Le talk---
Good morning
Brothers and Sisters! Many of you know me, but a lot of you don’t. My name is Leah Tangedal and today. Is. My.
farewell! So, as many of you know (because I haven’t stopped talking about it),
I have been called to serve a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have been called to serve in the Ecuador, Quito
North mission for 18 months, and I honestly don’t know if I could be more
excited than I already am.
Well, first
off, I just want to thank you all for all the support and prayers, and just
help, that you have been sending my way. I really appreciate it all. They have
been such a help to me in this waiting period that seems to get more and more
difficult, but I KNOW that once I’m out there everything is going to be
absolutely amazing. So….thank you. J
Alright… I
was asked to give a talk based upon this quote by Jeffrey R. Holland: “God
is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your
dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if
you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.
- Jeffrey R. Holland
Terror, Triumph, and
a Wedding Feast
- Jeffrey R. Holland
Terror, Triumph, and
a Wedding Feast
I love this quote because it is so
true. When it boils down to it, it’s all about faith. As John 3:16 reads, “For
God so loved the world that He gave
his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but
have everlasting life.”
God loves us. We are His children. He loves us so much and He wants to bless us and
bring us joy. That’s why we’ve been sent here to earth to receive bodies and
become like Him and have everlasting life. Just as a parent who wants to bring
his children joy, the Lord wants to bring us joy, but He needs us to believe on
His name. He needs us to have faith in Him.
The story that kept coming to my head whilst
writing this talk was the story of Alma and Amulek from the Book of Mormon.
Alma and Amulek were two men preaching the word of God in a place where the
word of God was not welcomed. Sounds about right… Well, Alma and Amulek were beaten and
imprisoned, mocked and spit upon. They had food and drink withheld from them,
had their clothes taken away so they were naked and vulnerable, and bound them
with strong cords and left in the prison for many days. Days past and people
came mocking them and beating them because they were preaching the word of God,
telling them to prove that they had the power of God and to release themselves
from the cords. Finally, one day when the last guy beat them and taunted them,
Alma and Amulek arose and, (Alma 14:26-28)
“And Alma cried, saying:
How long shall we suffer these greataafflictions, O
Lord? O Lord, bgive us
strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto cdeliverance. And
they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this,
they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them.
27 And it came to pass that so great was their fear that they fell
to the earth, and did not obtain the outer door of the aprison; and
the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain, so
that they fell to the earth; and the chief judge, and the lawyers, and priests,
and teachers, who smote upon Alma and Amulek, were slain by the fall thereof.
28 And Alma and Amulek came forth out of the prison, and they were
not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them apower, according to their faith which was in Christ.
And they straightway came forth out of the prison; and they were bloosed from
theircbands; and
the prison had fallen to the earth, and every soul within the walls thereof,
save it were Alma and Amulek, was slain; and they straightway came forth into
the city.
The only way they got out of there
was because they prayed to the Lord and verse 28 says they were granted power
ACCORDING TO THEIR FAITH. Because they had faith that the Lord would help them
out, they were let out.
As we learn in Luke 17:6 : if we had faith as a grain of mustard seed,
we could command a tree to be plucked up and be planted into the sea and it
would obey us. We could command a tree.
To go plant itself in the sea. In Matthew 17:20 we read that we can move
mountains if we have faith the size of a mustard seed. That nothing is
impossible if we have faith.
I don’t know if you know, but a
mustard seed is this big [shows size of mustard seed]. That is really small.
It’s almost like a slap in the
face…for me at least, it’s like… “I can’t command a tree to go plant itself in
the sea. My faith isn’t even as big as a mustard seed. …. Not even as big as a mustard seed.” It
really gets you thinking.
I’ve been quoting the New testament a
lot because I just finished reading it, but also because it’s amazing.
Another great example of the Lord
fulfilling our dreams according to our faith is the story of the woman with the
issue of blood. She was sick with this issue for 12 years. She saw Jesus and
though “if I could just touch the hem of his garment…” and she did and Jesus
was like “who touched me!?” and the woman came trembling before him and told
him that she touched him. Luke 8:48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good acomfort: thy
faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
This woman literally just touched His clothes, but because
she believe that He was the Christ and that He would heal her of this issue of
blood SHE WAS HEALED.
Back to the quote by Jeffrey R Holland, he said “God is anxiously waiting for the chance to
answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. From the few examples I gave of the hundreds
that are in the scriptures, we do see that the Lord ALWAYS has fulfilled
dreams.
But He can’t if you don’t pray.
Richard G Scott gave a beautifully uplifting talk on prayer. It’s called “using the supernatural gift of prayer” (WRITE IT DOWN!!) He defines prayer as “a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul”. Prayer is a way for us to communicate WITH the Lord and let Him know how we are feeling, what we need, etc. He then says “It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our supplication can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer.”
Richard G Scott gave a beautifully uplifting talk on prayer. It’s called “using the supernatural gift of prayer” (WRITE IT DOWN!!) He defines prayer as “a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul”. Prayer is a way for us to communicate WITH the Lord and let Him know how we are feeling, what we need, etc. He then says “It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our supplication can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer.”
Brothers
and sisters, I promise you. I promise you that the Lord hears our prayers and
if we pray to Him with faith and real intent, believing that He is there,
listening, and ready to answer, that He WILL answer your prayers. I was sort of
freaking out because I couldn’t think of examples to use for this talk, but when
I told my best friend the topic of my talk, she was so excited for me and
reminded me that-stories about prayers answered are seriously my life.
1)
Another
example of the Lord listening to my prayers was one day last year, I was just
really wanting to practice Italian with someone. And like all day I was
speaking Italian in my head and I prayed and asked to find someone to speak
with and to help and I went to the temple hours later and as I was sitting,
some woman came up to me and asked if I could do some names for her and I said
of course and I saw that they were Italian names and I was like oh are you
Italian and she was like yeah I grew up there! And then we spoke italian AND I
helped her.
--further comments--
2)
This
story may seem silly because I know some of my coworkers are here, but last
week, my coworker and I were selling food at an event off site and it was her
first event because she is the new marketing person so she was sooo nervous and
I was just like don’t worry everything is going to be ok. Of course, we were
running a little late, we had no gas and didn’t have the gas key to fill up the
truck and were running on empty, didn’t know if we were going to make it, we’re
both wearing nice clothes and we’re hauling carts of things up to the second
story of a gym on a dolly, sweating drops, finally set up and realize, we left
the cash drawer with the money, then after time, we had a bunch of food left
over and my coworker was really sad because she over estimated the amount that
we needed and now we had food that didn’t sell and she really wanted to show
the boss that she was hired for a reason, you know? And I was like don’t worry.
Everything is perfect! J and we were just praying that all would go
over well and some lady came up to us towards the end of the event and ask for
the exact number of sandwiches and cookies that we had left, and we had no
waste food and everything was sold. The lady walked away and we were both just
like…..that…was all God and she was sooo happy. And on the way home she was
telling me that she was sooo happy that I was her partner for the day because I
was such a help to her with the positive attitude I had and I was like really??
I helped? And she was like YESSS!! And that was perfect because that was the
main thing I prayed for that day which was to be able to help a friend J
So brothers and sisters, I promise you that the Lord hears
and answers our prayers.
I have such a strong testimony of prayer so I want to share
this quote with you. It’s also by Richard G Scott:
“Should you ever feel distanced from our Father, it could
be for many reasons. Whatever the cause, as you continue to plead for help, He
will guide you to do that which will restore your confidence that He is near.
Pray even when you have no desire to pray. Sometimes, like a child, you may
misbehave and feel you cannot approach your Father with a problem. That is when
you most need to pray. Never feel you are too unworthy to pray.”
The Lord truly is waiting to bless us and answer our
prayers. He wants to see us happy, but He can’t do it unless we have faith that
He will help us. He knows that faith is what will get us through this life. He
wants us to exercise it. When I was having struggles with just letting go and
relying on my faith, I had a dream that I was climbing on a pole that was
lining the ceiling and there was a net just under me and I knew it was there,
but because I couldn’t see it for whatever reason, so I wasn’t sure that it
would really catch me, but at the same time I knew it would. And I just had to
let go and let the net catch me. One would say, it was the ultimate trust fall,
but eventually I just did. I took a big breath and just let go, and the net
caught me. From that I learned, that we just need to take a big breath and
proverbs 3:5 it. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto
thine own understanding” because He has our backs. He had all the prophets in
the Old and New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and even our current prophets of
the latter days. And He doesn’t only have the prophet’s backs, he has ALLLLL His
children’s backs. Forever. Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever.” The Lord does not change. So remember. If you don’t pray
and believe in Him, the Lord can’t fulfill your dreams. Faith is key.
-
Bear
testimony ....... In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I report to the missionary training center in 2 days. I am SOO excited. I would be lying if I said that these past couple of days have been easy because I feel like I am 100% targeted by satan. He's doing everything in his power to hinder me from going. If I named off the things that have happened, you would seriously laugh. I have been. haha But wow. Today was amazing. So amazing. I have the best friends ever and the best family ever. The Lord is amazing and He is constantly holding me up through all of this. 59 more hours. I will miss my family, but I need to get in the MTC and get in a safe zone! I can't wait to share this message with everybody in Ecuador. :) I have so much love in me that I feel like i'm going to explode.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE <3 LOVE <3 LOVE <3 LOVE YOU!!
From the bottom of my butt (because that's bigger than my heart)
Soon-to-be Hermana Tangedal
I report to the missionary training center in 2 days. I am SOO excited. I would be lying if I said that these past couple of days have been easy because I feel like I am 100% targeted by satan. He's doing everything in his power to hinder me from going. If I named off the things that have happened, you would seriously laugh. I have been. haha But wow. Today was amazing. So amazing. I have the best friends ever and the best family ever. The Lord is amazing and He is constantly holding me up through all of this. 59 more hours. I will miss my family, but I need to get in the MTC and get in a safe zone! I can't wait to share this message with everybody in Ecuador. :) I have so much love in me that I feel like i'm going to explode.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE <3 LOVE <3 LOVE <3 LOVE YOU!!
From the bottom of my butt (because that's bigger than my heart)
Soon-to-be Hermana Tangedal
