Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Prayer 03/21/2011

Hello Everyone,

We have successfully moved into our new house. I wish I took pictures that I could show you all how awesome our new place is but I forgot. We are having the zone over today for a BBQ in our backyard.

I'm not sure if you've seen the new videos called "Mormon Messages" maybe online or if you've purchased the DVD at Deseret Book. It is a collection of videos that contain messages of hope and inspiration from the Apostles and our Prophet and even some members of the Church.
These videos were created originally for youtube but are now available on DVD. I invite you all to search them out on youtube or purchase a copy. These videos are fantastic! I've used them in nearly every teaching appointment since I bought it last week and have seen success from doing so.

Tomorrow we leave for Pocatello to go to a 3-day leadership conference at the Idaho State University institute building. I'm pretty excited for this conference because they are all usually pretty good and I learn a lot. For this one Elder Owens and I have been asked to give a 2 hour training on revelation through prayer. I learned something about prayer in an experience we had while preparing this training on prayer... interesting isn't it?

We have been praying and pondering on the topic for several days now and several times we tried to put the training together but nothing would come. We had these ideas so we wrote them on the board but then they wouldn't make sense or we would forget where we were going with it. I received this prompting on Saturday to call President Colton and ask him for some advice to which he said, give me a couple days to think and I'll get back to you. Now mind you, we are leaving really early tomorrow which leaves us with today to prepare the training. This morning President Colton got back to us and asked us to focus on the revelation part more so than the prayer part. With that advice we grabbed the white board and all our notes and study material and sat on the ground to draw up the outline. The ideas flowed and the outline came with ease. We finished everything in an hour. The Spirit completely took charge and guided us on what to train the missionaries on. The lesson I learned is that the Lord is mindful of us and only answers prayers on His time and when He does, it's perfect.

In my study of prayer I learned a lot about the preparation that takes place prior to and during a prayer. We learn of the preparation of the Prophet Joseph that took a significant amount of time prior to him actually entering the sacred grove to plea with the Father. We learn of Job of old who was taught about the preparation necessary prior to asking the Father, "...prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him." And of course we know of Moroni who exhorts us to prepare for revelation, "...ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ..." I've learned that receiving answers or help from our Supreme Creator we must prepare ourselves prior to even asking in the name of Christ. The question is do we explain this to people when we invite them to pray to know if the Church is true? Do we understand the significance of prayer and the commandment to pray often? I know that I can rise to a new level and apply myself better.

I love what Elder Scott says in regards to prayer. He explains that Heavenly Father is the Grand Creator of all things both in heaven and in earth and yet He invites you and I, as insignificant as we are, to call Him Father and have a personal relationship with Him. Elder Scott then concludes by stating that He will listen and answer our prayers.

I'm excited to let you all know how the training goes this week. We're the last part of the conference and will present on Thursday.

I hope you are all doing great and are loving life. All is well here.

--
Peace and Love,
Elder Tyson Rigby Walker

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