October 5, 2020
Hey mom,
Awesome job on memorizing the restoration proclamation. real good job with that. I lowkey forgot about memorizing that for the majority of the week and then come friday I was like, oh snap! and cranked out another two paragraphs in the car on the way to dinner and then my comp got tired of my repeating it and put on some music so I'm at about half-ish... whoops.
This week was great. we moved up to Albuquerque which was definitely quite the change. After the first night of me sleeping on the top bunk, the bed frame bent for some reason and I got moved down to the floor and today they are taking it to get it welded back in place. Guess I gotta lay off the oatmeal creme pies...
As for General Conference, I really enjoyed it. For the Saturday morning session, we were over helping the Leyvas sheetrock their trailer and listened to it with them which was nice but I missed quite a bit. I did get to hear Elder Oaks talk though. That was good. The other three sessions we watched at the church and at members' homes.
One of the overarching thoughts that I got out of conference was that of love. Like two weeks ago the church uploaded the cover photo for Oct 2020 Gen Conf to the gospel Library and it was a nice little painting of Jesus sitting at the well with the Samaritan lady. I think. I may be wrong, but that's what it looked like to me.
Aaaaanyway, I went and read up on that story in John 4 just to see if I could get any glimpse of what God was preparing to say. and it came out to be a little lesson on love.
You see, the Jews and the Samaritans did not get along 2000 years ago. From what I understand, after the capture of Jerusalem centuries before Christ, some of the many of the Jews were carried away captive to Babilonia. but some were left behind. These intermarried with some Syrians and other Mesopotamian people and eventually, when Judah returned to Jerusalem they saw the new samaritan people as an impure race. From then on there was tension between the two people and no business or trade happened between the two of them.
This is where it gets interesting that Jesus asked a Samaritan woman to draw Him some water from the well. Where amnesty and hate were before, love and service came through Jesus Christ. He looked beyond the race of the woman and the traditions of the past and offered the Living water to ALL that come unto Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And I think that was the main topic of General Conference this year. We all need to love everyone, look beyond the past and into the future, and share the joy that we have received through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Anyway love you all and hope you have a wonderful day.
love,
Elder Bailey
