How can we change?

In 2 Nephi 8:3 (which is also a chapter in Isaiah) we read, "For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord."

In Jesus the Christ I read about the parable of the Sower. I thought that Talmage had some interesting commentary about this. He said that some people have found this parable to be evidence of fatalism. But Talmage goes on to say, "He neither said nor intimated that the hard-baked soil of the wayside might not be plowed, harrowed, fertilized, and so be rendered productive; not that the stony impediment to growth might not be broken up and removed, or an increase of good soil be made by actual addition; nor that the thorns could never be uprooted, and their former habitat rendered fit to support good plants." (pg 285)

Maybe I should tell the story of the beginning of my reactivation into the church. I moved away from Utah to work at Disney world. I was happy to get away from my family, and the church. I thought that I would be ok with things outside of Utah. I moved into an apartment complex that can simply be explained as Babylon. There must have been a seed planted deep inside of me because I thought I'd be ok with Babylon, but I was not. I think that it was more of a weeding process with me then anything else. I decided that what was going on all around me was not right. (Isn't it funny how we can decide something we already knew?) I ended up calling my mother in tears one day asking if she could send me my scriptures. I definitely had a long way to go still, but that was the beginning of my reconversion.

So how do we change? How do we let the lord make our wilderness into Eden? What about those who are in the hard baked soil whom Talmage said (speaking of symbolism of the parable), "no seed can possibly strike root or grow"?

I'm expecting a lot of generic answers here, so please don't worry if they are generic. I would love to hear any stories related to changing. You can always do so anonymously if you feel more comfortable.