Back from the conference

Daniel is back from his weekend in Salt Lake City and all things considered, the trip was a success. We had ordered a few boxes of the book to sell at the conference and most were sold over the weekend. We may end up breaking even on the costs of the trip. Daniel signed many copies and spoke with attendees about the book and our trips. Overall, he received many positive comments about it and we look forward to new fans of our work.

Some interesting ideas were presented from several Book of Mormon scholars and authors. Donald Parry pointed out how the Book of Mormon's version of Isaiah added back in examples of parallelism in Hebrew poetry that appear to have been lost in other versions. Stephen Carr compared several competing theories of Book of Mormon geography, all centered in Mesoamerica. Richard Hauck told about new excavations he has planned at a site that may be a better candidate for the City of Nephi than Kaminaljuyu. Diane Wirth spoke on the importance of genealogy to the ancient inhabitants of this region. Garth Norman's presentation dealt with the dimensions of sculpture and architecture of the New World and how it related to the Babylonian and Egyptian cubit. David Lee presented a detailed analysis of bearded images from Mesoamerica, organizing them by region and time period. The open forum at the end was insightful, when the speakers fielded questions from the audiences on topics ranging from horses to North American locations. Aside from manning the booth and selling books, Daniel tried to catch as much of the presentations as he could.

On Sunday evening, he gave a fireside at a private home in Sandy. 24 people attended to watch the presentation about our trips and research and to discuss what we had discovered along the way. Sales of the book are going well and we are finding many people who are interested in reading about our experiences.