are many parts like tenor, bass, soprano, and alto. He related how each of us have a role to play in this life. I like to look for ways I can help others and fulfill my role in life. I encourage each of you to go read it.

Let The Depth of Humility Raise You Up

Elder Oram

From Mom: The link to the talk he references. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/04/songs-sung-and-unsung?lang=eng

I remember when this talk was given and how much it meant to Bailey then. I love that it is still something he thinks about.