17/08/2026
“I was raised in the LDS Church.
My dad was my bishop, but my testimony was never really my own.
After moving to St. George at 11, rejection from kids at church crushed my self-esteem, and at 13 I was abused, a secret I carried alone for years.
By 16 I had tried he**in, and for almost a decade my life was addiction, jail, an abusive relationship, and homelessness.
In 2019, I was arrested with five warrants, and a police officer looked at me and said, ‘This could be the best day of your life.’
Sitting in solitary confinement, sick and broken, thoughts came to me that I know were not my own: I could do better, I could change.
God was with me in that cell.
Every judge released me to rehab, which everyone said was impossible, and I know it was a miracle.
After getting sober, my sister encouraged me to go back to church, and that’s where I gained my own testimony for the first time.
I walked up to a bishop who didn’t know me, confessed everything I had ever done.
He just told me my countenance was bright, that I was loved, and exactly where I needed to be.
In my patriarchal blessing, the first thing the patriarch said was, ‘Your Heavenly Father knows you’re here and He’s proud of you.’
When I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to turn my life over to Christ completely.
Going to the temple has become one of the greatest blessings of my life, where God answers my prayers through complete strangers.
Like Alma, I felt like the vilest of sinners, but when he cried out to Jesus, his pain was instantly replaced with joy.
Jesus doesn’t want us to beat ourselves up forever.
He’s already paid for everything, and all He asks is that we come unto Him, wherever we are.
I’ve been freed from addiction and my past, and I wouldn’t change a thing, because every hard moment was a stepping stone that led me back to God.
You are never too far gone.“
- Sister Kiaya
