An evening on Peru, in Provo

My wife and I had a very pleasant evening.  First, we had dinner with Royal Skousen and his wife, Sirkku, at La Jolla Groves.   Royal presented us with a copy of The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon: Part Five, The King James Quotations in the Book of Mormon, which is still relatively hot off the press. He will be speaking on the subject on 15 January, next week, under the sponsorship of BYU Studies and the Interpreter Foundation.  (On this lecture, see “15 January 2020: Mark the Date!”)

Then we attended a presentation right across the pedestrian walkway, at Moon’s Rare Books.  Which is, by the way, a remarkable place, something of an unheralded local treasure, and well worth a visit.  As the owner, Reid Moon, says, it’s a museum masquerading as a bookstore.  It’s also the venue for an interesting lecture series.

The lecture, by Van Evans, was devoted to temple symbolism in the ancient Andean region.  Dr. Evans served a mission there in Peru, has obviously devoted a great deal of attention to the area and the subject, leads tours there, and has written a relevant book, which we bought:

Willka Wasin Wiraqocha: The House of the Lord: Evidence of Jesus Christ’s Visit to South America, and the Ordinances, Rituals, and Endowments of the Temples Built to Worship Him

My wife and I accompanied a tour to Peru for the Cruise Lady company this past summer, and doing so rekindled my somewhat dormant interest in Andean antiquities.  (One of the people in our tour group works part-time at Moon’s Rare Books, and called it to our attention.)  I found Dr. Evans’s remarks absolutely intriguing and utterly fascinating, and I look forward to reading his book.

Afterwards, looking around at some of the art and artifacts in the store, we ended up in conversation with Terry and Dixie Johnson, who, it turned out, had spent six years stationed in Germany when he was there as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and then returned to preside over the Germany Leipzig (Dresden) Mission.  (He had himself served in Finland as a young man.)  As we parted, he said something that amused me and that, curiously, I don’t think I had ever heard before: Man sollte nicht schneller fahren, als der Schutzengel fliegen kann.  (“One should not drive faster than one’s guardian angel can fly.”)