Sister Lekias emailed us at about 1:00 am this morning. She informed us that Elder Tibbitts' lump was a benign tumor and the area had become infected. She also let us know that last week, when they all thought a biopsy had been done, the Dr. had actually removed the entire tumor. So, no more going under the knife!
Elder Tibbitts is on a strong antibiotic to clear up the infection and will see the doctor in a weeks time to make sure things are healing up well. He is in good spirits and doing well for the circumstances.
Thank you to all our family and friends for their love, concern, prayers and fasting in behalf of our family and especially for Elder Tibbitts.
We will be forever grateful to our Father in Heaven, our Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and to all of you!!!
We wanted to share something with all of you, that was said by our dear friend, Dan Hedlund.
Dan and Melanie Hedlund
Dan has suffered over the years with cancer.
During a particularly hard time, after being diagnosed with cancer again, he said this:
"Growing up as Latter-day Saints, it was common to go to church and hear the phrase,'every trial God gives us is for our benefit.' Well, to be honest, I could not see how this was benefitting me!
So, I began to pray for clarity and for the Lord to help me understand why this recurrence of the cancer was happening. One day as I was reading in the New Testament I received my answer. I read the account of Christ and His Apostles on the sea when a tempest arose. Fearing the boat would capsize, the disciples went to the Savior and asked, 'Master, carest thou not that we perish?' This is exactly how I felt! Carest thou not that I have cancer? Carest thou not that we want to start a family? But as I read on in the story, I found my answer. The Lord looked at them and said, 'O ye of little faith,' and He stretched for His hand and calmed the waters.
In that moment I had to ask myself, 'Do I really believe this?' Do I really believe He calmed the waters that day? Or is it just a nice story to read about?' The answer is: I do believe, and because I know He calmed the waters, I instantly knew He could heal me. Up until this point, I had a hard time reconciling the need for my faith in Christ with the inevitability of His will. I saw them as two separate things, and sometimes I felt that one contradicted the other. 'Why should I have faith if His will ultimately is what will prevail,' I asked? After this experience, I knew that having faith--at least in my circumstance--was not necessarily knowing that He would heal me, but that He could heal me. I had to believe that He could, and then whether it happened was up to Him.
As I allowed those two ideas to coexist in my life, focused faith in Jesus Christ and complete submission to His will, I found great comfort and peace. It has been so remarkable to see the Lord's hand in our lives. Things have fallen into place, miracles have happened, and we continually are humbled to see God's plan for us unfold."
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