Prayer

So prayer has been on my mind alot lately.. I just want to say that I KNOW that the Lord does hear us and does answer our prayers.
We had a mission conference this afternoon and something that was said really made me think a little more about prayer. "Consider all the prayers in your behalf. Recognize and be grateful for the prayers for you! Think about your prayers. We can make a difference with prayer."
What is prayer? Prayer is a sincere, heartfelt talk with our Heavenly Father. We pray to Him.
What a great blessing, to be able to talk to our Father in Heaven. We need to seek for His guidance daily. Pray for the guidance and strength to resist temptations. (3 Nephi 18:15)
One of the things that I love about prayer is that we can be anywhere and we can pray to Him anytime!
I remember having a discussion on how to pray in my seminary class. My teacher was telling us that we address Our Heavenly Father.... then we close in the name of Jesus Christ..(3 Nephi 18:19) But what do we pray for? That was the question that the teacher asked, there were alot of different responces like, our friends, family, food, guidance and express our gratitude. "Yes, those are all good things," she said, "but what about just telling Him about your day?" She challenged us to try it, to tell Our Father in Heaven about our day. Tell Him what happened, how we felt, what we did. She promised us that we would feel closer to Him. I felt weird at first, but I decided to take that challenge. I started talking to Him about my day, how it went what I felt, if it was a good day or a bad day. I started talking to my Heavenly Father.... like my Father. I expressed to him my feelings and now, I feel like I have a great relationship with Him. I find myself talking to Him ALL the time. I'll be driving down the road, or walking down the street and I find myself talking to Him. I look forward to kneeling down at night and telling Him about my day. I love what is says in the Bible Dictionary under "prayer" pg 752  
"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part."
I know that He does hear us and does answer our prayers! I know that Our Father in Heaven wants to hear from all of His children! He does love us and I know that we can all feel of His love if we just turn to Him and trust Him.
So, I would like you to take this challenge as well. Talk to Him about your day, express your feelings to Him, tell Him what you did that day and how you felt. I promise that you will feel His love for you and that your relationship with Him will grow.
Remember,
who you are and what you stand for!

Forgiveness

So.. I was reading in DoctRine and Covenants 64:9-10; it Reads," Wherefore, i say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." Reading this really hit me. BefoRe I came out heRe on my mission, theRe was a situation I had with a fRiend. Things happened and things weRe said and I was Really angRy with heR, I was for a long time.
One of my fRiends came home fRom his mission and we talked about the things that had happened between me and heR. He told me to foRgive heR, and move on. I was upset with this answeR!! He wasn't seeing my side of things. The way he was looking at the situation reminds me of the way ouR SavioR looks at ouR situations. With Love! Just like it says in Matt 5:44 ,"...Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which dispitefully use you , and persecute you.." 
When I Read this scRiptuRe I knew what i needed to do! Ask my Heavenly FatheR foR foRgiveness, foR not foRgiving heR. How can we seek foR foRgiveness fRom ouR FatheR in Heaven, when we aRen't willing to foRgive otheRs? It's just as impoRtant to foRgive otheRs as it is to ask foR foRgiveness.
We have so many example's of foRgivness in the scRiptures. Joseph, who's bRotheRs sold him into Egypt, the PRophet Joseph Smith "throughout his ministry was frequently persecuted by his enemies, and sometimes he was even betrayed by his friends. Though he was attacked and maligned, the Prophet consistently preached that we should follow the Savior’s admonition to forgive others", and of couRse the SavioR who was spit on, whipped and beaten and yet he asked the Father to "foRgive them."-Luke 23:34
Now, that I am on my mission I'm so happy that I looked to my fRiend and my SavioR's example. It wasn't easy foR me to do this. But, with help fRom the LoRd I was able to foRgive heR and move on. She is a daughteR of God and He loves heR, and I love heR to! I know that the LoRd has foRgiven both of us foR the things that happened.
A peRfect example of foRgiveness, that we all can look to