Keith Brown: Conversion Story

I actually started investigating the church back in the early 80’s. What happened is, I actually was watching some television commercials and one of the commercials talked about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and about the Book of Mormon. And being a lover of books, I decided, well I might as well go ahead and order a copy of this book; it might make a great addition for my library. So I sent away and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon.

The only thing is, they never really told me one little small thing and that was that two young men in suits were coming to deliver that book in person. So, one day I get a knock on the door, here are these two young guys and they said that they’re representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they had my copy of the Book of Mormon. They actually came back on several occasions and we talked about quite a few things – a lot of things that I found to be interesting and we talked.

I basically told them eventually that, even though I was interested in what they were teaching me and I appreciate their time and everything, I had decided to leave home and join the military. So I went into the military and one day, while on station in San Diego, I came across a book store and being a lover of books, I went inside to take a look around, not realizing it was a LDS bookstore. But that didn’t take too long to figure out.

And I bought some things there. One of the things I bought was a set of conference tapes. I bought another copy of the Book of Mormon and I also bought a book that was entitled “In the Lord’s due time”. What’s so interesting about that book is that, I did not realize that at the time, but it was that that book was actually written by a black brother of the church and he, the person who wrote the book was Joseph Freeman, who actually was the first black to receive the priesthood after the 1978 revelation.

In my mind I was going: first of all, what is the priesthood and what is the revelation? What does all that mean? I went back to my ship and I actually listened to the conference tapes, I read the Book of Mormon, read brother Freeman’s book but I decided once again, I’ll just tuck those neatly away and I’ll get back to those someday.

It wasn’t really until the Lord sent me, years later, down the line. He sent me to Kflavik, Iceland of all places in the world. And when I was there one day in my room, I was doing a search of the Mormon Church and I decided that I was going to ask for a subscription to the church news, just to see what was going on in the church at that time. Much to my surprize, I get an email back from one of the editors of the church news. He asked me, first of all: What are you doing in Iceland? And second: What is your interest in the Mormon Church?

And I told him that I just want to know what the church is doing at this time in Iceland because I’m stationed here with the United States Navy. He said “Well that sounds great! Now, don’t get upset with me, but I’ve contacted missionaries on your behalf”. And thinking to myself that since I’m on a secure naval base, that they would never find me. I agreed to allow him and go ahead and contact the missionaries and let them try to find me. Much to my surprize, I did get a phone call and that phone call was from the missionaries. And to make a long story short, I met with those missionaries for over a year before I finally made the decision of the baptizing.

One of my requirements, before I became baptized, I told the missionaries I would not be baptized until I had the Book of Mormon in its entirety. And anyway, I did that. I was inspired to develop a 40 day reading plan and so, for 40 straight days I read all 3 of those and then called the missionaries and invite them over. And on March the 10th, 1998 I was baptized and the rest is history.

I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are both the book of God. I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ is our saviour and that he loves each and every one of us. He loves each and every one of us so much that 2000 years ago he willingly gave his life and he became since the final sacrifice. He paid a debt that he did not owe and a debt that none of us could ever pay. He is my Lord, he is my saviour, he is my King and I bare that testimony in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.