All posts by Celeste Lambson

Time On My Mind

Spirituality
Waking up like any physicist thinking x(t) = x₀ + y₀t + ½Dt² + ε(t)

Why did I wake up this morning with this equation in my head?

Some memories have a way of resurfacing unexpectedly. This morning, I woke up thinking about an equation I taught for many years—one that represents some remarkably elegant mathematics. It may not be 250 years old, but it’s been around long enough to earn its place in the history of timekeeping.

Warning: Math ahead!

You can think of this equation in very simple terms:

Synchronized clocks
  1. Two clocks are synchronized if they display the same time.
  2. Two clocks are syntonized if they run at the same rate, or frequency–same tone. The difference in their time readings will remain constant.
  3. In reality, every clock experiences frequency drift, D.

As I often taught in our Time and Frequency seminars, every clock is wrong. The only clock that is “right” is the one we define to be right when generating official time—a responsibility I had for much of my 32 years at the laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. I also taught this equation to Air Force personnel as they learned to use atomic clocks in the development of GPS.

Since every clock is wrong, the question becomes: How wrong is it?

We can describe a clock’s synchronization error as x₀ and its syntonization (frequency) error as y₀. The time error of any clock can then be written as:

x(t) = x₀ + y₀t + ½Dt² + ε(t)

The final term, ε(t), represents the long-term random variations found in all clocks due to flicker-noise frequency modulation (FM). Together, these four terms account for both the systematic and random variations that determine a clock’s behavior over time.

This equation transported me back to my first days at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, in 1960—before digital computers were available. At that time, high-quality quartz-crystal oscillators were the finest timekeeping devices in existence. This equation provided a remarkably accurate mathematical model of their performance.

Using an analog computer, we were able to model the behavior of one of these quartz-crystal oscillators, which served as part of our national timekeeping system before atomic clocks became available.

What came vividly back to me this morning was a device we designed and built to automatically remove all of the systematic terms in the equation while optimally predicting time into the future in the presence of flicker-noise FM. For a period of time, it effectively kept the nation’s time, calibrated by the primary NBS cesium-beam frequency standard and later by commercial cesium-beam atomic clocks as they became available.

I still regret that we never took a photograph of it.

I built the instrument with a Plexiglas front panel so you could watch the mechanism at work. Inside were gears that drove a phase shifter, two ball-disk integrators, and two differentials—similar in principle to the differential in an automobile—that combined signals mechanically. The two integrators continuously corrected for both the oscillator’s frequency offset and its frequency drift, allowing the analog output of to perform much like an atomic clock.

For anyone interested in the technical details, they are described in this paper from NIST:

https://tf.nist.gov/general/pdf/180.pdf .

Smart Clock Patent

In 1992 we turned this equation around and showed how every clock could be made to read the correct time. I used the data from a wrist watch as an example in the patent. My current wrist watch operates this way. Each night it listens to the standard radio broadcast from WWVB, which is synchronized with the correct time in Boulder at NIST/NBS. Then using this equation it predicts time forward to the next night’s signal reception. So my wrist watch always has the correct time to within a fraction of a second.

GPS Signal Degradation Removal

Also back in 1992 GPS had two signals, L1 and L2. L2 was free to be used by the civilian community. L1 and L2 were used by the military to get the best time and position accuracy. At that time L2 was purposely degraded to the level of about a hundred nanoseconds to prevent civilians from approaching military accuracy. I figured away to remove that degradation for precision timing purposes. Hewlett Packard hired me as a consultant and with the SMART CLOCK patent, I designed a special GPS receiver to synchronize cell towers. I was pleased that the final product worked better than my design simulations and HP sold these across the world.

THE SCIENCE OF TIMEKEEPING

I consulted for HP from 1993 until 1997. They also asked me to write an application note for their user community, “The Science of Timekeeping.” I asked Professor Neil Ashby, who we had contracted with to do the relativity needed for the GPS atomic clocks, to help, along with Cliff Hodge from the NPL in England and a space clock expert. The 88-page application note came together well and has a lot of interesting information not generally known.

For example Figure 12 is a chart of the timekeeping errors of everything from egg-timers to atomic clocks and including official time, UTC. It includes the instabilities of the spin rate of the earth as well as the time error associated with measuring how long it takes for the earth to go around the sun. The application note became quite popular and is available on my website: www.AllansTIME.com and on line as well: an1289.pdf.

GPS ADVANCED COMMON VIEW RECEIVER

While consulting for HP I asked Dr. Robin Giffard if he would help me design and build a BPS Advanced Common-view receiver with the goal of removing all the systematic errors and being just left with the measurement noise. Robin did a super job and we had one receiver at HP Palo Alto, CA, and the other at USNO in Washington D. C. to gather data and test them. The results are shared in Figure 14 of the application note. We achieved our goal of effectively removing the systematics and ended up with a time-error measurement noise of 6 nanoseconds improving as tau^(-1/2). Such that for an averaging time of a month we were able to compare frequency standards to seventeen significant digits.

The GPS Advance Common-view receiver has never been replicated. Robin died while jogging of an aneurism, and my wife and I had saved enough money to go on a mission for our church to West Africa, Cote d’ Ivoire.

THE LAND OF THE FREE

Happy 4th of July USA! May freedom continue to ring throughout our great nation, and may the gospel liberty we enjoy here be magnified during our next millennial epoch. God bless America! We are so grateful for those who gave us our inspired Declaration of Independence, US Constitution and Bill of Rights and for the restoration of the fullness of the gospel to be shared with the world to bring as many as will to Christ. His inspiration in my career path has been my main stay. THANK YOU, LORD.

David W. Allan

Are We Awake?

End Times, Lectures, , , , ,
Solzhenitsyn – Decline of the West

Are we Awake?

The following is a brilliant historic perspective for today appreciated by almost no one; Solzhenitsyn tells us why. 

Ignat Solzhenitsyn gave his talk at the 2026 ARC (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) Conference in London, which took place from June 23 to June 25, 2026. Our son, Nathan, sent us this link.

Son of a Samuel the Lamanite prophet?

His speech, titled “He Predicted the Collapse of the West in 1978 (and Nobody Listened),” focused on reflecting on his father Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn‘s historic address and warning on Western civilization.

I was so impressed with his talk that I transcribed it (25 June 2026). In 1978 Jimmy Carter was President.

The West has been a Model.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Prophet like Samuel the Lamanite?

It is almost universally recognized that the West shows all the world the way to successful economic development, even if undermined recently by chaotic inflation.

Now the West is moving toward Socialism

However many people living in the West are dissatisfied with their society, deride it or accuse it of no longer being up to the level of maturity attained by mankind. And this causes many to sway toward the false and dangerous current of socialism. I hope that no one present will suspect me of expressing my partial criticism of the Western system in order to suggest socialism as an alternative.

Socialism Destroys the Need for God

Socialism of any style and hue leads to a comprehensive destruction of the spiritual essence of man into a leveling of mankind unto death. But should I be asked instead whether I would propose the West such as it is today as a model for my country for Russia I would have to answer frankly no I could not recommend your society as an ideal for the transformation of ours–given the fecund [fruitful] spiritual development already experienced by our country through profound suffering during the 20th century, the Western system in its present state of spiritual exhaustion does not appear enticing. If our society were to be transformed into yours it would mean an improvement in certain aspects but a deterioration in others, some of them especially precious. After suffering decades of oppressive violence the human soul longs for something higher, warmer and purer than what is offered by today’s mass western lifestyle introduced to us by a calling card by the revolting assault of advertising by television stupor and by intolerable music.

What Caused the Decline in the West and Removing God?

How did the West decline from its triumphal march to its present debility? Have there been fatal turning points in its development has it veered off course? No, it does not seem so. The West kept advancing ever forward in accordance with its proclaimed course hand in hand with dazzling technological progress and suddenly it found itself in its present state of weakness. It remains then to search for a fault at the root at the very foundation of thought of the modern age. I refer to that prevailing Western world view that was born in the Renaissance and has found political expression since the Age of Enlightenment. It became the basis for all political and social doctrine and could be called rationalistic humanism or humanistic autonomy the proclaimed and practiced autonomy of man from any higher force above him. It could also be called anthropocentrism, the idea of man as the center of existence. The turn affected by the Renaissance was probably inevitable historically. The Middle Ages had come to a natural end by exhaustion having become intolerable through their despotic repression of man’s physical nature in favor of his spiritual one. But our ensuing headlong dash from the Spirit toward matter was itself excessive and in commensurate.

Making the World believe there is no devil.

The humanistic way of thinking which had proclaimed itself our guide did not admit the existence of intrinsic evil in man nor any task higher than the quest for earthly happiness. And it fashioned the dangerous tilt toward the worship of man and his material needs into the basis of modern Western civilization. Everything beyond physical well being and the accumulation of material goods, all

other human requirements and characteristics of a subtler and higher nature were left outside the attention of state and social systems as if human life had no higher purpose. Thus breaches were left open for evil and its drafts blow freely today.

Freedom does not solve the Problem unless we include God

Mere freedom per se does not in the least solve all the problems of human existence and in fact poses a number of new ones. And yet in early democracies as in American democracy at the time of its birth all individual rights were recognized on the premise that man is God’s creature that is freedom was given to the individual conditionally under the assumption of his continuous religious responsibility such was the heritage of the preceding millennium just 200 or even 50 years ago. It would have seemed impossible in the West that an individual be granted unbridled freedom with no purpose simply for the satisfaction of his cravings. Subsequently however all such limitations have eroded throughout the West and there has come to pass a final emancipation from the moral heritage of Christian centuries with their great reserves of mercy and sacrifice.

Materialism: The True Cost

Materialism has become god.

State systems have become ever more consummately materialistic. The West has finally achieved the rights of man even to excess but man’s sense of accountability to God into society has grown utterly faint. In recent decades the legalistic egoism of the Western worldview has reached its peak and the world has found itself in a severe spiritual crisis and a political impasse and all the technological achievements of our fabled progress including the conquest of outer space cannot redeem the 20th century’s moral poverty which no one could have imagined as recently as the 19th century. Yet another catastrophe is already very much with us. The catastrophe of an autonomous irreligious humanistic consciousness. It has made man the measure of all things on earth, an imperfect man who has never been free of pride, self-interest, envy, vanity and dozens of other vices. Thus the errors misperceived at the beginning of the journey now take their revenge.

Materialism has robbed many of their spiritual inner life.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

That journey since the Renaissance has enriched our experience but we have forsaken something whole, something supreme, which once delimited both our passions and our irresponsibility. We threw all our hopes into political and social reforms only to find that we were being robbed of our most precious possession: our inner life. It is being stamped out by the party mob in the east by the commercial one in the West. This is the fearsome essence of the crisis not just that the world is split apart but that its major shards are stricken with a common melody. If as claimed by humanism Men were born only to be happy He would not also be born to die. Since his body is doomed to death his task on earth must evidently be more spiritual not to gorge on everyday life, not to search for the best ways of obtaining material goods and then to consume them eagerly.

What is our Moral Responsibility?

But to bear perpetual earnest duty so that one’s entire life journey may become above all an experience of moral ascent to leave life a better human being than one started it. It is imperative to reappraise the scale of widespread human values and to marvel at its present ineptness to cling today to the ossified [hardened] formulas of the Enlightenment is retrogressive. Such social dogmatism leaves us helpless before the trials of our age even if we are spared destruction by war life will inevitably change so as not to perish. We cannot avoid reassessing the fundamental definitions of human life and human society: that Man is truly above everything and is there no supreme spirit above him. Is it right that man’s life in society’s activities should be defined by material expansion above all? And is it permissible to promote such expansion to the detriment of our integral inner life. If the world hasn’t approached its ruin it has surely reached a turn in history equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.

What is needed is a spiritual Epiphany

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10162303190266744&set=gm.26795931673366456&idorvanity=5245107665542168
Look to Christ and Live

It will demand from us a spiritual epiphany—an assent to a new height of vision to a new level of life where neither will our physical nature be consigned to perdition as in the Middle Ages nor will our spiritual nature all the more crucially be trampled upon as in the modern era. This ascent is akin to scaling the next anthropological stage and no one on Earth has any other way left but upward.

My Thoughts:

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). There is no other way to ascend “upward.”

David W. Allan

 

How Good Is A Clock?

Spirituality
History of Clocks
Timekeeping through the ages – AI

How good is a clock?

Timekeeping accuracy and stability have improved a billion fold in my life time and society has benefited enormously; look at GPS for example. Atomic clocks are the heart of GPS. I was privileged to help in the development of GPS. The invention of atomic clocks has brought about this enormous improvement.

No Clock is Right!

When I used to teach seminars in Boulder, CO, at NBS/NIST, I would tell the attendees that every clock is wrong except the one you define as right. I feel the Lord gave me the algorithm for optimally combining the readings of an ensemble of atomic clocks so that the computed output was better than the best clock in the ensemble. That AT-1 algorithm was used to generate official time for the USA. It was a software clock calibrated by the Primary cesium-beam frequency standard that we had in the laboratory in Boulder. I was the nation’s timekeeper for most of my 32 years in Boulder.

Who invented the Atomic Clock?

Isidor Isaac Rabi came up with the idea of an atomic clock back in the 1940s and was a Nobel Prize recipient as a result. The Rabi Award was named after him and he was the first recipient of the award in 1983. I was privileged to have breakfast with him the day he received the Award in Philadelphia at an international Frequency Control Symposium.

A Clock is a Two-Part Device for Keeping Time

Atomic clocks are no different than previous clocks. One can think of a clock as a two part device: an oscillator (like a pendulum) and a counter (like the clock face giving you clock’s time reading). The oscillator for an atomic clock is a photon’s frequency. The counter is the electronics adding up the number of cycles of the photons. Physicists don’t like to call microwaves photons, but the concept is the same–and electromagnetic wave.

Astronomical Time

Historically time was kept astronomically. Solar time is as one counts the cycles of the sun going over head as the earth spins. Ephemeris time is as one counts the years as the earth goes around the sun. Lunar time is as one counts the cycles of the moon orbiting the earth. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar. The sidereal year is as one counts the earth’s rotation with respect to the stars. And the tropical year is as one counts the time from one vernal equinox to the next.

The equinoxes and the solstices are tied to the spin axis direction of the earth with respect to the sun. Since the spin axis direction in space is like a spinning top with a precession rate of about 26,000 years. The tropical year is  20 minutes and 24 seconds shorter than the sidereal year—the time it takes us to go around the sun.

The Evolution of Rabi’s Idea

Based on Rabi’s idea atomic clocks came into being. When atomic clocks came into being, we learned that their timekeeping ability was significantly better than any astronomical phenomena. So in 1967 the length of the “second” went from astronomical to the oscillations of the microwave photons of a particular resonance phenomena in the cesium-133 atom: “The second is the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.”

How to Best Use Atomic Clocks

Once atomic clocks came into existence how to use them and how to predict accurate and precise time with them became important questions. My master’s thesis published in 1966 gave birth to what the world knows as the Allan variance (AVAR). AVAR answers these questions. As a result, I was the second recipient of the Rabi Award in 1984. ADEV is the square-root of AVAR. One can show that the timekeeping ability of a clock is ADEV x TAU, where TAU is the prediction interval. ADEV was used to make sure the atomic clocks used to make GPS work well met specification. GPS works at the nanosecond level (a billionth of a second).

GPS satellite clocks have to predict time

The GPS satellite constellation orbits the earth at about 4.2 earth radii in 12 sidereal hour periods (with respect to the stars or inertial space). The times of the atomic clocks are updated every time they cross over a tracking station. So each satellite has to predict time forward until it crosses the next tracking station where both its position and time are updated. A GPS receiver listens to at least four satellites to calculate its longitude, latitude, altitude and GPS time. From those calculations it knows its position to within a few feet and its velocity.

Time as we use it is not Time

Time as we use it is not time but time interval—the time accumulated from some origin. We are now 2026 years from 0 A.D. Your wrist watch provides the time of day. My wrist watch is always right to within about 0.2 second as it has a radio receiver tying to official time for the USA generated in Boulder, CO.

This weekend we celebrate the Summer Solstice

This weekend we celebrate the summer solstice when the spin axis of the Earth is exactly at right angles to the vector going from the earth to the sun. We have equal day and equal night. That moment is at 2024 UTC June 20th, or at 2:24 a.m. MST June 21st. I hope you are having a good sleep at that moment.

God’s TIME is most Important

As I share in my books the time we should most care about is God’s TIME. We mortals are limited by time and space; He is not and His grand purposes are roiling forward in one eternal round. His perfect plan of happiness was perfected by our Savior’s Infinite Atonement, as I share in my last and 8th book, The Infinite Atonement of Jesus the Christ, and its Significance in the Last Days. Let us use our “mortal time” to help build His kingdom that it may be here on earth as it is in Heaven (Matt. 6:10). And may we bring as many as we can to Christ. He who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE.

David W. Allan

PS If you want a good tutorial in layperson’s terms, Hewlett Packard asked me to write the same: THE SCINECE OF TIMEKEEPING. It has a diagram of how good various clocks are. It is available on my website: AllansTIME.COM and on the internet: http://leapsecond.com/hpan/an1289.pdf .

 

A Call From The Lord – Light For Humankind

End Times, Spirituality
PeterDeHaan.com
The Light of God will be all the light needed

Expository Interpretation of Isaiah 51:4–11 – From The Isaiah Institute – Avraham Gileadi In the song below:  

“Listen to me, my people; give heed to me, O my nation”—There is something urgent right now I have to tell you. So perk up! “The law shall go forth from me; my precepts shall be a light to the peoples”—My gospel has been proclaimed thus far as a light to humanity. (Isaiah 51:4; cf. 26:9.)

“Then, suddenly, I will act: My righteousness shall be at hand and my salvation proceed”; —In a way that is unexpected, I will bring forth my servant who is called Righteousness to prepare the way for my coming as Salvation.  “My arms shall judge the peoples; the isles anticipate me, awaiting my arm”— I, the Lord, who personify Salvation, and my servant, who personifies Righteousness, are two arms of God who will intervene among a corrupt humanity.  I will reward the faith of those in the earth’s island continents who anticipate the coming of me and my forerunner.  (Isaiah 51:5; cf. 33:5; 41:2; 42:21; 46:11-13; 55:3-4; 56:1)

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens; look on the earth beneath: the heavens shall vanish as by smoke, the earth wear out like a garment; its inhabitants shall die in the manner of vermin”—A great and terrible destruction, cosmic in scope, is coming upon the whole earth, in which most of humanity will perish. “But my salvation shall be everlasting; my righteousness shall never fail”—As a deciding factor, only those aligned with me and my servant will live through the coming times into eternity. (Isaiah 51:6; cf. 5:13–14; 24:4–6.) 

“Hear me, you who know righteousness, O people in whose heart is my law. Do not fear the reproach of men; be undaunted by their ridicule”—You who “know” my servant, a covenant term, who accept and don’t reject him, who are committed to the gospel to your inmost being, will inevitably be persecuted. But there is no reason to fear because your spiritual descent through sufferings and humiliation, as you offer an acceptable sacrifice to me, is the very thing that will propel you upward and will define your personal righteousness that my servant exemplifies. (Isaiah  51:7; cf. 42:6; 49:8; 51:1; 61:3; 66:5–6.)

“For the moth shall consume them like a garment; moths shall devour them like wool. But my righteousness shall endure forever, my salvation through endless generations”—Reiterating the worldwide division that underscores humanity’s imminent fate, of destruction on the one hand and deliverance on the other, of covenant curses on the one hand and covenant blessings on the other, I warn you that the time is at hand when I will act among humanity decisively and everlastingly. (Isaiah 51:8; cf. 48:1, 18–19; 54:14; 58:1–2; 59:1–4; 61:10–11; 62:1–2.)

“Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power, O arm of Jehovah! Bestir yourself, as in ancient times, as in generations of old”—When evils in the world reach their apex, when those who are righteous by my standard, not their own, are persecuted to the utmost, then I will intervene by empowering my servant as I empowered my servants in the past. “Was it not you who carved up Rahab, you who slew the dragon?”—As a type and precedent from the past, what my angel did in subduing Egypt and its Pharaoh provides a pattern of what my servant will do to their end-time world counterparts. (Isaiah 51:9; cf. Isaiah 10:26–27; 17:12–13; 27:1; 63:9; Exodus 14:19; 23:20–23; 33:2.)

“Was it not you who dried up the Sea, the waters of the mighty deep, and made of ocean depths a way by which the redeemed might pass?”—What I did formerly through my angel, I will do again by my servant at a great end-time exodus out of Babylon, the world in its wicked state. I will subdue the powers of chaos, the end-time king of Assyria and his alliance, and deliver my elect from all their enemies in a great reversal of their circumstances. (Isaiah 51:10; cf. 10:26–27; 11:15–16; 43:16–17; 48:20–21; 63:11–14.)

“Let the ransomed of Jehovah return! Let them come singing to Zion, their heads crowned with everlasting joy; let them obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing flee away”—Those of my people who participate in the end-time exodus out of Babylon will inherit eternal glory, joy beyond measure, and permanent lands of inheritance. (Isaiah 51:11; cf.  14:32; 30:29; 35:10; 52:11–12.)

From the Isaiah Institute

Crystal streams in Rocky Mountains

Spirituality

The Prophet Joseph Smith made a remarkable prophecy to Anson Call, whose descendants now number in the tens of thousands regarding his great work in the Rocky Mountains. Dr. John Lofgren is doing some fascinating research regarding this prophecy and has given me permission to share.

From Anson Call’s diary (1843)

On the 14th of July we crossed the river to Montrose… Joseph, who was with us, told us of many things that should transpire in the mountains. After drinking a drought of ice water he said, “Brethren this water tastes much like the crystal streams that are running in the Rocky Mountains which some of you will participate of. There are some of those standing here that will perform a great work in that land pointing to Shadrach Roundy and a number of others… There is Anson, he shall go and shall assist in building cities from one end of the country to the other and you shall perform as greater work as has ever been done by man so that the nations of the earth shall be astonished and many of them will be gathered in that land assisting and building cities and temples and Israel shall be made to rejoice but before you see this day you will pass through scenes that are but little understood by you. This people will be made to mourn. Multitudes will die and many will apostatize but the priesthood shall prevail over all its enemies, triumph over the devil and be established upon the earth never more to be thrown down.” Then he charged us with all the zeal and language of prophet could muster to be faithful in those things had been [shared].

From: John Lefgren To David Allan  — Fri, Apr 24, 7:46 AM

Greetings,

How unique is a hand-dug, 200-year-old well in Iowa?

Approximately 230,000 to 290,000 Iowans rely on private wells for drinking water, with estimates suggesting there are over 96,000 active private wells in the state. These groundwater-fed private water supplies are often used for residential, agricultural, and livestock purposes.

Iowa has approximately 36 million acres of land. Of this total, roughly 30.5 to 30.6 million acres are dedicated to farmland, representing over 85% of the state’s total land area. The state is predominantly agricultural, with 26 million+ acres classified as cropland.

Wells are an important part of everyday life and farm production.

Two hundred years ago, wells could be dug only by hand. There were no drilling rigs. You wanted water, so you dug a hole, hoping to find it. No drilling of wells. Today, +99% of all wells in Iowa require hiring a DNR-certified well contractor to ensure compliance with state construction standards and to secure necessary permits. Permits are generally issued at the county level for private, residential, or agricultural wells, and proper well placement is crucial to avoid contamination.

In the context of groundwater in the early 19th century, it is remarkable that we have found a 200-year-old well fed by living water, located exactly where Joseph Smith drank water on Saturday, August 6, 1843, and gave a prophecy to Anso Call about how he would cross the plains and participate in building cities where the Saints would become a mighty people in the tops of the Rocky Mountains.

Come to Montrose. Drink the water coming from one of the country’s oldest wells. Marvel at how God moves in our time..

Regards,

John

From John Lefgren  to David Allan — Sun, Apr 26 7:25 AM

Greetings,

We are making very specific connections to the fulfillment of the Rocky Mountain Prophecy given by Joseph Smith to Anson Call on Saturday, August 6th, 1843, at the Zarahemla Water Well in [Montrose], Iowa.

In the last two days, more than eight researchers have been in Northern Utah exploring how the Bear River Watershed, the largest tributary system of the Great Salt Lake, covering roughly 7,000–7,500 square miles across parts of Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho, flows from the mountains in a 350-mile horseshoe shape, providing over half of the freshwater into the critical closed-basin system.

The Bear River is the largest river in North America that does not empty into an ocean. The river feeds the 80,000-acre Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, providing vital wetlands for millions of birds, including white-faced ibis, American pelicans, and tundra swans.

The geological features of the Bear River are directly associated with the Rocky Mountain Prophecy, where snow-capped mountain waters sustain the lives and communities of more than one million people.

The settlement of early Saints in the Rocky Mountains began in 1847, driven by the Pioneers’ efforts to colonize many regions. Key early forts include Call’s Fort (1855) in the north and Fort Utah (1849) in Provo. These immigrants from Nauvoo and Montrose faced harsh terrain and cold winters. They were called to settle in areas where fresh water from mountain snows gave life to man and beast. Yesterday, more than a dozen researchers followed the Zarahemla water-based story into the mountain streams that flow into the Great Basin.

In his Rocky Mountain Prophecy, given at the fresh water of Zarahemla, Joseph Smith could not have been more specific when he identified that the 32-year-old Anson Call would spend the rest of his life by going to the empty lands of Mexican Territory in the Intermountain Area, where the Saints would build cities and where he would see, over a period of more than forty years, the rise of a mighty nation.

We are so happy to see the fulfillment of an important prophecy the Prophet gave while drinking from the well in Zarahemla in 1843. In the past few months, we uncovered the hand-dug well associated with the prophecy in Montrose, directly across the Mississippi River from Nauvoo. We will soon bottle this water so that millions can taste and see for themselves how God moves in our time. May we all be blessed as we seek to understand the earliest days of the Restoration as seen from the western banks of America’s largest river.

Amazing Historian

Dr. John Lefgren is an amazing historian. He has researched how the North American Natives knew of the lunar sign denoting the birth of our Savior. This he shows with the earthworks near Newark, Ohio, that map out the plan of salvation.

https://itsabouttimebook.com/newark-ohio-earthworks/ . I share his research in my new book: THE INFINITE ATONEMENT OF JESUS THE CHRIST, AND LAST DAYS SIGNIFICANCE, A SCIENTIST’S VIEW.

John and Dr. John Pratt also independently determine the date of the FIRST VISION of the Prophet Joseph Smith as being 26 March 1820. Dr. Pratt, a friend, has past, and he was probably the best expert on Hebrew and Enoch’s calendars. He found the date in the Enoch calendar. Dr. Lefgren used weather data, and shows that it was a Sabbath. 

Joseph shares, “It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty” (JS-H 14). https://itsabouttimebook.com/the-date-of-the-first-vision/ .

I find it interesting that Utah is a Ute Indian word meaning, “In the tops of the mountains” Isaiah prophecies, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isa. 2:2).

Anson Call had a big part in helping fulfill Isaiah’s and Joseph Smith’s prophecies.

David W. Allan