Mormon states:
In the ending of the thirty and fourth year, behold, I will show unto you that the people of Nephi who were spared, and also those who had been called Lamanites, who had been spared, did have great favors shown unto them, and great blessings poured out upon their heads, insomuch that soon after the ascension of Christ into heaven he did truly manifest himself unto them--
We tend to think of Christ's visit to the Nephites as a single event at Bountiful, but we cannot rule out the possibility that Christ might have visited and ministered to some of his "other sheep" in Mesoamerica at the same time.
According to Bruce Warren, dating the appearance of the resurrected Messiah-Redeemer to the Nephites begins with 3 Nephi 10:18-19 pointing to "the ending of the thirty and fourth year," when Christ "did truly manifest himself unto them." In other words, there might have been nearly a year between the signs of Christ's death in Jerusalem and his appearance in Mesoamerica. With these two points in mind (date and location), the following Indian tradition as recorded by Spanish friar Juan de Cordova proves interesting:
On the day we call Tecpatl [the Aztec name for the day sign flint knife] a great light came from the northeastern sky. It glowed for four days in the sky, then lowered itself to the rock; the rock can still be seen at Tenochtitlan (Teotitlan) de Valle in Oaxaca. From the light there came a great, very powerful being, who stood on the very top; of the rock and glowed like the sun in the sky. There he stood for all to see, shining day and night. Then he spoke, his voice was like thunder, booming across the valley (Shearer 1975, 72).
What does all this mean? First, in the ritual calendar, from the day Flint (Tecpatl or Etznab) to the day Crocodile (Imix) would be four days, and the following day would be Ik or Wind, the last day of the year and a day associated with Quetzalcoatl. Thus, the light would have appeared in the sky above Oaxaca on the day Flint and remained visible until it descended and Christ stepped out of it four days later on the day Imix. These days would correspond to the period of time from March 24 to March 27 in the Passover week of the year A.D. 34. Second, the name Teotitlan preserves the actual sacred place of this visitation, because in Nahuatl Teo means god, and titlan means "to send a messenger" (Kartunen 1983). Thus, the visit of Christ to the Nephites on the American continent might have followed this scenario:
On the sixth day of Passover, 6 Ahau 3 Mak, Sunday, March 26, A.D. 34, Christ would have appeared to the Nephites in Bountiful. This day would have been the Passover sabbath birthday of his resurrection the year before.
During the early part of the next day, Christ would have appeared in Oaxaca and then returned to Bountiful.
The third day of Christ's visit on 8 Ik 5 Mak, Tuesday, 28 March, was the last day of the Nephite-Maya Long Count 34th year (see illustration). Thus, Christ would have completed his three-day ministry at the exact end of the 34th Nephite year as is implied in 3 Nephi 10:18-19.
One might also wonder, If Christ did appear initially to the Nephites on the sixth day of Passover, 6 Ahau 3 Mak, Sunday, 26 March A.D. 34, was this to notify the Nephites of the end of the Mosaic Law and to inaugurate Sunday Sabbath observance as well as all the other elements of the Law of the Gospel? [Bruce W. Warren, Blaine M. Yorgason, Harold Brown, New Evidences of Christ in Mesoamerica, Unpublished Manuscript] [See the commentary on 3 Nephi
3 Nephi 10:18 In the ending of the thirty and fourth year ([Illustration]): Calendar Correlations from a Mesoamerican Perspective Relating to Christ's Visit to the Americas. [Bruce W. Warren, Blaine M. Yorgason, Harold Brown, New Evidences of Christ in Mesoamerica, Unpublished Manuscript]