Hi
Well
I guess you learned that most of us are emailing on Monday night!! If
it is any consolation to you there was a mail strike in 1987 in
Argentina, and I did not hear a word from anyone in the United States of
America for 6 months! Hopefully you can survive the week, and maybe
even sneak into the library for a quick fix from home.
Always new and exciting
things. We had friends stay with us the day before Lotoja. They are
all bishops and stake presidents now. I am an outlier as a secretary in
the young men's presidency, but I try to do a bang up job! Who else
can control Tyler Axtell and Zach Balls. We ate dinner with Scott and
Rachel Jacob, parents of Ben Jacob. They are really neat people. Ben
is in Brazil, and been out similar to you.
A
rider died in Lotoja this year. Hit a pothole, slammed into a
guardrail, flipped over the guardrail and fell forty feet off a
bridge into the Snake River, which was very shallow. I wondered if his
driving history included serving a mission in British Columbia?
Good
to know you are almost done with 'training'. Back in the day they just
gave you some copies of the Book of Mormon and said "Son, go and
baptize people!" Ultimately it is not hard. Get up, go out, work, work
some more, and then really work. The harder it gets, the harder you
work. You push back against discouragement and set backs by working
harder. Win the trust of the members without being overbearing, and
find creative ways to get
people involved in the process. Trust in the Lord and recognize that
he has a great design and knows all things and details. Natalie Sam
Fong gave a good talk in church, and stated that we must look for the
good in people. If we look for the good in people, then we will see
them as God sees them. This was profound. Especially, because she has
had some serious hardships, including raising a very very difficult
autistic child.
I
spent 2 hours operating on a man named Clifford's skull today. Why is this
relevant? Well, I have learned a great deal from Clifford. He
showed up
in my office 10 months ago, homeless, stinking, heavy with alcohol and
tobacco use. He had a huge infected tumor the size of a tennis ball
growing out of the side of his head. No insurance, no money (except to
buy alcohol and tobacco), nothing. He had been bounced from office to
office being passed along like a pass along card by people not wanting
to deal with this problem. Meanwhile the cancer had grown, and this is a
potentially fatal cancer. He is mildly handicapped. In a moment I
thought, just try to send this down the road. Make him an appointment
somewhere else even though you know that he cannot get there, and they
will require cash up front, which he does not have. But nonetheless, he
can just move along, and if he smokes cigarretes he is a fool and
deserves what he gets. And then I stopped, and I thought, "Jill
Wallentine Blotter did not raise you to be some spoiled, over paid
doctor in
a hurry, who is unwilling to try to rescue a soul, so get going you
pathetic wretch!" Well, I scheduled him for surgery that week. The
hospital said no, they need money up front, I told them I would never
do another insured patient again if they did not do this case for free.
I spent 9 hours removing cancer from his head and neck surgically. I
got him recovered after a week in the hospital. He needed radiation.
We helped arrange an apartment in Brigham City for him to live. Mom
went shopping and decked him out with a new wardrobe, including a
flannel fleece like I wear, that he has never taken off. I arranged
radiation treatments, the hospital refused, I threatened again. He got
radiation. The radiation killed the rest of the cancer, but it also
killed some skin on his skull, and I have been reconstructing that
gradually ever since. I gave him my last $10 to for gas to get home
after his procedure today.
I
have really never talked to anyone about Clifford, except Mom. The
office staff know him. The reason that I tell you that little story,
is because it is on my mind today, and it has been very very rewarding
for me personally to fight that battle for Clifford. And I have fought
it will every ounce of strength, money, resources, etc that I could
muster, just like he were my brother. I have realized the meaning of
the scripture 'insomuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me' and therefore, it is as if I possibly
tried to reach
out to the Savior himself. In doing so I have have been so richly
blessed that I cannot even comprehend, and the Lord protects and
prospers us as a family in every way imaginable.
You
spend every day on the same errand, and I am proud of you. Just know
that the Lord loves you, and as you reach for people, especially lowly
people, you are only following his example. He will open the windows
of heaven, now and in the future. Keep up the good work!
Love
Dad
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