Reader voices: Calling home

This Mother’s Day, I truly felt the comfort implied in the phrase “only a phone call away.” Our family emails our daughter regularly and we exchange honest-to-goodness handwritten letters. We communicate. She knows we love her and we know she is a valiant missionary, but a phone call eased the heart-tugging of walking past her unoccupied bedroom or feeling her absence at family gatherings. A phone call made her feel closer.

“Some say that Heaven is far away, but I feel it close around me as I pray.” That line from the Primary song, "A Child’s Prayer," is true. Just as my daughter’s phone call home closed any distance, prayer takes us home to Heavenly Father. As we pray for our daughter and she prays for us, Heavenly Father closes the distance. He is the connector.

I don’t fully understand how prayer works, but I know it works and I have experienced the power of prayer. I have much to learn about prayer and I am learning a lot about prayer through my daughter’s teaching and learning experiences as a missionary.

Prayer is the reason missionaries serve where they do and reach who they reach. The gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth today because a young boy named Joseph Smith called home to ask a question of great importance.

Penny Bowler has considered herself to be a writer almost ever since she discovered the power of words.