Line upon Line

“I can’t hear Him anymore, Joe!” Lottie’s voice broke as the phone connection wavered. “I’ve prayed and I’ve tried, and I just can’t hear Him!”

My heart sank. I had been calling Lottie for years, ever since returning home from my mission. The 82-year-old widow lived in the mountains of Arizona, alone in her home apart from her non-verbal son with Down syndrome. She put in 16-hour days caring for him seven days a week, 365 days a year. She cooked, she cleaned, she gardened, and she cared for him almost entirely on her own.

“Have you been able to reach out to anyone nearby?” I asked, thinking of some of her friends that I had met.

“They’re too busy,” Lottie snapped, not in anger, but in desperation. “I can’t rely on them. They’ve got their own problems to worry about.”

I sighed, trying to think of another tact. I had been calling her nearly every Sunday afternoon since returning home from my mission in 2020. Our weekly phone calls had occasionally veered into negative discussions, but rarely had she shown a lack of faith brought on by sheer exhaustion and despair. I wished that I could have been there, but she lived nearly 650 miles south of me, a 12-hour drive for a poor college student with classes the next morning.

Her son cut our conversation short, pulling her attention away from our discussion. He had been losing weight, forcing her to watch him constantly to ensure that he would eat the food that she had prepared for him. Thinking of his smiling face brought a smile to my own, one that left as we ended our phone call. I wished that I had known what better to say to support her in her never-ending trial.

Her words remained in the back of my mind as we approached a devotional given by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I arrived half an hour before the meeting began, though the BYU Marriot Center was nearly at capacity already.

I went to the devotional alone, the better to record my thoughts without being distracted by my friends. During the devotional, I had my phone out, recording phrases that Elder Uchtdorf shared with us, inspired by the Spirit as I wrote down his words. “Our Father in Heaven hears you, He knows you, and will NEVER give up on you, so don’t ever give up on Him.”

My ears perked up at his powerful testimony. Lottie needed to hear this. As the devotional concluded, I hurried from the building, passing other chatting college students reveling in the Spirit that permeated the air. As I began the short walk home, I called her on the phone. After pushing past several chatting young adults, I told her that I had something I needed to share with her.

“I just finished listening to Elder Uchtdorf,” I said.

“Who?”

“One of the Twelve Apostles,” I explained. “I wanted to share something he said.”

“Oh, alright,” she said, her voice tired. “Let’s hear it.”

I searched for the exact phrase I had written down. “Our Father in Heaven hears you, He knows you, and will NEVER give up on you, so don’t ever give up on Him.”

As soon as I finished, she burst into tears. “Joe, that was EXACTLY what I needed to hear,” she managed. “That was an answer to my prayers.”

I began to tear up as I continued reading my notes from the meeting. Each phrase, recorded by a 26-year-old, as given by an Apostle of the Lord, was exactly what she needed to hear. We continued to speak as I walked home, reveling in the Spirit of the Lord that testified of truth.

To think that the prayers of an 82-year-old widow would be answered through the Spirit in time to give her the courage to keep living, to keep striving, and to keep pushing forward. I do not take any credit. Like the apostle Paul of old, Elder Uchtdorf planted, I watered, but God gave the increase (1 Cor 3:6-8). God answered her prayers, and I played a tiny role in helping her receive her answer.

Our daily lives can be like that. When we are searching for answers to our prayers, we may not always get the answers in the way we expect. However, those that are willing to continue searching, and hold out faithful to the end, will find their answers, according to God’s will and timing. The trick is to be open to the Spirit, to be willing to answer the prayers of our loved ones through our actions, our words, and our care towards them. Just as God cares for each of us, we can do the same.