My Conversion Experience by Steve Crawford

I pray that everyone might have the opportunity to turn their lives around as I have had. I can't say exactly what prompted me to start reading the Bible, for the first time, in September of 1997. The book" Final Warning, The Economic Collapse and The Coming World Government", by Grant Jeffries, probably had a great deal to do with it. In his book, his explanation of the Biblical book of Revelations caused me to want to understand the final chapters of the Bible.

But, it wasn't until a talk radio station, KCXL, had a guest speaker, talking about her book concerning new age Bible versions, exposing the distortion and wording of the Bible, that I began to develop some real interest. I went to a Christian used bookstore to find an older King James Version, thinking something from the 1950's couldn't be to bad. I also purchased some other interpretations on Revelations. I read these, and the final chapter in the King James Version, and didn't really understand much more than when I started.

On the KCXL radio station, one of the talk show hosts is a man named Richard Boyden. He kept talking about the "Inspired Version" of the Bible. Wanting to know more about this Inspired Version, I went to the KCXL bookstore to purchase one, and before I left, this man gave me a copy of Roy Weldon's book "Other Sheep" and a Book of Mormon.

I had some apprehensions about the Book of Mormon, and I suppose experienced the same feelings all people do who tend to avoid that book. They listen to the wrong spirit, the same spirit which keeps people from doing missionary work, or helping the poor and needy, or anything that promotes the Lord's work. It is that same spirit that discourages us from getting to know Native American people.

I decided to read Genesis in the Inspired Version, the King James and the New American Bible which the Catholic church gave me when I was baptized into that faith in 1991. I read Genesis in all three versions, verse by verse, and was astonished at the differences between them. It was obvious that the Catholic and King James versions had been tampered with. The Inspired Version makes understandable what the others leave open to speculation and misinterpretation thru the errors in them.

I thank God for Richard Boyden and his efforts or I would still be lost, and in the world. I found myself having many questions, and each time Richard would suggest reading certain scriptures. I was about half way through the two books, the Book of Mormon and Other Sheep, when I began to see how true the Book of Mormon really was.

I recall telephoning Richard at the bookstore one evening, asking him a question. "Read Isaiah 29", he said. I read it in the King James version first, and it didn't make sense. I turned to the Inspired Version, and as I began reading I could envision what had just happened to me. I could see Richard telling me about the book, I saw the book being placed in my hands, that book which had come from out of the ground. My mind understood it completely. I began to be filled with this undescribable Joy and with the assurance that it was true. I also felt a pressure on my chest. It was like the weight of a small child pushing on me. This pressure on the bosom experience lasted about twenty minutes, convincing me of the truth of both the Book of Mormon and the Inspired Version of the Bible. I remember calling Richard back, describing my experience and he said an Indian he knew had had the same experience. I called another friend, told him of the experience, and still to this day he doesn't understand it.

This happened in November 1997, and by Christmas, I came to what I believe is true repentance, and a desire to reclaim my life. Giving up the old, and never going back. My Catholic friends don't recognize me much anymore, I have changed so much. I don't have the same interests, and possessions don't mean much anymore.

In reading the Book of Mormon the second time, I discovered or perhaps came to understand, that we are to take this sacred record back to the Native Americans. I had previously read over half of Walter Weldon's book" The Purpose of the Book of Mormon", but it hadn't impressed on me nearly as much that we needed to return the book to the Native Americans.

Several months later, I found myself setting in an IMCA meeting and the Great Spirit impressed on me that I was exactly where He wanted me to be. After singing from the Hymnal, and looking across the hogan, I felt I had been there before, everything was just as I had seen it before, I found myself looking thru different eyes, spiritual eyes. I felt I had truly been converted, and was now on the right path to the Creator.