FAIR

Sarah Allen

Sarah Nichole Allen

Sarah Allen

Senior Researcher • Latter-day Saint Apologist • Writer & Podcaster

Sarah Allen Sarah Allen (1980–2026) was a Latter-day Saint apologist and writer whose work focused on answering difficult questions about Church history, doctrine, and belief.

Read Sarah Allen's testimony ↓

Sarah Allen (1980–2026) was a Latter-day Saint apologist and writer known for her careful, accessible responses to criticisms of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A gifted communicator with a particular ability to make complicated issues understandable, Sarah wrote extensively about Church history, doctrine, scripture, and questions commonly encountered by Latter-day Saints experiencing challenges to their faith.

Sarah earned a degree in social work and worked in several fields before devoting herself full-time to creating faithful Latter-day Saint content. Her professional experience included editing legal documents and mortgage compliance, and she later contributed to both FAIR and Scripture Central.

Sarah became widely known for her detailed response to the CES Letter. She originally began posting her responses on the faithful Latter-day Saint subreddit r/lds, examining its arguments one at a time and providing historical context, sources, and faithful perspectives. FAIR subsequently invited her to publish the series on its website, where it became a 69-part response to the CES Letter. She also addressed claims found in Letter For My Wife and other critical sources.

Her apologetic work grew from a deeply personal concern for people wrestling with questions about their faith. After watching friends lose their testimonies, Sarah began studying difficult issues more intensively and sharing what she learned with others. In addition to her published writing and podcast appearances, she devoted significant personal time to answering questions, supporting missionaries, and helping individuals navigate concerns about the Church and its teachings.

In 2022, FAIR honored Sarah with the John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award in recognition of her contributions to Latter-day Saint apologetics.

Sarah was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a beloved member of the FAIR community. Colleagues and readers remembered her not only for her knowledge and courage, but for her kindness, humor, generosity, and unusual ability to meet people where they were. Sarah died unexpectedly on January 11, 2026, at the age of 45. Her extensive body of work continues to help readers seeking thoughtful, faithful answers to difficult questions.

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Contributions at FAIR

Testimony

Sarah’s personal testimony

“You already know it’s true.”

I have always had that feeling inside telling me that the Church is true. When I was a teenager, everybody was encouraging me to get my own testimony. I was trying to get an answer, and I wasn’t getting the same answer that I normally got. I was getting a little frustrated because it just didn’t clue into the fact that if I had received that answer a million times before, maybe that was my answer already.

Then a new family moved into our ward. When they were giving their introduction talks, the sister said that when she had been praying for her testimony, her answer was, “You already know it’s true.”

And I went, “Oh, light bulb. Yeah, I do already know it’s true.”

Finding answers with Heavenly Father

What I do when I come across something that I don’t fully understand is I ask Heavenly Father for understanding so that I can see why it happened the way that it happened. Usually He tells me. Sometimes it takes a couple of months of earnest questioning and earnest seeking and studying, but He always points me eventually in the right direction.

The act of diving in and reading Church history, studying Church history, studying the words of the prophets, studying the scriptures, and trying to tie it all together strengthened my testimony so much. It wasn’t even very shaky before—it was pretty solid—but that was a huge testimony builder for me.

When I have questions, I do my own studying and I look at things from different sides, but I always lean on Heavenly Father, too. I always keep Him in the loop. I tell Him what I am questioning and what I’m struggling with, and He always points me to sources that help.

Sometimes it takes a while. Sometimes the answers don’t come right away. But He always points me to something that eventually helps me understand things or helps me feel at peace about them, even if I don’t fully understand them. He always eventually helps me resolve them in a way that I can deal with them and move on.

“I do know that this Church is true.”

I do know that this Church is true. I love this Church, and Heavenly Father will answer your questions if you give Him enough time and you put in some of the work yourself to find them.

He will absolutely help.

—Sarah Allen, interviewed on the Come Back Podcast

Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 3: The Early Church – The First Vision [B]

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There are different accounts of the First Vision. That surprises some people, which always surprises me in turn. Who tells a momentous, notable story only one time in their life? Additionally, some people are troubled that the different accounts don’t match up exactly, word for word, each time they’re told. But when someone tells the same stories and same jokes in exactly the same way every single time, what does that tell you? That they’re rehearsed. And that can often have a negative connotation. Even the Department of Justice website advises not to memorize your testimony for court because it sounds unconvincing and insincere. [Read more…] about Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 3: The Early Church – The First Vision [B]

Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 2: The Early Church – The First Vision [A]

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Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about the First Vision. Faulk goes on about this issue for the next 9 pages of the LFMW, so we’re all going to get very familiar with the various accounts.

I have a deep fondness for the First Vision. When I was a young child in Primary, learning the words to “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” was one of the very first times I can ever remember feeling the Spirit. I was so young at the time I didn’t understand what the feeling was or what it meant. I remembered it, though. It became one of the central pillars of my testimony from the day I was old enough to understand what the Spirit had been teaching me. My dad grew up inactive in the Church, and it was the account in the Pearl of Great Price that gave him his testimony. And when I was a teenager, it was the First Vision that I felt prompted to share with my good friend that led her to investigate the Church and eventually get baptized. So, when I say that the First Vision is important to me on a personal level, I do mean that.

This section begins with even more quotes. The first is from President Hinckley: [Read more…] about Letter For My Wife Rebuttal, Part 2: The Early Church – The First Vision [A]