Area Leadership Message
A Continuous Change of Heart
Let us think of the many great truths Heavenly Father made known unto his children since the Restoration of the gospel, especially the revelations received during the last several years.
I would like us to ponder for a moment on all the blessings related to these revelations. When thinking on these, don´t we feel gratitude and love for all the guidance we receive from our prophets in this last dispensation?
Have we all felt a change in our hearts due to these revelations?
The Savior is truly inspiring us to strengthen our faith in Him, make covenants and to stay on the path of discipleship.
The revelations we have received is a reminder to all of us to rise up, serve and minister in a higher and holier way.
As we focus on these revelations, repenting and becoming true ministers and instruments in the hands of the Lord become priority. As a consequence, by following our prophet and by applying these truths, we convert our homes in sanctuaries of faith and gospel learning centers1 where the Lord becomes our teacher.
I’m eternally thankful for those who ministered to and shared the restored gospel in a natural way with my wife when she was fourteen years of age. She accepted the invitation to follow Christ and was baptized in Málaga, Spain.
Having been ministered by her friends, who helped in her youth to draw closer to Christ, she learnt that ministering to others is part of our own process of repentance. It is how we turn our hearts to God and to his children. Some years after her baptism, she travelled all alone to the Bern Switzerland Temple to minister those on the other side of the veil. We then met each other in Zollikofen and this is also where we got sealed for time and eternity.
As a family we feel privileged having the opportunity to live in this exciting dispensation where we all together in our home strive to do better and to be better than we have done before.2
All of us, independent of our individual situation, married, single, divorced, widowed or finding ourselves in any kind of challenging circumstance, can repent and follow Christ. True repentance is focused on Christ and his redeeming power. It is something personal between Him and us.
As the Lord speaks to our prophet, He also speaks to us and heals us individually. He shows us the way and lightens our burdens if we listen to Him, if we turn to Him, if we follow Him and if we choose to repent.
As we do this and embrace the Atonement of Christ, we start to turn to the Lord with a more broken heart and contrite spirit. That means conversion. A repented soul is a converted soul, and a converted soul is a repented soul.3
Repentance is the Lord’s process for gaining spiritual growth and joy—the joy of redemption in Him.4 He wants us to change—to become less like the natural man5 and more like He is.6
Prayer, scripture study, family home evening and Come Follow Me are fundamental pillars in creating an environment that invites us to repent to and find durable joy and happiness.
These efforts open the gate of heaven to pour out personal revelation and the desire for daily repentance. We will not only choose to simply put a stop to a major sin as a single act, but also to begin a personal journey to a complete change of mind. Putting the Savior in the center of our lives, we start a process of changing our hearts. May the Lord bless us and help us, with the witness of the Holy Ghost, to find our personal confirmation to the Lord’s revelations given in these latter days and to repent and to follow Him.