What Heavenly Father Taught Me about Changing Hearts

I looked down, tears filling my eyes. Yannick (name has been changed) had just spoken with finality: “I can’t forgive them. I can’t let go of this hurt. My heart is too hard.” Although I understood his French perfectly, I couldn’t understand his feelings.

Ten years earlier, Yannick had joined the Church despite opposition from his large family. He’d had the courage to go on a mission and looked forward to a life-changing experience through dedicating two years to the Lord. Little did he know just how life changing it would be. Only a few months after departing for his mission, Yannick was back home. The target of painful, untrue rumors from disobedient companions, he was received home by members who took the rumors for truth. Yannick felt like nobody wanted him at church. He decided not to go back.

Fast-forwarding 10 years, Yannick decided it was time to let go of his hurt and anger. He sought out the missionaries in his area—my companion and me. We’d been visiting Yannick for several weeks, sharing spiritual messages and reviewing gospel principles while we sat in the shade of his mango trees. Yannick had never stopped studying the scriptures or learning about the gospel. He’d never lost his testimony of the Church, but the shame he experienced after his mission kept him from enjoying the blessings of the gospel. I felt that I’d been sent to his area for a reason, maybe to help him realize these blessings once again.

I thought we’d been making progress, but after hearing what he said about not being able to forgive, I quickly realized we still had a long way to go.

I hung my head, wondering what to say. Yannick’s words rang in my ears: “My heart is too hard.” My companion looked as speechless as I felt. I looked at the Bible in my lap, silently resenting it for being in French. After nine months in the mission field, I still wasn’t very good at understanding scriptures in the French Bible. I said a prayer in my heart, begging to know what I could say to this man who felt his heart was beyond healing.

The answer, “Ezekiel chapter 36,” came to my mind.

I racked my brain, trying to remember if I’d memorized any scriptures in Ezekiel. I hadn’t.

“Ezekiel chapter 36.” The answer came again, echoing in my mind.

I opened my Bible and flipped to Ezekiel 36. My eyes scanned the page; I didn’t see anything. Why couldn’t it have been in English? What did Heavenly Father want me to look for? I continued anyway.

“Yannick, there’s a scripture in the Bible that I’d like to share with you. It’s in Ezekiel chapter 36 …”

I had no idea what to say next, but as I looked down again at the page, my eyes landed on the right spot: “… verse 26.”

I read, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

I was no longer the only one with tears in my eyes. Yannick looked at me with an expression of wonder on his face.

“Yannick, this means your heart can change. Heavenly Father can give you a new heart.”

He choked on his reply. “How? Tell me what I need to do.”

Suddenly, a man who’d been ready to give up was now willing to believe he could change. Yannick heard the Lord’s promise within that scripture, telling him that he could let go of the bitterness in his heart and forgive those who had wronged him.

Over the following months, Yannick’s heart did change, little by little. He worked to forgive those who had hurt him and was able to let go of a lot of bitterness and anger. Trusting in Heavenly Father, he came to understand more about the Savior’s role in healing and changing hearts. After more than 10 years, Yannick began attending church again, accepted a calling, and went back to the temple. He accepted a heartfelt invitation to return to the table of the Lord and was finally able to enjoy all the blessings of the gospel.

Although it was Yannick who learned firsthand about hearts changing, I learned invaluable lessons for myself. I learned that Heavenly Father fulfills His promise that His missionaries might be able to “speak the thoughts that [He] shall put into [their] hearts. … For it shall be given … in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what [they] shall say” (Doctrine and Covenants 100:5–6). Heavenly Father loves His missionaries, as well as those they teach, so much so that He inspired a missionary with the very scripture one of His sons needed to not give up on eternal blessings.

I also learned that Heavenly Father wants to communicate with us and can do so through the Holy Ghost and scriptures.

Most importantly, I know that even the hardest hearts can be changed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ—Yannick is a living testimony of that.