December 2004 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
December 2004 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
December 2004 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
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26<br />
“ W<br />
hy does the<br />
world think to<br />
make me deny what<br />
I have actually seen?<br />
For I had seen a<br />
vision; I knew it, and<br />
I knew that God knew<br />
it, and I could not<br />
deny it.”<br />
members. <strong>The</strong> Lord had not given me a stone; He gave me<br />
bread. I discovered a few years after returning home that I<br />
had French ancestors. I find myself expressing gratitude<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten to my Father in Heaven for allowing me the wonderful<br />
opportunity <strong>of</strong> serving the French people and experiencing<br />
as much joy in my French heritage as I do in my Danish.<br />
If the answers to our pleadings do not come when we<br />
feel we most need them, let us remember that young<br />
Joseph Smith did not see the pillar <strong>of</strong> light until after<br />
“exerting all [his] powers to call upon God” and only “at<br />
the very moment when [he] was ready to sink into despair<br />
and abandon [himself] to destruction” (Joseph Smith—<br />
History 1:16). This was on the occasion when he prayed<br />
vocally for the first time in his life (see Joseph Smith—<br />
History 1:14). <strong>The</strong> Lord surely hears all our prayers, the<br />
silent and the spoken, but there is a concentration <strong>of</strong><br />
purpose that <strong>of</strong>ten accompanies vocal prayer. I have<br />
discovered in my own life that those times when I most<br />
deeply express my feelings and thoughts, I find myself,<br />
without consciously thinking about it, praying vocally.<br />
While trying to come to a “certain conclusion,” the boy<br />
Joseph had searched the scriptures for answers. Though<br />
he did not find in them the specific answer he sought, he<br />
received guidance on how to get that answer. It seems that<br />
there are two parts to private prayer: speaking and listening.<br />
Sometimes the answers come even as we pray, but<br />
more <strong>of</strong>ten they come according to the Lord’s own time,<br />
place, and circumstance. Quite frequently they come<br />
through the scriptures. Most <strong>of</strong>ten when we pray, we<br />
expect to speak while God listens. When we read the<br />
scriptures, God speaks and we are invited to listen.<br />
A few years ago a young woman in our ward who had<br />
recently graduated from high school was invited to go to<br />
Russia to teach English to young children. Communication