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| Paul Nestman |
My dear 'ole dad is one of the biggest heroes I have in life. Aside from being my father, which automatically makes him cool, he is someone to look up to. His whole growing up years were spent in Bountiful Utah with his 4 brothers and 2 loving parents. From all the stories that I have heard, he was typically the "good child" that didn't do much wrong. Not that he was perfect. There's a few people with some stories to tell, but he usually knew what was right and did it.
At the rightful age of 19 he was off to serve a mission in the Coventry England mission. At that time Elders served for 18 months. After the mission it was off to BYU for accounting school. While at BYU he played for the soccer team and his claim is that he "killed the BYU soccer program." His last year playing was the last year that they were NCAA and not club. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his doing...but don't tell him that. After a little he found my beautiful mom and they were married. They finished their time at BYU then moved to San Diego where he got his masters degree at San Diego State University.While in San Diego, they had 3 wonderful children. Moved a bunch of times and ended up back in Utah and finished the family off with 4 more children. Oh yeah! There's 7 of us. A whole cavalcade of fun.
During my whole life my father has always worked extremely hard to provide for our family. We have been very blessed. He has also worked hard to teach all of us the gospel of Christ. It has always been the main focus in our home. I can't remember a time where we didn't have family prayer, scripture study, or spent time together on Sundays. Christ has always been the center of our home, of which I am very grateful for. It has allowed me to make the proper choices in life and know where I can turn for advice or help.
As much as he may not know, my dad has always been my hero. He puts his whole heart and soul into following Jesus Christ and His example. I have grown up seeing him read his scriptures on his own daily. It wasn't uncommon to walk in on him while he was on his knees praying. For about 6 1/2 years he served as a bishop for the church and I know he put 200% into that calling. He truly loved everyone and was willing to do anything for them. He is an "example of the believers" if ever there was one.
I may be his daughter, I may be with him forever, but my dad is my hero!
4 comments:
Thats awesome! Dad's are the best, and the lessons learned are endless!
I agree, dad's for the win! Who is your dad's hero?
To answer your question Elder Williams, my dad had this answer...
My heroes are my parents, followed closely by the prophet Joseph Smith.
Fortunately all of my kids, except for Amanda, got to know Grandma Nestman before she passed away. Grandma Nestman is the most Christ-like person that I have ever known, and I was lucky enough to have her as my mother. If she doesn't make it to the Celestial kingdom, then we are all in trouble.
Whenever there is a lesson taught about enduring to the end, I always share the example of my Mom. When I was in Junior High School she became bed-ridden almost overnight by her rheumatoid arthritis. She was bed-ridden for about a year before she was finally able to get up and move about with her walker. Over the years she had both her feet operated on, both her knees replaced, both her hips replaced, and she had one of her hands operated on (the other hand was so bad that the doctors didn't think surgery would help).
Grandma suffered through immense physical pain for more than 30 years, and I never heard her complain once. I'm sure she had her quiet moments of "why me?" but she never let others know that. People would come to our home to visit her and help her lift her spirit (which they did), but when they left, they always felt like they were the ones that had their spirits lifted. She was/is a truly amazing women. I will be forever grateful for her love, her kindness, and most importantly her great example. (I remember when she prayed for our family prayers, I always knew we were going to be there for awhile, because grandma Nestman always gave very heart-felt prayers, and she was always so grateful for so many things, and she prayed for a lot of different people.)
I was so grateful that you were able to be there with me when grandma was finally taken home. What a blessing that was, to know she was finally freed from her pain.
Now grandpa Nestman is a little bit of a different story. Grandpa is a very funny man, he always has been, and he continues to be funny even in his declining health.
The thing I'll probably remember the most about Grandpa is that he always made time for his kids. Growing up I played little league football, baseball, basketball, and later soccer. When he was in town, he would be at all of my games. When I played soccer for BYU he never missed a home game and he even came to some away games provided they weren't too far away.
The other thing I'll remember about grandpa Nestman is the fact that he took time to serve others. After his heart surgery he would go up to the hospital and talk to others that were about to have heart surgery or those that had just had heart surgery. He did this every week for 14 years. He also received a church assignment to work at the honey farm, so he worked at the honey farm twice a week for about 6 years, until he was released. And finally, grandpa Nestman taught English for many, many years. I think he did that since he was an immigrant, and knew what it was like to be in a new country without knowing the language. Grandpa Nestman speaks English, German, and Dutch -- pretty impressive.
Grandpa Nestman is still with us but I'm not sure for how much longer. His health continues to decline, but he has been a great example to me of what it means to be a father even though he never had a father.
As it states in D&C 135:3 "Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it." Wow, what more can you say. I'm amazed at what Joseph Smith was asked to do, and the fact that he did what needed to be done
you're Dad is awesome!!! With all that I've heard about him, I can't wait to meet him. And I love reading him tell about his heroes. Your grandparents sound amazing... Your family is just awesome!!!
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