Does God Answer Prayers?

While I was serving as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Seattle, WA, I was helping a young woman prepare for baptism.  We have closets in our church buildings that have varying sizes of white out fits for people to wear when they are baptized.  We were planning on meeting her at the church so that she could find a size that worked for her.  We pulled up to the empty church parking lot and went inside.  The closet I needed to get into happened to be locked.  I totally didn’t expect that.  My companion (as missionaries, we serve in pairs) and I started calling everyone in the ward (congregation) to try to find someone who had a key and was available to help us out.  We called for 20 minutes.  Nobody was around.  Our appointment was in just a few minutes and we were out of time.  

We decided to kneel down in the empty foyer and ask God for help.  We explained that we needed this closet unlocked to help this sister prepare for her baptism.  We asked that God would help us unlock the door.  We said amen and then looked at each other.  What now?  We stood up in the foyer and literally expected some sort of miracle or something.  We jumped when the door to the chapel suddenly opened.  It was the bishop (a volunteer minister/leader of a congregation) from the other ward.  He asked, “Elders, do you need my help?”  We were dumb founded.  When we picked our jaws up off the floor we told him about our locked closet and we began walking to it with the key in hand.  On our way to the closet, he told us how he had been walking to his car after finishing up some work in his office when he had the prompting or thought to go check the foyer.  He quickly protested the thought knowing that he was the only one in the building and that all the doors were locked to his knowledge.  The thought came again to go check the foyer.  Recognizing this time that it was not his thoughts but God’s, he dutifully turned around, went back into the building, walked straight through the chapel to the foyer to find two very stunned missionaries.  We then told him about our prayer.  

I testify that we all had a sure knowledge that God was close, that he loved us, cared about our desires, and used the hands of others to help us open locked doors.

I challenge you to pray to your Heavenly Father in the name of Christ.  I promise that as you do, you will come closer to God, and he will draw nearer to you.

What is Prayer? 

Coming Closer to God: My Testimony

When I was 11 years old, I wanted to come closer to God.  I wanted to know if he was there.  I wanted to know if he loved me.  I wanted to know what he wanted me to know.  I had a challenge from my 11 year old church instructor while living in Hawaii to pray and ask if what I was being taught was true.  She promised that if I would, God would answer my prayer.  I began reading The Book of Mormon with the intent to know if it was true.  I had grown up reading it in my family and felt like it was a good book that taught about Jesus Christ and his Atonement.  However, I wanted an answer from prayer that it was truly from God.  I knew that if I received an answer, that would mean God was there, that he loved me, and I would know that this was his doctrine.  I read and prayed for 3 months trying to get an answer the way my 11 year old church instructor had promised.  No answer came.  One night, my parents had asked me to babysit my younger brothers while they were out.  I had done this before and there had been no problems, so I accepted.  An hour into babysitting, my 6 year old brother ran out of the house, wanting daddy.  My Dad taught music at BYU-Hawaii at the time, and the campus was within 10 walking minutes from my house.  After a few minutes of him not returning, I quickly realized that his intent was to go find my Dad at work.  I starting running to campus hoping to catch up to him.  I got all the way to campus.  I searched in all of his favorite climbing trees.  I looked around my Dad’s office.  I was asking everyone I saw if they had seen my brother.  Exhausted, scared and hopeless, I knelt down under a palm tree and offered up my heart to God.  I told him through my sobs of my brother, and how much I loved him, but that I couldn’t find him after doing all my 11 year old mind could think to do.  I then asked for help, to find my lost brother.  A warm feeling of peace, comfort and love swept over me.  I was comforted by this incredible feeling of closeness and love.  I then heard the words in my mind, not audibly with my ears, but words in my mind say, “Paul is fine.  He is at home.”  That message came as a shock to me, and such a relief.  I then heard the words, “The Book of Mormon is true.  Joseph Smith is a true prophet.”  I testify that God spoke to me that day, and through the Spirit comforted me.  I felt closer to God that day then I had ever felt in my whole life.  I ran home, and found my brother.  I wrapped my arms around him as he looked at me like I was some crazy person.  I knew that God needed my heart prepared.  He needed me to desperately desire an answer to prayer, and be willing and ready to listen.