Rasmania 101: An update on Roy's cancer.

I'll start with the difficult stuff: Roy does have cancer, as I mentioned last week. His PSA count is fairly high, and out of the 12 samples taken to biopsy, 6 of them were cancerous. It's pretty certain he'll have to have his prostate removed. The only question is, when? They are doing some more tests on the biopsies that have already been taken to see how quickly the cancer is growing. If it's slow, then Roy will probably wait until summer ends so he can enjoy boating, camping, etc. If it's faster growing, then we'll schedule surgery for late May or June. To be on the safe side, we're having a 2nd opinion. The appointment for that is on Tuesday.

Caitlyn had her MRI on Tuesday and she definitely has arthritis in her jaw. Now that this has been determined, we can discuss treatment with her doctor. We have an appointment also on Tuesday to discuss her treatment.

On St. Patrick's Day I went out to lunch with my good friend, Jamie. We decided that since the restaurant was noisy we would take it to go, so we placed our order and sat down to wait. Jamie saw someone she knew and began talking to her. I was sitting by a pretty lady who was obviously waiting for her party to arrive. She was thin and fashionably dressed, and I thought to myself she probably had money. I turned to her and told her I liked her blouse a lot, and since it was green, I asked if she was wearing it in honor of St. Patrick's Day. She immediately smiled and engaged in conversation with me. She told me she was meeting her brother and his wife and they were richer than ________ (not a swear word, she just didn't have a good adjective to describe how rich they were). She said, "They have like 5 kitchens in their one home, as an example." She confided that her blouse was a "hand-me-down" from a friend and she chose it because it was green (for the holiday), she was wondering if she was okay to wear it out to lunch with this rich brother. I told her she looked great and she didn't need to worry. I share this story because it made my day that she was so willing to have an honest, happy conversation, with me, a stranger. She was willing to share her smile and I left the restaurant feeling great. By the time we got our food and left, my friend had returned and entered into the conversation as well. When we walked out I said, "I liked her." Jamie said she was thinking the same thing. It's amazing how being friendly can make people feel so good. It's true in the reverse as well, an unkind comment or even a negative look can ruin someone's day.

The group Vocal Point from BYU came to the Bountiful Regional Center to do a concert for the Young Single Adults Stake. Roy was an usher, I got to wear an usher badge, too, but I didn't end up helping. I just visited with an acquaintance I knew nearly 40 years ago, from High School.

The picture below is a "selfie" taken at the concert.

I think the little girl behind us Photo Bombed on purpose.

Roy and I went to a Book of Mormon Conference down in Utah County on Saturday. It was put on by Book of Mormon Central. There were a lot of interesting presentations, but my favorite was when they awarded Jack Welch the "Lehi and Sariah" award for contributions made to Book of Mormon study. They showed this 10 minute video, and it was amazing. I have known about the literary form Chiasmus in the Book of Mormon for many years, but I had never heard the story of how it was discovered. This video tells the story. It was very uplifting to see how the Lord led this young man, Jack Welch, to discover that this literary form, known among Bible scholars, was present in the Book of Mormon. Watching this video is well worth 10 minutes of your time. If you haven't heard of Chiasmus, then you'll learn something.