She Was Lost for Three Years. A Feeling at Work Brought Her Back.

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Sister Dameron was scooping butter at Texas Roadhouse, working doubles, drinking at night to forget what was waiting for her at home, and trying to figure out how to scrape together enough money for the next semester. She had been inactive from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for three years. She was in an abusive relationship. She was angry at God, angry at her family, and angry at herself.

Then a feeling came. Small, quiet, and unmistakable. It said: you can come home. You are not too far gone.

In this episode of Choosing Jesus Christ, Sister Hawker sits down with Sister Dameron, a former certified personal trainer and competitive bodybuilder serving in the Idaho Falls Idaho Mission, to hear how she got out, came back, and found her Savior who had been waiting the whole time.

COVID, Depression, and a Slow Drift Away  

Sister Dameron was a COVID senior. She had moved four times through high school, struggled with anxiety and depression, and had finally found some footing at her fourth school. Then COVID hit. School shut down. Church went away. Her dad moved states to find work. The college she planned to attend went online. Everything changed overnight.

She did not turn toward God in that season. She turned away. She told herself He was not aware of her personally. She stopped praying, stopped reading, stopped going to church. When her actions stopped matching her beliefs, she changed her beliefs instead of her behaviors. That is the way she describes it now. A cognitive slide, gradual and quiet, until she was three years out and telling people she was not a member.

She found the wrong friends, started drinking, and ended up in a relationship that became emotionally and verbally abusive. She moved in with him. She was afraid to come home after her shifts. She was miserable and she knew it and she did not know how to get out.

The Feeling at the Restaurant  

One night at work, standing there scooping butter and turning her situation over in her mind, a feeling came. Not dramatic. Not loud. Just a quiet, clear impression: you can come home. You can come back. You are not too far gone.

It was the first time in three years she had felt anything like hope.

She held on to it. The next week she ended the relationship. When she told him it was over, he left the room quietly instead of reacting the way he always had. She saw that as the first miracle. Then coworkers started handing her money. A client gave her a hundred dollar bill for gas. She applied to BYU Idaho and a bishop who saw her desire to change gave her the endorsement. Her sister let her move in. One thing after another, none of it coincidental.

She sat in sacrament meeting her first Sunday back, still angry. Then someone bore their testimony of missions. A small prompting: this is what I want for you. She told God she was not ready for that. But she stayed.

Four Sundays and a Rebirth  

Coming back was not a smooth path. It was hard to stay consistent. It was hard to let someone help her. But she kept going.

The repentance process unfolded over several weeks. The first Sunday she returned she did not take the sacrament. She sat with her anger and her embarrassment. The second week she felt a little more gratitude. The third week she felt something shift. For the first time she understood what the Atonement actually was. Not a concept. A gift being offered to her personally.

The fourth week her bishop told her she was ready. When she took the bread and the water she felt what she describes as a rebirth. The mighty change of heart that Alma writes about. She felt the love of God in a way she could not deny. She wept. She had spent three years convinced she was invisible to Him. In that moment she knew she had never been.

From there the desire to serve a mission came naturally. She had experienced what Jesus Christ could do for a person at their lowest. She wanted to go tell everyone.

The Body and the Builder  

Sister Dameron spent two years as a certified personal trainer and competed in a Salt Lake City NPC bodybuilding competition her senior year of college. She studies occupational therapy now. But the bodybuilding shaped her in ways she did not expect.

Studying the human body convinced her God is real. Every system working together, every process running without conscious effort, every cell receiving what it needs at exactly the right moment. She says there is no version of that which happens by accident. It was designed.

She also learned that preparation matters. You cannot compete without months of consistent daily work. The spiritual parallel is exact: small and simple things done consistently over time are what build a life that can hold under pressure. She had learned that from the gym. She relearned it coming back to Christ.

Key Takeaways  

1. God knows you even when you are not praying. Sister Dameron was angry, inactive, and far from the Church when that quiet prompting reached her at work. He had not left.

2. When actions and beliefs stop matching, something changes. She changed her beliefs to match her behavior and spent three years paying for it. The path back required changing her behavior first.

3. The Atonement is personal. Not general. Sister Dameron did not fully understand this until she sat in sacrament meeting for four weeks and felt it happen to her specifically.

4. Coming back is not always smooth. It was hard and inconsistent. But she kept returning. That persistence was enough.

5. Your lowest season can become your greatest asset. Everything Sister Dameron went through is now exactly what she brings into the lives of the people she teaches.

Sister Dameron's story is one of the most personal we have shared. Hear it in her own words on the Choosing Jesus Christ Podcast. And if you have been away and you are wondering if you have gone too far, visit ChoosingJesusChrist.org. You have not.