The Power of Prayer

Last night, Robert and I went to our required Utah Symphony concert of the semester. If you recall, last semester's trip was kind of disasterous. As our bus started pulling away, we realized we forgot the tickets (luckily, we were able to pick them up at will call since they had proff of our purchase), the bus took an hour longer than planned, making us 15 minutes late. They wouldn't let us in until intermission (about 30-45 minutes later). It snowed a lot in Salt Lake, and we weren't prepared for it. We tried to go see temple square before we left after the concert (since we arrived too late to do so), but we had to meet Sheri at trax in Sandy so we could get a ride home (the busses don't run that late, so she had to drive all the way to Sandy at 11:30-ish to pick us up), and we ended up going to the wrong entrance (it was closed for construction), and didn't have time to go all the way around to the open entrance. Anyways, it was a disaster, but we were able to see half the concert and make it home okay.

This time, we thought things would be much easier. Curtis was allowing us to drive his car to trax in Sandy, and we thought that way we wouldn't be late and we'd have a ride home. Well, there were a couple of concerns. The weather has been crazy lately. We keep getting random snow storms, but it usually mostly melts the next day. So we prayed that the weather would be okay, because Curtis wasn't going to let us drive to sandy if it was snowy. Also, this weekend I really was not feeling well, so we were afraid I wouldn't be able to go (I was supposed to be driving since I have more highway driving experience). So we prayed on Saturday that I would feel well enough to go. The weather was fine, and I suddenly started feeling better around the time we were to leave. We got a little bit of a late start though, because Curtis had to use the car when we were supposed to leave, and we had trouble finding directions to trax. The google map couldn't find it. We also had to stop and eat dinner on the way, which we didn't think would take that long because we went to McDonalds. Wrong. It took way too long. So we left too late again. When we started heading down the road, Robert randomly said, "I think I'll say a prayer", so he prayed aloud while I drove. We were running a little late, but thought there was still a chance of making it on time (the concert started at 7:30). Well, we couldn't find trax. We were supposed to be finding 99000, but the streets skipped from 10000 to 94000. On top of that, there was a lot of construction and traffic. So, we missed the street and ended up down 94000 because we saw a sign that said "trax this way". Well, it was a stop for trax, but we couldn't park there or anywhere nearby. We decided to try and go back to find the street thinking it was a smaller street without a light. We didn't find it, but went down 10000 instead, just to turn around and go down a smaller street we had found. Well, it turns out that 10000 led to the road we needed and we found trax by "accident" (more like divine assistance). We boarded trax, but we were still disconcerted because we would be late. We did not want to miss half the concert again. When we arrived, it was 7:53, but we saw lots and lots of people just entering Abravenell Hall. The concert didn't start until 8:00!!! We were so excited! We made it on time! After the concert, we went and peaked through the gates at the Salt Lake Temple (it was closed by then), and then headed back to the train stop to get back on trax. The first train was too full, so we had to wait for the second and got right on. After 15-20 minutes, we realized we got on the wrong train. There are 4 stops up in Salt Lake where two train routes combine, and we didn't realize that as we boarded the train. So we got off the next stop and it was at the University of Utah. We were the only ones at that stop, and it was cold outside. The trains usually come pretty frequently, so we weren't too worried. Time went by and no train came. We started getting concerned. We definately did not want to be stuck in Salt Lake with no way to get home. We normally could have called Curtis to come pick us up, but we had his car. So we said a prayer. Not 10 seconds after we said that prayer, a train pulled up heading the direction we needed. We got onboard, and made it back to trax and back home safely.

We realized as we headed home that we didn't pray last time we went and had all of those problems, and that is what made the difference this time. The Lord was watching out for us last night. There was no doubt in our minds that He was there helping us every step of the way, and I am so thankful for that.