Concerns about "Donald"

This is Nathan's Dad. This blog post for Nathan is a couple of weeks late, due to concerns about the tumor in his leg he has nicknamed "Donald", and communication we have had with Nathan, and Sister Hansen, his mission President's wife.

With all of the concern, Nathan did not send a group email out on March 20th. Instead, we have exchanged emails and chats about medical concerns and had a second phone call with Sister Hansen.

From our understanding, due to misinformation Nathan was getting from a local doctor, and miscommunication with his mission president, Nathan was under the impression that he had an immediate decision to make - about whether to return home from his mission, so he could get the tumor removed from his leg, or to stay in the mission and risk the tumor growing to a point that he could snap the bone in his leg just by walking on it, and worse complications.

If he were to return home, he told us, he would likely not be able to return to Bolivia after recovery from the surgery, and possibly might not have been able to return to full time missionary service anywhere because he only has 6 month left on his mission.

Fortunately, thanks to priesthood blessings and other divine intervention, things seem to have been sorted out. Nathan was promised that he would be able to bear with the pain in his leg if he chose to stay in Bolivia, and that "all would be well". Apparently the pain had been pretty intense, and Nathan has been through a series of changing pain medications trying to find the right combination of meds that will help him handle the pain.

At the same time, we learned from Sister Hansen that in fact, the tumor was growing very slowly and there should be no reason to be concerned about the rate of growth. She and President Hansen have been in communication with an area mission doctor and with a doctor(s) in the United States, where Nathan's tumor has been carefully diagnosed and scrutinized.

Apparently there is a prevalence, in local Bolivia medicine of wanting to do lots of "injections and operations", and Nathan's personal communication with a local doctor was not consistent with what the other doctors, in consultation, had determined.

Elder Heaps should be able to finish his mission. There will likely be no operation needed, but If one were needed, he should be able to wait until after he returns home.

Words cannot express this father's gratitude for a son who mostly keeps pain private, who understands true happiness through service and sharing the Gospel, and who has been an inspiration to his family.

I am especially grateful for a loving Heavenly Father, who sends trials and challenges because He loves us and because He is "creating a masterpiece" in each one of us.

I can see the His amazing work all around me in a son on a mission, in the rest of my family, and in the people I work and serve with every day!