One in a Million

So last night, I was relaxing after a long, long, long day of work and school. I started falling asleep, which is actually something I didn't want to happen, because I had a date that I needed to be fresh and awake for in a few minutes.  To entertain myself and stay awake, I started doing little math teasers in my head.

To preface, this is not unusual for me.  I don't really care for math classes, but I like doing math teasers.  One time, when I was driving home from Utah, I stopped every hour and filled up on gas, checking my fuel economy with my odometer and comparing that with the fuel economy readout on my car's on-board computer.  Some people think that's weird.  I prefer the term charming.

So as I was trying to stay awake, I was just thinking about what an unusual circumstance I find myself in.  I am gay, and a Mormon, and a prospective missionary.  What are the odds, I thought.  Then I decided to find the odds.

Okay, so I'm Mormon.  That's 14 million people out of a possible 7 billion, which is a 1 in 500 set of odds.  I'm gay as well, which, according to some (wildly pro-gay) claims accounts for one out of every ten people.  So far, I'm 1 in 5,000, probably more.  Next, I'm a prospective missionary, which potentially puts me in a bank of 50,000, which, compared to the 14 million in the church is one of every 280 people.  When I serve a mission, then, I will be one person in 1.4 million.  That is impressive to me, and motivates me to serve even more.  I like rarity :)

(I'm surprised that one out of every 500 people is Mormon.  That seems high to me.  Someone correct my math if it's wrong.  Also, I know you could have gotten to the answer quicker, I just wanted to take up more blog space.)