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Today I'm going to teach the lesson, which is going to be on prayer. Wish me luck!

First of all, what is prayer?

Right. As children of our Heavenly Father, He wants us to communicate with Him and prayer is the main way we are able to do so.

Why do we pray?

A scripture I like that goes in with this is D&C 10:5 : ...

Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.

We pray to receive help in all things. Prayers can be petitioned silently while driving a car, riding a bus, during an exam, in a doctor's office, or wherever we are and need our Heavenly Father. The need for prayer can come at any time, and when it does, we need to remember with whom we are talking.

What should we pray for?

We can pray for every aspect of our lives. Like I said before, they can be said anywhere and for anything. In the Book of Mormon we read that "whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you. (Moroni 7:26)

And even though we may ask for something in prayer, how Heavenly Father answers is up for Him to decide, and when He does answer, we need to be able to understand. We may find that He will answer in the way that is spoken of in D&C 9.

8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must cask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.

How do we pray?

Those are all definitely important. From my looking into this topic, I learned that Sister Dwan J. Young (a general president) offered four simple steps to prayer.

“The first one is to prepare. Remember who it is with whom you are speaking. We are to come to our Father with humility and meekness, ready to listen as well as to talk. We should always remember that this is out Eternal Father we are speaking with, and so, whenever possible, we kneel. We fold our arms and bow our heads to show Him that we have reverence for Him. Sometimes it isn’t possible to do these things—not even for a moment while we pray. But even in these unusual situations we can still being with reverence. … Then begin by calling on your Father in Heaven.

“The second step is to be grateful. Remember to thank your Heavenly Father for His blessings. … When we start by expressing gratitude for the things we already have, we begin to see out lives in a new way. Sometimes being grateful doesn’t come easily. … Sometimes when we come to our Heavenly Father we are in such despair that it is hard to think of anything to be grateful for. These are times when payer is especially important, times when drawing near to Him is essential because we so desperately need him to draw near unto us.

“The third step is to seek. Ask for His help, but ask with an open, searching spirit. Plead for guidance to meet the challenges you have been given. Ask, knowing as Nephi did, that ‘the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.’ (1 Nephi 3:7)

“The fourth and last step to prayer is to close. Remember to offer your prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. He is our emissary, our representative, to the Father. That is why we offer our prayers in his name. It is our acknowledgment of him as our Savior.”

And above all, we must pray regularly. I would encourage you to pray every morning after you roll out of bed, and in the evenings, before you go to sleep. (One way you can remember is by making yourself a 'Prayer Rock' that you keep on your pillow during the day, and when you go to bed, you put it on the ground so you see it in the morning.)

Sometimes, we may feel a little embarrassed to admit our weaknesses to the Lord. We might feel like, "I'm so ashamed about this that I don't want anyone to know!" or something like that. Well, Heavenly Father knows anyway, and is very aware of each and every one of His children, and even though we mess up and make mistakes, He wants us to come back to Him every single time because of the love He has for all of us. ( mrgreen )

Admitting to Him a particular weakness and expressing the sorrow we feel for some sin or error is effective and helps us.

Why is it effective? Why does it help us?