THE ART OF CONVERSION

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THE ART OF CONVERSION

• Alma 5-7

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Jeffrey R. Holland

• No modern prophet has addressed this issue (of
  retention) more directly nor expected more from
  us in seeing that it happen. With a twinkle in
  his eye and a hand smacking the table in front of
  him, (Pres. Hinckley) said to the Twelve
  recently, "Brethren, when my life is finished and
  the final services are concluding, I am going to
  rise up as I go by, look each of you in the eye,
  and say, 'How are we doing on retention?' "

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• This subject brings us full circle, linking the
  kind of true, deep conversion the missionaries
  are striving to bring with the greater commitment
  and devotion being seen in wonderful members all
  over the Church

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• Redemptive Faith
• Preparatory Faith
• Natural Man

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Almas Problem

• Backsliding in the church- and how to stop it

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Alma 419

• Andhe did go forth among his people that he
  might preach the word of God unto them,
• 1)to stir them up in remembrance of their duty
• 2) that he might pull down, all the pride and
  craftiness and all the contentions which were
  among his people,
• seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it
  were in bearing down in pure testimony against
  them.

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Alma 56

• And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren
  (and Sistern!), you that belong to this church,
• have you sufficiently retained in
  remembrance the captivity of your fathers?

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Why are the Brethren so anxious to focus and
commit so much money to the History of the Church?
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Conversion

• 11 did not my father Alma believe in the words
  of Abinadi? Did he not speak the words of God,
  and my father Alma believe them?
• 12 And according to his faith there was a mighty
  change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto
  you that this is all true.

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Almas Challenge

• 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of
  the church,
• Have ye spiritually been born of God?
• Have ye received his image in your countenances?
  
• Have ye experienced this mighty change in your
  hearts?

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HOW DO WE KNOW?

• What does the mighty change look and feel like?

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(No Transcript)
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We Stay in the Boat!

• When we join The Church of Jesus Christ of
  Latter-day Saints, we board the Good Ship Zion
  and sail with her wherever she goes until she
  comes into that millennial port. We stay in the
  boat, through squalls and stills, through storms
  and sunburn, because that is the only way to the
  promised land. This Church is the Lord's vehicle
  for crucial doctrines, ordinances, covenants, and
  keys that are essential to exaltation, and
  one cannot be fully faithful to the
  gospel of Jesus Christ without striving to
  be faithful in the Church, which is its
  earthly institutional manifestation.
  (Elder Holland, April General Conference)

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Almas checklist

• 26 if ye have experienced a change of heart,
  and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming
  love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?
• 27 Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless
  before God? That your garments have been
  cleansed and made white through the blood of
  Christ, who will come to redeem his people from
  their sins?
• 28 Behold, are ye stripped of pride?
• 29 Behold, I say, is there one among you who is
  not stripped of envy? for such an one is not
  found guiltless.
• 30 And again I say unto you, is there one among
  you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that
  heapeth upon him persecutions?,

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Marion G. Romney

• I say, no one with the spirit of the Book of
  Mormon upon him can honestly answer to
  himself these soul-searching questions (in
  Alma, Chapter 5) without resolving to so live
  that he can answer them in the affirmative
  on that great day to which each of us shall
  come. (April Conference, 1970)

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Elder Holland

• I wish you could meet the marvelous young man who
  came to us from Bolivia, arriving with no
  matching clothing and shoes three sizes too large
  for him. He was a little older because he was the
  sole breadwinner in his home and it had taken
  some time to earn money for his mission. He
  raised chickens and sold the eggs door-to-door.
  Then, just as his call finally came, his widowed
  mother faced an emergency appendectomy. Our young
  friend gave every cent of the money he had earned
  for his mission to pay for his mother's surgery
  and postoperative care, then quietly rounded up
  what used clothing he could from friends and
  arrived at the MTC in Santiago on schedule. I can
  assure you that his clothes now match, his shoes
  now fit, and both he and his mother are safe and
  sound, temporally as well as spiritually.