How Can I Make Sure that My Prayers Reach Heaven?

Brad looks a little strange with his arm suspended.  This is his reception and he had a picture taken with his friends...his arm is where Bryce would have been in the picture.  I think he was probably there.  It is hard to see all these boys grow up but Bryce stays 21 years old to all of us. 
I was searching my Documents and found Bryce's original talk that he gave when he got home from South Africa.  I thought I would post it.  It is pretty darn nice.    I will start at the end and work my way to the beginning for reasons that will reveal themselves as I continue to post. 

5        How can I make sure that my prayer reaches Heaven?

In Enos verse 4.  Enos says that he did raise his voice high that it reached the heavens. When Dallin and I were younger and we gave a not so heart felt prayer, our mom would say something like “ well I don’t think that one made it past the ceiling. So to conclude my talk I would like to speak real briefly about some things that can help our prayers to be heard, and to help them to go past the ceiling up to Heaven. I was reading Nephi 2 v. 16 this week and I found a place where it explains why Nephi’s prayer was heard, why they reached Heaven. In verse 16 Nephi says “having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me..”  Great desire is what caused Nephi’s prayer to be answered as he received a visit from the Lord. How do we gain a great desire? What is a great desire? I think it would be safe to say that a great desire is anything that is on the same course as what God desires, or basically we could say anything that will help us and other to gain eternal life. Those types of things are great desires. We can also have our own desires of the world, that wont really help us to achieve what God’s desire is, we often come across our own desires of the world and get them mixed up with the things that we think are of the most importance and we often wonder why we receive no answer. In those times if we could stop and evaluated what it is we are praying for, we could soon come to the realization that we need to get our priorities straightened out. I know that God would be willing to help us do this. When the Lord visits Nephi He even tells him why he had Great Desires and why his pray was answered in verse 19 the Lord says “Blessed art thou, Nephi, because thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart.” Nephi was diligent therefore he was also obedient. He did what was right what he knew he was suppose to do, this made him eligible for the spirit and when we have the spirit we have great desires. This is how we make our prayers reach Heaven; our great desires carry it speedily all the way.  While I was serving in a place called George there was a single mother named Sonja who felt the spirit as she learned about the restoration, she acted on the instructions she received, she followed the spirit and gained great desires, she had been smoking heavily and drinking coffee and tea for over 20 years, but was able to stop in one day. Her great desires caused her to know that she could change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ; she came to know that her desires could be the same as Gods. Sonja was baptized; her family came hundreds of miles for Christmas and found out that she had joined the church. They promptly left after hearing that news, condemning her for what she has done. Her co workers gave her a hard time, and she received many other trails, but because of her great desires and the answers she received from prayers which led her to be able to experience the healing power and peace that comes from the Atonement, she was able to withstand those trails. She was able to make the 14 hour trip to Johannesburg to go do baptisms for the dead a few months later, and after membership in the church for a year she was able to go back and to take her endowments out. She has remained active and strong in the church despite the great adversary because her prayers reached heaven and came back to her with peace and direction.  I know there is so much power in prayer, I know that God knows us and loves us. He does answer our prayers. I know that the pray of the prophet Joseph Smith was answered, when he prayed to know which church was true. I know that God and Jesus Christ did appear to him, and he was soon later called to be a prophet of God. I know that we still have a prophet on the earth to this day, even Thomas Monson. I know that the Savior Jesus Christ lives. I know that He suffered for each and everyone one of us so we could be made clean to return and live with our Father again. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.