Marvls Happenings

We had our home teacher come today and it reminded me of a funny incident that occurred the last time he was here.  We were all on the couch as a family just talking.  Mark Zachreson our home teacher was telling us some story about hunting or something about work.  We had been talking for about 10 to 15 minutes and Jolyn and I were deep in conversation with him.  When out of the blue our Blake piped up and said in an irritated voice, “Can we have the lesson now?”  We just all burst out laughing.  Luckily there was no embarrassment, just pure laughter.  

Today when Mark came we brought up that event from last month.  Blake was there drawing some letters on a letter practice sheet.  He kept drawing as we talked without looking up, but a smile crept across his face as we talked about it.  He didn’t say anything today, though I was hoping because my lunch was getting cold in the kitchen.  

Yesterday I received a phone call from Jolyn, informing me that a test result had come back that she had cancer.  Luckily for us it is the nicest form of cancer that one can get, “Basil Cell Carcinoma”.  There was a mole on her upper right cheek (her face cheek) that had looked a little different and she had that feeling to get it looked at.  So she went in and they removed it and biopsied the mole and it came back cancerous.  The doctor said it was probably due to the over exposure she had as a child to the sun.  She grew up on a cattle ranch where there were many days of horse back riding pushing herds from one area to another in the direct sun.

There are two types of cancer cells, both are deadly if not treated.  Carcinoma stays isolated to the infected area.  You can remove the diseased tissue and remove the cancer, no further treatments are required.  Melanoma is the kind you don’t want.  It can spread to different organs and requires chemotherapy and radiation to treat.

The doctor says there are two types of methods for removal.  One is the usual method of removing a block of skin tissue around the mole, down to the muscle and then stitching it up.  This method has a 95% survival ratio.   The second method is similar, except they go in and remove a smaller portion of tissue surface area, while the wound is still open, you sit back and read a book for an hour.  They take the removed tissue and test all the surface areas to ensure they have removed all the cancer.  If they missed an area, they go back and remove more skin as needed.  Once they are sure they have it all, they stitch up the wound.  This procedure has a 98% of survival.  Both procedures are done through a plastic surgeon.

In either case, I don’t like that there is a 2% or a 5% chance that they can miss the cancer.  In either case both of us are confident that everything will go well.  It has been very interesting the various thoughts that have run through both of our minds, playing out various scenarios.  All of a sudden neither of us feel so invincible.

As a family we decided to go down to President Hinckley’s viewing.  I was able to go and see President Kimball’s viewing when he passed away.  I wanted my children to go to the viewing of their first prophet.

We arrived today at 3:00 pm in downtown Salt Lake City.  They were having us enter on the east side of the conference center.  There were four lines and by the time we had gotten there the four lines were about 200 feet long.  Once through the doors, we had to go through some medal detectors, then wind our way into the conference center.  They placed us in a section and there we sat and waited for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Our time came to see him.  Having the enormous conference center full of people waiting can cause a lot of noise.  They had Hinckley’s  95th birthday party playing the whole time.  Though it was noisy, once you made it to the third floor and entered the hall of the prophets, the noise immediately went away and total reverence came over you.  The spirit was so strong.  He was surrounded by four body guards and two lines walking past him on the right and left.  His casket was open and you could look unto him.  He looked younger and peaceful.

It took us 3 hours and 5 minutes to see President Hinckley for less then 30 seconds.   It was worth it.

The incredible thing was when we left the conference center, we exited on the West side.  The line was now extended from the East side, all along the South side, all along the West side and ended somewhere on the North side.  Those outside had at least a four to five hour wait to see him for a few seconds.  It was now after 6:15 pm and my heart went out to them.

The Internet makes the world small

This morning my sister-in-law sent me an e-mail that was a forward, of a forward, of a forward.  It was a poem written about President Hinckley.  The coolest thing was at the end of the poem, I recognized the name of the author.  It was written by one of my clients in North Carolina.  I e-mailed her and she confirmed the poem was hers.  She said that she wrote the poem the night she heard of Hinckley’s death and sent it only to her family.  From there they sent it out to whom they knew and on and on until it reached me.  It amazed me how the Internet can make the world so small. 

Here is her poem.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

 Prophetic Passing