The Importance of What Becoming Truly Converted Means to a Mormon

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The Confessions of Saint Augustine tells of the events and life choices that Saint Augustine made through his life which eventually led him to converting to Christianity. This was not an easy or quick process for Saint Augustine, just as many members of the LDS church spend a great deal of time truly converting to the gospel. Saint Augustine’s conversion and also LDS members’ process of becoming truly converted, shares many similarities. Both involve trials, growing from those trials, an ongoing process, and a significant change. In order to understand the importance of what becoming truly converted means to a Mormon, there must be distinguishing factors between this and just being a convert to the Mormon Church.
One who is a “convert” is someone who is changing their ways in order to live the standards of the gospel and to be baptized into the church. As the word implies, conversion literally means, “the act or process of changing from one form, state, to another” (“conversion”). The Bible Dictionary, in the King James version, says that conversion, “denotes changing one’s views, in a conscience acceptance of the will of God.” It goes on to say, “Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing” (Bible Dictionary 650). Bonnie Oscarson, the LDS Young Women General President, said that, “true conversion is more than merely having a knowledge of the gospel principles and implies even more than just having a testimony of those principles. Being truly converted means we are acting upon what we believe and allowing it to create, ‘a mighty change in us, or our heart’” (“Be Ye Converted”). The difference between being converted and complete or true conversion could mean that the one is making the gospel of Jesus Christ an in...

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...r Faith.” Lds. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
October 2012. Web. 30 March 2014. .
Hales, Robert D. “Waiting upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done.” Lds. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 2011. Web. 30 March 2014. .
Samuelson, Cecil O. “What Does it Mean to Be Perfect.” Lds. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, Jan. 2006. Web. 1 April 2014. .
Scott, Richard G. “Full Conversion Brings Happiness.” Lds. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, April 2002. Web. 1 April 2014. < https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2002/04/full-conversion-brings-happiness?lang=eng>.

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