Answers to Prayers

My prayer for the last year has been to make at least one friend. Someone I can call, do things with. I love having Rita nearby and definitely count her as a best friend but she has her own friends and life. I have found that lots of people are friendly with me but if I don't put forth all the effort of contacting, initiating interactions, etc than nothing happens. I have started to feel really alone. I have a few friends from work but that is just it, the interactions mostly occur at work. We have tried to do things outside of work and it mostly falls flat. After many attempts to see people in Canada and actually only seeing 2 people in a whole month I started to wonder if maybe it was me. Maybe I'm not friend material. So began a bit of a spiral downwards. I'm still trying to meet others but have really felt discouraged. Tonight was a fireside to adult women with our stake president. I didn't particularly want to go because today was one of the worst days of my life. I didn't want to go out and pretend to be happy around people. I wanted to be cranky. Rita texted and asked if I wanted a ride so I said Yes. If she hadn't I probably wouldn't have gone. The two talks were incredible! One was on prayers, and how many times the answers take time or how they may depend on others using their agency. I started to have an "a-ha" moment but I still was a little crabby. The second talk was on doing good works and how those good works can turn into turnaround points for others. Sometimes we may know when our good works are turnaround points but others we may not. We watched a video which illustrated this. I cried the whole time. He challenged us to share with others the times that someone's good works helped us or when ours have helped others. But sour face me was thinking that I was tired of the one doing good works. I felt really good about what I had heard but a part of me still wanted to be angry. As I shuffled my way out of the room I was staring at my feet trying to disappear. Then I saw Lauralee in front of me. She and her family had just moved into our ward. We had them over for an ice cream party and then she and Caleb came to our water party. Caleb and Emily have become really good friends. She walked over and started talking with me. We talked about some funny/cute things Emily and Caleb had done in primary today. We kept walking together to the gym to get our rootbeer float. I found that she stayed with me as we swapped stories of how our kids were frustrating us and brainstorming ways to work with them on it. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and it was Kaylene. Her kids and my kids are good friends and it was her husband who tried to free Collin from the bathroom with a "Borders" card. She joined in with us and we stood and talked for 15 minutes. Kaylene and Ryan had invited us over a few weeks ago at the last minute so that Landon could play a game with Ryan and his cousins and Kaylene and I could chat while the kids played. I remembered how she had been reaching out over the last few weeks. It hit me that the Lord was helping me see past my pity party and see two great friendships in front of me. As we left the building to go home I felt truly blessed. As I was getting into Rita's suburban I suddenly felt an urge to tell Lauralee how much it meant to me that she had singled me out. I ran up and told her how I had been feeling friendless and how she had turned that around for me. She gave me a big hug and told me that she had been feeling the same way. She was having a hard time getting to know anyone and was feeling quite alone. She said it was nice to know that she had a friend and that as an added bonus our kids liked hanging out. I agreed, gave her another hug and headed back to the van. I came home a happier person. I am so grateful for a patient Heavenly Father who does answer our prayers!