Sept 1- September 2014 Already!!!

This week was crazy, I got a fever and we stayed at home for 3 days this past week. I am happy to say that being SICK in 100 degree weather is miserable. Luckily my body just needed to rest so I slept for 2 days and then on the 3rd day we got up and went to our appointments we had. I am doing much better now, just dealing with a cough and mucus. When I laugh I have this really bad raspy sound in my throat. 

The Lord has been blessing us so much through all of this. Last week we received a referral from someone who is investigating the church in San Bernadino (have no idea how to spell that), she gave his name to the missionaries and we got it. We started visiting A this last week. He is 75 years old and says he is 100% his religion but he hasn't been to church in over 20 years. We went to visit him and we taught him the Restoration. We then asked him to pray and he said he wanted to memorize the prayer first. So we explained how to pray to him and then send a small prayer as an example. Afterwards he PRAYED. The Lord has been blessing us with all of these little miracles. 

Prayer is something that I have been studying recently because we have a few people we are teaching who:

1) Have never prayed before

2) Never prayed out loud

3) Never prayed from their heart

4) Never prayed outside of church  

It seems like that is all our investigators are talking about and so that is what I have been studying and I thought I would share a few things that I learned. First, prayer is a commandments, we can pray anytime and in any setting and as individuals or as families. We also need to pray daily so that we can receive guidance and blessings and as we pray daily we can learn to recognize the HOLY GHOST in our lives and his influence. One of the things that I learned as I studied prayer and tried to deepen my personal prayers is that we only learn how to gain answers through our experiences with prayer. 

In 1 Nephi 15:11, it says, " Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."  

So we really have to have Faith, Ask, and KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS so that we can receive an answer. 

I also realized as I read the 1st vision, which is when Joseph Smith prayed for an answer of what church he should join that it was the FIRST TIME HE HAD PRAYED that way! It says in Joseph Smith History 1:14, " So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for a midst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally." 

Joseph Smith who was later the first prophet of this time, had to overcome anxieties to pray out loud! I had never realized that. He was determined and had the FAITH to pray to his loving Heavenly Father. I shared that with one of our investigators and she said that she would continue to try to pray out loud. She is working on it. One of our other investigators is now praying each time we leave on her knees. 

Prayer is our way to communicate with our loving Heavenly Father, so when was the last time you inquired of the Lord? (1 Nephi 15:8) I plead with each and every one of you, use your faith and pray tonight to your Heavenly Father. He wants to hear you. 

I love you all so much, I hope you have a great day today and are prepared for school in just a few days. Love you to the moon and back!

Hermana Weller