John Lund was a lot of fun to listen to and very informative. As he put it, going to the places where the main events of the Book of Mormon took place can be spiritually uplifting because we are taking our physical feet where our spiritual feet have already trod. Going there and seeing the ruins of an apostate civilization only confirms for those who have a spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon, the reality of the events described by Mormon. They have only uncovered 2% of the known ruins in Central America. One guide told us that anywhere you see a mound of dirt, there is a ruin. There were foundations for the priests homes within the walls of the temple grounds. There are millions of cement homes in southern Mexico. Demographers have now estimated that at the height of the Mayan civilization (300 A.D. to 1400 A.D.) there were 25 million people living from southern Mexico to Guatemala. I could go on and on, but if you are interested in a pretty complete study of the Book of Mormon lands, then check out John Lund's book 'Mesoammerica and the Book of Mormon Is This the Place?'
We had fun getting to know many of the people in our tour group. They were from all over the country and all are active LDS. There were couples in their twenties and couples in their eighties. There were farmers, engineers, a former President of the Portland temple and his wife Carolee, single women, a retired airline pilot, and everyone got along real well.
Mom and I enjoyed taking walks on the ship, finding places to be alone and watching the sea and the stars at night. It was interesting and very surprising to me that we could find places on the deck where we were completely alone. You would think that with over 2300 guests and 1100 crew on a ship 971 feet long by 107 feet wide that you'd be all crowded together. But, it only felt crowded once and that was on Thursday night for the Chocolate Buffet.
It was a once in lifetime experience and we are so glad that we had the opportunity to do this. Maybe, when I retire we'll go on a less expensive cruise again. But, until then we will certainly treasure the memories we made. Hope you enjoy the video.
