Wow its been two months since I put anything on here... What a slacker!
Here is my outline for my talk I gave today if you are interested or whatever.
Prayer 7-29-07
Tell story about Chad’s investigator on his mission in Singapore learning to pray for the first time.
--Non Christian family - never prayed before.
--Went through the steps of prayer with them
Our Father in Heaven, we thank thee… we ask thee… in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
--They had the father pray
--He said, “Our Father in Heaven, we thank thee, we ask thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
-- Funny but true story. Happened to him more than once.
--They had a hard time realizing the fact that they are more than just words on a page, and that they were really communicating with a higher power.
Principles of Prayer
-- Some of the important principles: (from Preach My Gospel)
--Make prayers meaningful.
--(having real intent, no vain repetitions 3 Nephi 13: 6-7.)
Ex: people in other religions write their prayers down to make the prayer sound elaborate, or make the person sound better.
--Use the proper language to show respect. (thee, thou, thy, thine) --Show gratitude. It helps us with humility, and we recognize our blessings
--Pray for the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Listen to his promptings, and Courageously follow those promptings. (P.M.G.)
--Pray for others needs. Have love and charity in your heart.
--Believe that God will answer your prayers.
--His thoughts are not your thoughts. (what you want may not be what He wants.)
--Trust He will answer in His own way, in His own time.
Personal Prayer
--Our Prayers should be a 2-way communication where Heavenly Father listens and answers our prayers.
--We need to not only express our feelings to Him, but allow time to reflect and listen to the Spirit.
--Repentance is not possible without prayer.
--We must communicate with H. F. confessing our sins to Him.
--Satan wants to convince us that we should not pray.
--Elder Scott: “Never feel you are too unworthy to pray.”
--P.M.G.: “If you do not feel like praying, pray until you do feel like praying.”
--2 Nephi 32: 8
Receiving Answers
--Doctrine and Covenants 8: 2
--D&C 9: 8-9
--He will answer, in His own way, and the answer could be “no”
--3 Nephi 14: 7-8
--Elder Scott talks about 3 types of answers to prayer:
1. Peace and comfort
2. Stupor of thought
3. No response (after time could mean no)
--Elder Scott: “Be thankful that sometimes God lets you struggle for a long time before that answer comes. Your character will grow; your faith will increase.”
Missionaries and Prayer
--Very important, Missionaries use prayer many times everyday.
--Personal Prayer.
--Before Studying.
--Praying for members or investigators before leaving the house.
--Praying for where they should go for that day.
--It invites the Spirit (for the missionary and the investigators)
--You cant teach effectively without the spirit.
--One of the important steps to finding truths (BoM, etc.)
--“No one can know of spiritual truths without Prayer.” (P.M.G.)
--The Holy Ghost then helps us know of these truths.
--Builds testimonies and faith
--President Hinckley:(P.M.G.) “Every morning…, missionaries should get on their knees and plead with the Lord to loosen their tongues and speak through them to the blessing of those they will be teaching. If they do this, a new light will come into their lives. There will be greater enthusiasm for the work. They will come to know that in a very real sense, they are servants of the Lord speaking in His behalf. They will find a different response from those they teach. As they do so by the Spirit, their investigators will respond under the influence of the same Spirit.”
-“Missionary Service” First Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting, Jan 11, 2003
Mission Preparation
--Crucial to building testimony
--Helps to know of the truths I talked about earlier
BoM, Joseph Smith, if you should serve a mission, etc.
--I prayed about trying to decide whether or not I should serve a mission, and that it is the right thing for me to do.
--Prayer helps to escape Satan and his influence, & helps focus on Savior and H.F.
--Family Prayer helps with the preparations to serve a mission.
--Brings the family closer, you learn from their examples.
--Mom and Dad have been great examples to me with their faithful prayer and testimonies.
--Example-- Lost wallet: I Looked and looked then prayed expecting an immediate answer, but there was none. Now I realize that my faith was being tested. I kept praying and looking, but I got lazy and stopped praying about it, accepting that it was gone, but my mom kept praying and that gave me the hope to keep praying for it. The answer to my prayers came when I was least expecting it, as do most answers, and I found it in my messy room looking for something else.
--Deciding to go to school in VA.
--Brought blessings that I would have never expected.
--Was able to Confer upon someone the Aaronic Priesthood, and ordain him to be a Priest.
The end. I also read the closing prayer that President Hinckley gave in the October 2001 General Conference because Elder Scott tells us to study and learn from that prayer so I thought it would be good to have. So there.
