PRAYER [aka Git er Done!]

Hey everyone! 

I have so much I'd like to share, but not enough time to get through it all. This week I learned a lot about the importance of prayer. 

In the Bible we learn about a people who try to build a tower to get to heaven.  While trying to get to God is a righteous desire, trying to get to God without his help and by our own works is wrong. As punishment, God confounded their language. This is the story of the tower of Babel.  I wonder how many of us try to get through our schooling, or find success in our career or among peers without including our Heavenly Father in the plan. We think we can do it ourselves. Prayer is one of the biggest ways that we can make sure we include God in all our endeavors, so that we may have his blessing and be a lot happier than those people who had their languages all mixed up! 

My exchange with Sister Case in the Green Hills YSA was amazing. She is still in training and is so cute! We both focused on having specific prayers and prayers of gratitude throughout the day. 

This is Camille, she took us to Fido's for lunch downtown. She's a singer/songwriter and gave us so many tips for how to travel the world!

Before going and contacting people at Centennial Park, we made a goal for how many pamphlets and cards we were going to hand out. We both prayed and got our answer. At the end of our contacting hour, we had some cards left. We knew we had set a goal with Heavenly Father in our prayer, so we determined to find the last few people to give it to. 

We spotted two YSA girls and went to talk to them. They were familiar with the church because of other friends who had met with missionaries. As we were teaching them, a random lady walked up to us. "Hi Sisters!", she said. We didn't know who she was, so she introduced herself as being a member way up in Clarksville. She then turned to the girls we were teaching and testified to them of the truthfulness of the gospel and her own conversion at age 28. "It was the best choice I ever made, so make sure to listen to these sisters because everything they're saying is true!" She then took the friend she was with and walked away. The girls we were contacting were amazed, and eagerly listened to the rest of what we had to say. Can I please find this member and get her autograph?? I want to be like her someday!

Another amazing lesson we had was with an investigator name Shannon. Shannon has been meeting with missionaries for forever, but has actually never been taught because she talks so much. Sister Case told me about this, and together we prayed very hard that we could get through to her tonight and teach a lesson. We brought a member for the first time, his name is Logan. We got in and said a prayer. A PRAYER. The sisters had never been able to say an opening prayer with her! We began to teach, and she listened, and she participated! The spirit was SO strong, and we were able to teach a lesson inspired to fit her needs EXACTLY. Logan's testimony was spot on and Shanon went from refusing to be baptised to talking about the blessing that would come into her life if she did. I havn't had a lesson that powerful in a long time. 

Let's see, after getting back together Sister Rawlings and I went tracting. We met a man who said he teaches over at the big baptist church in town. However, he doesn't actually believe the baptist ways. You see, he's traveled abroad and studied the original hebrew language and been able to really read the bible and interpret it correctly. He explained that by so doing, he was able to discover the nature of God. Other church's teach it wrong, he says. And unless we all go and learn hebrew and take a few years to study the bible, we will never know for ourselves. This was such a strange concept to me! Okay, YES the Bible isn't 100% perfect (thank heavens for the Book of Mormon) but do we really think God would let us live on never knowing if the trinity was real or not, unless we went to the middle east for extensive studies of the Bible? I testify this is not the case. Heavenly Father has revealed his nature to us and to his prophets. Especially to the prophet Joseph Smith who saw him and Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for prayer that allows us to communicate with our Heavenly Father and know divine truth for ourselves without having to read in different languages. 

On Sunday we had a GREAT mothers day. I just adored speaking with my family, aren't they so cute?

Thinking of including God in all things, I told my family about my plan to start even dates off with a prayer together. They looked at me kinda funny. Mom said it might be a good thing, it would weed out who I'd actually be interested in. hahaha. I just love praying and have seen the blessings of it! I promise that if you will all work to pray at least twice a day to your Heavenly Father, you will begin to have a relationship with him that will bless your life so much. It's not enough to merely believe that a person exists, you have to actually talk to them and spend time with them to form a relationship! If I had more time I might share a few quotes, but for now it suffices me to say that we cannot reach our fullest potential in this life without allowing in the man who gave it to us through prayer. 

So, will you pray more often?

Sincerely,

Sister Hochstrasser

Write to me!

Sis Jennifer Hochstrasser

Tennessee Nashville Mission

105 West Park Drive Ste 190

Brentwood, TN  37027

or dearElder.com