Hermanas

Nylon Burning continued

The power of a prayer

Utah State beat BYU??? That is the best news of the day! :p Can you believe it's October already? Me either. Conference was wonderful this weekend. We got to watch all 4 sessions + priesthood session haha. We brought our investigators and there wasn't a sound in the spanish translation room, so we stayed with them. There were some super good talks. In between conference yesterday the ward made a special missionary lunch and invited all the missionaries in the stake to come and eat. It was very sweet :) Apparently people like to invite missionaries over for dinner during conference because yesterday we had 4 dinner appointments...I'm not really a fan of food anymore period after yesterday. This morning we made cookies for a movie night the ward is having tonight and I wasn't even tempted to taste the cookie dough. ;) haha. I'm a little stressed about Thanksgiving and Christmas!

On to some cool stories...

Actually, first, somebody sent me the last General Conference CD's in spanish a couple of weeks ago. There was no name on the box, but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! It was so thoughtful, and I use them all the time. :)

So on Monday night, we went over to Esperanza & Efrain's house to teach them a lesson about prayer. It had begun to feel like we were starting to lose them, and we were worried about how the lesson would go. When we arrived, the house was in complete chaos, everybody was mad at everyone and nobody was excited to see us.

Four days earlier, they had last the keys to the truck, and still nobody could find them. They were overwhelmed and frustrated, because there was no money to pay a locksmith to make them new locks and keys. We sat down with Efrain first and said that we wanted to say a prayer with them just to help everyone calm down, and asked him if they had prayed for help to find the keys. He quickly responded that no they had not, and that God wouldn't answer his prayers. I wondered what had happened to his excitement to learn and to know if God was there. He called all of the kids into the room and told them they had to stay. After several minutes of yelling and fighting all of the kids grudgingly came and sat down.

We talked simply about how God answers our prayers, and how he is always willing and waiting to bless us, if we just ask. We knelt to pray, inviting Efrain to take the opportunity to pray for help to find his keys, and see that God could answer even him. He refused. Esperanza offered a heartfelt prayer, and then we all got up and began to search. Sister Kelson and I were praying like crazy that they would find the keys. We feared it could be our last chance to teach Efrain if we didn't. 10 minutes later we heard the jingling of keys and all ran into the living room where Efrain stood, keys in hand. He said, "I just kept having this feeling that I should look here one more time." We knelt again and this time Efrain offered a prayer of gratitude, thanking God for allowing him to recognize the promptings of the spirit and for his first personal witness that he does in fact exist.

Since then, Both Efrain and Esperanza have committed to baptism, they came to two sessions of conference, attended the ward parenting class, and have invited all of their friends to come and listen at every lesson we teach.

It is amazing to me that just one moment, one experience can create a complete change of heart. I wonder at what might have happened had we not taken the opportunity to kneel and pray that night, I wonder if we would even still be teaching them, or if Efrain would have listened again. All it took was a prayer. What a difference we can each make in our own lives, and in our own testimonies of God and his teachings, with sincere heartfelt prayer.