Rochester 1st Ward
I came to visit my daughter Amy Ettore and her family for Amy’s birthday at the end of July and heard about President Foote’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon. I decided to participate in the challenge beginning with Alma, since I had not read the last half recently. Shortly after starting my reading, Amy discovered a suspicious area on my most recent mammogram, and within two weeks I had been diagnosed with locally invasive HER2 positive breast cancer and had undergone a mastectomy. During that time and the following week, every day seemed to bring more bad news. An MRI showed the tumor as much larger than originally anticipated, and the HER2 status made it an aggressive cancer. Throughout that time, everything I was reading in Alma was encouraging me to have faith and telling me that I could be healed if my faith was great enough and if it was God’s will. On one particularly dark day, I was reading the recounting of the Israelites perishing because they were not willing to look at the staff that had been raised in their midst. I decided at that point to put my faith in Christ and pray for healing.
When the final pathology report came back a week after surgery, we were amazed and elated. While the tumor had been fairly large, most of it was cancer in situ, which is not considered life-threatening, while only two small clusters of invasive cells were found. That meant at this time, I did not have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation. I am so grateful for the challenge to read the Book of Mormon, for the support and wisdom it provided me in my time of need, and for the gift of healing I was granted in this instance.