I am [INAUDIBLE]. It has been a very long journey. At the age of 26 I was a single mother of four children. My ex-husband took my inheritance, and he abandoned me. So it was a struggle to raise the children alone. I desired a better life. I wanted better things for my children--teach them better things, good values. Things didn't work out as I thought they would, and within a period of six months, my whole world collapsed. I became addicted to heroin, and some of my children even became addicted. I got involved in drug sales. I was an explosive person. People did not dare approach me. Very violent. It ended with my arrest. Three and a half years I was in prison. When I came out of prison, it didn't stop there. Those six months took away 27 years of my life. Those 27 years--very disturbed, violent, addicted. My family was so disoriented. Literally, I never looked in the mirror. I never looked at myself. When I did, I only saw something ugly. Everything was dead ends. It was sometimes so unbearable that I desired not to live. And this is when I kneeled down hard on the floor and just cried out, "Please help me." When I asked God to help me and He did, it opened a new path.

And it was not a confused path. It was a path full of peace. But it led me to this Bible. And I opened it to that scripture that says, "Seek, and ye shall find." It talked about Jesus Christ. I was taken with His stories, the things that He suffered, and He had so much love for everyone. And now I'm learning about His sacrifice. Now I had this desire to be like Him. But I still don't have it all together. I wanted more. I started going to ministries around the New York area, the Bronx, anywhere I knew about a ministry. And I would feel this strength, this power--something guiding me, saying, "No, not this one." When I'd seen the missionaries, they brought out the Book of Mormon and they challenged me to read it. The greatest joy came when I started reading the Book of Mormon. And all that I had read in this Bible began to make sense to me. I started calling each one of my children, asking them to forgive me for the lives that they had lived because of my decisions. And I could hear their voices telling me, "It's OK, Mom." Then I realized what great things the Lord was doing with me. I wanted everything that I'd gone through for 27 years to stop. I really did not know how to do this on my own. And today I know that because of Jesus Christ, because of our Lord's Atonement, He heals. I am a living proof of this. I no longer avoid looking at myself in the mirror. Today I want everyone to see what the Lord has done with me.