Sierra Aulelei Sadie Atoa

Sierra Aulelei Sadie Atoa

This is our beautiful friend Sierra.  She is 18 and grew up in Elko, Nevada.  We have been in Elko now for close to three years and really loved it.  But we've decided that even if the only person we needed to meet in Elko was Sierra, it was still totally worth moving to this little town.

Sierra has been on the Elko High School dance team for four years, a year longer than Romney and Raegan.  But once R and R joined, they became fast friends with Sierra and all of the other girls on the team.  Romney and Raegan have been such great missionaries, talking about the church any chance they get, keeping high standards in language and dress, and even gave Sierra and a couple of the other girls copies of the Book of Mormon a couple of Christmases ago.  They have a tradition now of saying a prayer together before performing, and have even taught the girls "I Am a Child of God".  None of us knows whose heart is being touched and affected by what we might do or say...

Well, Sierra's heart was being prepared to open up to the gospel!  A couple of months ago she told the girls that she had really been thinking about the church and wanted to know more.  We instantly invited her to come over with the sister missionaries in our ward to give her the lessons.  The day of the first lesson, I was so emotional I cried all day when I thought about it!  I kept praying that I would not cry through the whole discussion, but it was hard.  We have taken the challenge to pray every single day as a family that we will find someone who is being prepared to hear the gospel and to be able to share it with them.  We had no idea what an amazing experience it would be!

We started having meals, lessons, and discussions with not only Sierra, but also several boys who are in Missionary Prep with Romney, Sierra's 12-year old sister, and some other girls on the dance team.  This has become our favorite night of the week, to have all these kids over talking about the gospel and sharing testimonies.

A couple of the boys who have been coming were thinking about going to college for a year or even a semester before putting in mission papers, but these Sunday night lessons have helped them to catch on fire!  They are now getting mission papers ready to submit.  

This cute girl Mariah and another girl in some of these pictures named Vicki came to church with us one Sunday and said they loved it.  They came for dinner that night, and we ended up having one of the best discussions we had ever had about the restoration and Joseph Smith.  Both the Elders and the Sisters from our ward were with us. The Spirit was so strong! Both girls said they wanted to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true.  They also grew up with Sierra and said they could now understand why she was so happy.  The Spirit is amazing!

One of my favorite nights was one that the Sisters asked that the boys not attend, and Brent stayed upstairs with the younger kids.  It was a lesson with just Sisters Purcell and Messervy, me, Romney, Raegan, and Sierra.  I was so amazed and proud of my girls as they bore testimony again and again of the importance of the law of chastity including modesty.  They know what they are talking about!  I am so grateful that they have such strong testimonies and convictions about such an important gospel principle.  And Sierra GETS IT.

We are now doing the new member discussions at our house on Sunday nights and kids still come over...they have all told us that they don't want it to end.  We don't either!  It's putting a dent in our food budget, but it's totally worth it to have the experience of sharing and talking about the gospel.  The Sisters have been so great at involving our entire family.  They'll say, "Alivia, tell us how YOU know that Joseph Smith is a prophet."  "Sophie, why is the atonement so important to you??"  It's been amazing.

Sierra is going to rub off on a lot of people, and has already begun to share the light she now has with others around her.

She is very excited to serve a mission in a year!  Her baptism was the best day, March 15, 2014.  We had to meet in the chapel because there were about 100 people in attendance.  Her mom has been so accepting of these changes and can see the positive changes in Sierra.  Sierra's dad died when she was only one, so we keep telling her we are sure he is so excited she is making this decision.

When we all went in to the room with the font to watch Sierra step into the water, the Spirit was so strong!  We walked back to the chapel and had a testimony meeting while she changed, then Sierra bore her testimony.  She sounded like she's been a member for years.  She asked Brent to perform the confirmation the next day in Sacrament meeting, and she was given an amazing blessing that talked about how she is preparing to serve a mission and will affect many people before she even enters the mission field.  The dance coach gave her a set of scriptures with her name engraved on them so she's all set for seminary and a mission.

We just love this girl.  As Brent and I were getting in bed Sunday night after her confirmation we commented on how we feel so much love for Sierra, almost like she's one of our daughters.  We had talked with her that night about how the changes she has made and the knowledge she has now will affect her immediately.  She agreed that the qualities she has looked for in boy to date are completely different now, and she wants to marry in the temple.  She knows she is learning things that will help her to raise a happy, eternal family.  She immediately asked for a temple recommend and is excited for an opportunity to go to Utah to do baptisms.  She told us that she has taught her family to pray before meals and her mom even prayed to find something after hearing a talk at Sierra's baptism and immediately found it.  Sierra is going to pave the way for many others to join.  The Church is TRUE.  That's all there is to it.