Prayer and Promptings

This week's talk is a great companion to last week's. This week, President Packer teaches about Prayer and Promptings. He begins by reminding us that the dispensation of the fullness of times was ushered in by a 14-year-old boy's prayer. That made me think about all the other amazing things that have happened in answer to prayer: Nephi's vision of the tree of life, the conversion (or reclamation) of Alma the Younger, the Lord's prayer, and all the prayers He uttered in the Garden. I teach Sunday School, and it seems like a lot of the discussion questions outlined by the correlation department in the manual are oftem questions with "standard sunday school answers:" Pray, read you scriptures, attend your meetings....When we remember that scripture study (James 1:5), prayer, and attending church meetings ushered in a dispensation, we won't be so casual about these things. We will begin to see they are gateways to promptings, inspiration, and great works. After all, "by small and simple," even standard things, are great things brought to pass.

To Acquire Spiritual Guidance

Sorry I missed last week girls! I thought I had set the post to go on without me, and it didn't. I was in Seattle being a competitor/vacationer. It was fully awesome.
This week's talk is from Elder Scott. "To Acquire Spiritual Guidance" was the first talk of the Saturday morning session. What an excellent way to start conference! Here, Elder Scott invites us to learn to follow the Spirit, citing specific examples in his own life that could easily be emulated throughout the rest of conference.
We live in challenging times, and we need the influence of the Spirit more and more as we seek to discern our proper course. I know the Spirit can and will guide us. I know that the more we seek him, the easier he becomes to hear. I'm grateful for the gift of his companionship in my life.
*BONUS to ladies in 2nd ward: this is our Teaching for our Time lesson this month, so read up and be ready to participate on Sunday!

Be Ready

Today, my dear sisters, we return to the Priesthood session. I know we are bright enough and perceptive enough to apply this talk directed to the brethren to ourselves! President Eyring gives a stirring reminder of how important it is to be prepared in his talk entitled, "Be Prepared." It reminds me of another talk he gave about adversity where he spoke of a man who had lost his job, but was confident that the Lord would bless them and help them provide for themselves. He says tells us that this man had done more than prepare for temporal eventualities by storing food and saving money. He had prepared his heart to be worthy for the Lord's blessings BEFORE he came to his time of great need. This "spiritual self reliance" has been impressed on me frequently in the last year. I hope we can start our new year determined to "prepare every needful thing," and not be caught without oil in our lamps.