Lesson Learned

During my first semester at Brigham Young University Idaho, a bomb fire party was held at the sand dunes just outside of Rexburg Idaho.  As a new college student I enjoyed hanging out with friends and having fun on the weekends.  You could say that I valued my free time, and wanted to do something that was going to create lasting memories.  I had planned in advance who I would be going to the party with, and as we traveled to the event, I anticipated the experience we would have together.  When we arrived at the sand dunes, I parked my car on the side of the road, which seemed to be somewhat firm.  Soon after, we found out that we were in the wrong location, and would need to continue traveling.  As I pressed the gas pedal, I could feel the tires of my car sink into the sand until we were completely stuck.  My friends and I looked at the situation and felt like there was no way we were going to get my car out of the sand by ourselves.  Keep in mind that we were in the middle of nowhere.  There were no lights, and phone reception was unavailable.  I could feel myself starting to worry thinking, how are we going to get out of here?  In addition to the few friends I had in my car, a man named Drew was with us.  He had recently returned home from serving a full time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  As we discussed what we would do, he suggested that we say a group prayer.  At first everyone kind of laughed at him, but as I thought about it, it not only sounded like a great idea, but it was the only thing we could do at this point.  We gathered in a circle and offered a short simple prayer to our Father in Heaven asking for help to get my car out of the sand.  The moment we said amen, a truck full of college students drove up and helped us dig my car out.  In a minutes time my car was out of the sand and we were on our way to the party we had been anticipating.  This experience is a simple one, but the lesson learned is very powerful.  My testimony of prayer was strengthened as a result of the experience I had with my friends.  I believe that Drew was inspired to suggest that we pray and ask for help when clearly there was no other line of communication available.  When we are faced with a difficult situation, and have no idea what to do next, what do we do?  Do we turn to our friends like I did at first?  Do we do nothing?  Or do we think of our Heavenly Father and the help that he can provide us?  In my situation, prayer was not the first thing that came to my mind.  In the end it was the thing that got us out of trouble.  My point today is that whether our challenge is big or small, we can, we should, and in some situations, we must turn to God to receive help and to solve our challenges and concerns.