How Invincible Are We?

We have had the opportunity to visit many Mayan ruin sites that have taught me a lot about the ancient culture of the Mayans. I've never been so excited to learn about history! Their stories are rich and full of symbolic religion. It confuses me to ponder how they knew so much so many years ago. Their structures line up perfectly to track the dates, important events, religion, and tradition. They build things in a way that transforms loud noises into sounds of birds and perfect echos. The Mayan civilization thrived for many years is an amazingly intricate and knowledgeable empire, yet we only see traces of them and their marvels today. I sometimes have to wonder, are we as invincible as we think we are?

The gospel helps us have the faith necessary to one day achieve eternal life. We are sometimes asked to do difficult things and to continue not knowing all the details, which can often be difficult, but the only way to develop in the way our Heavenly Father needs us to.  The Book of Mormon (which I love with my whole heart) has no officially declared location as to where it took place. I will not say I believe that it took place here or even anywhere in Central America, but I will add my testimony that God speaks to all his children wherever they are in the World.  For just one quick example, yesterday we visited the ruins of Tulum, a miraculous set of Mayan temples tucked up along the Caribbean seaside. Although the view was quite impressive, it was not the only thing that took my breath away. As I've spent my late nights in bed with my reading light studying of the old Mayan history and how it may have related to the gospel, I was delighted to find so many similarities. on one occasion, I found similarities with how Joseph Smith translated certain documents relating to the birth of Christ and the translation of old Mayan cities that had not be excavated. He found in 1830 that the birth of Christ was actually on April 6. In the city of Tulum, that wasn't excavated until 1837. They worshiped a white, male figure with a Hebrew face who's birthday was on that same day. On April 6th of every year, the sun perfectly rises between two pillars in their temple showing the significance of the date.  Later into the evening, the star Venus arises into position to show through a point in the temple that amplifies it as a really bright star in the night sky, showing the new star that had appeared at the birth of the God . The figure is put on all the temples has him in an upside down position, showing he descended from the heavens (possibly at the time he visited the laminites after his resurrection). The murals mark that this figure as the "living water, the light of the sun" and "life and light of the world".  I am not assuming that Christ came down to the people of Tulum, yet we know it must have impacted them enough to have such a universal symbol of the white God coming from the heavens in so many locations throughout the area.