19 Mar 2006 #0612.html

Ciudad Del Carmen, Mexico

. . .

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."

These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.

"What a week. It is a good thing I have been climbing stairs at lunch for quite a while before the trip to Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico from 14-18 March 2006. I really had no idea what Luis was getting me into when I agreed to go to this conference with him. The conference was titled "Plays y Yacimientos de Aceite y Gas en Rocas Carbonatadas," which roughly translates as "Hydrocarbon Oil and Gas Plays in Carbonate Rocks." Of course, I speak no Spanish, and so it doesn't make any sense for me to have attended a Pemex Conference in Mexico focused on Pemex geology and all conducted in Spanish. However, I have this baggage I carry around, baggage called a reputation. And so I guess it goes with the baggage to be a company spokesman at conferences like this one in Mexico.

I have no notes on what happened on Monday. I think this was the day Andrea and I flew from Houston to Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, and I think we used a couple of days of vacation from last year, since my start date and vacation reset date is the first of April. I don't have the tickets, and I don't recall for sure. I know we went to Mexico with a rough idea of what we were interested in doing and no real definite plans. I had made a composite image of where the city was, and what it looked like, which you can review at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Trips/060315-18_Ciudad_del_Carmen/Ciudad_Del_Carmen.jpg. Once we got there, we found there were no tour groups, no busses, no tour guides, and so we ended up following Luis' advice and renting a car. I was really nervous about renting a car in Mexico, and once we did it we went forward with no hesitation and it turned out very nice. The little car we rented was from Hertz. Tuesday, the 15th of March we went to Palenque and Agua Azil. This involved driving to Villahermosa, then to Palenque. It took at least 4 hours to make this drive one way, sort of like driving from Houston to Dallas. After this drive I was beginning to understand what Dr. John Sorenson meant when he told me members of the church have no comprehension of the distances involved in crossing the narrow neck of land in MesoAmerica.

There is a page of thumbnails summarizing our trip to Palenque at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Trips/060315-18_Ciudad_del_Carmen/Palenque_thumbnails.jpg. The buildings are fantastic. There was a tremendous amount of work involved in moving the big stones they used as building material. Climbing up the buildings was enough to wear me out. Looking down was enough to give me vertigo. Thinking about all of the work which went into the construction was awe inspiring. And it is obvious there are a lot of alignments which have lost meanings. For instances, there were T shaped crosses which formed windows aligning between different buildings. The trail down off of the hill goes past other sets of ruins. There are springs, lakes, and it is easy to imagine the daughters of the Lamanites bathing in some of these beautiful pools. The site just looked like it was jumping out of the pages of The Book of Mormon. We bought a Mayan ceramic and leather calendar at Palenque. We were too late getting off of the ruins to see the museum. Oh well!

Even though it was late, we still decided to drive to Agua Azil, the blue waterfalls. We got there just before dark, and I got a few photos. What a beautiful place. Certainly looks like it could have been the Waters of Mormon to me. There was a funny sign in English that said "Danger not to swim." It was obvious from the height of the falls, and the amount of water coming down the river, that it was various dangerous to swim at the falls. It was surprising how fast it got dark, and how narrow and up and down the roads were going back to Ciudad del Carmen. It was especially scary when we would go around a corner and there would be people walking along the side of the road in the pitch black dark of night. We came to a couple of military check points on the way back. They did not check us too thoroughly. Later we found out the military have been known to put things like marijuana in your trunk at the first checkpoint, and then to lock put you in jail when they "find" it at the second checkpoint. We did not have anything like this happen to us. However, it was well after midnight by the time we made it back to the Hotel.

It turned out the conference did not start until the evening of Wednesday, the 16th of March. So during the day Luis went with us to Edzna. Again it was about a four hour drive to get to the ruins, and another four hours back. Luis drove, and he drove very fast along the coast highway. The coast highway is beautiful. There are several places listed for sale along the highway right along the beautiful waters of the Caribbean Sea. When we finally got to Edzna, it looked like there was not much to see. We walked way back along to the end of a trail, where we saw a big pile of dirt with trees on it. When we came to the opening, we could see where they had reconstructed part of the hill to show the steps as the originally occurred. Climbing part way up this monument you could see a much larger monument through the tops of the trees. When we got to the other buildings, it was a giant plaza with large temples on both sides and a giant building overlooking the plaza. I put together a panorama digital photo ( http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Trips/060315-18_Ciudad_del_Carmen/060316_Edzna/Edzna_Panorama.jpg, which gives a feel for how powerful the leaders must have felt as they performed their ceremonies at the top of their buildings. Thumbnail photos of our trip to Edzna with Luis are at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Trips/060315-18_Ciudad_del_Carmen/Edzna_thumbnails.jpg. It was another great day and more contemplation about the relationship of The Book of Mormon to these ruins. We got back to Ciudad Del Carmen in time for the opening speeches and the loud Mexican music icebreaker. It was noisy, and a good evening. I had several very interesting conversations, and although Andrea kept leaving the noisy room, I think she enjoyed herself.

Thursday I spent all day at the conference. Andrea spent the day reading at the hotel and in the pool. In the evening we took the leader of Vetra and his wife and colleagues out to dinner. Luis does a very good job with these folks. Little did we know that this leader was going to visit his brother who works for Schlumberger, and that Schlumberger would win the bid for the Vetra project. So the overbooked flight (0609.html), the second trip to Monterrey, and this trip ended up being of no immediate business benefit to GDC. Oh well!

Friday, Andrea and I rented another car from Hertz and dove to Calakmul. The first third of the way was up the same coast highway we went on to get to Edzna. Then we turned and went due west. This was our longest day of driving, which means each way was farther than driving from Houston to Dallas. When we left the main road, to drive into the ruins, the road just kept on going and going and going and going and kept on getting smaller and smaller and smaller. There were big beautiful peacocks crossing the road. It was a forest, with the trees almost touching over our heads. It was not as dry as Edzna nor as wet as Palenque. However, despite all of the tropical vegetation, I would classify all three sites as pretty close to a desert environment. Certainly all were very dry places. And certainly, after all of the step climbing we did, we ended up drinking a lot of water (88 swallows on Tuesday, 69 swallows on Wednesday, and 56 swallows on Friday). Maybe I did more ruin climbing the first day, and thus drank more water. Or maybe I just lost track of my swallows count because the numbers were so large.

The Calakmul thumbnails are at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Trips/060315-18_Ciudad_del_Carmen/Calakmul_thumbnails.jpg. The site is so remote and was discovered so recently that it has been built to handle tourists year round. Based on how they have water runoff ditches, it must rain an awful lot at some times of the year. As we went along the trails, it seemed like the ruins were very small and there was not going to be much to see. There were interesting signs about how this site had been used as a prison for many many years, and I could not help but think about the prison that Ammon's brethren were put in, and the earthquake that freed them. Then I was exploring one of the large plazas, and I heard Andrea gasp and say 'Roice, you need to see this.' So I climbed up the large structure, only to see in the distances two other large structures sticking up out of the forest. I went and climbed both of the other towers. They were giant! Climbing these towers and looking over at the other towers ( http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Trips/060315-18_Ciudad_del_Carmen/060317_Calakmul/DSC04169.JPG) made words from The Book of Mormon come alive:

'And it came to pass that he fought with the king; and when the king saw that he was about to overpower him, he fled and ran and got upon the tower which was near the temple. And Gideon pursued after him and was about to get upon the tower to slay the king, and the king cast his eyes round about towards the land of Shemlon, and behold, the army of the Lamanites were within the borders of the land.' Mosiah 19: 5-6

It was hard to leave Calakmul. Probably because we knew it was our last adventure this trip. And partly because we were just about out of gas by the time we got back to the main road. I talked to some truck drivers at the junction, calculated how far we had gone and how far we had yet to go, and determined we could not make it back to the main town of Escarcega, where we know there was a service station. So we went in the opposite direction to the way back to the hotel in order to get to the nearest gasoline station. It was in the middle of nowhere. There were some other ruins by the town the gasoline station was five miles outside of. There was also a new sustainable city being built buy a bunch of hippies, which I had read about, and which we did not have time to visit. By the time we drove past it, it was pitch black dark, and we were both getting very tired. Again it was well after midnight when we finally made it back to Cuidad del Carmen, Mexico.

Saturday morning we turned in the car. We gave the lady who rented us a Book of Mormon, and explained it in some detail. Then we had time before our flight to walk back past the LDS Church which we had found earlier in the week. We had talked to one missionary pair the first time we visited, and had listened to some young women singing one of the hymns in Spanish. This time as we arrived, another missionary pair were filling the font for a baptism with a hose used to water the lawn. We had a nice discussion with these Elders. Elder Ence was the son of Debbie and Kevin Ence from St. George. He told us about an experience he had when one of the hurricanes went through, and I wrote it down and e-mailed it to his parents. It is very special:

'Elder Ence's testimony The following is Andrea and my recollection of comments by Elder Ence from St. George, made at the new chapel in Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, yesterday, on 18 March 2006: "My companion and I were caught in the floods last year in Tapachula when the, what is it called, yes, when the hurricane came. We had to swim in the river to get to safety. We saw millions (sic) of people die. It is a long story. You have time? You want to hear the whole story? It had been raining for three days. We lived in an apartment on the second floor. We were studying, and my companion got up and looked out of the window. He saw several people out in the rain and mentioned it too me. We thought it was a little unusual, because when the rain comes, it is like a river coming down out of the sky. We went back to our studies. About an hour later, my companion got up to stretch again. He looked out the window, and this time there were many people out in the streets. They were carrying boxes and hurrying away from the river. This did not look normal. So we decided to go downstairs and see what was happening. As we walked out into the street the water was up to here [pointing to a little above the ankle], but that was normal when it was raining a lot. So we didn't think anything about it. And we went to where all of the people were moving. Then the water started to raise very quickly, and in just a moment it was up to our waist. People started to climb on houses. We helped some people. There were other people being carried away in the water. We could not help them, or we would have been carried away in the water. We climbed on top of a house and helped a young boy and his little brother who was about 8 years old get to a safe place on one of the houses. Then a big wall of water came down. It was probably 30 feet tall. And there were people being carried in the water down the river. The river runs through the center of the city. When the big brother saw it, he took off across the top of the roofs, and left his little brother there with us. We could not go across the top of the houses, because they were just aluminum sheets, and they would not hold our weight. We did not know what to do. We saw a man push through his roof, and climb onto the roof. There were dozens of hands reaching up to be lifted onto the roof. Then the whole house was taken by the river, and all of the people were gone. Then the big trucks started coming down the river. One was wrapped around a big tree. Then big rocks, as tall as this room, started to come past us. I have pictures standing next to these big rocks that were at least as tall as up to there [pointing to the top of the hallway ceiling at about 10 feet]. The earth was shaking, and there were these big noises. Everyone was screaming. My companion and I were very scared. We knelt down on top of the roof and said a prayer. We asked for help to know what to do, and to be protected from the storm. And when we got up from our knees we were not afraid anymore. My companion said "I will follow you, and do whatever you tell me to do." We decided to go across the roofs. The people told us we were crazy to be doing this. We had to leave the younger brother where he was. The good news is that he was later rescued, and he was OK. This was when the first miracle happened. We walked across the roofs, and they held up our weight as we walked across them. We got to a place where we could see a place to go to. I did not know if my companion could swim or not. I told him to follow me, and we jumped into the river and swam as hard as we could. This was the second miracle, we went right to the place we had identified. We were able to pull ourselves up out of the river, and walk along this ridge for a ways. There was a large gas storage tank about 20 feet from us. It was leaking gas. There were power lines close to the water, and they were sparking. The sparks were dropping down in the middle of the gas. This was the third miracle. The sparks did not cause the gas to explode. We saw an old man swept down the river. We could do nothing to help him. Then we went back into the river and swam to another place, where we got out. There was a mother here, with a new born infant that was only two weeks old. My companion picked up the baby, and carried the infant out of the river. There was a blind old lady, who had also lost her legs. The river had taken away her wheel chair. I picked her up and carried her. As we walked up the road the people started to clap their hands and to cheer for us. We had put our missionary tags in our pocket. We pulled them out, shined them off, and put them back on. Finally we were able to find a telephone and call our Mission President. He had no idea about what had happened. I was not able to sleep for five days and five nights. The noise of the earth shaking and the big rocks kept ringing in my ears. Our apartment was on the second floor, and all of our things were OK." '

As important as Luis felt the Pemex Conference was, and as neat as visiting the three major ruins was, the highlight of our trip to Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico was the simple testimony of a young missionary Elder from St. George, Utah. This was emphasized Sunday, when we went to choir practice and I wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words from the words we were singing:

'We cannot see the love of God Yet know that Christ From wood and nails Built mansions for us all' Nottingham Country Ward Choir Practice, 19 March 2006, Behold the Wounds in Jesus Hands,' by John V. Pearson, Music by David R. Naylor

While we were gone we got an e-mail from Audrey with the following poem, which is so true:

"F A M I L Y I ran into a stranger as he passed by, "Oh excuse me please" was my reply. He said, "Please excuse me too; I wasn't watching for you." We were very polite, this stranger and I. We went on our way and we said goodbye. But at home a different story is told, How we treat our loved ones, young and old. Later that day, cooking the evening meal, My son stood beside me very still. When I turned, I nearly knocked him down. "Move out of the way," I said with a frown. He walked away, his little heart broken. I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken. While I lay awake in bed, God's still small voice came to me and said, "While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use, But the family you love, you seem to abuse." Go and look on the kitchen floor, You'll find some flowers there by the door Those are the flowers he brought for you. He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue. He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise, You never saw the tears that filled his little eyes." By this time, I felt very small, And now my tears began to fall. I quietly went and knelt by his bed; "Wake up, little one, wake up," I said. Are these the flowers you picked for me?" He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree. I picked 'em because they're pretty like you. I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue." I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today; I shouldn't have yelled at you that way." He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay. I love you anyway." I said, "Son, I love you too, And I do like the flowers, especially the blue." FAMILY -Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family we left behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than into our own family, an unwise investment indeed, don't you think?"

All in all it was a wonderful week. A time to make new friends with folks working for Pemex and Vetra. A time to see a few of the wonderful archaeological sites of Meso-America. A time to reflect on the history in The Book of Mormon. And a time to hear the wonderful testimonies of young missionaries serving in Ciuad del Carmen, Mexico."

Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet' 'little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me). Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me. Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes were shared with my family because I know how important the written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love. It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids and my family to be aware of my life and struggles.

Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will aggressively pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets behind a password).

The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, or you can e-mail me with questions or requests at rnelson@walden3d.com (note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

. . .

Copyright © 2006 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.