Prayer

1. "A key to improved prayer is to learn to ask the right questions. Consider changing from asking for the things you want to honestly seeking what He wants for you. Then as you learn His will, pray that you will be led to have the strength to fulfill it." (Richard G. Scott, "Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer," Ensign, May 2007, 8)

2. "Parents should teach their children to pray. The child learns both from what the parents do and what they say. The child who sees a mother or a father pass through the trials of life with fervent prayer to God and then hears a sincere testimony that God answered in kindness will remember what he or she saw and heard." (Henry B. Eyring, "That He May Write upon Our Hearts," Ensign, Aug. 2009, 5)

3. “There is a risk that a person may not feel good enough to pray. This idea comes from that evil spirit who is the one who teaches us not to pray (see 2 Nephi 32:8). It is as tragic to think we are too sinful to pray as it is for a very sick person to believe he is too sick to go to the doctor!

“We must not imagine that any kind of prayer, no matter how sincere, will be very effective if all we do is to say the prayer. We must not only say our prayers; we must also live them. The Lord is much more pleased with the person who prays and then goes to work than with the person who only prays. Much like medicine, prayer works only when we use it as directed.” (J. Devn Cornish, "The Privilege of Prayer," Oct. 2011, http://www.lds.org)

4. “Access to our Creator through our Savior is surely one of the great privileges and blessings of our lives. I have learned from countless personal experiences that great is the power of prayer. No earthly authority can separate us from direct access to our Creator. There can never be a mechanical or electronic failure when we pray. There is no limit on the number of times or how long we can pray each day. There is no quota of how many needs we wish to pray for in each prayer. We do not need to go through secretaries or make an appointment to reach the throne of grace. He is reachable at any time and any place.” (James E. Faust, “The Lifeline of Prayer,” Ensign, May 2002, 5)

5. "Don't worry about your clumsily expressed feelings. Just talk to your compassionate, understanding Father. You are His precious child whom He loves perfectly and wants to help. As you pray, recognize that Father in Heaven is near and He is listening." (Richard G. Scott

Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer, Ensign, May 2007, 8)

6. “He [Heavenly Father] is our perfect Father. He loves us beyond our capacity to understand. He knows what is best for us. He sees the end from the beginning. He wants us to act to gain needed experience:
 “When He answers yes, it is to give us confidence.
 “When He answers no, it is to prevent error.
 “When He withholds an answer, it is to have us grow through faith in Him, obedience to His commandments, and a willingness to act on truth.” (Richard G. Scott, “Learning to Recognize Answers to Prayer,” Ensign, Nov. 1989, 30)

7. "I can think of no greater teaching to our children than that of the power of prayer. We should do it by example, and take our children daily before the Lord and give them the peace and assurance that can come from knowing they are a child of our Father in Heaven.
 "May we, this day, commit ourselves to so live that we will go before the Lord with a clear conscience and ask for His divine guidance and assistance and express our gratitude unto Him for the blessings He has given to us." (L. Tom Perry, "Our Father Which Art in Heaven," Ensign, Nov. 1983, 13)

8. “Learn to pray. Pray often. Pray in your mind, in your heart. Pray on your knees. Prayer is your personal key to heaven. The lock is on your side of the veil. And I have learned to conclude all my prayers with ‘Thy will be done’ (Matthew 6:10; see also Luke 11:2; 3 Nephi 13:10).” (Boyd K. Packer, “Prayer and Promptings,” Ensign, Nov. 2009, 46)

9. "Perhaps there are some of you who have slipped into patterns of behavior that you know in your heart are displeasing to the Lord. You feel unworthy and ashamed to approach your Father in Heaven. 'I'll repent first,' you say to yourselves, 'and then I'll begin saying my prayers again.' I tell you with all soberness that those thoughts are not from the Lord, but come from the evil one. Nephi said it very clearly: 'The evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray' (2 Nephi 32:8).
 "It is when we are lost in the mists of darkness and cannot find our way that we most desperately need the influence of the Lord. Nowhere in all of the scriptural injunctions on prayer do we find the suggestion that we must first be perfect in order to communicate with God." (M. Russell Ballard, "Be Strong in the Lord, and in the Power of His Might" (CES fireside for young adults, March 3, 2002), 3)

10.  “No matter who you are or what you may have done, you can always pray.” (Boyd K. Packer, "Prayer and Promptings," Oct. 2009, http://www.lds.org)