Mormon Response: Please explain the part prayer plays in your life.

Recently I've been determined to expand my Mormon.org profile.  Part of this involves answering questions about my faith in 2000 characters or less.  I've decided that these might also be good to post here, since I don't really have time for a lot of writing anymore.  I've decided to call these Mormon Responses, since I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka a Mormon) and I am responding to something people might potentially ask me.
Please explain the part prayer plays in your life.

Prayer plays a large, huge, enormous role in my life.  I strive begin every morning with prayer.  I try to do this after I'm a little more awake, usually after I've taken a shower.  I also try end each day with prayer, hopefully before I'm so tired that I'm falling asleep.  I'm not perfect at this, but I'm trying.  I also try to pray with my family both morning and night, which goes better or worse depending on whether my one-year-old is trying to get into something.

We also pray at every meal, thanking God for providing for another meal.  I pray when I'm feeling good, I pray when I really need help.  I thank God for the many ways he blesses me: a loving family, constant nourishment, a living prophet, a safe home to live in.  I ask Him for I things I think I need, keeping in mind that He knows what I really need and will give them to me if I ask in faith.

Prayer seems to be inextricably alloyed into my soul.  It's a part of me.  The best part: knowing that He hears my prayers.

No Time, Like the Present

Just wanted to say that grad school keeps you so busy!  Between classes, teaching, and research, I barely have time to breathe. Too much to do.

Baby Thor can toddle now, and favors walking against a wall to crawling. Good thing he can watch other kids walking at church.

Other random thoughts: it's hard to be poor. I'm thankful I have wonderful parents, one of whom is an economist. At least we have a furnished apartment now and we have plenty of food to eat.

Also, I would like to apologize to all my professor from freshman year in college. Sometimes freshman are so needy! We just had our first exam, so of course everyone waited until right now to be concerned with their grade. No one has come to office hours the entire semester! Not that I ever went to my TA's office hours.

Lastly, I'm glad conference is coming up. I need a break from life.  Plus I need someone to teach me how to be a good missionary without being pushy. It's a tough balance.

Anyway, the Church is true and sometimes 24 hours doesn't seem like enough. But I'm glad I only have to deal with things one second at a time.

The Adventures of Señor Turtlefish, the Incredibly Awesome Guy, Part VII

Writer's Note:  There once was a part VII - XI, but they were lost due to the aging of the internet and certain website being forgotten.  These are complete re-writes.  If you have a copy of the old ones, think of this as a choose-your-own-adventure story.

Continued from Part VI...

As Turtlefish remembered the events of August 25th, he realized that there happened to conveniently be a raft after he became conscious again in the ocean.  "That must have been how that raft got there."  It dawned on him that this power would allow him to surely defeat Señor Turtlefish with ease.

Turtlefish quickly got to work.  He first imagined a large curtain to hide things behind.  But what should he hide behind it?  Of course!  The police, since his plan was to send Dr. Nemesis to jail after all.  All of a sudden 2 policemen, who also happened to be good at being stealthy and quiet appeared behind the curtain.  Turtlefish pulled the curtain back just to make sure it had worked, then continued on with his preparations.
****
The red dot was getting closer and closer to the green dot on Dr. Nemesis's screen.  Why can't programming a GPS be as easy as pushing a button.  But wait!  It is now.  Welcome to 2014.

Just as he was about to get there, Dr. Nemesis remembered something very important.  He didn't have a present for the party! He also didn't even know who was throwing this party.  Or even what kind of party it was.  This is sounding more and more like a trap.  (*insert meme here*)  It's probably a birthday party, since everyone has birthdays and they seem to be the most common kind of party.  But what if it's a costume party?  Better get a costume just in case.  And learn to use quotation marks, since the reader is probably confused as to what's going on now.  Thank goodness someone decided that stream of consciousness is a writing style now.  I don't even know what that means, but I think it's something like this.  Off to buy party supplies!

To be continued...

The Adventures of Señor Turtlefish, the Incredibly Awesome Guy, Part VI

Continued from Part V, after many much months of waiting...

Dr. Nemesis, seeing that this would be a good opportunity to leave work without being noticed, quietly slipped out of the teacher's lounge.  When he thought no one was around, he reached up to his large goggles and flipped a switch.  He could now see a map of Over-here-ville with a red dot at the location of the party.  He also saw a green dot which was where he was.  But Dr. Nemesis, being as not-so-smart as he was, didn't know what the flashing blue dot on the map was for.  All he knew was that he needed to line up the red dot with the green dot to get to the party.

****

Meanwhile, Señor Turtlefish knew Dr. Nemesis would here soon and would be expecting a big party.  He had to set something up.  He sat down to make a list of how he wanted everything to look.  He wanted helium balloons floating to the ceiling, colorful streamers from wall to wall, and five thousand of those weird round tables you can find at LDS meetinghouses around the world, each with its own magnificantly decorated 20-layer cake.  All of a sudden, he looked up, and everything in the building was exactly as he had imagined it.

Suddenly, his thoughts turned back to the August 25th event and the anti-freezing freezing ray...

To be continued...