Ek-Balam and Chicken-Izta Tuesday September 28th

Meet Juan Carlos, our tour guide, his wife, and baby Paron. We sat in front of him at church on Sunday and he let us know what he did for a living. When Mike found out he did church tours, he called him up and asked if we could take one. It was the chance of a life time.

A little about Juan. His dad was a lawyer. His mother, he is not sure what happened to her. He's been told she died. He's been told she left. All he knows is that he didn't grow up with a mother. The only mother figure he had was his grandma.

When he was 17 he joined the church. When his Grandmother found out she disowned him along with his dad. Juan left and for three years lived on the streets. One day, when he had not eaten a bite for 3 entire days, he sat down on the curb, in front of a house and prayed. He poured out his heart for the Lord's mercy. Immediately after his prayer, the door opened and a lady asked what he was doing He hurried and made up a story. He told her he was waiting for a boy next door but he wasn't home. She asked, "You're waiting for Robert?" He said yes. She asked how Juan knew Robert. He said, "Well, we work together." She said, "That's interesting because Robert is only 8 years old. He then told her the truth. She immediately invited him in and feed him. He said he ate everything on the table. Then he asked what he could do to repay her. Clean her house, fix her car, do her dishes. She said, "Nothing." Juan Carlos then took out his Book of Mormon and said, "If you won't let me do anything then I want you to take the only gift I have to give." He said, "You are a lady of God and I know that you can become even more like him if you read this book." She began to cry and asked where he got it. He told her his conversion story. She began crying and said, "I already have one. I'm a member and our church meets at 9:00 this Sunday. Will you come with me?" She then offered him a room for rent. Before, because he didn't have an address, he couldn't get a job. The very day he had an address, he found work. Not long after he served a mission with the money he earned from that job.

During his interview to be released as a missionary, the stake president told him he needed to start looking for a house. Carlos said, "My number one concern is finding a bed to sleep in tonight." He'd extended his mission as long as he could because he had no place to come home to. His testimony was incredible.

Welcome to Ek-Balam

Ek-Balam is one of the oldest and most recent finds in Mexico. It is a Pre-Classical city found only 14 years ago. There is still much to be uncovered. Ek-Balam was named after a Nephite missionary who taught the Lamanites that in years to come, Christ would be born in Jerusalem and then appear to his people in America. We got to see a stone of the Nephite missionary, and a stone of Christ with a beard. The beard is very significant because, Lamanities and Mayan's can not grow facial hair. So any bearded person carved on stone is white.

Ek-Balam was a city that once had the truth. They had all the temple ordinances and were living the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a very neat feeling there. Almost a sacred feeling. Carlos loves this city.

Only 7 years earlier, one of Carlos's archaeologist friends was standing on the temple when rocks began to fall everywhere. Only he couldn't see the rocks until he noticed they were falling underneath him. He was standing on top of a room, which was actually a tomb.

The tomb was added hundreds of years after the city was originally built. On both sides of the tomb are two life size statues. So 4 statues in all. They are doing 4 different signs you see right in the temple. Juan pointed out that at one time they had the truth but began to fall into apostasy. No one should use those signs, but they understood you needed them to return so they placed them at the entrance of their underworld.

Carlos explained to us about the Mayan calendar as he took a stick and drew it on the ground. He divided it into 7000 years. It ended in the year 2010 or 2011, I can't remember. Forever people thought that this must be the end of the world because the Mayan calendar is the most correct calendar. Juan told us the Mayan's didn't believe it was the end of the world. They were only about to calculate for that amount of time, or were only willing to work that far into the future and then assumed that their prosperity would begin a new calendar. But the Mayan became extinct before that happened.

Here Tate and Taylee sit on a bed that was made for royalty. Carlos said, "Usually we think of Royalty as having so much, but this bed and room out of stone was everything to the Mayan. Other lived in grass huts, unprotected from the wind. Their grass hut only lasted about 8 years.

Another shot of the bed. My camera died and so you don't get to see the beauty of this city, the temple, the stone of Ek-Balam and Christ, and there is not a pamphlet on it because it is so new.

Chicken-Itza will not be seen either but that was quite the experience. Chicken-Itza was built during the Classical time when Kings thought they were Gods and their cities were built with elaborate work and gems, and jewels. They used stucco to cover their walls and they painted the stucco red. The stucco was made out of lime stone which was melted by hundreds of trees. They burnt up their forests and the lime stone unfertilized the ground later leading to the beginning of their extinction.

We saw statues EVERYWHERE depicting the Savior laying down holding a plate, where they sacrificed thousands of men and cut out their heart. We saw a huge thick wall covered with skeleton carvings, representing the captains of the armies they had concurred. On the walls they would place the heads of the captains, cover them in honey, and watch the maggots devour them little by little trying to scare their cities into never going against anything they did.

We saw two snakes on both sides of the stair case leading up to the top of the temple. During certain times of the year the shadows show 12 humps representing the twelve tribes. We saw snakes with feathers representing the Savior and a withered snake with scales representing Satan.

Chicken-Itza was swarming with vendors selling everything! It felt like Babylon. A little suffocating, worldly, and corrupt. It was so neat to see, but almost relieving to leave.

Taylee and Tate did amazing this day. I was so impressed with them and especially Mike. He really took care of them well. I was a little too pregnant and hot to do very much.