Daniel Johnson's Blog, page 6

Back from this year's BMAF conference

Daniel and Derek were at this year's Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum's annual conference. There were some great speakers this time and some very insightful information was shared. The conference was held at the Salt Lake Sheraton again, but this time the room was expanded for a larger audience. Daniel was the final speaker and his presentation on Hard Evidence for Horses in Ancient America was well received. The event was recorded, and video is being made available on the Internet. We will let you know if any of Daniel's talk will be uploaded.

The day before the conference, Daniel had a full schedule, meeting with LDS travel agencies, visiting the office of a new online bookstore, and being interviewed by Mills Crenshaw on his radio show, Drive Time Live. Among the callers was Carl, a self-professed atheist or ex-Mormon who was rather antagonistic toward any suggestion that there was any supporting evidence for the Book of Mormon. Daniel did his best to answer the barrage of accusations thrown his way, but did it make any difference? Probably not. Listen to the show and decide for yourself.

Click here to listen to Daniel on Drive Time Live with Mills Crenshaw.
Click here to watch a video of Kirk Magelby and Jack Welch's presentation.

What's in our books

We've had some questions lately about what is in the new book, An LDS Guide to the Yucatán. Is the information new? If you already have An LDS Guide to Mesoamerica, do you need the new one? Our answer is yes. The new book is about a completely different trip to Mexico, concentrating on sites just in the Yucatán Peninsula. It also has some good supplemental info. Here is a list of the sites covered: Ek Balam, Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Loltún Caves, Kabah, Xpujil, Calakmul, Becán, and Cobá

There are also chapters on traveling in Mexico, 2012 and the Maya calendar, a pronunciation guide and timeline specific to this area, and appendices with information on sites and studies we have done since this visit.

In addition to the chapters about why we look to Mesoamerica as likely Book of Mormon lands, historical similarities, a pronunciation guide and timeline specific to this area, and info on traveling in Guatemala and crossing its borders into neighboring countries, An LDS Guide to Mesoamerica contains chapters on these sites: Kaminaljuyú, Lake Atitlán, Yaxchilán, Bonampak, Palenque, Tikal, Yaxhá, Quiriguá, and Copán

Nothing has been duplicated; it's all new! Hopefully, this clears up any confusion.

Daniel scheduled to be a guest on a Utah radio show

On Friday 19 October, Daniel is scheduled to be an in-studio guest on Mills Crenshaw's radio show, Drive Time Live. The show airs at 3:00 pm Mountain Time on KTALK AM630 in Utah. This opportunity came about because the producer for the show heard and called in to speak with Daniel during his appearance on Mormon Miscellaneous in August.

He is looking forward to talking about the new book, his latest research, and the BMAF conference the next day. This will be his first time in a radio studio, so it should be an interesting experience.

Click here to see the schedule on Mills Crenshaw's blog.

Daniel speaks on Simply Spiritual Solutions

Recently, Daniel was contacted and asked to be the guest on an Internet radio show called Simply Spiritual Solutions. The host is Dr. Lisa Hurtt and she discusses spiritual and paranormal topics with her guests. There wasn't time to make a new post about it, because the request came with short notice, but Daniel is always eager to accept these opportunities, so he said yes. There wasn't much time to prepare, but he had a very enjoyable time talking with Dr. Hurtt about LDS doctrine and teachings concerning the pre-existence, the spirit world, and our purpose on earth. We are always surprised by the amount of interest that exists in what are really just basic doctrines of our church. More radio show hosts and producers have contacted Daniel to schedule him on future shows, so we will keep you informed when that happens. Even though the topics covered don't relate directly to our studies into Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon, Daniel is still more than happy to talk to anyone who will listen (as usual).

Click here to listen to an archive of the show.

An LDS Guide to the Yucatán is now available!

We are pleased to announce that our new book, An LDS Guide to the Yucatán, is now available for download as an e-book from Cedar Fort's website. It is a multi-page, fully formatted color PDF, so it can be read on most computers, tablets, and mobile devices. As you can see, Cedar Fort's designers have once again produced a beautiful cover, worthy of the exciting information contained inside.Those familiar with the beautiful images and informative graphics from our first book should easily recognize and appreciate our latest effort, which continues with the same look and format.

An LDS Guide to the Yucatán will soon be available directly for Kindle, Nook, and other formats. We will keep you informed as to when that happens. And for those of you who are already into digital books, An LDS Guide to Mesoamerica is now available for Kindle, directly from Amazon.com.

Click here to purchase An LDS Guide to the Yucatán from Cedar Fort.
Click here to purchase An LDS Guide to Mesoamerica for Kindle.

A busy October

There is a lot to announce this month. First is the Book of Mormon Annual Conference on the 20th. Daniel has been asked to be the final speaker. His topic will be Hard Evidence of Horses in Ancient America. Originally, he had planned on headlining a cruise to Book of Mormon lands this week, but that has been rescheduled for next year. However, for him speaking at the conference is almost as much fun.

As you can see, there are some great presenters this year (as usual). The keynote speaker is LDS author and scholar John Lund, so this will be a great event. Afterwards, Daniel and Derek are putting together a fireside at Derek's home in Bountiful.

Daniel is scheduled to be an in-studio guest for a Utah radio show on Friday the 19th, and there is news on the new book's availability. More to come soon.

Click here for more conference details and registration at the BMAF website.

Radio show archives are up

Daniel's spot as a guest on Mormon Miscellaneous is archived and available to listen or download. He had a good time answering questions from various callers that evening. Some unusual ideas were presented and some callers were very adamant about their positions. It just goes to show that many conflicting theories are out there among members of the Church. There is still a lot of opportunity to share the latest scholarship for discussion and comparison.

Click here to listen to the show.

Daniel on an LDS radio show this Sunday

Daniel has been in touch with Van Hale, host of the Mormon Miscellaneous Talk Show on K-TALK 630 AM and has been invited to be his guest this Sunday. The show airs 26 August at 5:00 pm, Mountain Standard time. It should be an interesting time as Daniel will be talking about our new book and a lot of the research that went into it. Also, expect somewhat of preview of the topic he will be sharing at this year's Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum' conference in October.

Be sure to tune in. If you are not in Utah, the show can be accessed from the station's website.





Click here to listen to K-TALK 630 AM on the Internet.

Some bad news and some good news

First, the bad: the tour with Cruise Lady this year has been cancelled. The ship was filling up and the lower rate was lost for this excursion. But Cruise Lady is still interested in having Daniel headline a cruise, so they have scheduled one for him next year in September. If you had wanted to go on this one but did not have the time now, start thinking about next year! It should be very fun and informative.

Also, the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum had invited Daniel to give a presentation at this year's conference. Initially, he had to turn it down because it conflicted with the cruise, but since he now has that time open and the BMAF still has a spot available, he will be speaking there this year. This will be a good time to let people know about An LDS Guide to the Yucatán, which should be ready and out by then. We have finished our initial layout and sent the files to our publisher, Cedar Fort. They are now working on proofing and editing the text. We are very excited to have completed this second book and look forward to getting the word out and talking to all those who are interested. Our contact at the publisher has some good ideas about promoting it, so stay tuned for more info.

New article about Cancuén

The Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum has published an article written by Daniel from our upcoming book. It is taken from from the chapter on the Guatemalan site of Cancuén. A full PDF can be downloaded from our blog, but the BMAF's site has a nice, condensed page where you can quickly get an overview of this interesting site.

Daniel has also been asked by the BMAF to give a presentation on horses in ancient America at their conference this fall. Stay tuned for more info.

Click here to read the Cancuén article at the BMAF's website.