Over and over in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says to "say nothing but repentance to this generation."  (D&C 6:9, 11:9, 14:8, 19:21).  That has troubled me in the past.  If every church talk was about repentance I think that I might become bored and disinterested.  But the older I get, the more I become aware of the magnitude of the huge gift that Christ has given us in making our repentance possible.

It is huge.  My sins cut me off from the presence of God.  They stopped my progress.  They made me spiritually dead.

Did you realize that you're dead?  The Book of Mormon says so:  "For all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead..."  (Helaman 14:16).  From God's perspective an unrepentant person is dead, having been banned from God's presence.  It has to be so because no unclean thing can be in His presence.

Repentance and baptism and confirmation bring a person back into God's presence.  Following confirmation the repentant person has the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead.  He thereafter has daily guidance and protection and power to resist temptations.  God speaks to him through the Spirit.  That person becomes renewed.

As a 10-year-old boy I became disgusted with what a repulsive person I was.  I wanted to be a good boy, but I was a mass of disgusting habits.  I decided to change.  I knew nothing about religion, so the method that I chose was to write everything that I wanted to change on a piece of paper.  It was a long list.  It was a satisfying thing to look at that list of awful habits, and to know that I was through with them.  I didn't want anyone to know what a disgusting person I was, so when I'd finished my list of admissions, I hid it in the dark recesses of a secret cubbyhole in the attic.

It turned out that I had no power over my temptations.  Admitting my problems and resolving to never do them again wasn't enough.  Before 24 hours had passed, I'd broken every resolve.  My habits were steadfast and immovable, and fixed in place.

I did the only thing that I could do:  I burned the list.  I became a miserable, misguided teenager.  Like Joseph Smith, "I was left to all kinds of temptations...offensive in the sight of God."  As Joseph stated:  "In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins.  A disposition to commit such was never in my nature."  (Joseph Smith-History 1:28).

But that's where I stayed for the next nine years.  I had no power to be anything but miserable.  I think that is the common lot of unrepentant, unbaptized people.  I've been there, I've experienced it, and I never want to go there again.

Because of Adam's fall, men are partakers of misery.  (Moses 6:48).  Because the devil became miserable forever, he seeks the misery of all mankind.  (2 Nephi 2:18).  Ultimately we will either be happy forever or miserable forever.  It's our choice.  "He that is filthy shall be filthy still; and he that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still."  (Mormon 9:14).

The deciding factor is repentance.  The sins that we commit banish us from God' presence.  Every sin that we commit has to be paid for.  The grand secret is that every one of our sins has already been paid for by our Savior if we repent and covenant to keep His commandments.  This is a magnificent gift that every man, woman and child must seize and hold on to.

As a teenager I had no idea that repentance was possible, and I had not a clue how to go about changing anything.  Most of the world is in that position.  In my case I went on blundering my way through the world, and becoming more and more miserable as I went.  I finally reached rock bottom.  In desperation I cried out to God.  There was nowhere else to turn.  It was my first prayer.  I didn't know if God existed, but it was my last hope.  My prayer was like that of Lamoni's father.  He said, "O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee."  (Alma 22:18).  I poured out my heart.  I told Him all of my troubles.  I enumerated every sin.  I wanted to be clean.  I wanted to be rid of every bad habit.

That prayer went on for more than four hours.  I knew that I was being listened to, so I continued praying.  I opened my soul to the Lord.  A voice came into my mind.  It said, "Everything is going to be all right."

I was stunned.  I believed the message.  Two weeks later a Book of Mormon was placed in my hands.  I knew that when I began to read the book that something was going to happen.

What happened was more stunning than anything that I could have imagined.  Light came into my head.  I was introduced to Jesus Christ.  I came to know Him.  He showed me how to be rid of my sins once and for all.  He took them away.  I became happy.  I became clean.  I became useful.  I had made it back into God's presence.

The fruits of repentance are happiness, peace of mind, a clear conscience, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit.  A spin-off blessing is a makeover of one's countenance and demeanor.  The repentant person becomes full of light, which alters his very appearance.

Erin Anderson was a lost soul who showed up at church one Sunday.  He was just graduating from high school.  His hair was long and stringy.  He looked like a typical hippy.  We invited him home to dinner.  He liked the atmosphere of our home.  He came again and again.  He liked being surrounded by our little children.  He loved being able to converse with us about life and our religious viewpoints.  He was like a sponge.  He soaked it up.  He cut his hair.  He made the drive out from Baker many times a week, and was with us most every evening.  He stayed late.  As it would get later and later I could no longer keep my eyes open, so I'd go off to bed, leaving Marjorie to answer his questions.

Erin was baptized.  As soon as he could, he submitted his missionary application.  He was called to go to West Virginia.  I took him to the temple to receive his endowment.  It was my privilege to take him to Provo, and to put him into the Missionary Training Center.  He cried all the way to Boise because of the girlfriend that he was leaving, but the Lord had better plans for him.

He served a wonderful mission.  He came home and decided to pursue a higher education.  To make application to the university, he needed a copy of his high school transcript.  He went to Carmen Ott at the high school and requested it.  She asked his name.

"Erin Anderson," he said.

"You are not!" she said emphatically.  "I know Erin Anderson, and you are not Erin Anderson!"  She could not believe that handsome, shiny, smiley young man could possibly be the same person that she remembered.  That is what repentance and the gift of the Holy Ghost does to a person.

Erin is a high councilor in Utah.  His sweet and amazing wife was released from her calling as stake Young Women's president just a few weeks ago.

Repentance opens doors.  Repentance makes us clean.  Repentance is followed by happiness.  Repentance leads to joy.  The opportunity to repent is the greatest gift that we can receive in this life.  Praise to the Lord for making repentance possible.