Review - Remembering Lehi

I have finished blogging thoughts inspired by October General Conference.  I would like now to return to the study of the Book of Mormon geography, history, and culture as well as its spiritual message.  Before I pick up where I left off, I'd like to do a brief review.  If you haven't been following the blog since summer, you may want to go back and reread earlier posts.  I will reference the dates to make the search easier.

June 14 to July 1

We met the prophet Lehi and his family. The family fled Jerusalem prior to the final conquest of Judah by Babylon.

We traced their passage across the Arabian Peninsula along the old Frankincense Trail. 

We learned about the Brass Plates of Laban and the finding of the Liahona, a ball of curious workmanship which guided them along the way.

We read of the death of Lehi's cousin, Ishmael, and learned that both cousins were descendants of Joseph who was sold into Egypt, Lehi through Manasseh and Ishmael through Ephraim.

We learned that the sons of Lehi married the daughters of Ishmael in the wilderness.  After many years of hard travel, the refugees found their was to a land they called Bountiful, currently in the country of Oman.  There, Nephi found ore to make tools and materials to build a boat.

After a difficult voyage following the Pacific Oceanic currents (the Equatorial Counter Current, to be exact) the family landed on the west coast of what is now Central America.  Following the death of Lehi and his wife, the elder brothers of Nephi, Laman and Lemuel, sought their brother's life.  Nephi, along with his brother Sam and Laban's servant Zoram, fled with their families into the mountains.  The Lamanites - for that is what they were then called - stayed in the place of first landing along the coast.  The Nephites built their city in the highlands of what is now Guatemala.  The City of Nephi was probably located at or near the site of Kaminaljuyú, an archaeological site not far from Guatemala City.

From that time forward, the Nephites and Lamanites were bitter enemies.

Text copyright December 2013, Gebara Education

Pictures from www.lds.org

-except-

Map from www.alexbarclay.talktalk.net