I was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and I am a fourth generation Mormon. As the son of a Branch President, and living in a time and place where Mormons were misunderstood and sometimes scorned, it was not unusual for us to hold sacrament meetings in rented halls, or even in the woods. Some of my earliest memories, as a child, were sitting in sacrament meeting, in the woods of Louisiana while it rained torrents of water all around us, yet not a drop fell on the congregation. After graduating from high school I enrolled at a small state college and in addition to my academic pursuits was a member of the varsity gymnastic team.

In the summer after my sophomore year I was called to serve in the Canadian Mission, which conformed to our family tradition, as my father served three missions for the church, and my mother had memorized the Old Testament. By this time, the church had steadily grown and the Shreveport Stake had just been established. I had the honor of being the first missionary called from this newly organized stake.

During my mission in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, I served as the Supervising Elder of Montreal and lastly as the Second Counselor in the Mission Presidency. Upon the completion of my mission, I returned to college to complete my education. I once again became active in gymnastics. I had my best success on the trampoline, until a neck injury put an end to my competition.

After coaching gymnastics at the university level, I finally received my doctoral degree and began to teach at a small university in Connecticut. The campus was close to Yale University, so I became a visiting scholar at the Law School. In that capacity I became interested in International Health. It was an outgrowth of this interest that caused me, in 1976, to take a group of university students to the Yucatan in Mexico, where we studied health care.

As an adjunct to this study abroad program, I took the students to a number of Maya ruin sites, of which Chichen Itza was the largest, and at the time, the most impressive for me. I arrived with my group on a beautiful clear day, with full white clouds providing a backdrop against the blue sky for the towering ancient pyramids.

When we drove our Volkswagen campers onto the site grounds, (which you could do in those days), I looked up from a grove of trees, and my eyes fell upon a large pyramid called El Castillo, (the Castle). I stood frozen in front of this hughe edifice, totally amazed at its stony grandeur, its eerie silence. I was unable to move or speak - I just stood there staring at it. Then my heart began to race. Chills spread over my whole body. Finally, I began to
weep. I don't know recall how long the tears rolled down my cheeks, but I do remember it was an unforgettable moment. For some inexplicable reason, I seemed be connected to this place, to its ancient inhabitants and to their modern descendants. Then and there was born in me an overwhelming desire to learn something about the Maya and to visit other ancient sites.

From that moment a transformation was ignited. I began to read everything I could find about the Maya civilization. I had no idea if these people were connected to the Book of Mormon. I just fell in love with the culture, its mysteries and its people.

That first trip quickly evolved into an annual affair, and during my third group trip to the Yucatan I met a guide, Jose Davila, at the ruin site of Tulum. When he solicited my group for his services, I refused him, indicating I probably knew as much about the site as did he. Out of frustration, maybe some anger, Jose offered to give us a free tour, and at the end of the tour if we had not learned more than I could teach, then there would be no charge. However, if he did teach us more, I would pay his fee.

Jose then gave us a two-hour tour, one that was exciting and exceptional, both in content and energy. During his presentation, there were dates and stories that clearly connected the Maya people to the Book or Mormon. When Jose asked what I thought, I paid him twice the fee he had requested. I then went home and mailed this guide a Spanish copy of the Book of Mormon. I later discovered that Jose was the Branch President of the Cancun LDS Branch.
Jose and I became the best of friends and I began traveling to Mexico and throughout Central America to study and enjoy the Maya. I became aware of a set of gold plates, with Reformed Egyptian writing that Jose had seen, and began attempts to secure them. But mostly I would spend my summers in Mexico, learning from Jose and studying the Maya civilization. I met and became close friends with Jose's business partner, Esteban Mejia, and the three of us spent many days searching for Book of Mormon sites and artifacts.

After visiting most of the traditional Maya sites, I had a desire to see those rarely viewed by the public. But they were situated in remote, jungle locations and required rugged backpack trips, SCUBA diving off the coast of Belize and even flying private planes to dirt strips in the middle of nowhere.
One of my curiosities about the Book of Mormon was its geography, but I had never been convinced that it could actually be identified, given the peculiarities of the geographical descriptions of the book. I embarked on a meticulous study of historical documents, visits to ruin sites and fasting and prayer, before I began to see associations between Nephite culture and the Maya. Once I got a handle on that, then the real excitement began, as I could now begin to look for specific Book of Mormon cities, lands and remnants.

I then began to write a book about my "discoveries," a process that ultimately evolved into a desire to write about Mormon and Moroni. Inpreparation for that challenge, I read the books of Mormon, Ether and Moroni every day, for eight years. It wasn't until around the fifth year that I really began to understand and appreciate the content of these three books. I assumed it would take me about six months to actually write the book. Six years later the manuscript was ready for editing, which took an additional year.

With the excitement of this accomplishment I approached a number of publishers, but all declined to publish my book. After some prayerful consideration, I therefore decided to create my own publishing company and publish the book myself. I knew this would not be easy because I could only rely on my salary as a university professor.

After making a number of financial sacrifices, including selling my car, taking out a second and third mortgage on my house, cashing in a life insurance policy, and extending my credit cards, I still lacked the $400,000 needed to publish
the book and was unsuccessful in raising sufficient private funds. Finally on New Years day, after I had fasted and prayed for answers, I received spiritual assurance that the money would be forth coming. The next day, a friend of twenty-five years called and said he could loan me the $35,000 needed to finish the project. By March, 2000, the book was in bookstores. The experience has been enlightening, exciting, spiritual and humbling.

Enough books have now been sold to pay off the $400,000 that was borrowed.

The book is still available in all LDS bookstores, or from myself, and as of January 2004 is available in Spanish. For those who wish, they can obtain a Spanish CD with their purchase of the book, at no extra charge.

If you wish to purchase an autographed copy of the book,
please contact us.