Prayer

Someone dear,  shared a scripture with me yesterday that is really good.  It was found in D&C 101:7.
                     "They were slow to hearken unto the voice of The Lord their God;
                     Therefore,  The Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers,
                                        To answer them in the day of their trouble.
This scripture totally makes sense to me.  I have been thinking about my prayers a lot in this last week since we had a district meeting where our lesson from Preach My Gospel was about prayer.
There are two really good quotes in PMG that I thought I would share with you.

" The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the phone and ordering groceries -- we place our order and then we hang up.  We need to meditate, contemplate, think about what we are praying about and for and then speak to The Lord as one man speaks to another. ". -- President Hinckley

" If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies.  We should remember  the Most High day and night -- always-- not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help."  -- President Howard W. Hunter

I love D&C 46:30
                      "He that asketh in the spirit asketh according to the will of God,
                                        wherefore it is done even as he asketh."

We need to recognize that Heavenly Father knows what we need better than we do.  We need to rely on the spirit to know what to pray for.






As missionaries, we pray many many times during the day.  I was thankful for this district lesson because I can improve so much in the way I pray.  Some tips given us were:

1. Pray to know how to help others
2. Pray with love and charity
3. Pray for the help of the Holy Ghost and then courageously follow those prompting a
4. Pray for people by name
5. At night, give The Lord an accounting of your day's activities
6. Pray to overcome temptation
7. Pray about and ponder the scriptures.  The scriptures will open the window to revelation.
8. Believe God will answer your prayers.  Trust him to answer them in his own way and in his own
time

I know that we see so many miracles everyday that are answers to our many prayers.  It's amazing to me that we have this gift from God -- that we can approach him at any time in Prayer and that he always hears our prayers.  That's incredible!  We are so blessed to know that God hears and answers ours prayers.

Happy 96 th birthday to my father-in-law

Happy birthday today, October 21st to Paul N. Scherbel, who isis amazing!
Last year for his birthday, we had a huge 3 day birthday celebration in Big Piney, Wyoming,, to celebrate his 95th birthday.  He wanted all of his family to be there.  So everyone of his family made it except Matthew Scherbel who was on his mission.  But all the rest of his kids, grand kids and great grand kids made it, and that amounted to something like 123 of us.  We had a family 5 k walk/run along the walking trail from Marbleton to Big Piney that Pampa got the town to build.. We  had an incredible flag raising one morning with all of his great grandsons, wearing their Cub Scout uniforms and his grandsons wearing their scout uniforms.  They had flags to represent all the states and countries that his family lives in.  We all sang America the Beautiful.  It will be forever one of my favorite earthly experiences.  Everyone had matching t shirts.  The little kids played on the giant swings in his back yard.  Judd and Debbie Rackham took pictures of each family.  We had a service project to pick up trash all over town,  Pampa has been doing that for 60 years.  The kids played basketball with cousins and we ate such good meals.
This year for his birthday,  many of us are gone and couldn't attend his party.  We are in Italy, and his daughter Annette and husband are serving a mission in Japan.  More than half of his family did make it.  They had a dinner all together in Orem.  He had had a hernia operation on Monday, and went down to Provo for that and went back to Big Piney Tuesday, and then back down to Orem on Saturday.  He had broken two ribs about two weeks ago with a fall, but that didn't stop him from going down to Provo for Dallin's wedding dinner a day later.  I don't know anyone half his age who would be so tough.  That's why I call him the bionic grandpa.
We were able to face time him during his birthday party.  And i was so glad that we could do that. But today I wanted to pay a special tribute to him because I am so thankful to be a Scherbel and to have married his son.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAMPA.  I THINK YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!!!!

Love,
Geri

 remember the