Hi, I'm Alyssa

I'm a Mormon. I grew up in Washington State. I love watching birds.

About Me

I am a graduate student working on my PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Although I now live in the Midwest, I am a Pacific Northwesterner at heart! I love the outdoors, the mountains and the environment. I love to have fun and try new things. I’m engaged to my best friend.
I’m grateful to my parents who always encouraged me to try new things and have always loved me for who I am (forgetful, oblivious, and accident prone) and taught me the importance of hard work and perseverance. I would have to say that besides the gospel, my family is the most important part of my life and in many ways it is because of them that I am who I am today.
I love to do too many things and have so many hobbies that I’m really not exceptional at anything. I love to bike, run, hike, backpack, knit, sew and I attempt to paint and draw. I would have to say that out of everything though sleeping is probably my numero uno favorite activity. I love taking beautiful pictures of cells on a confocal microscope. So I guess you could say that I’m really an artist at heart who utilizes biology as her medium.

Why I am a Mormon

I was baptized when i was ten and I can say that at the time I didn’t know it was 100% true, all I knew is what I felt as I met with the missionaries and went to church. I felt good, happy and at peace. Throughout the years the knowledge part has come, through faith, diligence, hard work and experience. I read the entire Book of Mormon all the way through when I was a freshman in high school and my knowledge began to grow from there. Something so wonderful about this life is that we have the ability to choose for ourselves. God will not force us to choose anything. What he will do is let us have experiences and opportunities where we can choose to work to increase our faith or let it diminish. I’m grateful that with each trial or experience I chose to move forward and as I did that my desire to believe has slowly become a knowledge.
I can say now that I am a Mormon because I have chosen to be. I have gained so many answers through the peaceful promptings of the Holy Ghost that it’s the only obvious and clear path for me. I know God is our Heavenly Father. I know Jesus Christ was His Only Begotten Son and is our savior and that the Holy Ghost can and does bare witness of these truths to our heart if we are open and desire to know and then act upon them. There is a prophet of God on the earth and the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. These are some of the many things I have come to know and will never be able to deny ever again.

Personal Stories

Please share your feelings/testimony of Joseph Smith.

I love Joseph Smith the prophet. I think that this love first developed when I was about 20. I was reading the book “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother Lucy Mack Smith” and the Spirit really touched my heart strongly for the first time. As I read that book I just knew without a doubt that everything he said and did was true. I am always impressed with how loyal his family, but especially Hyrum and Emma, were to him and how no one in his family questioned his motives. I think that is a great testimony to the integrity of a person. He was only 14 years old when he saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and his character was never in question. His own brother stated, “We all had the most implicit confidence in what he said. He was a truthful boy. Father and mother believed him. Why should not the children? I suppose if he had told crooked stories about other things, we might have doubted his word about the plates, but Joseph was a truthful boy. That father and mother believed his report and suffered persecution for that belief shows that he was truthful. No sir, we never doubted his word for one minute." I think that statement alone helped me to understand so much about the motives of Joseph Smith. I truly believe he had none. He was a young boy who wanted to get an answer, never suspecting that the answer he would receive would have so much impact on the world today. Amidst the persecution and trials he carried on, not for fame or fortune, but simply because he had been called of God.

How I live my faith

I think something that surprises people is how much living the gospel is an integral part of our lives. Everything I do, I hope, reflects on the knowledge I have of the gospel. Service is a huge part of who we are. We serve because He served us and one of the ways we get to do this is through church callings or assignments.
The organization of the church is based on a lay ministry which means we don’t get paid to do what we do (not even the bishop who is like our pastor or minister gets paid) and just because you are asked to do something (like teach Sunday school or be the bishop of the ward) does not mean that we will be doing that forever. Eventually you will be asked to do something else. For example, someone who was once the Bishop of the ward might next be asked to work with the youth in the ward. Right now I am called to be a ward missionary. I love this calling because it enables me to work with the full-time missionaries who serve in our ward. I get to help teach the restored gospel to those who are just learning about it for the first time. I also get to meet new people and help and serve them in whatever capacity they need.

Why don’t women hold the priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? How do Mormon women lead in the Church?

Alyssa answered...

I think it’s important to remember that the priesthood is not a position it’s an eternal power given to men from God to act in his name in righteousness, charity, love, and service (among other things). Without the priesthood of-course, our ordinances would be in vain, but just like men are given this gift to act in the name of God if they stay true, worthy and righteous woman are given a very special gift of bearing children. The priesthood is necessary to bind families together for eternity, but the woman is necessary in order to bring those families into the world in the first place. Bringing God’s children to the earth and binding all of God’s children together forever are the main part of His plan of happiness for us and go hand in hand. “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 11:11.
With that said, there are plenty of opportunities for women to lead in the church. The women’s organization in the church is called the Relief Society and is headed by a woman president and her counselors (under direction of the prophet of-course) and the Primary (children’s group) is headed by a woman president and her counselors. Both areas have great influence within the church.
Leeny answered...

This is a question I had to really consider before joining the Church. My mother is a non-denominational chaplain, and both my sisters are pastors. Female leadership in church settings is very important to my family.

It is to me as well. I think many people become offended when they learn that only men hold the priesthood because they misunderstand it. The priesthood is a tool given to men in order that they might serve others more. It does not in any way give them power or dominion over women. Those people who suppose the priesthood is a way to control others are deeply mistaken.

My husband is a priesthood holder, this means I am too. I have claim on my husband's priesthood power. Even more than he does. If I am sick, discouraged, or in need of help I can call upon my husband to give me a blessing through the priesthood that he holds. I then recieve many blessings because of my husband's worthiness to work in behalf of Christ. My husband is never able to give himself a blessing though. If he is sick or discouraged he must call on other priesthood holders to administer to him. My husband holds the priesthood so that he can bless me and our child - never himself.

The priesthood is the power of Christ on the earth. It allows those who hold it to serve their families in the same way Christ served the Church. Did Christ do any deed for himself during his earthly ministry? No. Christ spent all his energy serving the people. This is what the priesthood does for my husband. It infuses him with Christ's compassion and ability to love, and then my husband is able to use that celestial love in our family.

Why don't women also recieve this special gift then? The simple answer is women don't need it. As women we are innately endowed with compassion, selflessness, and love. Think about the way a mother loves her child. I believe there is nothing more pure and similar to Christ's love for us, than a mother's love for her children. Women naturally have the ability to love as Christ does.

In an ideal situation, which is what God always intended for us, there are two partners in marriage. There is the husband and father, a priesthood leader who can be called upon to administer blessings and serve in Christ's name. And there is also the wife and mother, who is blessed with the ability to love as Christ loves and sacrifice for her family. These are two seperate and divinely appointed roles. Each complementing the other. Both make a complete home.

Women do not hold the priesthood because they do not need it. Women have other God-given powers that raise them up to the task they are called to. A man is appointed to serve his wife and children - it is the power of the priesthood that enables him to do this.

I am grateful to have a husband who is worhty to use the priesthood in my behalf. It has blessed me many times and I know that it is a special gift from God - not only to my husband, but to me as well.

Who founded Mormonism and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Joseph answered...

I went on a bicycle ride one day with a friend of another faith. He was a believing Christian but told me as we rode that he believed churches and organized religion are unnecessary and that the best way to find truth is to look everywhere. He bought into the notion that there are "many ways to the top of a mountain."

I think there's truth in that view, too. I believe that God wants us to find truth everywhere we can get it. And yet something nagged at me about his view. As we hit the steeper part of our ride, I said, "I think that's a cop out." (We have a pretty comfortable relationship - we talk pretty bluntly with each other). "If there is a God, don't you think He'd have an opinion about what's right and what's wrong? And don't you think He would have a plan for His children? And finally, don't you think He'd want us to know the truth about that plan? If so, how can you believe He would not create some credible and organized way to help us figure out what is true?"

Throughout history that way has been to reveal the truth through prophets. As my friend and I spoke he saw more clearly that there was no reasonable argument for why God would say, "2000 years ago prophets were a really good idea. But today I changed my mind."

Joseph Smith did what prophets always do. He revealed new scripture that confirms all that we had before. He restored God's full Gospel. And he pointed us to Christ. I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. And now my friend does, too.