Historic letter

Elder Blotter, of Haida Gwaii,

This letter is historic, because it is the final letter I will send to Elder Blotter of the Vancouver Canada Mission.  The sun is setting on your time there very quickly.  As of your next P-day after reading this letter, you will be traveling to the mission home, for the final chapter.   You will arrive at SLC international airport at 1:11 on June 11.  At 8:30 p.m. that same day President S Mario Durrant of the Hyde Park Stake will meet with you, interview you, and have you remove your name badge.  Then you become Josh once more, awkward and a little lost for a spell. 

The blessings will be eternal, even though the road has certainly been a challenge at times.  You have said many times in your letters that miracles do happen and I agree.  They can seem subtle, but the sum total of them is staggering.  I benefit from them all of the time in my work.   Thursday afternoon I was performing exploratory surgery for a tumour in a patients neck that was causing her great harm.  I could not find it, and she proved to have an anatomic abnormality found in less than 1% of the population.  Well, 4.5 hours into a 1.5 hour surgery, I thought, "Why not say a little prayer?"  So I did, and when I finally remembered that option I knew, and I mean I knew, that I would find it.  About 1 minute later I  reached my index finger down onto the top of her lung and felt a little round thing.  With great care I worked it out, and as fate would have it, she was then cured at that point.  The Lord turned me from a neck surgeon to a lung surgeon for just long enough to solve the problem. 

Last night a 7 year old came in with a bleeding tonsil.  At the beginning of anesthesia he vomited a gallon of blood mixed with stomach acid which was headed right for his lungs and can be fatal.  We scrambled.  I prayed.  Oxygen levels tanked and things looked very very bad for a spell and then suddenly they were okay.  Bleeding was quickly stopped, post op chest X ray showed no blood in the lungs and he is home eating popsicles right now instead of at the morgue.  I am not a spiritual giant.  I have flaws.  But when I petition the Lord, I petition with faith, and I receive miracles in my realm.  A deep part of my inner soul relates this to missionary work, and especially blessings that stem from faithful missionary service.  Even 26 years later.

Many are excited for your return.  We love you and are looking forward to having you back.  Go out there this week and 'leave it all on the field' so to speak, and take a few moments to soak in the final moments of the spiritual blessings of being a full time missionary.

Dad