CYFSN Alaya Garcia

[00:00:00]

Welcome to the Can You Feel? So now podcast, I'm Justin Barton and I'm so happy and lucky to be the host of this cool project that I've been working on now for, I don't know, six months or so. But I'm sitting here with somebody that I have never met, although she served a mission not very far from where I live.

Over the last 18 months or so, Alaya Garcia and Alaya, why don't you take a minute, introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about your family, where you're from, maybe some things you enjoy doing in your life.

Yeah, of course. I'm Alaya Garcia and I just served a mission in the Washington Spokane mission, so it was just such an enjoyable time.

I come up from a family of five, I have three younger sisters ranging from the ages of 16 to three. So quite a range, but so fun. Currently I was raised in Harlingen Texas, which is a very southern tip. So super far, not many people know about it, but I love it. [00:01:00] And something that I just, I enjoy doing.

I love anything with crafts, like cross stitching. I'm trying to do embroidery, crochet, all that fun stuff. And I also just love sports.

Very cool. Thank you for introducing yourself, Alaya. All right, so you said you served in the Washington Spokane mission. What dates were you there?

So I started the MTC like late August, and then I entered in the field September of 2023, and so then I just finished March, 2025.

What were your impressions when you opened your call?

Yeah, that's, so interesting 'cause I actually opened my call by myself, with my family at first, and I definitely read Spokane and I was like, where is that? So I googled it real quick and I was like, oh my goodness, it's so pretty.

Never heard of it, didn't really know what it was. Never really traveled growing up, so I was just super excited.

So tell me why you made the decision to open your call by [00:02:00] yourself what was your reasoning in that?

Yeah, so preparing for my mission, like I had something I wanted to do, and so the application process, it took longer than expected.

Usually you fill it out within a month or so, send it in, you get your call in two weeks. I submitted my call. Then two weeks later, I didn't get anything. It turns out there were some things that I just had to hold off for a little bit for three months. And so at that time, I was studying, I was preparing, I was praying, just trying to receive guidance from God.

And when I got my call, I wasn't really expecting it. So I got the call one evening, got a little text actually that said, your call has been received. And I was like, oh my goodness. So I went to my room and read it myself. 'cause it was truly something that I've been praying about and just wanted to know everything for myself, and so it was a great opportunity just to soak it in so that when I shared with family it was complete

so Alaya, when [00:03:00] did you decide and what made you decide to serve a mission in the first place?

Yeah, so growing up I had some awesome group of friends in primary and they would always like talk about missions and they're like, I'm gonna go serve a mission one day.

And I was like, that sounds cool. Me too. So for the longest time, like people asked if I was gonna, and yes. And then it wasn't until high school when I started. Being from Southern Texas, , there's not a lot of youth. So I was one of the only members in high school, so that gave me a lot of opportunities that I was able to share the gospel and just talk about my beliefs and things like that.

And so there's a lot of cool experiences with my friends that I got to talk about the church and why I do certain things, the standards I live, and then that kind of gave me the momentum to go out and serve. So I started. Following missionaries around, just joining them, and it just gave me a great excitement to serve the Lord.

So you did quite a bit of missionary type work before you served a mission. Tell me [00:04:00] about how that prepared you for the mission, and tell me about maybe some things that you were surprised when you put on the name badge and got out in the field too.

Yeah. So I feel like it prepared me, like I knew a lot of the logistical things, like I saw how PMG worked.

I knew how you would go out and talk to people. I did park contacting with the sisters. So that was something I was expected and I was like, okay, I can do this. . So one of the things that kind of surprised me, like coming on a mission, the mental. Things that I would go through because I figured, like going on a mission, life's kind of gonna be a breeze. I'm serving the Lord, doing great things, but there's truly a lot of things that, like mentally I had to prepare myself for.

Just like being away from family, like how to cope without having all the coping that I've used at home. So it's definitely an adjustment.

What are some examples of those things?

I think a lot of like during, at least the first part of my mission, 'cause I served under two mission presidents.[00:05:00]

It was a lot of just we need to talk about baptism with every person. We need to meet certain expectations. And it was great because it caused me to push myself. But it was hard in the aspect is am I reaching, am I successful as a missionary? Am I doing everything that I need to? And just trying to like, I feel like , there was a point when I like started self criticizing myself so much that it was like, I was like how can I reach this level of almost like perfection?

And so that was something definitely really hard. I'm like, for coping. I think when I was at home, I had a stressful day. I would turn on a movie, watch a show, or just like rant to my mom and I didn't really have those things. So definitely trying to reach out and a mission has an awesome resource.

Adjusting to missionary life, which I studied constantly and that kind of helped me, I guess know what I could do and find coping things that like. Long term and not just based off like [00:06:00] worldly things, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does. And you said that resource is called adjusting to missionary life.

Tell me some of the strategies, some of the insights and tips that resource gave you, that really helped you to push through those hard times.

Yeah, so the cool thing about Adjusting to Missionary Life, it has a questionnaire, like one of the first pages it's something that you just check off, like mark one through five, like how are you feeling about this?

I think this section that really helps me and else lemme pull it up, but it was just talking about like how to communicate effectively or how does, like you. Stress, like what to do in your stressful situations. And so turning to that, and one of the skills that I often did was journaling.

It's something I did in the past, wasn't super consistent, but as I took time to write out how I was feeling or just recognizing what I did to de-stress for me, when I lived [00:07:00] with two other sisters, it was telling 'em about my day and just talking about the things that happened and that really helped me unwind

so I love how you talked about journaling and how that was a help for you. I remember there was on my mission, journaling to me was a chore. . And as I look back at my jour, my mission journal, almost all of it was like a travel log. It was we did this and this today.

But you said you journaled a little bit more about emotions, feelings, things you experience. So tell me about the importance of journaling in that way that's helpful.

I, it was interesting 'cause I guess when I first started journaling, it was a lot of like just the task I was doing.

But as I took it a step further, I started doing gratitude journaling and it's like, how can I recognize God's hand in my life? And so that kind of gave me perspective where I wasn't necessarily looking like. Inward, but I was like, what am I trying to do better? Like how can the Lord help me?

How [00:08:00] has he blessed me in my life? And I think that really helped me recognize that he's aware of me and he's present in my life. And like writing down the emotions allows me to recognize what I'm feeling, but not let it truly affect like me or the relationships that I had.

Now, Alaya, you've only been home what?

A little over a week. Have you continued that habit of journaling even after you got home?

The idea has definitely been there. There's been a few days that I've journaled, especially like when I got home, like the feelings I'd felt things that the mission president had told me.

But I definitely do need to be more consistent in it. It's actually funny, I was going through all my paperwork and stuff that I left at home and I found journal entries from 10 years ago and it just reminded me of the power of journaling and like we go through different phases of life and it's cool to see that growth

yeah. Journaling has become one of the bedrocks of my life over the last handful of years, and I love this [00:09:00] question. You said, Hey, where did I see the hand of God today? Those types of questions and answering those gratitude type things. The questions that I'm now answering in my journal.

It is just mind blowing. I heard somebody say this a couple months ago. They said, at the end of the day, ask yourself, why am I still here? What is God's purpose for me today? And it's not a suicidal type thought. It's a what is my purpose today?

Why does God still keep me around? And that has been such a powerful thing for me to reflect on. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I absolutely love that because I don't know what general authority it was, but they talked about asking yourselves questions as you journal, because I think something I learned on my mission is the importance of questions and like they help you find the deeper need and understanding of where a person.

I guess what part of the gospel they need at that time. And so I think that's powerful that you ask those yourself those questions because I think as [00:10:00] we truly do and have that self-reflection, there'll be even greater growth and gratitude.

All right, so as you went through your mission and you recorded these things, you looked at, how is God using me in his work right now and things like that.

What are some of the biggest aha moments you had where you recognized that God knew who you were?

I would say about halfway through my mission, I. Just been like overwhelmed if I was a successful missionary, if what I was doing made an impact to the people I was serving. My companions, just the work in general. And as I like journaling these questions, I was praying about it. I was just trying to understand and.

God truly does use people to answer prayers at times, and I went into an interview with my mission president. He had been in the mission field for probably a week and a half and taking time to get to know me, and he just validates that I'm a daughter of God, [00:11:00] and he helped me recognize that it's not necessarily the results that you see or occur on your mission that are gonna be markers of your success.

Because there's so many things out of our control as a missionary in life, but what we can do is put our best efforts forth. And he just helped me recognize that God was truly aware of me and he was glad of the efforts I was making. And so then at night I journaled about it and I went and I reflected, and I read past journal entries in that.

It kinda helped me. It was like, wow, like we met this cool person on the side of the road that I journaled about 'cause in the moment I feel like it always seems like there's so much going on. You can't see those little tender mercies, but when you look back they're truly clear than they were in the present.

Thank you for sharing that. So you mentioned a couple times now that you've served under two mission presidents. It sounds like the theme of the first one was kinda like, Hey, [00:12:00] we baptize, this is what we do and we're gonna work really hard towards baptism. Was there another theme that he, that, that mission President had?

I would say definitely like baptism was a heavy emphasis, but also . Making sure that we are being exactly obedient and repenting at the speed of thought. I love when he said that because it helps you recognize like your thoughts, you have thoughts before they become actions.

And so doing that and just that importance of obedience really stuck with me throughout my mission 'cause obedience precedes miracles.

Cool. So did you see miracles because of obedience in your mission? And if so, what's an example of a miracle you saw that you attribute to your obedience?

I think of those days when you're just knocking door after door, everything kind of falls through and there was a day I was in this. City I'd been in for almost seven and a half months. So it was a long time. And after just [00:13:00] no luck with anybody, felt like we didn't really talk to many people.

My companion and I prayed like at eight o'clock at night and we're like, God, where do you need us? 'cause we know that there is someone out here that needs to know that you care about them and , they're loved. And so we said a prayer and we just kept going. We went to a less active member.

And found out he just had surgery. But we met his girlfriend that was living with him, and it was just such a tender moment because she was like, hold on, give me a minute.

But she came back out and we just sat on her porch for a good 45 minutes just talking about how she's loved and. How God's aware of her because she'd been going through a lot physically and mentally with her boyfriend being outta work and just all these different things.

It was an answer to her prayer, but also to ours because we had really tried. And so that obedience of continue working hard and continue going, even when you don't see those results.

Let's look at your second mission president. What [00:14:00] kind of theme did that mission presidency have and how has that affected you up to this point?

Yeah, it was interesting 'cause when they had that little pass off of mission presidents, at first I was like, oh my goodness, how do I do missionary work? Just two different ideas of how things are supposed to happen. But my second mission president, he. Taught me a lot about how to be a lifelong disciple.

He talked a lot about the doctrine of Christ and how we need to be implementing it every single day, and that our mission is to help people apply it, but also we need to apply it ourselves. And so I think that's something that I was like. Oh, never studied and focused on the doctrine of Christ so much and seen that importance and so it's not just a steps on a ladder, but he always said it's a circle.

It's a continual thing that happens each and every day of our lives.

Yeah. So as he had that theme of, hey, you're gonna be a lifelong disciple and you need to practice the things you're preaching, [00:15:00] what was maybe one of those things that you were preaching that you maybe weren't being as good at practicing

that you buttoned up and started practicing better?

Oh, that's a great question. I think for me, something that changed was a lot of my personal studies. Like I told people a lot oh, read the scriptures. There's power that comes through this. Pray each day. And in my life I was like, , I'm praying all the time.

Study my scriptures. I just opened the book of Mormon and I read a few verses and I was like, okay, perfect checkbox, but rather taking it a further step and truly just soaking it in and truly breaking down the verses and seeing how they apply to me. And I think that is truly how I've been able to just grow and change even more is because I studied the Book of Mormon so intentionally.

Yeah. So what's an example of when you started studying a little bit more intentionally, an insight that you gained, that you, maybe you'd read the verse a hundred times before, but this time because you [00:16:00] were studying it more intently, it jumped out at you.

Yes, so the book of second Nephi , everyone's always oh my goodness, it's the Isaiah chapters. Like it's so difficult to understand. And I took that on myself. I was like, yes, it's so hard. But I took time to study second Nephi and. I just love how it so clearly talks about the need of a restoration and how the Book of Mormon truly testifies of Jesus Christ.

And without it, we would have missing knowledge and there'd be even more miscon concerns and things like that. . So specifically second Nephi 20, chapter 29. It talks about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together and it talks about how people would be like, no, we don't need a second Bible.

We don't need a second witness. And I think this just solidified my understanding and need for the restoration because I was like my goodness, like the Book of Mormon truly testified of these things. [00:17:00] And so I just thought that was amazing. And I literally shared it with everyone because I was like, I didn't even realize the Book of Mormon talked about this.

Yeah, that's really neat. Thank you for sharing that. So it's in 2 Nephi, chapter 29. That's great. . All right. So as you look back at your life and up to your mission, did you have a vision of what maybe you would, do after your mission and.

If so, did that change throughout your mission because of maybe experiences you had?

So

I guess my senior year of high school, I decided I wanted to go into occupational therapy and my plan was to do like the assistant program, which is only two year thing. And so I was like, yeah, I'll do that.

Went on my mission. I was like. Okay, this is still what I'm gonna do. So I never really had a time in my mission where I was like, oh, I need to change it. There's definitely Japan were like, you would do really good at this or like that. And I was like, I just wanna dabble in a little bit of [00:18:00] everything.

If I can get a bunch of certifications. I was like, that would be so fun. So cool. So let me dream a little bigger of what the possibilities are that I could do, but definitely like within, like I still wanna do occupational therapy, going, what school to go to and how I should go about that.

I feel like that's definitely something the Lord's been guiding me on my mission and recently.

Yeah. So I think a lot of people that hear this are gonna say, occupational therapy, what does that help people get a job? But talk to us a little bit about what that is and why you're interested in it, and I think there's some things that will tie back from things you've said earlier.

Okay, awesome. So occupational therapy, it is just rehabilitation almost like physical therapy, but rather it works with like long-term disabilities. How to get back like after you have a stroke, trying to get back to somewhat of normal life, like how to do things on your own. As I [00:19:00] studied about it, and I turns out I knew a bunch of occupational therapists. I was like, oh, this is so cool. And I think the aspect of just helping other people like live their best life and do the things that, like not letting their, the health challenges that they have truly hold them back, is something that I know I feel like I'm very passionate about.

That's really cool. And one thing that I tied back is when you said, I like doing crafty things, embroidery, that type of stuff is something that really does help with that fine motor skill that OTs are trying to help bring back in or even train for the first time if that's what's necessary with people with developmental delays and disabilities.

But that's so cool and I think it's a very rewarding, a place to go look into. , You get to do service all the time for people. Talk to me a little bit about service and the importance of service in your mission and maybe even throughout your life.

Oh, I love service.

As a mission, we made it a goal for every companionship to get 10 hours of service each [00:20:00] week. And so we truly did talk about service a lot. What are ways that we can be in the community, we can help members, help non-members.

Those opportunities to serve in that way. But it was really cool as we took time to find community opportunities to help or just offering service to random people. It was cool to see how maybe they weren't ready for the gospel right at that moment, but us offering to help them and whether it clean their house, doing some yard work, any of those little things like it truly helped them feel of God's love and presence, but also .

I feel like sometimes it softens them for the next time missionaries come in contact with them.

Yeah, I love that. A lot of times people will think, oh, you get to go on a mission, you get to put the name badge on. Everything's great because you're in God's service all the time. But my experience is, and my conversations with people is that there are some pretty hard.

Dark times that , maybe the thought of, I'm just going home. [00:21:00] This is not what I want to do right now. Talk to me about some of those situations that you experienced and how you moved through those.

Yeah. There was definitely moments where I was like, I don't know if I could do this, but something that really grounded me was my testimony that I had and was growing.

And a lot of the miracles that I'd seen because as a missionary you're surrounded by little miracles by the people you talk to, if you got to an appointment on time. And so I think those were, they're great things that kind of helped me and kept me going and motivated.

And there was a time in my mission where. Moving from Texas to Washington was a big change, at least for my mental health, especially in the winter when it could dark at 4:00 PM and so that was really hard, and I was like, I just felt like my world was spinning and I didn't know how to take control of it.

But I was able to meet with some awesome [00:22:00] counselors on the mission, but also truly study Adjusting to the Mission , it was a time that I was able to learn and trust in the Lord even more. And so I think it's those hard times where I was able to rely on the Savior's atonement, even in a deeper capacity is when I felt the most love for my savior.

Yeah I get that. I lived in Phoenix, Arizona for most of my life, and then when we moved up here to Spokane, the first couple of winters, I was like, what is going on here? It's dark at four and then in the middle of the summer it doesn't get dark till almost 10 so it's pretty crazy that shift.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You talked how your testimony got you through some of those hard times. What are some of the places that your testimony changed and evolved the most? Maybe you had a testimony of this principle or this thing and you on your mission. It really became, I now have a firm knowledge on this.

Yeah. So for me growing up, I think the first [00:23:00] principle that most of the time missionaries teach is God is our loving Heavenly Father. That at a young age is something that I knew. I started recognizing God through circumstances in life. I relied heavily on prayer and I prayed for comfort and just his awareness in my life.

And as I did that, I always got a confirmation that he was there, whether it was through words someone else said or just opening the scriptures and so I couldn't deny that God was aware of my life, but that was at a young age and growing up, I feel like God's there like sometimes and going on my mission, recognizing those times when I talk to people and I was like, God loves you so much.

Like I can just feel his love for you or. Just when people were like, I didn't know why I had to answer the door, but I did and had the opportunity to speak with missionaries, and I think those are the moments where I was like, God is [00:24:00] entangled in our life and we don't even know it sometimes or recognize it.

And so I think that is something that I'm just like, even when days get hard and there's a lot going on, like he's there. And so recognizing those tender mercies is just something that's really been powerful for me.

Thank you for sharing that, Alaya. What are, were there any other verses of scripture throughout your mission that became thematic?

You mentioned second if 5 29 as something that kind of opened your eyes to some new things. But , was there a thematic verse that you just seemed to keep coming back to over and over again?

Yeah, I was actually thinking about this earlier today because I was like, what would be a verse that would like, describe my mission ?

But funny enough, it's one of the first verses that I shared as a missionary with someone, and it's in Mosiah 24. Okay, . This is when, amulek and alma put into prison as they're trying to share the gospel. [00:25:00] And verse 13 through. It says, and it came to pass, that the voice of the Lord came to them in their affliction, saying, lift up your heads and be of good comfort for I know the covenant, which you have made unto me.

And I'll covenant with my people and deliver them at a bondage. And I'll also ease the burdens, which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs. And while they were in bondage. Will I do that you will stand as a witness for me hereafter that you may know for a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people and their afflictions.

And this verse, it helped me recognize that Christ was there in all the moments. 'cause I was like, I think of Alma and I think he was like a great missionary. He did so many awesome things. But there was also this time where he doubted the Lord i'm trying to do this, like what is going on, but I love the part where it talks about like the covenants, like we've made covenants with God and [00:26:00] bin ourself with the savior, and so he truly remembers that and he will bless us and is aware of us.

Talk to me a little bit more about covenants and the power of those covenants . Sometimes that concept of covenants can seem, to me, it can be this like. Out there type thing, but tell me about the importance of it as you've learned over your mission.

Yeah, after a lot of studying it's been cool to see how covenants are like, it's a promise that we make, but it just there's so much to learn about it and there's so much that God wants to bless us with.

And. Seeing what we have to keep and the blessings that he gives us. It doesn't really seem like a fair thing. But what's beautiful is that as I've taken time to like study, especially the endowment covenants that we make in the temple I think just breaking those up and seeing what does it mean to be consecrated?

What does it mean to be obedient and [00:27:00] keep these laws? It's something that allows us to , draw heavenly power from, because God, he gave us that ability to make covenants that we can truly connect with him and feel his presence even more in our life.

Very good. Thank you so much for helping talk about that a little bit more. As you look back over the last two years or so, how has your prayer life changed? How has your communication with the Lord changed?

Oh, prayer is something that I've definitely heavily relied on in a lot of times.

'cause whether it's like. Being with a companion or just, things that maybe you don't wanna tell people, but truly like you can tell God anything. And I got an advice from a young age to make my communication with God complete. And I was like, okay, cool. Like I just say my morning and nightly prayer, [00:28:00] but it becomes so much more.

It's not just, hey, I'm checking in, but rather it's an opportunity to just have an open and honest conversation. Because , he's there and he listens and I feel the times that I've truly poured out my heart, like this is how I feel about everything and this is things I'm struggling with.

These are where I feel like I'm lacking. He's there and , in my life, he's been able to, I think that verse in, in Ether, like he's able to make our weaknesses, strengths as we continue turning to him. His prayer is powerful, especially when we're like detailed in what, how we communicate.

So , I love how you said, make your communication with God complete and have open and honest communication with him.

So there's the prayer side of things, and then there's the listening side of things. How do you hear God's voice in your own life? How does he communicate back with you?

Oh, there's so many different ways. [00:29:00] I feel like majority of the ways it's, as I open up the scriptures and I take time to study them because a general authority visited our mission and he was like, it's not the words on the page that's gonna change or give you like the exact answer that you need to do, but you're opening the scriptures and you're allowing the Holy Ghost and the.

To work through that, and I think that's something that I've just recognized is that I've opened up the scriptures and I studied them. I invite the spirit into my life into a way where I'm humble enough to listen and be still with the Lord.

Thank you for sharing that. In preach my gospel, there's a whole chapter on the attributes of Christ. As you review those and as you studied those and tried to practice those in your mission throughout the those 18 months, which one of those attributes do you think was maybe a weak spot for your mission?

, That as you. [00:30:00] Really intentionally tried to have God help you with it. It became a strength in your life.

Yes. . I think charity is something, as I reflect, is something I developed in a deep way and in a way that allowed me to see the world and people differently.

'cause I've always felt like I cared about people but it was truly turning to God and asking for that gift of charity and taking time to get to know people, be interested in them and the things that helped them come closer to Christ are the ways they're wanting to change.

And I think that charity has truly, it's been a blessing to me in my life, but also to those that I've been able to interact with help them feel of God's love because I think that's something that I feel so passionate about and helping everyone recognize that.

And something that I learned on my mission. It's not having faith in an outcome, but it's having faith in Jesus Christ that [00:31:00] everything will work out, because that's hard to wrap my head around sometimes because it's oh, I have faith that I'm gonna get this job or I'm gonna do this, but it's that faith set.

As you continue focusing and turning to Christ, that everything will work out how it needs to.

I love that. Alaya, tell me an example of when you were practicing faith and hoping for a specific outcome and that outcome didn't materialize, but whatever came was better for you and for whatever else was going on than what you ever envisioned,

a specific instance. I was in northern Idaho for a couple of months and we had a hard time finding for a few weeks and we're trying to figure out what can we do, what can we change, how can we be creative in our efforts? And I was like, okay, I'm gonna just put my faith in Jesus Christ solely. Like I'm not gonna have faith that a person's just gonna say, yeah, I'm here for the gospel. Like they're [00:32:00] just gonna show up at our feet. And so I started trusting more in the Lord and was like, okay, like whatever happens.

And so I think as I did that, I saw more of the people aren't maybe they're not ready right now. But the interactions we had, like they helped them come closer to Christ, even if it was just a centimeter. And so those were starting to just be more clear to me and help me recognize there's little successes happening all around us, even if it doesn't lead to some grand baptism.

Thank you for sharing that. Who is Jesus Christ to you today? Has that evolved over the last 18 months?

Oh, definitely. I used to think of Jesus Christ is oh, he's someone that came to Earth and he died for us.

He's truly our savior. As I've taken time to really study about Jesus Christ, study about his atonement, his death, [00:33:00] his resurrection, his crucifixion, all these different things, it helped me recognize who he is as not just this being that I haven't seen, but truly as a brother because Jesus Christ, without his atonement, literally could not have survived my mission without that strength.

That need that I'm flawed, I'm imperfect, but I have a friend who can help me and he can strengthen me. And I think that's been powerful. It's not just knowing about who he is, but truly recognizing him and applying his teachings in my life is, has helped me.

Beautiful. Thank you so much.

So before I start wrapping up with a few questions here, is there anything else that God has put on your heart that's just like boiling that you're like, I have got to say this during this recording

I think that just the idea that missionaries are not always exactly what you expect or what you think is gonna happen, [00:34:00] but what's beautiful is that.

They're uniquely designed for you and I owe my testimony to Jesus Christ and the experiences that I've had on my mission because I think those harder times, like I don't like going through difficult times, but those are the times where I was able to truly learn and rely on Jesus Christ. And I just know that as we study and learn about how his atonement truly affects us in.

The big things and the little things, we can feel his love and his awareness of us even more.

Love that. Beautiful. All right, so this project is entitled can You Feel So Now based on Alma chapter five verse 26. And what I'd like to do is read that verse and then ask you three questions from that verse.

. So the verse reads, and now behold, I say to you, if you have experienced a change of heart, and if you have felt to sing the Song of Redeeming love, I would ask, can you feel so now? Alaya We've talked a little bit [00:35:00] about change of heart the process of that throughout this conversation, but talk to me, have you experienced a change of heart and what does that look like to you?

Oh, most definitely. I think the change of heart is just like my personal connection with Jesus Christ like we're talking about, but also. The confidence that the Lord can give us because I, before a mission, I wasn't a very confident person and I definitely not very sociable. But what's beautiful is that as I felt those tender mercies and I felt the Lord's love for me through those experiences, it allowed me to recognize him in my life that just naturally I wanted to share with others.

Having his presence in my life was just beautiful and that it's always there, like those experiences, those memories, the times where I've been able to truly trust and rely in Jesus Christ and in God is how [00:36:00] I can just feel his awareness of me in every moment.

Love that. And I wouldn't have suspected that you struggled with, confidence or, being sociable from our conversation here, God has done some amazing things with you through that, so keep that going forward. That's awesome. All right, next part of the verse is, and if you have felt to sing the Song of Redeeming Love.

Alaya what is the song of Redeeming Love and have you felt to sing it?

I think singing it is just by sharing. I met so many awesome members on my mission that like talking to them, they just bring up the gospel so natural. It's just part of their being. And I think that is something that truly like that singing.

It is just not being ashamed, not holding back, I find joy through Jesus, and that is something that just, it's a song of joy. It's just the act of being just like the savior.

Thank you. . All [00:37:00] right, last question here before I ask the question, you and I, we're gonna jump into a time machine and go forward a few years.

, And for whatever reason, when we get out of this time machine, we meet you. And you're not feeling the confidence, you are having a hard time. Life is hard right now . Why don't you sit down and talk to yourself and remind yourself how you feel today to help yourself.

Remember that and get back on the path.

I definitely say, Alaya, remember, be still and recognize God. 'cause it's those times of reflection, times of looking back. Because I know right now I felt God's presence and so I know she would too. Just taking time to be still. I love that verse in the Bible be still and know I'm God.

Because as you be still, you will be able to fill the Lord's hand because there's times when life is crazy. Things just get away from you, [00:38:00] but take time to be still and pray make that effort to reconnect with God because he's there and he's so present in your life,

Thank you for walking through this with me.

Would you be willing to bear testimony and record your testimony is if you were speaking, bearing testimony over the pulpit with us here?

Of course. I know that Jesus Christ lives. And because he lives, I can one day be resurrected and live with my family, and because of Jesus Christ, I've been able to overcome the weaknesses of man.

And I know that Jesus Christ, he was perfect. And as I truly trust and rely on him, my imperfections will slowly go away. Because I'm turning to my savior, and as we truly focus on him, we can find the joys in life and in the different challenging things [00:39:00] that are going on. And I know for a fact that Jesus Christ Church has been restored to the earth.

That through , a young boy named Joseph Smith, that as he asked a question to know which church he needed to go to, how can he receive forgiveness, that God answered him. And I know that through our questions and through the struggling parts of our testimony, that as we just ask and study, that we can find answers and guidance and recognize that God is aware and hears our prayers even no matter how tiny they may seem.

And I know that the Book of Mormon truly the second testament of Jesus Christ. Because as I've read it and I've studied it and I've prayed about it, I've been able to feel the spirit even more in my life. And I've been able to feel the savior and knowing that he didn't just die for our sins, but he truly did suffer [00:40:00] all things that come with being human, the heartaches, the pains the worries that we have, and that has truly helped me.

Get to understand that Jesus Christ is part of all the things in my life, and I just know that there's so much power that comes as we truly do the simple things, as we read the scriptures, we pray and we go to church, that those will make the biggest influence in our life because we're continually relying on the Lord and I just, I know these things to be so true in my life.

And say this, the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Alaya. This has been a really cool conversation. I'm so grateful to get to know you a little bit, and I hope it's been meaningful and helpful for you too.

Of course. I enjoyed being on here.