Teotihuacan Round 2!

Que honda familia y amigos!?

Twas a great week in Pachuca! My comp fought through some pretty tough sickness, but we were still able to get some work done! Things are looking really good for the end of this cycle!

First off, our mission got robbed! Maybe not in the way youre thinking though... we used to have 9 stakes in our mission, but this coming week they are gonna take away two of our stakes and put them into a different mission! It wouldnt be such bad news if they were two stakes that werent our best two stakes in the mission, but they were! They are taking away the two stakes of Tecamac which is where my second area (Ojo de Agua) is! This stake is the most baptizing, has the most people, has the most nice people haha, and its such a cool area! People coming from Tecamac are always disappointed when they see people arent the same in Pachuca and other parts haha. Of course there can be success in any area, but the people here are just a lot more closed off compared to Tecamac. This also means that we will no longer have the Pyramids of Teotihuacan in our mission! When Pres told the zones of Tecamac the news in their zone conference, they all started crying, including Pres. These stakes are so special to us and its hard to see them go. All 36 missionaries in those areas will be moving into new areas within the mission. Im just glad I already had the opportunity to be in Tecamac, many others have never gone and now will never be able to.

Speaking of losing the Pyramids from our mission, Elder Cassat and I decided to go one more time with our zone for the zone activity! So we went today (my second time going) and it was so amazing! This time we took a tour from a member of the church who has studied the ancient pyramids in Mexico's relationship with the Book of Mormon! He uses studied from professors at BYU and other people. Elder Bednar took this guy's tour so we know its a good one haha. He shared us so many amazing connections from this ancient place, and the Book of Mormon! I'll give you guys a little summary of what he was saying (nothing official doctrine of the church, but things that could very well have happened).

-There are engravings of snakes on some of the pyramids, The snake's name is Quetzalcoac who represents a man that visited these people. Quetzalcoac is represented as a good snake and he was praised by the people here. The tour guide explained to us how there is duality in every thing. Usually the devil is associated with a snake. But that means that there should also exist a good snake to defeat the bad one. Kind of like how Moses' rod turned into a snake that defeated the bad snakes. Many believe that this man who visited these people was Jesus Christ. There are many sings that could be what Mosiah 3:15 talks about.

-Archeologists have found bones of people underneath one of the pyramids that they linked back to the year about 270 A.D. These bones appeared to be human sacrifices. Which could very well be part of the apostasy that happened "four generations" after Christ had appeared in the Americas. Four generations could be about 270 years.

-Lehi's name in Nawak (an indigenous language in Mexico) talks about the kind of crocodile that carries seeds of its children in its mouth while it travels to a land with more "abundance". Kind of like Lehi traveled to the Amerca's which is the promised land, and left his seed to inherit and inhabit all the continent.

-There is a restricted part of underneath the pyramids (that President Kimball managed to get access to a while ago) that has places that looks like fonts. There is a system of water that goes through this part that people anciently did a ritual to wash and annoint their entire bodies. This could very well be a literal "washing and annointing" that people did. In the temple now adays, it is explained that the ritual was done literally in ancient times.

-There were statues find in these ruins of people doing things with their bodies and wearing things that clearly represent parts of the temple ordinances.

-México (with the translation of Nawak and Hebew) converts to land of the Messiah.

-The people who lived here believed that their ancestors arrived from a foreign land on huge sea turtles. Sea turtles that traveled in the depths of a sea like "dishes" and came up every once in a while for air. The tour guide told us that these sea turtles could very well be an interpretation of the barges of the Jaredites. They were tight as dishes and came up for air every once in a while just as the sea turtles do.

-It was explained to us how people used to go to the top of these pyramids to do sacred ordinances and be united as husbands and wives. Their clothes were literally linked together and the tour guide explained that people very well could have been sealed together at the top of the biggest pyramid. For it couldve been their temple.

-There is a place where there is a main pyramid in the middle with twelve pyramids that surround it. In the middle section, you can speak normally and be heard hundreds of feet away because of the acoustics of this place. It is reasonable that those twelve surrounding pyramids were for the 12 apostles. The middle pyramids couldve been used by King Benjamin in his final speech to the people. In fact, when Elder Bednar stood upon that middle pyramid, he only said one word. "Benjamin". And people hundreds of feet away could hear him say it.

-There is another section where water used to accumulate, and it was used to act out different scenes. Many believe this area was a place to act out the creation to the people. Accompanied by gorgeous paintings that were also instructive.

-Last but not least. Teotihuacan has three major section. The first and greatest is the pyramid of the Sun in the middle. The second section is the pyramid of the moon which is second biggest. The third section is where there are many smaller pyramids that represent the stars. Does this sound like the kingdoms of glory to anyone else? Go check out 1 Corinthians 15:41 and let me know.

So basically my mind was blown when we went today. Such a cool experience! We will find out if this place really was inhabited by Book of Mormon people when the second coming happens and Christ renews all of his temple, even the ancient ones.

Que tenga una buena semana!

Elder Millard

P.S. there are more pics of Teo in the last email I sent a few months ago also titled "Teotihuacan!"