Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello everyone. Welcome to FollowHIM Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each Come, Follow Me lesson. John, we’re in the last lesson of the Book of Ether, Ether 12 through 15, and I have a story for you. I think you’ve heard it, but for those who haven’t, this is the story of all stories. President Nelson told this story about when he was a heart surgeon, a very good heart surgeon. He said he met with a stake patriarch down in Southern Utah and the man had a heart problem. This was 40 years ago, he says, during the pioneering days of heart surgery. He said, “This saintly soul was hurting because of his failing heart. He pleaded for my help.” He said, “We did extensive evaluations and found that he had two faulty valves.” I didn’t even know my heart had valves, but okay.

  01:00 He said, “One of these we could fix with surgery, the other, we couldn’t do it. We could not fix it even with surgery.” He said, “So I didn’t advise him to have surgery because I can only fix half your problem. You’re still going to have this problem and now you’re going to be recovering from heart surgery.” He received this news, President Nelson says, of course, with great disappointment because that means he has a shortened life. He kept coming back, finally, President Nelson says, in desperation, he spoke to me, “Dr. Nelson, I have prayed for help and have been directed to you. The Lord will not reveal to me how to repair that second valve, but he can reveal it to you. Your mind is prepared.” Then he said something, John, that no friend should ever say to another friend, “If you will operate on me, the Lord will tell you what to do.” If someone ever says that to you, say, “I refuse.” I can see a missionary companionship going, “Let’s not go to the hospital. If you operate-

John Bytheway: 02:01 I’ll care of it.

Hank Smith: 02:02 … the Lord will tell you what to do.” He said, “Please perform the surgery.” President Nelson said, “His great faith had a profound effect on me. How could I turn him away?” I’m thinking, easy. Just tell him, “I can’t do it.” But he said, “We both prepared for that fateful day. I prayed over and over again, but still did not know what to do for his leaking tricuspid valve.” Of course, leaking tricuspid valve, John, that’s a pretty easy fix. He said, “Even as we started the operation,” his assistant said, “What are you going to do for that?” And he said to the surgeon, can you imagine? “I don’t know.” I mean, this is incredible.

  02:47 He says, “We began the operation, after relieving the obstruction of the first valve, we exposed the second valve.” This is the one he doesn’t know how to fix. “We found it to be intact but so dilated, it couldn’t function as it should.” His exact words. “While examining this valve, a message was distinctly impressed upon my mind, ‘Reduce the circumference of the ring.’ I announced that message to my assistant, ‘The valve tissue will be sufficient if we can effectively reduce the ring towards its normal size.'”

  03:25 And then he explains a little heart surgery to us, he says, “How was I supposed to do this? You couldn’t have a little belt that goes around it like you would on a pair of pants. It’d be like the saddle on a horse, you couldn’t cinch it up.” Now, John, this is incredible. “Then a picture came vividly to my mind showing how the stitches should be placed. A picture came to my mind to make a pleat here and a tuck there would accomplish the desired objective.” President Nelson says, “I still remember that mental image, complete with dotted lines, where the sutures, the stitches should be placed. The repair was completed as diagrammed in my mind. We tested the valve and found the leak to be reduced remarkably. My assistant said, ‘It’s a miracle.'”

  04:22 John, do you know what heart surgery entails? They use a saw, like an actual electric saw. Just incredible. Well, Ether chapter 12, John, is about faith. And this one specifically, I know you know it, Ether 12:6, faith is things which are hoped for, not seen. Dispute not because you see not. For you receive no witness until after you start the surgery, until after the trial of your faith.

John Bytheway: 04:54 A lot of faith to say, “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’m going to open this guy up anyway.”

Hank Smith: 05:00 Now, we should probably say, do not try this at home.

John Bytheway: 05:03 Yeah.

Hank Smith: 05:05 When President Nelson said, his mind was so prepared, that’s because he studied and went to medical school and had done this thing many times. But absolute incredible faith to move forward on a prompting to say, “I do not know how this is going to work out, but the Lord knows what he’s doing.” What is that that Nephi said, John?

John Bytheway: 05:26 “I was led by the spirit not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.” Yeah.

Hank Smith: 05:30 Not knowing what was going to happen. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast, it’s called FollowHIM. We’re with Dr. Doug Benson this week, walking through these chapters. He’s a psychologist and he gives us so many helps for regulating our emotions and helping our relationships. You’re going to love it. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. Then come back here next week, we’ll do another FollowHIM Favorites.