Sister Thoughts- Alisha Sell

The message I'd like to leave for my family and in this ward is that I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love being a Latter-day Saint and I know this is Christ's true church on the earth today. I testify that Joseph Smith did see God, our Father, and His son, our Savior Jesus Christ. It was through him, that the gospel was restored on the earth again. I testify that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that if we heed to the teachings found in that book, the Lord will bless us and we will be happy. I know that families can be together forever. I am grateful for the covenants we make in the temple that make that possible. I know the answer to true and every lasting happiness is found in living a chaste and gospel-centered life. I am so grateful to be married to a man that keeps his covenants, honors his priesthood, loves the Lord first, loves his family and knows who he is and his purpose here on this earth. I am so grateful for healthy, happy, bright and obedient children. I am grateful and feel so blessed to be a mother. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served a mission and for the life lessons I learned doing so. I feel forever blessed by that experience and will never forget the joy of seeing people accept the gospel and make a life-change choice to be baptized. I am grateful to have been raised by faithful and loving parents who love the Lord and did all they could to teach me to as well. I love living in Mesa and love the experiences we've had here as a family. We are so blessed to not only have the gospel in our lives but also to have a secure job working for the Church during such rough economic times. When I look back on my life I can see all along the way where the Lord was with me, warning me, comforting me, teaching me, and loving me. I can remember many experiences when I felt the spirit. I am grateful to parents and church leaders who taught me how to recognize the spirit in my life.

My youngest recollection of feeling the spirit was the night of my baptism. I remember when the hustle and bustle of the evening settled down and I was all alone in my bed. I laid there and basked in the feeling of being completely clean, and being an official member of Christ's true church. I will never forget that feeling of the Lord testifying to me that my choice to be baptized and confirmed a member of the church was the right choice and that He had sent His spirit to testify of that. I'll never forget that feeling.

I also remember shortly after that experience another time when the spirit spoke to me in a voice of warning. We were leaving for church one morning and my mom asked me to go around the house and check to make sure all curling irons were unplugged. I went to all the bathrooms that typically have curling irons and none were plugged in. As I was leaving out the door I felt a strong prompting to check the back bathroom. I wanted to ignore it because we were in a hurry but I quickly went to check. Lo and behold a curling iron was on, and it was sitting on a piece of paper! I was so grateful for the spirit in my life that day! (And so was my mother!!)

Another time I remember feeling the spirit as a voice of warning was when my family lived in Greenville, NC. I was a young teenager at the time. I had walked downstairs and the Spirit prompted me to go to my older brother Shaun's room. As all know, we don't enter our older siblings rooms' without permission, so I ignored the prompting. I was prompted 2 more times, stronger each time. I finally went to the door knob and slowly turned it. When I peeked into the room I immediately saw the reason for the warning. My brother had been lifting weights with his sore thumb. It must have hurt him so much that he had dropped the weight bar on his chest and he couldn't get it up. When I came into the room, he was turning a light shade of blue. With my help, together we were able to lift the weight up. We both were so grateful I had come into the room!

Another significant event when I felt the spirit was a time that significantly impacted my life and my the growth of my testimony. When I was 15 I made the tryouts for the City of Joseph Nauvoo Pageant as a stunt dancer. The tryouts were crazy hard, competitive and the practices were intense. We'd get very few breaks and only minutes to eat our breakfast, lunch and dinner. We'd have to get up in EARLY in the morning and often not be done until very very late into the evening practicing. This was all in intense summer heat and humidity in Illinois while in no shorts or tank tops! It was very intense. Well, right before the opening night we wanted to do a final run through of the routines. Our bodies were weak, sore, raw, and ached from head to toe. When my partner put me up in a lift my back ribs cracked in his hand. He knew it because he had felt it. He insisted I stop but I told him to continue because I didn't want to be replaced. I ached through it, just looking forward to crashing on my cot and this being the last practice. The dance director told us the practice was terrible and we'd have to run it again. I gasped in agony and didn't know how I could do it again with broken ribs. I knew I'd be replaced by an alternate if I told them of my injury. So, I told my partner I would do the run through again. The next time around I cracked a couple more ribs and crashed to the ground in pain. I was so sad and knew I'd be replaced, but couldn't go on. The pain was more than I could bare. They carried me away and laid me in my cot where my mom tried to set my ribs back into place as she wrapped my back and side to keep them from shifting so much. I screamed in pain, as I had never experienced so much in my life. I was also devastated that my dream of dancing in the Nauvoo Pageant had crashed before me. I felt like so much work was for nothing. My dad and another man gave me a priesthood blessing. In the blessing my father said if I had faith, I'd still be able to perform in the Pageant. I was trying to be faithful, but being that I couldn't even breathe without agony, I was having a hard time imagining doing flips, dancing and stunting! After the cabin cleared out, a sweet little girl named Mariam came to my side with huge alligator tears streaming down her cheeks. She asked me why God would allow me to go through so much pain. In that moment I felt so much love from and for my Savior. My heart filled with comfort from the spirit and I told Mariam that no pain I could suffer would come close to the pain that our Savior suffered for us. I felt my testimony grow in that instant as I bore witness of the love the Savior had for all His children and the magnitude of His atoning sacrifice for us. She too was comforted by the Spirit in that moment. The rest of the experience was a miracle I can never forget. I told the director I would be able to perform (trying to be faithful) yet after I left her side I again collapsed in pain, unable to barely stand or walk. That evening at our first performance I said a prayer, had my sister rub Icy Hot on my ribs, hobbled to the edge of the stage, and as soon as I got onto the stage I felt NO PAIN for the WHOLE number. As soon as I walked off the stage, I'd again collapse in pain. This went on for every performance we did the entire week. It was a miracle how the Lord knew my dream, answered my prayer, and with faith, I was able to perform fall shows of the City Of Joseph Pageant with 3-4 broken ribs that year! That experience helped my testimony grow in so many ways. It testified to me that I was important to my Savior, that what I was doing (being a missionary dancer for the Pageant) was important to Him as well. It also testified to me and gave me a microscopic glimpse and understanding of the Atonement of the Savior. Being part of that experience testified to me that Joseph Smith really was a prophet and that priesthood blessings are of God!

I was able to serve a mission and was blessed to be called to the Arizona Tucson mission as a Spanish speaking sister. My mission blessed my life immensely. I had hundreds of faith promoting and testimony experiences on my mission. I'd like to share two stories of how the Spirit touched me in the mission for my history. One is a simple yet powerful experience. When Hermana Pederson and I were teaching the Rayos family, after the parents had already committed to be baptized we needed to teach their two young, of baptism age, children. I believe their names were Crystal and Juan Carlos, yet I can't find my journal at this moment to confirm that. We had just taught the discussion of the Book of Mormon and asked Crystal if she would pray to know that the Book Of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She said she would and said a sweet and simple prayer, "Heavenly Father, please help me to know that the Book Of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." When she looked up at us, she was grinning from ear to ear. I asked how she felt and she said, "happy." I asked her if the Lord had answered her prayer and she said, "yes, I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God because I feel happy." It was that simple. The Lord answers us through the spirit and happiness is a feeling that comes from God. The entire Rayos family was baptized soon after that. It was joyous to see a whole family come to the waters of baptism!

My next mission story was a miracle! God is truly a God of miracles, and He manifested that in this story. One morning my comp and I said companionship prayer and prayed to know where to tract. We were driving in El Paso and came to a certain street. When we got there we parked our truck at the end of the street. We got out to start tracting when the spirit told us both strongly to get back into the truck and park at the other end of the street and start from there. We did so (parked in a Baptist church parking lot) and starting tracking up the the street with little success. When we got to this one house a lady opened the door with a towel on her head and acted like she was expecting us and told us to come in but to give her a second. When she came back she asked us, "who sent you?" We told her we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that we were messengers of Christ. She told us she believed us and then went on to tell us why. She said that awhile back her son had asked her a lot of questions about God and religion that she couldn't answer. She said when she was younger she was baptized a member of our church but then made some bad decisions, married an abusive man, was now divorced, but now had a lovely son full of light and questions. Yet, she said she doesn't have the answers for him. She told him he could go to the church on the corner (the baptist church we parked at) and ask his questions to the priest down there. He did just that. I guess the priest had put them off for awhile but had scheduled an appointment with them and was to show up that very hour! She said about 30 minutes before we knocked she was about to get in the shower to get ready for the appointment with the Baptist minister. But, before she got in, she said she got down on her knees and said a prayer the way she was once taught. She asked the Lord to please send someone to her door before the Baptist preacher showed up that could answer her son's questions if He felt the truth wasn't at this Baptist church. She told the Lord that she would assume the Baptist preacher was the one with the answers if no one else came beforehand. She said as soon as she got out of the shower she heard a knock on her door, and it was us. If we would have started on the side of the street we were originally, we would not have been an answer to her prayer. Her son then came in the door and she introduced us as the people God sent who had the answers to his questions about God. He nodded, hesitant yet willing. He was young (only about 12 I think) but intelligent and inquisitive. A few moments later the door bell rang and it was the Baptist minister and some of his clergymen. Before she answered the door, she told us that she didn't want to be rude, so would have to let the men in, but asked if we would come back. We scheduled an appointment, she opened the door, we shook hands, left, and quickly got into our truck and said a prayer of gratitude, joy and miracles. Scott Crain was baptized and his mother reactivated members of the church soon afterwards. What a miracle!! God lives and He is REAL and in the details of our lives!

Marrying my sweetheart David Sell was the greatest decision I ever made. Yes, I chose him. Was it an easy choice? No. I was scared to death take the leap. Not because I didn't think or know he was right for me, but because I was just being fearful of starting a new stage in my life. But I was ready, and it was time, and I had the greatest man a woman could ask for wanting to spend the rest of eternity with me! I kept wavering between faith and fear though, and a couple days before he proposed I broke up with him. This time he didn't come back or beg, he just hung his head low and walked away. I waited and waited and he never came back. I then went looking for him and saw him walking from my parents home in Alpine, on a road to his grandparents home in Pleasant Groove UT. He was crying (something I'd never seen him do and have only seen him do a handful of times since). I asked him to please come back. I explained that I loved him, but was just scared and asked him to get into the car and come back with me to my house where I'd ask my dad for a blessing. He did, and my dad gave me a beautiful blessing. In it he said that I needed to have faith and not fear. He said I needed to be willing to take a step into the unknown (darkness) and that I have the greatest man ever that will be nothing but a blessing to me. I never looked back after that blessing. We were married soon after and David has been such a source of joy, light and strength to me in my life. He is a good husband and father. He is my rock and is such a good man. He loves me, all of me, the good and the bad. He is my sweetheart and I am his. I'm happy to be on this journey with him for eternity.

Motherhood has brought on many experiences and opportunities to rely on the spirit. The spirit has been a voice or warning when there was danger, comfort when I was scared or unsure (especially when we didn't have a job, and when I had Ellie very premature), and has testified over and over to me the importance of my role as a mother. One experience in particular that will be forever branded in my mind was when I was awakened suddenly in the night when Talmage (my first born) was just a baby. I heard a voice say, "go check on Talmage NOW!" In my groggy state, I reluctantly got out of bed. When I saw Talmage in his crib I was so relieved I had! He was blue and gasping for air in a panic. His eyes were wide open and he couldn't cry. His airway had closed off in the night due to asthmatic croop and he couldn't get enough air in. I immediately picked him up and took him outside in the cold air in hopes that would help. He still couldn't breathe well, so we rushed him to the hospital where they injected him with steroids to open his airway and gave him a treatment. For years on he had to take treatments to be sustained through the night during croop season. I can't imagine my life without Talmage and will be forever grateful for that warning.

It is wonderful to look back on my life and see how the Lord has been with me through childhood, adolescence, while a teenager, during my mission, as a single adult looking for my future spouse, and into motherhood. It's wonderful to know the Lord loves me, and is mindful of me and cares about my life. I love that He counts His sheep and that we all matter to Him. I testify of His everlasting and all encompassing love for each of His children. I know He is real and that He cares for us all, suffered for us individually, and that He died for us individually. I leave this testimony and short life sketch of how I have felt the influence of the Spirit in my life...In the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Alisha Joy Nelson Sell (age 33, moved into Fraser ward in June of 2004)