Possible Interviews

I have been contacted and asked to do an interview for a podcast about the Book of Abraham. I have also been asked to do an interview about the Book of Abraham for KSL radio. I will see if we can get them to work out. If so I will post on here what comes of it and how they can be heard.

More Lectures

Dr. Muhlestein continues to lecture at Education week, speaking on the history of Israel as an example of God's love and patience, and Egyptian elements of the Exodus story as well as how that story demonstrates the power of the Atonement.

He also lectured on the BYU Egypt Excavation project at a dinner for Emeritus General Authorities and had a wonderful time there.

Great Evening

Tonight Julianne and I were able to attend an annual dinner held for General Authorities Emeritus. What a delight and pleasure. We were able to visit with so many amazing men and women. What power and how many years of serving God and mankind. It was a delightful and impressive group.

The dinner was held in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City on the 10th floor.



We sat next to Elder Neuenschwander and had the most fascinating conversations about his work as a Patriarch in Russia and eastern Europe. The work he puts in and the blessings people receive from that service is amazing. Because my oldest son and daughter just received their patriarchal blessings it was all the more interesting to us.

The evening ended with my giving about a 25 minute lecture on the excavation and about 20 minutes of questions and answers.

Overall it was an amazing dinner. We loved it!

Another New Book comes out

The book Return Unto Me, which shows the theme of love, patience and mercy for all as demonstrated in the Old Testament, will be available in LDS Bookstores at the beginning of September.

Getting the book on the shelf

So yesterday had some interesting elements. My book, The Essential Companion to the Old Testament (see essentialot.blogspot.com), was supposed to be on the shelves of the BYU Bookstore on Monday for the thousands of extra visitors that come there as part of BYU's Education week. Since Monday was the last day before school starts for my kids, and because it was my son Kaleb's birthday, we decided to go to Seven Peak's water slides for one last summer fling. I made everyone stop on the way as I went in to the Bookstore to put some fliers for my other book Return Unto Me (returnuntome.blogspot.com) in these books. But the books weren't out yet. I politely asked both the BYU bookstore and the publisher to look into this, and went on to the waterslides (lots of fun).

On Tuesday, before my lecture on God's love in the Old Testament, I went to see if the books were out. They were not out yet. Happily my cd's with my lectures on the Book of Abraham were there! (see http://bookofabrahamresearch.blogspot.com)

I spoke with some more people. They told me that they didn't think it had arrived, others that it had arrived but was not scheduled to be put on the shelves for a few more weeks, and others told me that they needed to know when it had come in to find it. I emailed the publisher (Covenant Communications) and went and did my lecture.



I felt great about my lecture. Then I went to the bookstore and found the buyer who was in charge of getting these books. Together we went to work. We talked to the person from the publisher who had dropped the books off on Friday, after having them air freighted in the night before. We talked to the person who had received them. We checked all around in the receiving area. I looked and looked. We had a person in receiving who had left for the day come back in. We sleuthed and worked and searched and looked for an hour and a half. Finally we found them tucked away in the receiving area without their invoice in a different box than we were looking for. I helped unpack them and helped create the price stickers for them and put them on and took them up on a hand truck and put them on the selves myself. I am not sure they would have made it there this week if it had not been for Maureen (the BYU buyer) and myself sticking on it for so long. But they are definitely there now. I am so happy to finally see them out. I can hardly wait until the other one comes out!

New Article on the Book of Abraham

A few years ago I became interested in the use of Biblical characters by Egyptians in their religious life. The research was so interesting I pursued it and it became a lecture I gave in Moscow to a group of international Egyptologists. It was also published by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

I also realized that this had a direct application to the Book of Abraham. So I rewrote the article just a little to demonstrate the connection. This has just come out: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/?vol=22&num=1&id=651

I hope this article is enjoyable and informative!

Lecture on God's Love

Yesterday I did a lecture as part of Education week. The topic was an introduction to the ideas I have in my book Return Unto Me.

The concept, the God loves us and will never stop trying to work with us and help us, and that this is clear in the Old Testament, is one that I feel passionately about. I think it is a life changing topic. I saw several people tearing up during the lecture, and I like to assume that is because they were hearing something they needed to hear, not because the lecture was so terrible. I really, really enjoyed it, and look forward to doing a follow up lecture tomorrow.

New Book comes out for Education Week!

Dr. Muhlestein's new book, The Essential Old Testament Companion will be in the BYU Bookstore starting August 19th, during Education week. Come check it out!!!

Lectures on the Book of Abraham

Dr. Muhlestein has a series of lectures come out on the Book of Abraham. They are available on cd!!!!