Brandi Hanke - Monrovia Ward

My name is Brandi and I am happily married to John Hanke and the proud mom of Simon,

Charlotte and Lucy.  I homeschool teach my children (by choice), and we are often busy with baseball, softball, horse riding lessons and all the fun activities that come along with parenting young children. I love every minute of it and am so grateful I get to spend so much time with my favorite people in the world.

I am so grateful that I was blessed to be raised as a member of the church, and to have had a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel from a young age.  I have an unshakeable testimony of the power of praying with unwavering faith.  My favorite scripture is James 1:5 "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."  Throughout my life I have received many big and important answers to my prayers, and have witnessed the tender mercies of the Lord on more than one occasion.

Most recently, this occurred when my family and I had taken a short vacation to St. George, Utah.  We rented a side by side sandcar and went to Sand Hollow to ride around in the endless red dirt.  Near the end of our excursion, I realized with horror that I couldn't find my cell phone.  We stopped the sandcar, looked everywhere for it and couldn't find it.  Thinking there was no way I was ever going to find it in the miles and miles of red dirt we had driven through, I was feeling pretty hopeless. I heard a little voice in the back seat say: "should we say a prayer?"  It was my 10 year old son Simon.  We said yes and asked him to offer it for us.  He said a sweet and simple prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find the phone. We started driving in the sandcar quickly- thinking we'd have to cover a lot of ground to find it.  In under a minute, John stopped the car and said "there's your phone", and there it was in the dirt.  I went out and got it, and as I climbed back into the car I saw John turn around to the kids and say "if you ever in your life doubt that Heavenly Father exists, there's your answer right there."  I know Heavenly Father heard Simon's prayer, and I know He answered it immediately.  I'm so grateful that I not only found my phone, but that my children got to experience such a powerful moment first hand.  I hope they will remember it always, I know I will. -Brandi Hanke, Monrovia Ward