Total conversion brings a new heart, a new person
E-mail story
It's easy. Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we'll send it along.
Your name and e-mail address are transmitted to the recipient. Otherwise, it is considered private information; see Privacy policy.
Conversion does not typically come all at once. Instead, it comes in stages until a person becomes, at heart, a new person, said Elder Dale E. Miller of the Seventy in the Saturday morning session of conference.
The Book of Mormon is filled with conversion stories. Enos realized conversion and repentance after a day and night of continuous prayer. Alma the Younger, recounting his conversion, spoke of the Atonement that provided an escape from eternal pain and guilt.
"Alma found his soul healed through the knowledge that Jesus would come and take away all his sins," Elder Miller said. "As his soul became healed, he found peace within himself."
Alma taught his son Helaman a pattern of lasting peace and joy by teaching him about the Atonement and eternal life. It is a pattern for all fathers in our day. Elder Miller pointed to several instructive points found in Alma's conversion.
1. Alma had a "vivid awareness and remorse" for his sins.
2. Alma remembered the promise of Atonement through Jesus Christ for sin.
3. Alma pleaded in supplication for his soul.
4. Alma experienced the miracle of the Atonement "to the degree that he could neither remember the pains from his sins nor feel guilt. The healing of his soul was a complete, cleansing experience, both to the mind and the heart. Joy replaced bitterness."
The Lord is willing to do for each person what he did for Alma.
"The blessings and promises of conversion are received by covenant through baptism and confirmation and all the priesthood and temple ordinances," Elder Miller said. "Then by continued repentance and obedience and faithful keeping of the covenants made, the fruits of conversion grow and develop in one's life."
Members can know they are converted through the joyful assurance of the Holy Ghost.
"It is through this total conversion experience that we truly come to personally know and feel the character and greatness of God. It is the means whereby we become not only servants of the Lord, but His friends as well," Elder Miller said.
Knowing God and becoming His friend come with the conversion process. "It is available to all who will repent and obey the commandments. This conversion is an intimate and intensely personal experience. It is about relationships. It involves awakening the Spirit of Christ, which is in all men and women," Elder Miller said.
