Good day, good week, and good life to you.
I'm writing this early Monday morning because I have a new calling of Gospel Doctrine teaching in our ward and I spent the morning yesterday refining my thinking for the class.
When I was in college I worked for Lyman Brothers. It was a good gig during the summer and allowed me to make enough money that I was able to get through college without borrowing. The job was a summer job and consisted of working on forest fires. When fires weren't burning, there was downtime where I basically did admin stuff around the shop.
Dave Lyman also had a cabin in Lemington, Utah, a place in the middle of Utah about 45 minutes Southwest of Nephi. The cabin was a family relic that had passed down in the Lyman family. I also spent time working on the cabin. Dave's sister Lisa lived in Oak City which was about 10 minutes away from the cabin. The Lyman family knew my Dad as they were growing up in Sugar City, Idaho, where Dad taught seminary for 10 years during my youth. Lisa used to babysit me when I was a kid and I barely remembered her. I did remember that so she was beautiful, talented, and spunky so we were excited to get to know each other again. When Lisa was young, her parents divorced and she moved with her Dad to Oak City, There she met her husband and got married as a young lady.
Lisa was loved by all the young women in Oak City and tried to set me up with everyone one of them. I went on more dates when I was at the cabin than any other time during the year. One night, she had me over for dinner and after we finished, she started to talk about her marriage, and her life...
She married a guy who was a true country bumpkin and soon after they were married and she was pregnant with their first baby, she had the sinking feeling that she'd made a mistake. Although he has a nice guy, it became painfully apparent that she would be stuck in Oak City, living a life that was more like her nightmare instead of her dreams. He had a job at the local cement company, making a nominal salary and working graveyards, which meant that he slept all day and they didn't have much time together. To her frustration, he was content and happy with his life while she was very much alone and felt trapped. They had no money and no prospects for anything better.
Lisa's family had moved to Oak City when her parent divorced and for a time she felt that she should follow suit and it would be better for her to end the marriage, move to civilization, and hit the restart button. She spent years dealing with the frustration of her shattered dreams and the only solace she had was that her immediate family was close. That started to end when her brothers moved out and her Dad's health began to fail. During this time, she became his primary caregiver. A few days before he died, they had a conversation that changed her outlook on life. He could tell she wasn't happy with her situation and asked her what she thought it meant when Abraham was shown in vision the "Noble and Great" ones. He then told her that she could take a noble and great course with her life and make the best of her situation, or she could continue to be frustrated and take a course that would only lead to unhappiness. He challenged her to become Noble and Great and honor the birthright she'd been given. Then he died...
These final conversations with her Dad changed her life. When I met her, nothing had changed in her life situation. Lavelle still worked graveyards at the cement factory and they still didn't have any money. He was thrilled with his life. The difference is that Lisa was profoundly happy. She had made a paradise for herself in the middle of nowhere Utah. It all had to good with the decisions she chose to make as relating to her outlook on life. She had taken the Noble and Great course and had been blessed as a result.
My approach to life is to live each day like Lisa. I'll close it with this...
Nov. 4, 1958 ~ Oct. 6, 2017
Lisa Lyman Nielson, age 58, passed away at her home on Friday, October 6, 2017 from an aggressive form of cancer.
She was born November 4, 1958 in Rexburg, Idaho to Asael and LaDee Fikstad Lyman. She enjoyed very much being raised with five brothers. She wrote a poem about brothers that partly reads, "Life will bring unending joys but if I had my druthers, I'd wish for all I know and love at least a dozen brothers." She graduated from Sugar Salem High School in 1977, and attended Ricks College. Lisa loved her high school days and her classmates all of her life. She married LaVelle William Nielson on August 3, 1979 in the Manti LDS Temple. The lived and raised their four children at Fool Creek Flat and Oak City, Utah.
She is survived by her loving husband: LaVelle; their children: Eli (Lacey), Jacob (Fran), Cody (Erica), Kjersti (Jordan); 12 grandchildren: Ace, Sam, Adi, Meg, Bostyn, Quincy, Lilly, Beth, Jane, Katelyn, Scarlett, and Emmalyn. Oh how she loves those kids.
What do you say about a woman like Lisa? She is faithful, wise, headstrong, valiant, compassionate, multi-talented, courageous, slightly irreverent, loving, but mostly just plain awesome.
Lisa, we love you. We miss you.
Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, October 14, at 11:00 a.m., at the Oak City LDS Chapel, 35 East Center Street, Oak City. Viewings will be held at the Oak City LDS Church on both Friday evening, 6:00-8:00 PM; and Saturday morning, 9:30-10:40 a.m., prior to the service. Burial will be in the Oak City Cemetery. Condolences may be left at www.nicklemortuary.com
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