Lessons on Prayer

Well the power went off in the whole neighborhood last night at about 12:00 which turned our fans off and made it really hot. We woke up and had to open the window but then a bunch of mosquitoes came in and started biting us. So I went and sprayed a bunch of repellent all over me and went back to bed. The mosquitoes stopped biting but it didn't stop them from buzzing around my ears all night. So long story short, I didn't get much sleep last night.


Elder Tenorio and his wife came to speak to us last Thursday. He told us a bunch of inspirational stories about how he learned English and also a form of prayer that he learned. He showed us Genesis 24:12-20 and the form of prayer that Abraham used to find his wife. Elder Tenorio told us that one day a young lady came to him and told him: Elder Tenorio I have a dilemma. I have two men in my life. I'm almost engaged to one of them but the other wants to go out with me. What should I do? Elder Tenorio told her just as an example, not that she should do it exactly as he says but to go home and before she goes to bed to pray to God and tell him the exact thing that she said to Elder Tenorio and then to tell God let it be that the man who calls me at 1:30 in the morning and says that he was reading his patriarchal blessing and that it says that he is going to marry a faithful and humble woman. That is the man that she is supposed to marry. So she went home and did exactly that and later went to sleep. and Exactly 1:30 in the morning one of the men called and told her that he was reading his blessing and that it says that he is going to marry a faithful and humble woman. At that moment the woman said Dang! I was hoping that it was the other.

He also told us that it doesn't have to be applied to finding your spouse but started to tell us of another story about how he never missed a payment on anything in his life. One day he realized that it was the last day that he was going to be able to pay the payment. The bank that he needed to drive to closed at five it was a half an hour drive with the traffic and it was 4:40 at the time. So Elder Tenorio got in his car and prayed. He said well God you know that I have never missed a payment. It doesn't look like I will be able to make it on time. Let it be that as I am driving there won’t be much traffic and that as I pull into the parking lot a car will be backing out of its space so that I might drive right in and walk into the bank and have the doors of the bank close right behind me. So Elder Tenorio started to drive with faith. There was hardly any traffic, as he pulled into the parking lot it was all full but one car was pulling out of its space so that he could pull right in and as he walked through the door of the bank they locked the doors right behind him. He also taught us many other wonderful things about prayer.

As you might remember we lost a lot of investigators last week. My companion and I told each other that we weren’t going to become discouraged by that and that God would provide us with more and better people. And well yesterday we brought nine very good people to church and met five more today that we are going to be working with. And all of them have had at least one time in church before. We are very excited.

Oh and I had to give a talk yesterday in church. I talked about 4 Nephi and how we could create a family of Zion within our own homes. And it was kinda funny because afterwards the bishopric pulled me into the bishop’s office and said that they had a question for me and that they hoped that I wouldn't get offended. I laughed and asked what it was and they said that while I was giving my talk they were looking at my shoes, they wanted to know if I needed any financial help to buy new shoes. I laughed again and said no, that my shoes were just keeping me humble here in the mission and that I am going to buy some once they totally die. But what do you think? Should I buy new ones?

Well that's all for this week. The church is true. Love you all!

Elder Whetten