Be Specific when you Pray

Today the talks in Sacrament meeting
were about prayer and
receiving answers to prayers.
The speakers shared some personal experiences
about having their prayers answered.
This got me thinking about experiences
that I have had with prayer.

My favorite prayer memory took place
while I was on my mission in a town named Aylesbury.
My companion and I were knocking on doors one evening
and we weren't experiencing too much success.
We were having a hard time finding people at home,
or at least answering their doors.

I said a silent prayer,
"Please let the people at the next house open the door."
We knocked on the door and the door was opened
by a less than friendly bloke who quite quickly
let us know that he wasn't interested
in hearing what we had to say.
SLAM!

I offered another silent prayer.
"Please let the people at the next house talk to us."
We knocked on the door, the door was opened,
a nice lady spoke with us and
answered our "5 questions about happiness"
(which was our usual door approach)
but wasn't willing to let us come in
and share a message with her.

Another silent prayer.
"Please let the people at the next house let us come in."
We knocked, approached, were invited in to visit
but when we tried to teach that was the end of the visit.

Another prayer.
"Please let the people at the next house
let us come in and teach them the first discussion."
We knocked, were invited in, taught a discussion
but the home owners weren't interested in having us return.

Next Prayer.
"Please let the people in this house let us in,
let us teach, and let us come back."
That's just the way it happened.

That was the last house on the street
and it was time to go home by then
so I didn't advance to the the prayer
that ended up with "and let them get baptised".
At least not that night.
I did however learn a valuable lesson
in the importance of being specific when I pray.
You sometimes get just what you ask for.