Chris Allison
Chris M. Allison
Faculty for our Central America / Book of Mormon Tours
Faculty for our Central America / Book of Mormon Tours
Chris Allison was raised in Utah. He has been a religious educator his entire professional career. He is currently an instructor at BYU-Idaho, and previously taught seminary and institute. He also trained seminary teachers and for three years he worked at the church office building in Salt Lake City and developed movies for the seminary program. Bro. Allison is married to his beautiful wife, Rochelle and has three daughters and two grandchildren.
Education
• Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Weber State College in Ogden, Utah
• Masters of Education from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah
• Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum Design from Idaho State University in Pocatello, Idaho
Church
• Mission – Ecuador Quito
• Callings – Former bishop, and currently serves in a stake presidency for the Rexburg South Stake
Items of interest
• He has worked at Madison Fire Department part-time since 2008. He is certified as an Advanced EMT, Structural Firefighter and Wildland Firefighter. He has been deployed each of the last 9 years to fight forest fires during the summer.
• He has had the privilege of leading tours to Alaska, Central America, and Europe.
• He likes to travel, and has a special passion for Mesoamerica.
• He is retired from the Army Reserves as a Master Sergeant. He served for 24 years and ten of those years in the Special Forces where he jumped out of planes and helicopters and played with fun Army toys.
• He enjoys running – “I once ran the St. George Marathon, but I can’t see any reason to do it again. It’s quicker to drive and I don’t get as sweaty.”
Quote about Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon lands.
Years ago I was invited by the Administrator of Seminaries and Institutes, Bro. Stan Peterson to lead tours to Mesoamerica for BYU-Provo. I accepted the invitation and began some intense training into the history and archeology of those lands. The name of the tour was the Book of Mormon Lands Tour. While other theories exist for where the Book of Mormon story took place, more and more evidence points to the Yucatan peninsula as the correct setting for the Book of Mormon. Fortified cities that perfectly fit the description of Captain Moroni’s fortified cities have been discovered. Mayan glyphs that directly translate to “and it came to pass” are common. Writing on plates, sunken cities that date back to the first century, massive warfare in the late 300 AD timeframe that wiped out cities, and on and on. Recent LiDAR (short for “Light Detection And Ranging”) technology in 2018 has revealed thousands of heretofore undiscovered Mayan structures that date back to Book of Mormon times.
I am excited to share with you my passion and knowledge as we explore Mayan cities, climb on skeletal remains of pyramids and temples, and dive into the Book of Mormon in the jungles of Central America!
Dr. Allison will be hosting and leading our premiere Central America / Book of Mormon Land Tour. We are very blessed to have such a gifted and experienced scholar and educator to direct these tours to Central America.
