Dick and Sharon Palmer

Many years ago my family was fortunate to live in the same community of Denver, Colorado as Dick and Sharon Palmer and their kids. At the time I was heavily involved in scouting and got to take the boys on many hikes and camps. Dick was a avid supporter and friend. Years went by and we moved into different digs but didn't lose contact with the Palmers. Dick in turn retired and with his wife embarked on a series of LDS missions.

I also would very much like to serve a LDS mission with my wife but that remains somewhat in doubt given my health issues. My target mission would be in Kiribati, Tarawa. Kiribati is a small pacific island made famous by the book "The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific" by Maarten Troost. (The book has nothing to do with Cannibals or Sex but it makes an engaging title.) The Church operates the Moroni High School which is one of five schools on the island. The assignment would be to teach institute of religion classes and help out in any other manner. If I improve this summer, I'm going to attempt to apply. LDS missions are unlike other service opportunities in that we pay our own way for a period of eighteen months to two years and consider it a great honor and privilege to do so.

Anyway, this is what my good friends the Palmer have to say:

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Dear Ken and Kathy,

I have been meaning to send you a note for a while. I could say that I have really been busy with family, church, etc. etc. and etc. but the truth is I have been at kind of a loss for words for some dear old friends. Now I am not saying that you are old or anything. I am just saying that our friendship goes back a bit. I would like to point out that I kind of felt a little short changed by not having you in our neighborhood and ward family longer. However it has been good to have kept in touch over the years.

It was fun to have your call a number of months back to talk about our senior missions and your interest in serving. As I have reflected on our discussion and the current turn of events it has reminded me of how fast life changes and that we don’t always know what the Lords plan for us is. It also reminded me of when we submitted our mission papers. There was an understanding before we signed the application form that we would be willing to serve anywhere the Lord needed us. I guess that is a little like our life here, if we will serve with all of our strength as the Lord needs us and if that happens to be here, there or where ever, we and our family will be blessed.

Reading your blog has been very interesting. I have learned a lot more about cancer, its effect, its treatment. But even more than that, I have learned more about two good friends and their exceptional strength and faith in time of challenge.

I do know that our knowledge and testimony of our Father In Heavens plan helps us in easy and hard times. I was reminded of when I had my heart attack in 1992. I was taken unconscious, by ambulance from my office to the hospital. During one of my wakeful moments with tubes and wires running all over me and feeling rather lousy, I heard a doctor comment at my bed talking to someone, “if he makes it through the night, he has a chance”. That shook me but I was amazed at how calm I was. I felt if it was my time my family was well provided for, I would miss a lot of things but I had no fear of death or of life after. My knowledge of the plan sustained me.

Another reference in your blog caused me to laugh. It referred to some scouting activity. This reminded me of a lot of scouting activities, camps, hikes, advancement meeting etc. I was so glad that you were the scoutmaster and I was in a supporting role. For planned hikes It was always exciting to see if you and all of the scouts would end up at an agreed upon meeting point and when. They were fun times. You had a good positive influence on my boys as well as many others that I know of. THANKS

I hope that it would be alright for us to drop in when we happen to be over in Salt Lake City sometime.

Love and Prayers

Dick and Sharon Palmer