God, I Just Want a Hug if You Can Give That to Me

Sister Lillian Herron of the Utah Orem Mission shared a powerful experience she had with prayer as she was investigating the church. Her experience is shared below:

Whenever I was meeting with the elders they invited me to pray, like you know, I invite everyone to pray.

I’m like, “Hey, you know Heavenly Father, He wants to listen to you. He wants to hear you.”

But when the elders invited me to pray – I loved my elders so I told them of course, yes I’ll pray – and then I came back the next day, because I loved to meet with them (almost every single day we met) and they asked me – they were so eager to hear how my experience went.

They said, “Did you pray?” and I looked at them and I laughed at them I said, “No, I didn’t pray.”

They said, “Well, why didn’t you pray?” and I was like “Elders, I don’t pray.”

They tried really hard to figure out why but I wouldn’t tell them. I wouldn’t budge and then we finished the lesson and finally at the end they cracked me and I told them, “You know why?”

They said, “Just tell us why don’t you pray” and I said “Honestly, I just don’t think God cares. I don’t think He cares enough about me to listen to what I have to say. Why should I care about Him?

“One of the elders he got close to me and said, “I’ve been where you’ve been and what I want you to do is I want you to pray to God and ask Him for a hug.”

I was like, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, but I’ll do it.

I went home that night and sat on the floor for a really long time. It felt like hours before I actually got down on my knees.

I asked God, I said “God I know that everyone tells you that they love you and I know that everyone says that they know you’re a loving Father in Heaven and I know that I don’t get what you have for me, but I just want a hug – if you can give that to me.”

“I just felt the warmest sensation around my entire body. For me, I didn’t even have to pray to know if the church was true, or if the Book of Mormon was true.

I went back the next lesson and told the elders, “I need to get baptized” because I felt my Father’s love for me. Because of that I know that this gospel is true and I wouldn’t have felt it any other way.

God, I Just Want a Hug if You Can Give That to Me