An LDS Guide to Mesoamerica: January 2010

About Us

DANIEL JOHNSON has had a lifelong interest in ancient cultures, especially from the Americas. His first trip to Mesoamerica was in 1999. Since then he has led friends on excursions to Central America and has given firesides about traveling there. He served a mission in the Buenos Aires North and Mendoza Argentina missions. He works as an assistant professor at the University of North Georgia.

JARED COOPER has been fascinated with the history of Mesoamerica all his life. He served a mission in the New York Utica Mission. He works as a finance specialist at Fireman's Fund.

DEREK GASSER has had a lifelong love of traveling and photography. He has traveled to over 60 countries and spent time volunteering in hospitals in both Africa and Asia. He served a mission in the Philippines Cebu Mission. He works in hospital administration and construction.

04 January 2010

Catching up in the new year and a new online article

It has been a while since we have made any posts, so it's time to get caught up. Daniel and Derek attended the Book of Mormon Archaeological Forum annual conference last October, which was well attended. There were some well-known speakers who shared some great information. Daniel also did some book signings and firesides. He also put on a fireside in Spanish that was very well attended and enjoyed. Some of the other events did not bring in so many numbers, but stormy weather and the Swine Flu may have kept people away.

Early in December, Daniel was asked to speak at a Spanish fireside in Sacramento. It was put on by the Sacramento Mission and was a very large event with several hundred people attending. Daniel was the concluding speaker, but he had to cut the presentation short, as everything was running late. Still there was a lot of interest and many attendees came up to ask questions and discuss things further. We are trying to put together a fireside and possibly other events in Sacramento this month, so stay tuned!

Our book is now available on a new site: SimplieIndie.com, dedicated to promoting independent authors and musicians. It can be purchased there. Daniel is now among the authors on Goodreads.com. You can read reviews of the book and get the latest on what is going on with events. If you have read our book and have something good to say about it, please visit this site or Amazon.com to post a review. It's quick and free. If you liked the book, we need to get the word out. According to our publisher, over 1000 have been sold, but we would like to get that number up.

Daniel has also written a new paper examining possible Mesoamerican origins for some Book of Mormon names. Obviously, the early names were of Semitic or Hebrew origin, but the longer Nephites, Lamanites, and others lived in the New World, they may have begun using local names. Read the article to see how some names may have looked, written with Mayan glyphs. The BMAF has published it on their site and we have gotten some positive comments on it.