The Quest for Immortality

For thousands of years, men have sought for immortality. People have gone on perilous quests to find the fountain of youth; alchemists dedicate lives of study to finding the Philosopher's Stone and making an elixir of life. Across the world there are examples of people erecting monuments of stone to themselves in order to obtain lasting greatness. Even today, people spend millions of dollars every year on creams, dyes, and surgeries to make themselves younger looking. We seek to avoid aging and death at all costs.

Where is the solution for mankind's immortality? The Lord has said, "For behold, this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39) Through the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, every person who has ever lived on this earth will one day live forever. What an amazing gift Christ offers to us!

"O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect." (2 Nephi 9:13,15)

What is the catch? What do we have to do to obtain this great gift? Nothing. Well, almost nothing. Before we become immortal beings we must die. It seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? But that's the way it works. Over and over again in the scriptures Christ teaches us that "whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matt. 16:25, see also Matt. 10:39, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33, John 12:25 )

This is the way of the Lord. It is true in this practical sense, that we all must die before we are resurrected and become immortal. But it also is true in a deeper, spiritual sense: when we willingly give our lives to the service of Jesus Christ and his gospel, He will return unto us much more than we have ever sacrificed for Him.

The Lord asks but little from us, only that we follow him. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?" (2 Nephi 31:10-21, see also Matt. 4:19) In return He promises eternal life (2 Nephi 31:20), peace (Isaiah 48:18, John 14:27) and joy (3 Nephi 28:10).

Why would Christ offer all of this to us? Because He loves us (Alma 26:15, John 3:16).

Halloween

Here are our costumes for Halloween this year. We helped with the ward's trunk-or-treat activity and had a great time.

I was a referee and Nate went as a tourist. His costume was awesome. Note the aloha shirt with swim trunks, camera across the shoulder, and long dark socks with Crocs.


Here you can also see the bus map in his shirt pocket. Awesome.

More posts to come this week. Check back!

Deb vs. Ants

My home has become a battlefield. The invasion started gradually, with only one or two scouts showing up and poking around. No big deal. And so I was slow to begin planning my counter-attack. Now if I'm not on my guard,

THE ANTS ARE EVERYWHERE!

Just when I think I've got them beat and I spray the dickens out of their little path with bug killer, they reappear from another direction with double the forces! Today I discovered that the ones on the bathroom counter came all the way from the kitchen. What are they eating in there, facewash?

The Deb Show

Aloha and welcome to the ward! Today we'll be having the Deb show!

This morning at church I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. It was about how the Young Women's program has strengthened my testimony. Our whole Young Women's presidency spoke. (I'm the 1st counselor)

Then, I subbed for another teacher and taught the Teacher Development class during Sunday School. We discussed the impact of having Christlike love for those you teach. Only two people came. One was Nate.

And I taught the Mia Maids during Young Women. We learned about making wise choices.

It was crazy. Church has never gone so fast. I was constantly hurrying about to gather chalk, pictures, play prelude, go sit on the stand, etc. Now I can really be grateful for regular Sundays when I only have one lesson to teach.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. Amen.

Laundry

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's the warm sun on my back, maybe it's the fresh smell of clean sheets, maybe it's seeing my clothes flapping in the blissful breeze that swirls through my apartment. There is something serene about it. I love hanging my laundry on the clothesline on our lanai.

Delays

Sorry, you're just going to have to keep waiting for the awesome post about Tuesday until I can get the video to work. Hopefully Nate will be able to help me soon.

Tahiti Tuesday

And now, the moment you've been waiting for.... TUESDAY! Thanks Steve, for helping me get the videos all sorted out.

We saw some huge sea turtles.

And headed back to the PCC. Here's Joe and Nate at Rapanui (Easter Island).

Whitney and I practiced our Tahitian dancing. Apparently it's all in the knees. My knees do not have it.

The best part though was watching the show at the Tahitian village. They taught the whole audience how to do Tahitian dancing. After we learned, they asked for volunteers and had a competition. Naturally, Whitney and I volunteered Joe and Nate to perform. They were awesome! Check it out:

Here are our dancers in their victory crowns!

These posts really don't do justice to the amazing week we had. Thanks Joe, Whitney and Ellie for coming to visit us!

More from our Staycation

I know, I promised to post more sweet staycation photos soon, and I made you wait two whole weeks. Sorry. But as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I just wanted to make you all more fond of me so that you'll want to come and visit me. If that doesn't get you here perhaps these will:

Sunday we went to Punchbowl, the National Cemetery of the Pacific. A memorial honoring soldiers who have fought for America in the Pacific from WWII through Korea.


Joe and Nate at the Punchbowl lookout.

Monday we found a new favorite beach. Hukilau. It's awesome.

We relaxed and boogie boarded at the beach all day. The day was perfect. Here's Joe catching a wave. I picked this picture because it makes the waves look big. It was my first time boogie boarding and I loved it!

Cute baby. Hot mama.

Then it was sushi time. I must say it's grown on me since we've moved here. Delicious.

Wednesday, (I know I skipped Tuesday, just you wait until tomorrow) I had to go back to work, but everyone else headed to Pearl Harbor.
Joe checking out the big guns.

Nate ringing the dinner bell.

They also got to meet two soldiers who survived the attack at Pearl Harbor.

Stay tuned for Tuesday's pics tomorrow. Trust me it's worth the wait.

Our Hawaii Staycation

May 13 - 20 we got to have our great friends the Hardies come and visit us! We had a fantastic time seeing a lot of the island, hitting the beach, checking out the local food (and by local of course I mean international), and exploring the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). It was an awesome staycation. Nate and I got to do a lot of things on the island that we'd been wanting to do but hadn't gotten to yet, plus we got to spend a whole week with great friends!

First things first, we hit the beach out in Kailua:



The next day we stopped by the Laie temple grounds:


And the PCC. Nate and I hadn't been yet. It is so incredible!

At the PCC we watched the canoe pageant. Each represented country did a traditional dance as they went by on these canoes.

Here we are waiting for the show to start. (I wove that fish that Nate is holding at the Samoan village)

We saw this guy climb a really tall coconut tree.

Nate was in his element speaking Samoan, meeting everyone and sporting his Manu Samoa jersey.

Next we went to the Aotearoa (New Zealand) village where we learned how to spin poi balls (warrior training). Joe was very good at it.

We played tititorea, a stick tossing game also used in warrior training to develop hand-eye coordination. I'm pretty sure we played a version of this in my elementary school music class.

We got some tattoos (removable of course) and practiced our Maori war faces. Check out Joe in the background.


There was so much more to see, but that was all we had time for before heading to dinner and the night show "Ha: the Breath of Life." The show was really cool. It follows a archetypal Polynesian boy as he grows up, with performances from all the different islands.

And of course, we got to meet the cutest baby ever!

All of this was just in the first two days! There's more to come and I promise you won't want to miss it!

For Mom

Thank you for being such a wonderful mom! You have taught me so much and I love you!

Thank you for your example, love, encouragement, laughter, lessons, understanding, time, compassion, and dedication to your family. I hope one day I can be a great mom like you!

To the Love of My Life:

Happy 3rd Anniversary! I love you!

I gave Nate his gift last Saturday. Here he is enjoying the new weight set.

Two Months in Only 5 Photos

Well, since I've been terrible at posting lately, here's a brief photo update with a promise of another post to come shortly.

In February we finally got a couch! This futon frame was given to us by a member of our ward. Another friend in the ward gave us a mattress for it a few days later. No more sitting on the floor for us!

This is the beautiful spider orchid that a neighbor gave to me (also a ward member). Within two weeks all the blossoms had fallen off. I think I over-watered it at first, but I don't think it's actually dead. We'll see.

This is Nate thawing and separating a frozen block of 10 whole chickens that were given to us by a member of the ward for us to distribute to other ward members in the building. Since we didn't have room for 10 chickens in our freezer, we had to distribute them immediately and it was rather humorous. Picture me knocking on your door at 9:45pm in my pajamas and offering you a chicken.

Last weekend Nate and I had the wonderful opportunity to fly to Kona on the Big Island for a trip to the temple with our ward.

I seem to have unintentionally created a theme in these pictures. Yes, we love our ward.

Race Results

Wake up: 4:45am
Depart 5:15am

Make the 15 minute drive to the Aloha Stadium: 1hr 10 min

Miss the "last bus" at 6:00am and catch one at 6:33am

Arrive at the start: 6:50am

Gun goes off at 7am, finally cross the Start line at about: 7:15am

Official Finishing Time: 1:17:45

Walking Breaks: 0!

Pace: 9:33min/mile

Place Overall: 2,699/15,721

Place in my Category (Female age 20-24) 96/697

Aloha Stadium - the finish


Now you can play "Where's Deb?" in these action shots of the final turn into Aloha Stadium:

After the finish (check out my cool gear that Nate got me for Christmas and Valentine's Day: shorts, water bottle belt, and ipod with an arm band!)

Where would I be without my personal trainer? Thanks, Nate, I love you!