About Me

Hi, I’m Ally and I am the creator of Silently Surviving Souls.

I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2012 while I was serving in the Texas McAllen Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I came home after serving for 11 months (the length that you are called to serve is 18 months) because it became more than I could handle as a missionary. I felt alone and a little bit alienated because I came home earlier than planned. But one thing that really helped me was being able to relate to others who had also come early or who also had a mental illness. I felt solace and comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone.

That eventually led to the creation of Silently Surviving Souls, where I share stories about mental illness, infertility, loss, divorce, inter-faith marriage, and addiction. I share these stories for multiple reasons, some of them being:
1) We are all silently surviving through something, and I prefer this word instead of suffering or struggling because we are literally trying to just survive our trials sometimes. Survival mode is real when you suffer from mental illness or when you’re going through a divorce or when you had to bury a child.
2) I want others to know they’re not alone in their trials. Yes, our challenges and struggles are unique to us and are given to us specifically but there are aspects which others who are going through something similar can relate to, and it is nice to find those people that you share those commonalities with and gain strength from them.
3) I want others to know that it’s ok to struggle and have a hard time. Sometimes I get this vibe that if you’re not happy all the time then you’re doing something wrong and that is not the case. You literally cannot always choose to be happy. Our trials can be downright hard and instead of acting like we have it all together or that our lives are perfect we should take them for what they are and feel what they make us feel while also learning from them and trying to do and be better because of what they put us through.

I became a board member of Mission Fortify in April of 2018 and served until it disassembled in July of 2019. Mission Fortify was a non-profit organization that focused on helping pre-missionaries, early returned missionaries, and returned missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ.

I was born and raised in Utah. I am married to a wonderful, hard-working man who is currently attending Texas Tech for an MD/MBA degree. We have three beautiful daughters that keep me busy and make my world go round. I graduated from Weber State University with a degree in Athletic Therapy. My love for Mexican food grew to a new level from serving in McAllen, and it’s where I learned how to speak Spanish AKA “Tex-Mex”. I love playing sports, especially soccer. I will never say no to a chocolate chip cookie. I enjoy being outdoors – I grew up camping, boating, and snowmobiling. Sewing, baking cakes, and photography are a few of my hobbies. I am a HIGH Fitness instructor and love sharing my passion for it. I like watching movies, preferably a comedy, action, or Disney. My husband and I are huge Utah Jazz fans. I can sing almost every Celine Dion song word for word. I am a lover of bright, colorful socks and will rarely be found barefoot.

If you’d like to share your story you can send me a message via the Contact tab. Thank you for stopping by!