For Tina Litster, the Plan of Salvation has helped her cope with Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that will shorten her life.

After being diagnosed in January of 2024, she said that she “felt confidence in God’s plan and eternal promises.”

“Mostly I am cheerful and part of it is that I have been blessed with a cheerful disposition. But I also work really, really hard to do healthy things. I exercise and try to eat right. Sleep is really important to me, and I do what the doctors tell me to do,” she said.

She’s been through surgeries, chemotherapy, a stem cell transplant, isolation, and depression. She still has chemo once a month and takes chemo pills every day.

“I’m doing the best with the body that I have and the mind that I have. But I am really focused on the things of eternity,” she says.

There have been miracles, from being diagnosed so quickly to recognizing God’s hand in all things, such as seeing the beauty around her.

“I’ve been blessed with the ability to find the wonder of things, in the world, in my family, in my grandchildren, in friends that have done sweet things.”

Following the surgery to remove a tumor from her arm, she could barely use her arm for eight months, and because of the chemotherapy has been so weak at times she could do little—a challenge for someone who has been so active throughout her life.

“One of the things I’ve had to learn that my missionary son taught me is that God is not as interested in what we accomplish as what we become. And I had built my life on what I could accomplish. So, to have that stripped away is hard. But it’s made me focus really hard on what I could become,” said Sister Litster.

Tina and Bill Litster are members of the Liberty Ward. They have been married 40 years and have eight children. She credits her husband for his dedication to helping her. “My husband wants to do everything for me. He’s very attentive. He doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to be with me or serve me.”

Over the years she’s been active in church callings, including family history, teaching seminary and institute, and now Relief Society. She’s been a crafter, potter, florist and seamstress. She created family histories and led a personal history writing class for seven years in the New Mark Ward.

Tina retired when the cancer was diagnosed, and now she fills her healthy days with time with her family (including outings with grandkids), worship in the temple, organizing journals and photographs, family history, light yard work, creating, and mostly working to strengthen relationships.

The song, “More Holiness Give Me,” has been an important anchor to her.

“I feel like I have become more substantial. I’ve become a more eternal person. I have more trust in the Lord’s plan for me and my family. I’m more determined to put God first. I’m more clear about what really matters and I focus on it.

“I’m more diligent and concerned about my family. I’m more intentional about things of eternity. I just don’t do fluff anymore. I’m more patient with myself and other people. I have more tender feelings; I feel people’s pain more. I have more gratitude for everything.”

She has a great relationship with her children, who also want to help. “I think they wish I would ask them to serve me more,” she said.

She feels an urgency to build faith and strengthen testimonies–not just her own, but that of others.

“Like President Nelson said, do the hard work now that it takes to build your faith and to build your testimony. Don’t wait, do it now. Keep your covenants to bind yourself to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We need their strength added to ours to get through life. Without it, at some point our own strength will not be enough to get us through our trials.”

To those going through trials in their life, she wants them to know, “God loves them and that they can trust Him with their lives and whatever is going on. They can trust the Savior to make up for any loss.”