Unexpected turn of events....

President Livingstone from the Democratic Republic of Congo (the mission where we are supposed to report to this summer) sent us a nice email this morning. President Livingstone said, "Heavenly Father gives us interesting and different twists and turns on our path, and the measure in how we respond to them in part defines our levels of faith, obedience, humility, hope and any other number of divine virtues".

Thursday evening while studying French, Dick became confused about what we were studying. We tried to talk through it but he had a difficult time focusing and understanding anything that we were doing. He said that the words on the page were all one big word or meshed together and then he said he was done studying and closed the book. He then started complaining of a pain in his chest. It startled me because I thought that he was displaying symptoms of stroke or heart attack. I told Dick I was worried about him and he kept saying he was, "just fine". I told him I thought we needed to go to the hospital. I went downstairs and told Billy that I was worried about Dad and that he was having some symptoms of heart attack or stroke. Billy got on his computer and looked up the symptoms and came up and decided to talk to Dick himself. Finally, Dick conceded and we went down to the emergency room at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. After an EKG, blood tests, a CAT Scan and an MRI they determined that there was a brain tumor in the top, left side of his brain, directly behind his eye and sitting next to the carotid artery. They believed the tumor was the size of an eye-ball. The on-call doctor Thursday night happened to be a neuro-surgeon by the name of Dr. Howard Reichman, who is considered one of the best neuro-surgeons in the country.


Dick underwent a four hour emergency brain surgery today by Dr. Reichman (usually a four-month wait for this doctor....we feel so blessed), to remove the "eyeball-sized" tumor. After four really long hours, Dr. Reichman emerged with a smile on his face and said that the surgery went great. He removed approximately two-thirds of the tumor and the remaining one-third was interwoven in the optic nerves in an area too risky to remove (doing so could result in double-vision the rest of his life or other side-effects). Dr. Reichman indicated that the part of the tumor that was removed "looked" to be a Meningioma, which is a benign tumor that develops in the thin membranes, or meninges, that cover the brain and spinal cord. Meningiomas usually grow slowly and do not invade surrounding normal tissue. They rarely spread to other parts of the central nervous system or body. They have submitted the displaced tumor for testing and the offical test results will not be back until later next week. The remaining one-third will respond well to radiation, according to Dr. Reichman.



The recovery time for this operation is about two full months. So that means that our mission has been put on hold indefinetly. The doctor did say that he fully expects us to serve a mission. Whether we serve in the Congo or not, remains to be seen. Right now the most important thing is getting Dick back on his feet and healthy.

We keep talking as a family that the one good thing that has come of all of this is that the COMB-OVER IS GONE!!! hee hee:) We must find the good in every situation and here I am making lemonade with my lemons.



Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "If we are serious about our discipleship, Jesus will eventually request each of us to do those very things which are most difficult for us to do. Sometimes the best people have the worst experiences because they are the most ready to learn."

Elder Maxwell also stated, "How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life as if to say, 'Lord, give me the experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!"

Yes, this is a trial for us. And it is hard, but we know we have wonderful family and friends that are praying and fasting. Your prayers have been felt and the kind deeds have not gone unnoticed .... when we returned home from the hospital today, our lawn had been mowed by some great neighbors.

I will continue to keep you updated as I can.