Elder Robert Parchman, a CES missionary serving in University Advancement, told the July 21 BYU-Hawaii devotional audience how the Lord started answering his own prayers as a boy and assured them Heavenly Father is waiting to give everyone personal "instructions and markers along the way as you gratefully ask for them."
"At a time when the noise of the world is becoming so loud that it can minimize a connection with Heavenly Father and when the potential for doubt and discouragement is so blatantly present, there is a tempting tendency to set afloat on life's journeys without a working steering mechanism — without earnest personal prayer," said Elder Parchman, who retired from working for the LDS Foundation in Provo, Utah. He and his wife, Sister Shirley Parchman, who serves primarily in the BYU-Hawaii Language & Speech Lab, have nearly completed the first year of their 18-month mission.
He reminded the audience of Alma's words: ...ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you. (Alma 34:26-27)
Elder Parchman, who grew up in the rural forests of Tennessee and attended another church with his mother every Sunday, told how his father died when he was still a baby, which led him as a boy to utter "a secret prayer that was different from the rote prayer I had repeated every night since I could remember. The prayer was simply to know how I could see my father someday."
"I continued to ask and think about it," he said. "I knew that God was there; I just didn't know if He ever heard me. I had also been thinking a lot about what it would be like to have a dad. It didn't seem complicated, and I determined that it was awfully important to a boy who had never had one."
About a year later, he continued his story, his mother told him she was going to remarry and they were going to move to Detroit. "Frankly, I was shocked — in awe! I didn't know how to react. How could just thinking about having a dad actually produce that kind of results? Maybe God had considered it to be a prayer, I thought!"
Elder Parchman described the move to Detroit as "culture shock," but he eventually settled in and continued to go to their church every week with his mother.
"Dad was always asked to come, but declined," he recalled. "One Sunday morning, however, when I was 17, mom gathered the magnitude of her southern communications skills and almost pleaded for dad to go to church with us: 'It would mean so much to me, Joseph, if you would come,' she said. Dad opened the phone book, made a call, put on a suit and tie, and unceremoniously announced, 'Let's go.'"
The chapel, he remembered, was "rather plain" but a panel above the door read The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "It turned out that dad was a member of the Church since he was a boy in Tennessee" but had become inactive.
"After mom and I were baptized, we went to Church as a family and it brought her immeasurable happiness. Dad never missed again — ever. Having a dad come into my life, a great dad, was a wonderful bonus; the catalyst in my finding the gospel."
"The most practical principle to me in finding the restored Church was that prayers are answered," Elder Parchman continued. "That knowledge became increasingly profound while serving a mission, while at BYU, in the process of finding my sweetheart, also in being a father and grandfather, during long years of a career and while serving in the Church. That principle has never been more apparent than now while being with you on this unique campus."
"I do not fully understand why the prayer of a little boy who was not a member of the Church, in a place known relatively to a few, was answered.I just know that it was and my entire life was changed. Every day I marvel. And I am still grasping to capture words to thank my Heavenly Father."
"Now, what about your righteous dreams and aspirations?" he asked. "Does the Lord care about you? About your personal voyage? About the potential of your life? I truly hope you know that that is a given; and that it is perfectly okay to look forward to the future, to hope and pray, and to expect answers."
"Be obedient, be worthy, and expect answers. They will come, on the condition that you are faithful and grateful."
"Brothers and sisters, I have no idea where your personal voyages are to take you," said Elder Parchman, but he encouraged them to ask for directions "in unwavering personal prayer, that you might reach safe harbors."