Immortality

I read earlier today that a scientist in the UK predicts that in about 20 years we will be able to make ourselves immortal.  He says that technology and our knowledge of the human body is accelerating at a rate that if it stays steady, we will be able to stop ageing and even reverse it.

I understand the desire for humans to live forever.  But I don't want to live forever in these conditions.  I want to die eventually, when I've finished everything I've come here to do and learn.  There is so much more, and better things waiting for us on the other side.  Death is a part of life.  And after death we will be resurrected (the reuniting of the body and spirit) and live in a much better way!  This wanting to live forever suspectedly comes from not understanding what happens after we die.  I'm grateful that I have that knowledge and that I don't have to wonder or be scared or nervous about it.  I know my purpose in life because I know my purpose after this life.  The ability that I have to be with God and my family forever through sealings (not just "'til death do us part") in God's holy temple brings me so much joy!  I know that we will live forever, and not only that but live forever in such great happiness and peace and joy if we do the things that are required of us by God.  There is a way, and Jesus Christ is that Way.  He has restored His church, the same as in the days when he walked the earth.  We don't have to live in confusion.  Our Heavenly Father (we are His spirit children!) is not a God of confusion, but clarity.  He has laid out for us what we should and need to do, and as long as we do those things we can achieve the highest degree of glory and happiness and live there with God and our families forever.  Because He died and was resurrected, Jesus Christ has opened the reality that we will all be resurrected also and have immortality - everyone who ever has come or will come to the earth.  But only those who obey His commandments (all of them, including the commandments He gives to us through His prophets in these modern days) will be granted everlasting life; salvation (a personal matter), and exaltation (a family matter).  We have so much potential!  His arms are ever extended to each of us.  I hope and pray that we will rise up to the call and take up our cross and follow Him, our Savior who has done so very much for us, to whom I am forever indebted and grateful.

And it Begins...

The HUGE new scoreboard!
Biggest in the West I guess (counting colleges).

Arizona football.  Oh hello.

Us at the game last Saturday against NAU!  We won of course.
(And got free tacos!)

This is what I get excited about!  The marching band!

U of A!  U of A!  U of A!

Go cats!

Summer-time is Birthday-time!

Both mine and Adam's birthdays are in the summer.

We gave each other breakfast in bed,

(dang, no pictures)

Went out to eat with the family, 

Olive Garden, of course.

Adam the "Wing Nut" at Buffalo Wild Wings

Took pictures by our homemade birthday posters made with love by Adam's mom, 

Opened super awesome presents,

And of course, I ate cookie cake.

I. Love. Cookie cake. (From Mrs. Fields only)

This was our second year celebrating our birthdays as a married couple.  Weird!  We're in our SECOND year of marriage.  I can only imagine all the wonderful and awesome things to come.  :)

(Just as a side note, we still have not eaten the top layer of our wedding cake from a year ago.  We should probably get on that since it gets older by the minute...)

(And as a side note to the side note, the freezer in which the top layer of our wedding cake was being stored apparently broke and it got ruined.  Oh well, I hear it doesn't ever really taste that good anyway.  We should just make a new top layer and eat that and call it good!)

Daughter of a King

Disney castle

Doesn't pretty much every little girl wish she was a princess and live in a castle with a handsome prince happily ever after?

Well I've got some news for you aspiring princesses out there --

You ARE a princess!

God is our King and our Heavenly Father, and we are His daughters, His princesses.  We have the opportunity to inherit all He has!  If we live faithful to the commandments our Savior Jesus Christ has given us to live by, and make and keep sacred covenants (or promises, or contracts with God) through sacred ordinances such as baptism by immersion into Christ's church, and receiving our endowment in the temple, and being sealed to our families for time AND eternity in the holy temple of God, we will be counted worthy before our Heavenly Father at the last day and we will be granted glorious blessings!  There are mansions awaiting us in our Heavenly Father's great kingdom where we can live for eternity in peace and joy with Him and the Savior and our families.

Salt Lake City temple

Such marvelous and wonderful blessings await us.  Heavenly Father has offered us so much.  But we must do our part.  Our "happily ever after" doesn't come all at once, and it doesn't happen by our own standards.  We must learn truth and stick to it, and live by it each day.  We must enter into the holy temple of God and make sacred covenants with Him, so we are better equipped to fight off the adversary in our lives and rise triumphant through our trials.  Though it doesn't end there.  It takes hard work every day to keep doing the right thing and to stay on the right, the straight and narrow, path.  But even though our Father in Heaven meant for us to be tried on the earth to test our faithfulness, He also had and has the intention of us to have joy!  Our "happily ever after" can being now.  And following the Savior and making covenants or promises with God that we will try to live up to our divine potential is how we can make that happen for ourselves.  Life is such a wonderful and beautiful thing!  This earth is so glorious and beautiful.  It was created for our benefit and also our enjoyment, that we might have joy!  We never would have been able to learn and know what joy feels like had we not come to earth to experience sorrow.  There must be an opposite in all things so we may know the difference between each and so we may know what joy and happiness is and feels like.

We have divine potential.  Potential to inherit mansions and glory and kingdoms.  Potential to live in happiness and joy throughout all eternity.  I am grateful for this knowledge I have of my divine potential and the purpose of this life on Earth.  I'm grateful for the Savior, Jesus Christ who has made it all possible.  I believe in Him, and I know He lives and visits the earth and leads His church on the earth today, which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This happiness and joy and understanding we all seek for in life comes by obeying all of His commandments and making sacred covenants with Him.

You ARE a princess, a daughter of a King.  And you CAN live in a castle with your handsome prince,

happily ever after.

Learn more.

The Lord Gave Me a Temple

One of the reasons our loving Heavenly Father sends His spirit children (us) to the earth is so we can obtain physical bodies.

I love my body!

Recently I have gained greater appreciation for this amazing gift.  And I also realize that it is an amazing blessing that my body is healthy and functions properly so I can do almost anything I want or need to do!  This is my new motivation for taking care of my body, this great gift.  I'm trying to eat regularly, but not too much, and not eat so much cruddy food (some, but not all the time!).  I'm trying to realize my limits when it comes to food!  And I'm getting myself back in shape by exercising regularly.  There are lots of ways to exercise!  In the last two weeks I realize that I don't HATE running as much as I thought.  When it's beautiful outside and you know you're doing something good to benefit yourself and your amazing gift of a body, it can be quite refreshing.  I'm not planning on running a marathon any time soon.  But I'm just sayin'.

I'm thankful for my body!  Its amazing ability gives evidence that there is a God.  And I know there is!