Prayer is so Powerful

Hey there folks! Over the past couple of months I have changed, a lot. Most of it I made an effort to change and then some of it just came a long with my efforts. One of the things I changed in myself was prayer. How I pray, when I pray, where I pray, and what I pray for. I pray more intently, I pray A LOT more often, I pray anywhere, and I pray for basically everything. If I am nervous, I pray. If I am sad or angry, I pray. If I am happy or feeling grateful (which is pretty much always), I pray. If i need help or a friend needs help, I pray. this new habit of mine is so great and I highly recommend we all pray all the time.  Because of all of my prayers I feel the spirit with me, I am so much happier, and I am a lot more aware of what is going on around me. This past week I have had several experiences with prayer. 

One of these times my prayer was answered during the prayer. Isn't that cool? Nothing like this had ever happened to me and it was so awesome. When I knelt down, I was pretty upset and just wanted a way to let my emotions out. So in reality I just wanted to cry. I have a very hard time letting myself cry because I tell myself it is a sign of weakness. So I prayed and cried and it was super awesome and I stood up feeling so much better about life. The next day I had pretty much the opposite experience. I was crying uncontrollably and I felt like Satan was keeping me from thinking about what I needed to think about and I know that he was making me feel super angry and flustered. So there I was kneeling in my room asking for the opposite of what I had asked for the day before. About 30 seconds after I said amen, my crying didn't just fade out, it just stopped. It was insane. When the crying ceased, so did all the feelings of anger and confusion. I immediately knew what I needed to do and everything worked out perfectly. The difference in feeling I had was incredible and I can't even describe it. So the following day I had this super amazing experience with prayer. I had been praying for a few weeks for a friend and for them to be helped with what they needed. I was texting this friend and had casually mentioned they go read a certain conference talk about hope, and they did. (If you would like to read/ listen to this talk click here.) After they read this talk they told me that this talk helped them with exactly what they needed. My prayers were answered and that feeling is so wonderful.  

If you put to much thought into it, like I have, prayer looks strange. Kneeling with your eyes closed and just speaking to air. If you have not prayed, try it!! Once we get over the fact that it looks strange and actually try it, it will work. I love to pray and hope that you do too! Pray wherever and whenever!

Here is a super awesome talk on prayer that everyone should listen to!

I am more than an Athlete

Hi, I'm Jennie and I play basketball, softball, and run cross country. This is how I used to introduce myself to people when they asked me to tell something about myself. Please notice how I say USED to. I let sports be who I am and I really don't like that. I use to dress and carry myself in a way that people would look at me and say "wow she is an athlete". I wanted people to know me as the girl that plays three sports. Not only did I want other people to look at me this way but it is how  I looked at myself. I breathed sports; any decision I made, I had basketball in the back of my mind. I would skip out on fun social events to go work out or go shoot by myself. As an athlete some may think that this is the road to success, and they are correct, to be a successful athlete. I want to be more than a successful athlete. I hope one day to be a successful, wife, mother, and daughter of God. I know that a person can be all of those things and a successful athlete but the balance in my life was not healthy. I let sports run my life instead of letting Christ run my life. I wanted to go play college basketball which was going to keep me from receiving so many blessings. This would have kept me from part of girls camp which would have kept me from relationships with some very amazing people. This most likely would have kept me from going on a mission, which if everything goes the way it should I will be on in around two years. Over the course of my junior year I learned that sports do not define me. Once  I had that figured out, I still needed to figure out what did.  Through one of my teammates I learned that sports could be taken from me in a split second. In my mind that would have been the end of the world.  I watched her go through this injury and she handled it like a champ. This messed up her chance of going to college on an athletic scholarship but she went through it the best way possible.I don't wish to get an injury that will take sports away from me, but if it were to happen I know I could handle it, and I know I could find some sort of positive in the situation. As I went to girls camp I learned that sports do not define me. I am more than an athlete. I like to think I am a kind person, I like to read, recently learned that I enjoy writing, I love helping people and plan on spending my life doing just that, and most of all I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me and I love him. I love to talk about the gospel and I try to share it as often as possible. I am an athlete, but I am also a disciple of Jesus Christ. It took me a while to figure this out, but I am so glad I am figuring this out now and not entering college and figuring it out while I am sitting on the bench at some college basketball game because that would not be fun. I am more than an athlete. I am my own person, not what sports make me.  I am Jennie Anderson and I am a daughter of a King.

Because Labor Day

Clearly, today is Labor Day. I've always known that Labor Day was a holiday that honored those in the military but I have never really thought much about it until today. I have put a lot of thoughts out to those serving for our country and I pray for the soldiers and their families. Recently I have read a couple of books and watched a few shows about the military. Yes, I know that they probably are not the most accurate when it comes to feelings and the technical terms and all that stuff. But they have definitely opened my eyes on the military. I am so thankful for everything our soldiers do. I cannot comprehend why people would want to go into the military, maybe because its because I'm selfish but I could not voluntarily go and get shot at. These people go through so much just to protect our freedom. I will never be able to express how grateful I am towards everyone and their contributions to preserving the independence we have.

 Now lets take a second and talk about the families of those that are serving. That takes some serious toughness. Their family member takes off and they have no idea whether they are going to come back alive or not. I don't know about you, but I am not quite sure if I could do that. I don't think I am strong enough. I could not go on with my life knowing that my husband, or child is being shot at. These people have incredible strength. I cannot wrap my mind around the feelings they must feel as they watch their family member walk away. How do you even say goodbye? I really don't think  I could do it. Now, if my husband were in the military I would support him but I would definitely need some support myself. So I guess what it comes down to is that Labor Day should be a holiday that we are thinking of our troops and their families, and send a prayer in their direction. Happy Labor Day everyone!