People can change, and change for the better, said President Thomas S. Monson at the April 1987 general conference. Now first counselor in the First Presidency, he cited examples of several people whose lives turned out far from what was expected of them.
He spoke of Harry S. Truman who returned to his hometown of Independence, Mo., after he had served as president of the United States. One day, a young boy asked if the former chief executive had been popular when he was a boy. President Monson said that the former president answered: " 'Why no. I was never popular. The popular boys were the ones who were good at games and had big, tight fists. I was never like that. Without my glasses, I was blind as a bat and, to tell the truth, I was kind of a sissy.'"
President Monson said, "Our responsibility is to rise from mediocrity to competence, from failure to achievement. Our task is to become our best selves. One of God's greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final. In 1902, the poetry editor of the Atlantic Monthly returned a sheaf of poems to a 28-year-old poet with the curt note: 'Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.' The poet was Robert Frost. In 1894, the rhetoric teacher at Harrow in England wrote on a 16-year-old's report card, 'A conspicuous lack of success.' The 16-year-old was Winston Churchill."
President Monson said, "We know men and women can change — and change for the better. No more vivid example is recorded than the life of Saul of Tarsus. The sacred record reveals that Saul threatened the disciples of the Lord. Then came that light from heaven and the voice saying unto him: 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
" 'And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.'" (Acts 9:4-5.)
President Monson said that Saul's answer is a model for everyone. " 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' (v. 6.) Saul the persecutor became Paul the proselyter. Night had turned to day. Darkness had yielded to light. . . . Change for the better can come to all."
