We Finally Have Answers and Surgery is Scheduled!

I just wanted to update everyone on how Kayla is doing. She had to return home early from her mission after 1 year of serving when she started having trouble swallowing food and difficulty breathing. She went to 4 hospitals in Brazil, saw multiple doctors, had throat scans and an endoscopy and no one could find out what was wrong. In the meantime she lost 26 lbs. Luckily she had gained 15 lbs when she got to Brazil to help cushion the drastic weight loss. The last time she was able to swallow any solid food was Jan 1. Since then she has been living on a liquid diet consisting of protein shakes, broth, drinkable yogurt, smoothies etc. Her mission president felt inspired to send her home to find out what the problem was and get it resolved. We picked her up at the airport on a Friday afternoon then went to Tropical Smoothie for lunch since it was the only place she could eat anything. After drinking a small amount of her smoothie she said it felt like the breath had been knocked out of her and it was difficult for her to breathe. We went to the stake president's office where she was released as a missionary. It was so painful for her to remove her name tag. She wanted more than anything to still be serving as a missionary in Brazil. We went straight to the ER after she was released. We prayed for the doctors to be guided and inspired to know how to help her. After a few hours and lots of tests and scans they knew what the problem was. The ER doctor came in and told us there was a mass in her abdomen the size of a baseball. We later found out that mass was actually a tumor the size of a cantaloupe. It is impressive Kayla is hiding it so well in her small frame! Another ER doctor came in and told us he was surprised the Dr. that ordered the scan that found the tumor ordered that particular scan. He said based on her symptoms it is not a test he would have ordered but we believe our prayers were heard and the Dr. was inspired to order the test to find the tumor. They admitted Kayla into the hospital that night for more tests and scans. She didn't even get to sleep in her own bed her first night home from her mission or see her dog which she was pretty sad about. They released her Sat afternoon and told us to come back for a biopsy on Monday. Many people fasted and prayed for her on Sunday including our ward, family members, friends and Kayla's mission for which we were very grateful! She had the biopsy on Monday. They told us we wouldn't have results until Thursday or Friday. It was so hard to wait not knowing if the tumor was benign or not. Luckily with the help of Kayla's uncle who works with the pathologists and Kayla's friends dad who is partners with the oncologist that saw Kayla in the hospital they were able to get the results pushed through sooner and the oncologist called Tuesday to tell us the tumor was BENIGN! We wept with joy and gratitude. They referred Kayla to a surgeon up north who specializes in tumor removal from the abdomen. Apparently she's one of the best in the state. We had a consult appointment with her last Tuesday. We were very impressed with her and again feel the Lord directed us to her. She took over an hour with us explaining what the tumor was and how the best way to remove it was. It is a ganglioneuroma tumor which is very very rare but is more prone to be caused in young people. She is the one who told us it is actually the size of a cantaloupe and probably weighs 5 to 10 lbs. Her brother was kind enough to give the tumor a name for Kayla. He named it Flavio. It appears to be attached to her diaphragm but no other organs although she did say it would have a blood source coming from somewhere. She is going to have a pathology board review the biopsy so she knows exactly what to expect when she removes the tumor. She is also going to have another surgeon available to assist her as well as a thoracic surgeon on standby in case they have problems with her lung collapsing since the tumor is so close to her lung. If that were to happen the thoracic surgeon would put a chest tube in. We are praying that won't happen and that all will go well without any complications. The surgery will be done at the Huntsman Cancer Center on March 4. She will have to stay in the hospital 3-5 days but should make a full recovery and be able to return to finish serving a mission 8 weeks after the surgery. She would love to go back to Brazil but it will depend on being able to get her visa renewed etc. She said mostly she just wants to have her name tag back on and would be happy to finish the remainder of her mission wherever the Lord needs her. She has a good attitude and is in good spirits. She is enjoying spending time with her new nephew Holden and her family while she patiently waits for Flavio's removal. We appreciate all of you and the fasting and prayers that have been sent up in her behalf. Please keep those prayers coming. We need them and can definitely feel them. They have carried us thus far in this journey.

Love, Laurel

Coming home for medical treatment

Prayers please, Kayla will be returning from her mission to Brazil on Friday. She has only been out a year and is very sad to be leaving her mission and the people of Brazil that she loves so much. She has been having some health struggles. 4 months ago she started having trouble swallowing. She is always positive and not one to complain. The problem progressively got worse but she just kept going and didn't say much about it. She had a scope done on her throat and some other tests and they gave her some medicine that helped for awhile but about a month ago it got to the point she couldn't swallow any food. She has been living on protein drinks since then and been to the hospital in Brazil multiple times where she had many tests including an endoscopy but they have not been able to find out what the problem is. She has lost 26 lbs. She has also recently started having episodes where it is difficult for her to breathe. We didn't receive her usual email on Monday and we were very worried. Her mission president called us that night telling us that day she had been sitting on the curb having trouble breathing and feeling like she was going to pass out so they took her to the hospital. She wasn't able to email us because she had been in the hospital all day that day. She hasn't wanted to say much and didn't want to worry us but it has now gotten serious enough she needs to come back to the U.S. to get medical care and find out what the problem is. The only thing they know for sure is she can't swallow anything solid and her stomach is full of inflammation but they don't know why. We are hoping to get her better quickly so she can return and continue to serve. Thank you in advance for you love, support and prayers.

Laurel

Emergency Transfer

Hello everyone!

I hope all of you are doing fantastic! A lot of changes happened this week! My companion ended up having to go home to take care of some health problems and I couldn't be in Aruja alone so I was emergency transferred! I'm now in a trio in Vila Galvao. I was actually really sad to leave Aruja...I really loved the members, our investigators, mountains, horses etc. so I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to go back there. My new companions are Sister Torres (my best friend from the CTM) and sister Santos, they are both Brazilians and I just love them so much! I have no idea how long I'm going to stay here or where I'm going to go. But that's pretty much what happened with me this week. I don't have too much time but I'll give a better update next week. Love you guys.

Love sister Peine

Aruja!!

Hello everyone this week was a good week. I learned a lot and I am loving being here in Arujá, the members are sooooo amazing and THERE ARE HORSES AND MOUNTAINS HERE!!! I don't have much time but I will send some pics that show a little of what we did this week! Love you all and I promise the next email will be better! amo todos vocês boa semana e beijos!!!!
Love, Sister Peine

Transferred

Hello my people!! I love you all and I hope you're doing great! So this week was wild. I don't remember if I said it or not last week but it was transfer week last week and I was transferred to Aruja! I was in the city in my last area and Aruga is very different, it's in the interior of our mission. THERE ARE HORSES AND MOUNTAINS here. They are tropical mountains but none the less a mountain is a mountain! I was so happy to see the cows and horses I got a little teary eyed, I was so excited. I also got my new companion that will be my daughter in the mish (the fam is growing) fresh from the CTM. Her name is sister Meio and she is from Fortaleza Brasil. This week has been a good learning experience. I also am loving the area. We are doing what they call opening an area which is when both missionaries are new to the area and both missionaries have no idea where anything is. The map has become one of my new best friends. The members here also help so much, holy cow they are amazing! Irmao Januario has gone out with us a couple of times and showed us a whole bunch of our area and where the members live which has been SUPER helpful and everyone in this ward is just excited about missionary work so I'm just pumped! We also found a bunch of people to teach this week who are awesome! They are so funny and we are already buddies! This area also has tons of hills, giant hills... but I think walking up them all day everyday builds character so tudo bem! But really it's not bad, you get used to it pretty quick! The area is super beautiful and the field is truly white and ready to harvest here in Aruja. I'm just happy to be working in the field. This week I was studying in Alma 5 when Alma basically is calling the people unto repentance and he asks them if they died tomorrow if they would be ready and then says how the Lord is sending them an invitation that is to come unto him, come unto Christ saying how his merciful arms are open for us until the perfect day that we will be able to hug our Savior who's arms are open unto us because we repented and tried to be more like him! So I hope you are all coming unto Christ especially with the new "Come Follow Me" curriculum that the church has sent out. I was thinking about it this week and how the prophet is truly called of God to receive revelation for all of us. Because we have our spiritual body and our physical body. We feed our physical bodies every single day because if not we are going to get weak and probably a little grumpy because we are hungry. It's the same with our spiritual body. If we only ate food on Sunday we are not going to be very happy campers the rest of the week! Just like with our spiritual body if we only study and feel the spirit on Sunday how are we going to have the light of Christ throughout the week and feel the joy that the gospel brings! Our spirits will become weak and even a little grumpy just like our physical body without food. We need to feast upon the words of Christ like it says in 2 Nep 32:3. Now we even have an organized study that the church (Lord) has given us to help us feed our spirit a little every single day! The church of Jesus Christ is perfect because it's his church. Man, I just love Jesus Christ and I know he loves all of us because he gave us a loving prophet to guide us and soooo many other things. I hope you're all being spiritually fed every single day and lighting the world with the light of Christ. Love you all. Amo todos voces e uma otima samana para todos.

Beijos
Sister Peine

MERRY CHRISTMAS, FELIZ NATAL, FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!

So ths week President Miller called me asking if we could take in another sister because a sister had to go home because she was super sick and left her companion companionless. So of course we said yes and picked Sister Amorim up in the mission office Tuesday morning. She will be staying with us until the end of the transfer and I'm super excited! This week was a great one. A lot of people that we are teaching came to church and we also took the Lord's recent convert, Matheus to the temple, it was so much fun. The temple is truly incredible. I have like no more time but this week was a good one, also shout out to mom I got the Christmas package and I have been happily eating fun dip, candies and butter mints in the streets of Brazil all week and my comps loved the lights! Love you momma! Hope you all have a great week and a very merry Christmas remembering our Savior Jesus Christ, the best gift that our Heavenly Father gave to us. I love Him and I am so so so grateful for the atonement in my life and that through him we can all always become a better person. Merry CHRISTmas to all of you love you lots!
Love, Sister Peine