Day 6

--Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, speaking of his mother:
"... she would “call on the Lord with perfect confidence when special blessings were needed.” In her prayers, she would speak to the Lord of her covenants with Him, “almost reminding the Lord that we had paid our tithes and offerings, that the desired blessing was, as nearly as we could judge, a righteous desire, that we were serving in our various callings to the best of our ability, and that now we were laying hold on the Lord’s promises. I can’t communicate the sincerity and the fervor of those pleas. Or the sincerity of the way she lived. … Because my mother had no doubts about the Lord’s reality and his ability to answer her prayers, I haven’t either. … This is a very personal thing to talk about and I don’t very often, because it’s hard to do without sounding overconfident. But I would be scared to death to try and undertake something without asking for the Lord’s help, so I always pray for that help, and I’ve never failed to get it.”

"How often have we prayed something like, "O Lord, be with cousin Billy now in a special way"? Have we stopped to consider what it is we're requesting? Imagine that you are a parent who is preparing to leave your children with a babysitter. Would you dream of saying, "O Betsy, I ask you now that you would be with my children in a special way?" No way. You would say, "Betsy, the kids need to be in bed by 9 pm. They can have one snack before their baths, and please make sure they finish their homework. You can reach us at this number if there's any problem. Any questions before we go?" We are very specific with our requests and instructions for our babysitters. We want them to know specifics. It should be no different with prayer."
--David Jeremiah

Sherri has asked for everyone to be very specific in their prayers right now for Natalee. These are the things that she would like us to pray for:

1. That the tumor will start gelling together so that when the surgeons go in to take it out it can be removed cleanly
2. That the surgeons will be in good health and sound mind during the surgery
3. That the tumor will stop growing
4. That surgery could be scheduled for Friday to get the tumor out as soon as possible

Now that the shock and numbness of the diagnosis are starting to wear off, Sherri says that she is feeling great comfort from the comments on the blog and that Natalee really appreciates this too. She feels like the ability to be able to read and reread the uplifting thoughts and prayers is helping to their burden.

No word yet from the surgeons on a possible date for surgery, but will post it here as soon as we know.