Man Can Change Their Spots

"If you treat a man as he is he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be, and could be, he will be that bigger and better man.

During the past year I have watched one of society's outcasts, an ex-convict, rise from the depths of a prison cell to become a responsible citizen, a worthy Latter-day Saint. This man's life was changed because two of our missionaries brought him a message of hope and of salvation. He had thought because of his past all was lost and his chance had passed. But these two young elders brought him the gospel and a new way of life.

Unfortunately there are some in this world who continue to ignore or invalidate the principle of true repentance and say, "Once a thief, always a thief," or "Leopards don't change their spots." Need I remind you who say such things that we don't work with leopards; we work with men, and men change every day."

-Paul H. Dunn
Oct 1970