Tom and Debbie's Mission Blog: 25 years Happily Weathering Storms of Life Together

Today we are celebrating 25 years of marriage. This has been an incredible journey, one that has grown more dear with each passing year. I can't say enough about this wonderful wife and the joy that we feel as we serve together as parents, grandparents, missionaries, ministers and in our Church callings and community responsibilities. We love being eternal companions. In the past seven weeks, as we have traveled together on the road to recovery of Debbie's heart failure, our love has intensified.

Completing 25 years of marriage

We have had a small celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary together this past weekend. We are leaving later this week for a visit back east. We will participate in our grandson, Timothy's, baptism. Then we will extend this trip to enjoy time in Washington D.C. and New York where we celebrated our honeymoon 25 years ago. More on that in the next blog.

For now, this has been our simple celebration. Since our anniversary fell on our stake conference Sunday, we did some celebrating on Saturday night and were spiritually fed by our leaders in our stake conference meetings. This is one of the great strengths of our marriage. We both strive to put God first in our lives. Once we do that other things fall into place. By prioritizing God in our marriage, our differences become strengths and tools as we together strive to serve God. This special weekend was filled with three sessions of Stake Conference and an annual devotional for the temple workers of the Jordan River Temple. As we participate in these activities together, our joy and love increases.

Together in our home sweet home, before going out to dinner

Eating out Chinese for the first time on Debbie's low sodium diet. They cooked the Cashew Chicken in low sodium soy sauce.

Then we stopped by the Jordan River Temple where we were married 25 years ago.

Photo with the entire temple behind us

We finished off our anniversary date with a carrot cake to share

Simple anniversary gifts, quality chocolate and a new book written on Compassion by our friend, Elder Ulisses Soares. We enjoy sharing each of these gifts with each other.

On our anniversary, in between stake conference sessions, I finally completed reading the Book of Mormon in German. This has been a labor of love that has taken more than a year. Debbie finished this on our mission, but I have been much slower. I started over last year before we went on our trip to Germany. I must say that my reading skills in German have increased and the truths of the Book of Mormon still touches my heart when reading in German.

The completion of the Book of Mormon in German. This app lets you read with both languages visible at the same time and translation ability for the German. This made it much easier to do.

Debbie's road to recovery from Heart Failure:

The biggest story of the past six weeks has been Debbie's progress in recovering from "heart failure". We have not had a miraculous healing experience, but the Lord has walked this path with us in a very personal way. In our Come Follow Me study, we were directed to a talk by Elder David A. Bednar. In this talk, Elder Bednar tells of a young couple who were facing cancer just a few weeks after their marriage. Elder Bednar challenged them to have faith not to be healed. This created much pondering on their part. As they went through this thought process, they came to this conclusion, "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 greater comfort and peace.”

As this topic was tender to me, it caused much pondering. I loved this answer. I know that Jesus Christ can heal Debbie. At the same time, we both feel incredible peace and comfort by accepting His will, knowing that He knows what is best for us eternally. The following comes from my Come Follow Me notes in our study of the miracles of the Savior two weeks ago and reflects how we have received our miracles.

This is a timely discussion as we treat Debbie’s “heart failure”. We would love a complete healing miracle on her behalf. However as we have prayed and Debbie has received blessings we have felt His hand in unmistakable ways, but not in total healing. We have felt clearly that He is totally aware of Debbie and her circumstances. As we have tried to see His hand in this process we have seen the following miracles:

Debbie has been blessed with peace and calm, contrary to her natural feelings of anxiety. This was specifically promised in two priesthood blessings. This included a spiritual experience in her prayers while in the hospital. This may be the most discernible miracle of all. There has been an amazing peace about both of us as the treatment of this illness has progressed.
We feel that we have been blessed with excellent medical care. Modern medicine is a miracle all by itself and has been revealed to bless all mankind, not just Debbie.
On our February 5 fast day many family and friends were fasting for Debbie. I wanted to do a full 24 hour fast also. Jacob had come and cooked for us on Saturday and we didn’t finish eating until 8:00 p.m. Therefore I fasted until 8:15 Sunday Night. Debbie also participated with very limited food intake. Our prayer together before breaking our fast was heartfelt and sincere. We felt strong reassurances from the Lord. One of Debbie’s challenges is an extremely low blood pressure. As we finished the prayer my mind went to the blood pressure, feeling that it would be a visible confirmation if it improved. Right after the prayer we took her blood pressure. It was 124/73 after being 94/67 earlier that day. It has still had its ups and downs since, but I felt a tingling through my body that the Lord accepted our fast and prayers at that time and was responding. The blood pressure has not been a major concern since.
We have had many miracles to see the Lord’s hand in guiding us to proper care on a timely basis. This includes:

Promptings to go to the initial visit at the Instacare which led us to the hospital and the correct healthcare.
Answers to prayers to get us scheduled quickly with specialists for tests and cardiac attention the following week, against earlier efforts to get us care 4 weeks later. (Earliest date was February 24 for an initial visit). This was accomplished by a special hospital coordinator.
Getting nighttime oxygen with another miraculous visit to our primary care physician the day after leaving the hospital.
Quick additional visits with specialists on February 14 and 17. This included starting her medication treatment the prior week.
Getting into a sleep evaluation appointment, scheduled for March 21 on February 28 in a clearly miraculous chain of events.
While I was writing this, Debbie came and told me that her heart monitor that she needs to wear for 30 days had not been sent due to the lack of insurance information. That was discouraging as we are clearly anxious to get the different elements of the treatment as soon as possible. It was supposed to be here by that Tuesday. The next morning Debbie was able to call the company and resolve the insurance issue. They responded with promising to FedEx the equipment to us, which they did. We received it two days later. Therefore, a significant delay was resolved in just a few days.

Strength from those close to her who have important insights. This includes her sister, LuAnn who spent her career as a nurse in the cardiology unit and her best friend from 50 years ago who went through a similar heart failure just a few years ago. These two have provided much calm and reassurance for Debbie.

As I compare our miracles to the lessons learned in the exercise below, we certainly feel God’s "Hesed" to us. He is blessing us spiritually as well as physically. He has reassured us that He looks at Debbie’s heart and her faithfulness with joy. During this process, Debbie has been blessed with sufficient strength to serve in temple ordinances, family history work, ministering to others, serving in her mission and our new activities committee calling and to our family even though her physical strength has been limited. We know that we are being blessed in a way that is unique to our circumstances.

The following is from Debbie's journal in the one if the scheduling miracles noted above. It reflects in detail what we have experienced over and over again.

February 27, 2023:

"I have to record a miracle that happened today. I called the sleep institute today to schedule an appointment for a sleep test. The soonest I could get in was March 21st. I was pretty discouraged about that. When I told Tom about the appointment I had scheduled for the sleep evaluation he commented that he needed to call and find out when his annual checkup was for his sleep apnea. When he called he found out he didn't have an appointment scheduled. His initial thought was to switch his appointment or let me go to his appointment which would be much sooner than March 21. They told him that he could come in tomorrow at 1:40 pm. She discovered that appointment time was for a "new patient" so Tom asked if I could be the new patient and take that appointment! She said that would work. She set it up and canceled the March 21st appointment. That was a miracle! A few minutes later someone called from the sleep institute to let me know that there had been a mistake and that the provider had a meeting he had to attend at my scheduled time. He asked if we could change the appointment. I thought, "Oh, no, now we will probably be back to the March 21st appointment date." He said he would check with the provider to see when he would be available to see me.When he came back on the phone he asked me if 11:00 tomorrow would be okay. I was elated! That was the second miracle! Now we won't have to worry about getting done with my appointment with Dr. Clayton at 1:00 pm. God is great - God is Good - God knows and loves me!"

We have spent these past six weeks in multiple appointments each week, sometimes multiple appointments on the same day. This has also included our annual physicals, dental and vision appointments. Debbie has started cardio rehab and is now using a heart monitor for the next 30 days to monitor her heart rhythm. The doctors have been increasing her medication while monitoring her kidney health. Blood pressure has not been a problem!

New heart failure medications. These will probably be used the remainder of Debbie's life. How grateful we are that God has revealed medications in our day to help with heart issues.

The heart monitor that Debbie is wearing for 30 days so that they can better understand her heart rhythm

Debbie working out at the Cardio Rehab with them monitoring her heart

Debbie's second day on the tread mill. This will help her regain the endurance that she has lost.

After several visits with the heart failure clinic, the doctors have told us that there is no reason that Debbie could not travel. When questioned about the oxygen that Debbie is receiving at night, the doctor said not to worry, for oxygen should not be a problem at the lower elevation that we will be at.

So this past Sunday we fasted to know if it would be safe to travel. Receiving no stupors or concerns, Debbie agreed to go for for 6 days instead of the originally scheduled 12 days. However, as we tried to modify our already paid for and scheduled air fare, we found that it would cost us an additional $650 in airfare to make changes. That is approximately our cost for those additional six days in hotel rooms. So in the end, we have kept our original schedule and will be leaving this week for Philadelphia, Lehighton, New York City and Washington D.C.

Temple and Family History Experiences:

Last month there were significant adjustments made to the presentation of ordinances in the temple. The following journal entry shares my thoughts from a few weeks ago.

February 22, 2023

Just over two weeks ago, on February 6, 2023, a new version of the temple endowment was released in all of the temples worldwide. This was done without prior notice except to temple presidencies and a few individuals in the temple department. We heard from our 92 year old friend, Joyce Crosby, that day, that the endowment was changed. she said it was more Christ focused. As I arrived at my temple shift on Thursday morning, I learned new details. That same day, I was privileged to attend the new presentation. I loved it! The word has spread and for the last two weeks, all temple endowment sessions have been filled to near capacity with limited appointments available. I was able to return with Debbie the next Wednesday and we enjoyed it together. On Thursday, after my shift I was able to attend for a third time.

Without disclosing more than I should, let me share what happened this morning. In our daily Temple Operations Division devotional, our senior manager played a clip from President Nelson’s October 2021 Conference talk which told us almost a year and a half ago what was coming. Debbie and I were in awe of the prophet’s words which have now been fulfilled. The following is from His conference talk which gives all the disclosure that I will share. I am so thankful for living prophets and apostles to guide us in these latter days.

“The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have often asked the Lord if there are better ways to take the blessings of the temple to His faithful children. We seek guidance regularly on how to ensure worldwide accuracy and consistency of temple instruction, covenants, and ordinances despite differences in language and culture.

Under the Lord’s direction and in answer to our prayers, recent procedural adjustments have been made. He is the One who wants you to understand with great clarity exactly what you are making covenants to do. He is the One who wants you to experience fully His sacred ordinances. He wants you to comprehend your privileges, promises, and responsibilities. He wants you to have spiritual insights and awakenings you’ve never had before. This He desires for all temple patrons, no matter where they live.

Current adjustments in temple procedures, and others that will follow, are continuing evidence that the Lord is actively directing His Church. He is providing opportunities for each of us to bolster our spiritual foundations more effectively by centering our lives on Him and on the ordinances and covenants of His temple. When you bring your temple recommend, a contrite heart, and a seeking mind to the Lord’s house of learning, He will teach you.”

After my mother passed away last year, all of the temple ordinances that she had reserved were unreserved within Family Search. Since then I have tried to find an easy way to re-reserve these ordinances and share them with our relatives. I discovered a new Family Group concept within Family Search. I have now created two" family groups" for our German ancestors, one for my father's ancestors and the other for Debbie's father's ancestors. I have invited others to be part of these groups, giving them the opportunity to all access the same ordinances and to share and reserve from these groups. It appears that the Lord has provided a solution to the challenge that we have had, better than anything we had ever used before. Currently we have 33 relatives participating in one of these groups with more to be added and hundreds of ordinances that we can all work on. This has been a great blessing.

Right now, Debbie is on medical leave from her ordinance worker responsibilities so she has gotten back into preparing sources for Family Search for the hundreds of images of records that we were able to acquire in our trip to Germany last year. Our evenings have also become filled with organizing many of these records into complete families. This has been a great joy and satisfaction for us! Our focus has been mostly on the hundreds of relatives from the village of Tennstedt, Germany.

We also found baptisms for the dead opportunities scarce in the nearby temples. I finally found one in an early morning (6:00 a.m.) on a school day. Fortunately, our six grandchildren close by agreed to participate on February 15, including our grandson Jacob Digerness who was participating for the first time. What a joy it is to be with these faithful grandchildren and see the work for our ancestors moving forward.

Early morning photo after completing 35 baptisms in the Jordan River Temple

Baptism for the living:

In the first six months of this year we have four grandchildren turning 8 and getting baptized. The first was Evelyn who was baptized by her brother, Joseph, on February 4. This was a wonderful occasion. We are proud of the progress of all six of our grandchildren in this family. Evelyn was the last of them to be baptized.

Evelyn, with her brother, Joseph

Add in two happy grandparents

This one is of the complete family, now all baptized

Our next baptism stop is in Pennsylvania, where their youngest and sixth child will also be baptized.

Valentines Day:

We celebrated Valentine's Day with Debbie going to the Heart Rhythm clinic. I thought this would be fitting to share with the heart connection on this special day.

Our first visit to the Heart Clinic

We also celebrated with flowers and a heart full of low sodium chocolates

Birthdays and Special Occasions:

As always, we enjoy birthdays every month, almost every week. In these past weeks we got caught up not only on birthdays but also a few Christmas presents. Our first stop (without photos) was with Cherish, the youngest daughter of Camila. We also left presents for Kaisha and Isake who had birthdays about 5 weeks later. We gave each of them a photo frame of photos and about 50 photos of their mother and some of their father. They had asked for copies of the photos that were shown on the memorabilia table at Camila's funeral. We were pleased with their response, especially Cherish, who was elated. On the same day we celebrated the birthday and Christmas for Ariana, Ammon's daughter. These were our late January birthdays, the others followed:

Ariana turning 9, enjoying her birthday money and her Christmas present

Ashton, turning 12

Haivyn turning 2

Quinn and Rylee turning 2 (in Texas)

In between the birthdays of our 2 year old grandchildren was my birthday. As normal, Debbie and many others made it special:

Yes, I turned 70, finally caught up with my wife

My presents, including two birthday suits

Three of Pollyanna's daughters singing a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday to their Grandpa

On March 3, we celebrated Ben's 39th birthday with him. Before taking him out to dinner, we went to visit Camila's grave, since her tombstone had been laid just a few weeks prior. In between we had a major snowstorm, so it was a challenge to find. Thanks to Ben's persistence and snow clearing boots, we finally found and cleared the snow off of her headstone.