Answers to Prayer

By Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

(Ensign, Aug. 2000, 13.)

Did you know that when Elder Neal A. Maxwell was younger he enjoyed playing basketball? He bears testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.

As a teenage boy I watched my six-week-old sister, Carol, struggle with whooping cough at a time when there were no antibiotics. I came home one night from having been a grease monkey [mechanic] at a bus depot and saw the light was on. It was about four o’clock in the morning. I knew it meant trouble. As I came in, Carol was laid out on the round dining room table, and Dad was waiting for a neighbor to come to join in blessing her. I thought she was gone. It seemed to me she had quit breathing. Then I watched the power of the priesthood, and I watched her start breathing again. That experience let me know the reality of the priesthood at a very young age. Our prayers for her were answered.

Sometimes we may ask for something without enough faith, or we may ask for something that isn’t right. For us to get used to the fact that all prayers are not automatically answered is one of life’s growing experiences.

Some prayers are answered dramatically, as with Carol. With others we must wait. But if we do that, in those waiting moments there will come to us special things.

Illustrated by Ron Peterson