The Book of Mormon Conference and EXPO was held 6-8 April 2023 at the American EXPO Center in Sandy, UT. I was honored to be a speaker at this event and I shared a summary of my new book. You can go to the “Book Of Mormon Evidence” website to see the large variety of fascinating topics that were presented. You can sign up for their streaming service, which will allow you to view all presentations, once they are processed. Below, I share a few highlights from the conference.

Lynn “Doc” Cleland – A  Journey of  nearly 1,400 Miles

I had the opportunity to meet Lynn “Doc” Cleland, a gentleman from the Salt Lake area. He reported that his third great-grandmother, Sarah Goode joined the Church and was widowed in 1854. She was left alone with six children under the age of 12.

Before leaving England in April of 1856 to join the saints in Salt Lake, she was given a blessing and promise she would complete the journey successfully and not lose one of her children on the way. She was also promised that she would be the first handcart to enter the valley.

After they arrived in the States they went by train to Iowa City. On September, 26th she got permission from Captain Ellsworth to leave early, and she and her six children were the first handcart to enter the Salt Lake valley. With her permission, her six children were swept up by horsemen who came to meet them at the mouth of Immigration Canyon. It was a time of great rejoicing.

She is featured in the movie, Seventeen Miracles. Her experience was also featured in a 2006 ENSIGN article: “Some Must Push and Some Must Pull”. The article touched Doc’s heart and Knowing her story through his family history. He decided to honor this brave woman in 2009 by replicating her experience.

Doc built a handcart, ate the same kinds of food Sarah would have eaten, and pulled a handcart nearly 1,400 miles, following the same path as best he could. Over the 110-day journey, he lost 48 pounds, and nearly died three times during his trek and was miraculously healed.

He has written the book, “Faith Greater Than Pain”, which is available on Amazon. A full-length Hollywood level movie is also being made about his experience.

Angelic Experiences

Doc had some major angelic assistance experiences during his trek and learned that Sarah had been with him all the way. The orchestration of the following is a most inspiring example. When he got to Douglas, WY, he noticed that there was an LDS church not far from the trail. So, he went there that evening where he met the Young Men’s President, Martin Harris, who is the third great son of Martin Harris who shares his profound testimony which is in every copy of the Book of Mormon.

Grandfather, Martin Harris, also mortgaged his farm to provide the necessary monies needed to print the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon. Martin is also one of the three witnesses, who heard the voice of God telling them the truth of this most remarkable book. He also is the one who took the characters to Professor Charles Anthon to validate their correctness that Joseph Smith had copied and translated from the gold plates.

A Coincidence?

Doc called the local Bishop and got permission to set up his tent on the lawn of the church. Since this was a Wednesday evening and Brother Harris was at the church with the young people, Doc asked him for a favor. Doc had a replica of the first copy of the Book of Mormon and felt to ask Martin to write in it and share his testimony of the book, and Martin agreed to do that.

After a long evening, at about 10 o’clock Martin gave the book back to Doc. Doc being tired, didn’t read what Martin had written until two days later. He was so touched by his testimony, he decided to make a trip back to Douglas, and have Martin tell him, “the rest of the story.”

When Doc went back, to Douglas, Brother Harris shared that over the course of that Wednesday evening, he couldn’t think what to write; he just stared at a blank page. Finally, after all, his church duties were taken care of and while pondering what to write a phrase came into his mind. He wrote it down. Then waited; another phrase came into his mind. He wrote it down, and this continued until the testimony was completed.

Doc shared with me this testimony, which is most inspiring. It is the original Martin Harris dictating his testimony to his third great grandson. Doc also shared with me a four-minute video he obtained from the grandson telling of this unique angelic experience.

So, we have this unique ministering angel Divine orchestration where Martin’s third great-grandfather, Martin Harris—one of the three witnesses of the gold plates, gets to share his testimony again through his third great-grandson by the same name. In due process, Doc will be sharing that marvelous testimony that is written in his first replica edition of the Book of Mormon.

This is much like Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. He would study the characters on the gold plates through the Urim and Thummim and then a phase would come to mind. The phrase needed to be correct–including the spelling of a lot of unique names– before he could move on. A MARVELOUS WORK AND A WONDER; not a coincidence!

David W. Allan – Highlights of New Book, Time & Eternity; the End-Times & Beyond Revealed

I highlighted the contents of my new book, Time & Eternity; the End-Times & Beyond Revealed. I got a lot of positive feedback on my presentation, and I am pleased that they recorded it to be part of their Streaming Service. We sold a case of books; the book gives hope and significant insights into God’s perfect plan of salvation and exaltation—manifesting God’s infinite love for each of us.

I shared also a very important statistic that I pulled from the last General Conference (1-2 April 2023) that the number of converts per thousand members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went from 10 in 2021 to 12.5 in 2022. That is a 25% increase in one year. We hope and pray that trend continues even more.

President Russell M. Nelson has asked all young men to serve missions, and the nations of the earth appear to be receptive and preparing for Zion. Over the last four decades or longer that statistic has been seriously declining from 47.5 in the 1980s down to 7.6 with the COVID pandemic in 2020. I did a linear regression on the last four decades of the converts per thousand members. The extrapolation would indicate that we would have no converts in about a decade and a half, if that trend continued.

The Lord as a solution for every problem. That 25% increase from 2021 to 2022 may be the beginning of the Lord bringing about ZION. Let us hope, pray and help bring ZION about.

Tim Ballard – Invoke God’s Covenant On This Land

Tim gave a great presentation calling us all to invoke God’s covenant on this land by keeping the commandments and coming to the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ. He quoted extensively from Abraham Lincoln’s final inaugural address, which was inspired by the Lord and needs to be fully appreciated and implemented today.

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said: “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations”

He also shared the exciting news that the movie they have made, about his great success with the underground railroad activities rescuing children from human trafficking, is going to be produced by Angel Studies—the people who have created THE CHOSEN

Did Columbus Discover America?

I have a blog article concerning this question. The next issue of LAND OF PROMISE; Uncovering Ancient America will include my article by the title of this question.

I listened to Tim Ballard’s audio version of The Pilgrim’s Hypothesis while driving back and forth during the three days of the conference. He totally believes that Columbus was the man spoken of in 1 Nephi 13:12 whom the Spirit of God wrought upon to discover America. I believe the Lord often has backups to fulfill His divine purposes because of free will.

The data indicate that it was John Cabot, who actually came to this “Promised Land.” It was Cabot’s voyages that opened up the floodgates for the pilgrims and other European countries to come to America. Columbus didn’t come to the “Promised Land” spoken of in the Book of Mormon.

It is estimated that Columbus and his entourage were responsible for deaths of 12 to 15 million of the indigenous in the Caribbean. Columbus later repented. The Savior says, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Cabot’s fruits were good; Columbus’ fruits were very bad before he repented.

Was Christ Married to Mary Magdalene?

In rabbinical tradition, most rabbis are married. We read the following:

Since marriage is a central institution of Judaism, it is appropriate that a communal leader lives in accordance with this ideal, and his obligation to marry is thus greater than a layman’s.

Also there is a certain gravitas that comes naturally with the responsibility of being married and caring for a family. Additionally, it is more likely that an unmarried man may find himself in an inappropriate situation with women he encounters in the course of his work. A principle area of a rabbi’s responsibility is guiding couples through the mitzvah of Family Purity, and very personal information is often shared with him. Even if no improper action is taken, the very conversation (and the thoughts it may generate) are inappropriate for a person who does not have a healthy home life to anchor him.

Apocryphal literature shows that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. He appeared to her after his resurrection after His resurrection. She went from the depths of despair to the heights of ecstasy as she saw the resurrected Lord and her husband, and some translations read that she ran and embraced Him. Scribes and translators have removed this information from our New Testament and that she was married to Jesus. Most Christians have the false tradition that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, as in the movie, THE CHOSEN.

It is well documented that Joseph of Arimathea, Mary, the mother of Jesus’ uncle, took the family of Christ and close friends to England. This included Mary, Mary Magdalene, Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, and the blind man, whose name was Maximum, whose recording healing is in Chapter 9 of the gospel of John, and others totaling twelve.

The Druids, who are Hebrews, were fully expecting them. Joseph of Arimathea was ordained an Apostle, and their Christian outreach to the world was greater than what we have in the New Testament. Mary Magdalene had a beautiful singing voice–praising the Lord and was an amazing missionary–being the first to see the risen Lord.

One of the Apostles in General Conference shared that there are those who have asked is the seed of Jesus found in England. He said, “I can tell you yes, and there are those here who are of His seed.

Our youngest daughter, McKaylee, is our genealogy researcher. She found a line for my wife, Edna, going back to Jesus and Mary Magdalene in Edna’s ancestry. At the conference, Kris Kimball shared a slide showing a mural in England depicting our risen Lord standing with Mary Magdalene holding her hand, and she is pregnant.

The Book of Mormon Evidence Conference was great, and it was so wonderful to reconnect with dear friends and meet several new friends.

David W. Allan