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5 steps of conversion (Christofferson)


“Do you want conversion for yourself? I can tell you how that can happen, but it must be something you want. The gospel cannot be written in your heart unless your heart is open. But if your heart is open and willing, like the heart of a child (see Matthew 18:3–4), let me tell you what you can do to be converted.
  1. Lay aside any feeling of pride that is so common in the world today. By this I mean the attitude that rejects the authority of God to rule in our lives. Willingly submitting to God’s authority is the first step in conversion.
  2. Know the gospel and grow to understand it more fully. That means you will study it. When I say ‘study,’ I mean something more than reading. For conversion, you should care more about the amount of time you spend in the scriptures than about the amount you read in that time.
  3. Pray about everything in your life. Your Heavenly Father wants you to pray about your hopes and fears, your friends and family, your school and work, and the needs of those around you. Most of all, you should pray to be filled with the love of Christ (see Moroni 7:48).
  4. Serve others. Jesus said that He came to serve, not to be served (see Mark 10:45). So it must be with you. You must look outward and care about others.
  5. Offer the Lord the gift of your broken, or repentant, heart and your contrite, or obedient, spirit. In reality, it is the gift of yourself—what you are and what you are becoming.
“Plead with God in the name of Christ to write the gospel in your mind that you may have understanding and in your heart that you may love to do His will.”
-Adapted from Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “When Thou Art Converted,” Ensign, May 2004, 11–13; quoted in New Era, Feb. 2013, 30
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