“Our great friend Rod Meldrum was sharing with me his desire to eventually make a huge film about the heartland utilizing all the players and their talents to contribute to such a movie. Rod is an absolutely wonderful man who has touched the lives of so many. His strong belief in the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon has driven him to share this important testimony with anyone he can. His first book called Prophecies and Promises that he co-authored with Bruce H. Porter was a very scripturally based witness that supports the following quote. “The United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon—a place where divine guidance directed inspired men to create the conditions necessary for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Elder L. Tom Perry promised Ensign Dec. 2012” Rian Nelson
Joseph Writing a letter to his wife Emma while in Atlas, Illinois on the Mississippi River June 4, 1834. From Joseph’s own handwriting we learn that his Zion’s camp journey from Ohio to Indiana, to Illinois, to Missouri he called this land he crossed, “The Plains of the Nephites” No further evidence needed!
“Wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls & their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity… During our travels we visited several of the mounds which had been thrown up by the ancient inhabitants of this country-Nephites, Lamanites, etc.“Joseph Smith Papers Letter to Emma Smith, 4 June 1834 Page 56
My Heartland Friends
I would love to have the history of the Heartland model geography be made known through film some day soon. There have been many people involved and each has a story to tell.
“Bruce Porter has done extensive research for the BYU’s Religious Studies Center, on the Pearl of Great Price and the Book of Abraham, and been instrumental in the research and discovery of the Antonio Lebolo Will. Bruce’s testimony, research, and message are dedicated to the truthfulness of the scriptures, and in particular the Book of Mormon, the divine calling of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of course Jesus Christ and the necessity to Come unto Him for Salvation.
I’d have to say that in my view Wayne May was the one who originally began openly showing evidences of the Book of Mormon geography in North America, however there were others even before Wayne really got going in his research.
Delbert Curtis’s book Christ in North America, and VHS videos by Ron and Jeff Garff and Dwayne Erickson all contributed information and research.
My own research involving DNA was developed before I ever met Wayne and meeting him in Provo was the start of the archeological portion of my study. I was mesmerized.
The Church was going through some tough times as claims were being made in about 2002 that DNA disproves the BofM. My DNA research came into play at the height of that controversy which gave my first DVD, DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography, a real reach into the Church’s membership with over 80,000 DVD’s going out in about 2 years and leading to more people learning about the evidences than ever before. I continued to share my determined belief that the United States is indeed the Promised Land spoken of in the Book of Mormon.
Wayne had worked with a tour company to get a group to go back to visit these amazing sites but they couldn’t get enough people to sign up to make it work, until Wayne and I got together and hosted the first ever Book of Mormon in North America inaugural tour with Mary Ellen Elgrin. That was the first of many, many tours that would bring the North American setting for the Book of Mormon into the homes of hundreds, and ultimately hundreds of thousands of faithful saints.
Because of the midwestern location of all this and feeling the need to differentiate this geography from other previous models involving North America, like the hemispheric models, I coined the term “Heartland Model” for this geography theory because it happened in what is typically called the “Heartland” of America and because I felt that “Heartland” had a nice warmth of tone to it that folks could relate to. Thus the ideas put forward as the North American models began to be recognized by friend and foe in websites and blogs as the Heartland Model Geography.
My dear friend Amberli Nelson has taken it upon herself to research the Law of Moses in the Book of Mormon and has explained how the animals and plants necessary to practice the Law are only found in North America which rules out the Book of Mormon events happening in Mesoamerica. She is also the first one to decode the Newark Earthworks as she tells how it represents a complete ancient earth work and explains our entire gospel Plan of Salvation. Amberli’s research and presentations on DVD have inspired thousands of people. She is a very dynamic speaker.
Steven Smoot has been a friend for many years and his extensive research includes many important areas. His love for the Native Americans is incredible and feels their pain every time he speaks about the “Trail of Tears” and the suffering that happened to the Natives. Steve has an amazing book called “The Lost Civilizations of North America” and he shares with us how the ancient explorers and archaeologist have kept the truth from us. They hid the story of the Natives Americans as being a wonderful, spiritual people who are far more advanced than intellectuals want to tell us. Anything that doesn’t fit the current reality of these deceitful Archaeologist they declare as a hoax or fake.
Jonathan Neville had acquired a tremendous knowledge on the geography subject and felt intrigued enough by the research that he decided to join a tour. It was on that tour that I was able to provide more in depth info that lead to Jonathan’s incredible contributions to the overall model through in-depth Church History research and understandings. Jonathan has many friends who believe in Mesoamerica and he continues to write books (15 now I think), and show us all why the heartland is the place where the Book of Mormon happened. His knowledge about Church History is tremendous. He has brought to light Oliver Cowdery’s letters which speak so forthright about only one hill Cumorah and he also shows us how Joseph actually used two separate sets of plates during translation. He has discovered Benjamin Winchester, who is the “Smoking Gun of Book of Mormon Geography.”
James Stoddard and his daughters Hannah and Leah and sons Isaiah and Ephraim are descendants of Hyrum Smith and their hard work at the Joseph Smith Foundation has brought so much light and truth to the entire gospel. They can answer the difficult questions about the Book of Mormon and have shared much about the true importance of Joseph Smith to this entire work. They were the first ones to explain that Joseph did not use the rock in the hat for translation, as the only first hand witnesses, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery testified that only the Urim and Thummim was used for translation. They have done amazing research into the possibility of the Nephites being found in many parts of the world outside of the United States and are experts in comparing the timelines of the Book of Mormon events with the timeline of our events today. They are huge supporters of the Traditional values of the Church and are constantly revealing that Revisionist Historians are trying to change our history. They have discovered people like Leonard Arrington, Richard Bushman and other seemingly gospel stalwarts that are changing our known history, and trying to reduce Joseph Smith’s role as a Prophet in the way they discuss him.
I had a shared feeling with my good friend Boyd Tuttle over 14 years ago while in New York. We looked around at the pageant and thought, wouldn’t it be nice for all of these people to know the truth about this Hill Cumorah and they would all know this is the only hill Cumorah? The reality is becoming more and more of a reality. Boyd is a great book publisher and has published my favorite book in the world, The Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon. His edits and suggestions added so much value to this publication. We have now printed over 30,000 copies in a year and a half. We love the Book of Mormon and its spiritual witness of truth, and we have included many secondary witnesses and artifacts, truths and possibilities of showing how the events happened in North America.
I am grateful for the strong bond I have with an amazing editor named David Hocking. He is the Managing Editor of The Annotated Book of Mormon which has been created to help readers understand the everlasting gospel as explained in the text, together with what the modern prophets and apostles have taught about it. The text has been formatted so readers can identify natural conversations, poetic speech patterns, prophecies, and the words of God. The annotations include prophetic commentaries on quoted scripture and the use of colored text. These elements bear witness to the divinity of this ancient text by drawing upon Hebrew tradition—much different from the nineteenth century rural America known to Joseph Smith. He also has books called, Annotated Isaiah, Annotated Jasher and will be doing Annotated Enoch soon. All this work began over 10 years ago as David tried to make the scriptures come alive for his son who was on a mission. His son learned to love David’s textual versions just as we, his readers do as well.
One of our talented friends is Val Chadwick Bagley, the Cartoonist Man. He has done cartoons for the Church for over 40 years now. About 2013 we asked him to do some cartoons for the Heartland group. He didn’t know much about us and the thought of giving up drawing for the fun and dynamic Mesoamerican cartoons never even entered his mind. Until we had him draw a few things that caught his eye and heart. When we had him draw a rickety wagon full of gold plates and artifacts being pulled by a Llama from Mesoamerica to New York (3,787 miles), Val finally got the idea of, “how is that possible”, I think the Heartland model looks correct to me. Since then he has drawn over 300 cartoons for us and has an amazing 96 page book called “It Came to Pass Where.”
Now about our two Native American friends whom we love. Mike “Painted Pony” (Chippewa) and Betty “Red Ant”(Navajo) LaFontaine who live in Jacksonville Florida. About 5 years ago they attended our Book of Mormon Evidence Conference in Orem Utah and fell in love. Every speaker they loved and the spirit of love and joy amongst the people was overwhelming. After the conference was over they began speaking with Rian and thanking all who made this wonderful event happen. After a few minutes of speaking, Rian asked Red Ant, if she would like to speak at our next conference in 6 months. She was stunned by she is such a natural. She said yes and the rest is history as she shares her story about the Great Spirit (Christ) every time. She came across a most beautiful hymn by WW Phelps called “O Red Man” that she plays with the drum and sings so beautifully. Mike makes the gorgeous drums himself. They participate in all of our magnetometry expeditions, our looking for Zarahemla events, they sell books for us, held meetings with hundreds and are great physical and spiritual support to all of us. They constantly remind us that they know the Book of Mormon happened in the USA and they are a constant reminder to us all, that we Gentiles are to take the Gospel to the Lamanites.
There is one more best friend I can’t leave out of the Heartland project and many other things we have discovered together. I love Dean Sessions. We met each other in Mesa, Arizona about 33 years ago and have been fast friends since. As we were doing scientific study together, I branched off into the truths and geography of the Book of Mormon, its DNA and other historicity, and he continued rigorous study in History, Geology, Anthropology, Science, Biology, etc. What a mind Dean has. He has inspired all of us with his aggressive and truthful research into history as no one has ever done before. Dean W. Sessions is the author of the Universal Model (UM 3 Volumes and over 2,500 pages) and founder of the Millennial Science Foundation. Sessions has a B.S. Degree in Science from Brigham Young University and in 1990, Sessions began studying in both archeology and geology where a number of important new discoveries in these fields were made over the next few years. From this initial research and experimentation, a number of inaccuracies in theoretical aspects of modern science was found leading to the realization that a complete revolution in science needed to take place. As he has shown, Einstein’s Theory is still only a theory!
Rian Nelson first began his Heartland journey when he met me while promoting an Arnold Freiburg art event at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. When I discussed about “a Mound” with him and what it was, he caught fire and has been burning up the internet with his geography research and blogs ever since. He has created hundreds of Book of Mormon Heartland maps we all enjoy and he has had many professional artists create amazing paintings of Heartland scenes that are all in our Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon. His daily blog posts contain some of the most thorough answers to information about the Book of Mormon, The Church and its History, Anachronism’s, Love of Country, the Heartland Geography, Science and Education, Government and anything else others may have questions about. He manages all my websites and social media and continues to organize our bi-yearly Conferences.
So there’s a lot to this story, and if the story needs a couple of good antagonists we could talk about the attacks from FARMS, FAIR, Maxwell Institute, Lost Civilizations Documentary, Simon Southerton, John Dehlin, the Church History Dept, and others… it’s all part of the story!
We as a group might differ in certain specifics ideas, but my feeling is that unless this is going to be a 100 hour series we don’t need to take time discussing area’s of disagreement, when I feel we have some 95% agreement on everything else. I’d want to put out the positive message upon which we agree.
Your brother in the gospel and in truth,”
Rod Meldrum and input from Rian Nelson
