Father's Day Week 2007

While I was in the Missionary Training Center preparing to go on a mission for my church to New York City, I learned the most valuable lesson I have ever learned. The first topic of study in the MTC was "Our Heavenly Father". I had up to this point always prayed to my Heavenly Father, but I really didn't know Him as a father. As we studied the Father's mercy, love and divine plan I came to understand and love Him as my Father. I gained a testimony of His love, of His plan for me, and of the ultimate love He has for each of us as His children. I felt closest to Him while I served. I not only prayed to Him in my times of weakness and desperation but in my times of Joy and happiness. I would kneel and have conversations with Him more intense and plea full that I had ever conversed with anyone before. I have felt the peace of His love many times in my life. I am so grateful that I had that experience in the Missionary Training Center that helped me focus on my Heavenly Father as my Father, and not only the person I pray too. It has been an invaluable lesson, and I am so grateful for it.

One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 64:8 in the Old Testament. It reads:

"But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand."

I hope that I always have enough faith to allow Him to mold me into the person

He sees me as.