Prayer is the means for us to communicate with God and Mormons pray a lot. On a typical week day, I say a personal prayer when I wake up, we have family prayer before breakfast, I say a prayer before I eat my lunch, we have another family prayer before dinner, and my husband and I pray together before we go to bed. That's five times a day. On Sunday, we pray even more. In addition to the five times, we pray at the beginning and end of sacrament meeting, the beginning and end of Sunday School, and the beginning and end of Relief Society or Priesthood. Then if we attend other meetings, we pray at the beginning and end of those. During sacrament meeting, we listen to the sacrament prayer. That's at least twelve times. Then there's the times when I kneel to pray because I need direction or comfort and often times I have a prayer in my heart, a continual communication with my Heavenly Father.

Most of our prayers follow the pattern of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew. We open in our Heavenly Father's name, usually by saying "Dear Heavenly Father." We express our gratitude for our blessings, we ask for what we need, and we end in Jesus's name with the words, "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

We have a few prayers that are said word for word. These are ordinances which are sacred and performed by a priesthood holder. The sacrament prayers, the baptismal prayer (Doctrine & Covenants 20:73, 77, 79), and the endowment and sealing ordinances in the temple have specific wording. For example with the sacrament prayer, if a young man is worthy, he can advance to the office of a priest at the age of sixteen and then bless the sacrament. The bishop listens for the young man to say the correct wording. If even one word is wrong, or omitted, or added, the ordinance is said again. This can be embarrassing for a young man because he's saying it in front of the entire congregation. But we love and respect the young man and his priesthood, and this is a great growing experience. Blessings for a baby to receive a name, blessings of the sick, and confirmation or receiving the Holy Ghost have a few necessary words but then the priesthood holder speaks as he feels inspired.
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As I've pored out my anguish and joys to God, I've been overwhelmed with feelings of love, had ideas and words enter my mind, found a lost driver's license, received confirmation that marrying my husband was a good idea, had my heart softened to forgive, and many more communications from my Heavenly Father.

At the end of a Sunday School course when I was a youth, we had a competition between the boys and the girls to answer questions about what we'd learned in the Old Testament. I prided myself on listening and learning and knowing a lot about the gospel. Can you imagine that? We were beating the boys and got all our questions right until one of the last. I still remember this because there haven't been many times I've been wrong. The question was, "Who was the God of the Old Testament?" I said, "God or Heavenly Father." "Wrong," said the teacher." "Are you sure?" I asked. The right answer was Jehovah or Jesus Christ. I couldn't believe I'd been learning from the Old Testament that entire year and didn't understand that doctrine.

This year in adult Sunday School class we are studying the Old Testament. In addition to the King James version of the Old Testament which begins with Genesis and ends with Malachi, we also study some of Moses and Abraham in The Pearl of Great Price. If you want to know more about The Pearl of Great Price, you can click on the link. Briefly, it is a book of scripture that is short but of much worth and obtained through Joseph Smith's translation of the Bible, his translation of Egyptian papyri, an extract from his translation of Matthew, a bit of the history of Joseph Smith, and our Articles of Faith. In the book of Moses, God talks to Moses and shows him how the world was created. My father-in-law mentioned that the God speaking to Moses is actually Jesus Christ and that the only time that God or our Heavenly Father speaks is to introduce his Son, Jesus Christ. This happened when Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith (Josephs Smith History 1:17) and when Jesus appeared to the Nephites in ancient America after His death and resurrection (3 Nephi 11:7). So I looked up the LDS Institute manual for the book of Moses, and my father-in-law was right. Jesus Christ is the God speaking to Moses.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost" (Article of Faith 1:1). We believe that they are three separate beings. Heavenly Father is the father of our Spirits. He is also called Elohim. He has a body of flesh and blood. We were created in His image. Jesus Christ is Heavenly Father or Elohim's first born son in the spirit. He is also called the Messiah, the Redeemer,  Emmanuel, Jehovah, the Prince of Peace, and many more. He is our older brother. He does the work of His Father, Elohim. Under the direction of His Father, he created the world--the earth we live on. Jesus Christ was a spirit until he was conceived through the power of the Holy Ghost by Mary. He is the mortal son of Mary and Elohim, thus being the Only Begotten of the Father because he was born of a mortal woman and of our Heavenly Father. As the son of a mortal woman and eternal being, he was able to die and take up his life again, conquering death, so that we can be resurrected. During his life on earth and since His resurrection, Jesus Christ also has a body of flesh and blood. The Holy Ghost is a spirit. He does not have a body. He witness of Jesus Christ and truth.

Elohim, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are separate beings but with the same purpose. Sometimes in the scriptures it says that they are one. They want the same things for us. They want us to keep the commandments, follow Jesus Christ's example, and return to our Heavenly Father.

I love that I am continually learning more about the gospel. There may even be a time in the study of the Old Testament this year that I find out I've been wrong. That will never happen around my house, though.

I haven't been inspired with an idea on writing about Mormons so I'm going to give an update on my Sleeping Beauty retelling. The working title is A Kiss and a Curse. I started writing this novel in 2007. That's seven years ago. One of my daughters had a writing assignment for school to retell a fairy tale from another character's point of view. I suggested that she write the Sleeping Beauty story from the lady-in-waiting's point-of-view, a character who would lose everything during that 100 years of sleep. My daughter wrote about something else so I began, A Kiss and a Curse. I've completed 27 revisions, received at least 57 rejections, and am revising again. The most recent rejections have included positive comments but most say that they don't connect with Juliana, the main character. On New Year's Eve I asked my husband to read the first 10 pages of the novel. He's read the entire book--a previous version--and heard me talk about it a lot so he was well acquainted with the story and my journey in writing and getting it published. He reluctantly agreed to read it and then was very hesitant to say what he thought. But his suggestions were great. I've revised those first 10 pages many more than 27 times, so although I knew what I was trying to say, I was not conveying that to the reader. I'm revising again so I can submit to an agent who said she would look at it if I revised.

Now my concern is that the story is not "edgy" enough. But I'm not going to add vampires or demons or werewolves or premarital sex or a teenager girl who loves a fallen angel. I didn't want this post to sound desperate or whiny, but maybe that last remark is a bit cynical.

I've submitted my novel, Not of This World, to an agent and I am waiting to hear back.  For now, Juliana and I will work on waking Sleeping Beauty and breathing more life into Juliana's character.