The Five People I'll Meet In Heaven: Part 3

If you missed part one and all the reasons why I'm writing this, click here.
If you missed part two, click here.

The third person I think had a big impact on my life is one of the toughest, most joyful people I've ever met.

I was eight when we moved to St. George, one of my first friends I found after we moved was Zack Kolb. I still consider him one of my good friends, even if we don't talk much anymore. Another one of my good friends, who, like Zack I don't talk to a lot, is Austin. The three of us always tried to get back together when we were all in town at the same time when Austin moved away.

New York Yankee legend Lou Gehrig. He relates to this person in an unfortunate way.

The story starts on a hot summer day in 2010. Austin and I were at Austin's parent's house, where I anticipated Zack would arrive shortly.

Austin's phone then started to ring and he quickly answered it, "Hello?"

"Are you coming over?" I hate listening to people on the phone because I only get the half of the conversation. "What?! What's that? ... Dude, that is terrible. ... The doctor is sure?"

Now I was listening intently to any clues as to what they were talking about. My mind started racing, what could have been going on. Kreg had already had testicular cancer and was rid of that, or so I thought. Was it possible that he could have had it again, or maybe another cancer? My head was spinning.

"Ok, bud, we'll talk to you later. See ya," Austin ended the phone call and hung up.

"What's up?" I asked quickly after he had hung up. "What's wrong?"

"Kreg, man-" Austin started. He seemed to still be trying to mull it all over for himself. "He has Lou Gehrig's disease. I'm not even sure I know what that is. Do you know?"

"That's not good," Ausitn's dad, Robert, said simply.

"What?! Lou Gehrig's, that’s terrible. That's the disease where your body slowly just shuts down on you. There are not a lot of people that have this problem. That is-" I replied. I didn't know what kind of word I wanted to use to finish that. My head was really spinning now. I felt sick.

'Kreg has Lou Gherig's Disease, but don't tell anyone,' I sent in a text to my parents and my sisters to give them a head’s up. The room was still pretty quiet. The only sound was coming from the television, and even that seemed distant and muffled. There was just nothing that needed to be said at this time. There was nothing more than what we said. There was nothing important enough to break this moment of silence.

The rest of the day was solemn. I had fun hanging out with Austin, but there just wasn't anything that we could do that could get rid of the terrible thought that Kreg was super sick and the doctors had only given him about a year to live.

A few weeks later, I received my mission call and the Kolb family came over to see where I was going. This was the first time that I had seen Kreg since he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease.

"Yeah, I get diagnosed with this, and the Relief Society President of my ward is at my house before I even get home," Kreg said as we were talking about how he was doing before I opened my call. He was just as happy as ever.

"Yeah," I started. "Sorry about that. That was my bad. I texted my mom and the word got out quickly. I didn't think it would move that quickly."

"Yi! Yi! Not a problem." Kreg replied with a laugh in his cheerful voice. "People were going to know."

I left a little while later for my mission in France. I chose to write a letter to Zack when I got to my second area having heard from my family that Kreg was still in good spirits, but was losing function in part of his body.

"It's another beautiful day in St. George," he said over and over even though it seemed day-by-day he got worse.

On May 25th, 2011, Kreg passed away. This man taught me that through whatever you're going through, you can smile and still see the good in the world. He fought through one of the toughest diseases I can think of. He was always cheerful, and I hope to achieve even a small amount of happiness that he lived and helped others live.

"Not gone, just gone ahead. Yi! Yi!"

The Five People I'll Meet In Heaven: Part 2

If you missed the first part, visit it here.

"Hey, that's a pretty girl over there. I wonder if she goes out with one of the Yankees!" Breyden "Gump" Nisson said quoting Chris Farley. Then he laughed his infectious cackle.

One of Gump's idols, Chris Farley. Gump makes everyone around him laugh, just like this guy.

He is the one that could bring a whole crowd to tears with laughter. He loved quoting Chris Farley and used any line of his often. When thinking about Gump and what I learned from him, I would say it is the fact that he didn't care what other people thought.

Gump was always one of the better athletes on the sports teams in high school. Everyone loved Gump in high school. He was popular, but he didn't ever put on a fake face for anyone.

He was a great football player, but chose not to play after our freshman year because he didn't like the politics of the team, even though he started and played a ton. He is an even better basketball player, but, again, didn't play because he didn't like the coaches and how they acted toward the team.

Another thing that I've noticed and admired about Gump is his friendliness to everyone. It doesn't matter if he just met you or has known you for years, he's genuine and kind to you. He loves to joke, but his jokes rarely, if ever, bring anyone down or make them feel stupid.

One of the last things I admired, but never dared duplicate is his way of dating. Gump would ask anyone on date, whether he thought it would lead somewhere or not. There were multiple times that I had asked Gump if he wanted to go on a double date, sometimes last minute, and he was still willing to basically drop everything and find a date immediately.

Gump is the awesome guy in the middle. He is here between his two just-as-awesome brothers.

Gump was there on my first date with my wife. He was basically the only reason anyone had fun that night. There were three couples with us, but Gump was the outgoing, fun one. I was awkward and quiet, as was Kaylee for the most part. Gump's date was really quiet too, but we had a blast just being around Gump anyway. The other two that were there were Braden White and Rachel Heinrich, and they were a lot of fun too, but Gump made that date that much better.

Gump will always stand by your side no matter who you are. He was the first to show me that it doesn't really matter what people think of you. For that, I thank him.

The Five People I'll Meet In Heaven - Part 1

When I was in middle school, I was supposed to read the book The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. Whether I read it or not, I don't remember. I do, however; remember writing a paper on the five people we will meet in heaven. As I was still young at that point, I don't remember who I said would be on that list.

For whatever reason I thought about this a little while ago, wondering who the five people I would meet in heaven. As I researched a bit about the book, I thought about how I could write something about specific people that helped mold me into the person I am today. Some of these may surprise you, others may not.

Disclaimer: I am going to try to avoid obvious selections like Kaylee. parents (grand or otherwise), siblings and my closest friends those of you who I talk to on a regular basis (hopefully you all know you've had a huge impact on my life). I also will not select Christ as one of them, because I believe we will all meet Him when the time comes.

"Doesn't that sound like a pickup line when taken out of context?" My seminary teacher, Brother Benjamin Fryar, said after reading a particular scripture which I can't remember anymore. The entire class agreed. "Anyone want to give it a try today at the end of class?"

Everyone's eyes turned to me. I was the class clown for my seminary class, which was weird for me, because typically I was the quiet one in class. I didn't enjoy being in the spotlight, for whatever reason, this class was different.

"Jordan? I'll give you five bucks," he said, pulling out his wallet. "Uh, three dollars. I don't carry cash on me."

"I'll do it," I said after briefly thinking about the consequences of agreeing to it.

The class went by as normal as can be, until we got nearer to the end.

"Jordan, you ready? Let's go on a field trip," Brother Fryar said. I had been contemplating this for the entire call period. I got the scripture memorized, now it was time to execute it. Butterflies began to flutter in my stomach.

"Yeah, I think I got it," I replied.

We all grabbed our stuff and headed for the crosswalk of just sidewalk between the school and the seminary building, waiting for my victim.

A girl walked out of the school, she was age and even though I knew who she was, she probably had no idea who I was. 

"There you go, Jordan," Brother Fryar urged. 

'She's not LDS. She's going to think we're all weird,' I thought to myself as I walked closer, but I couldn't let the class down. The awful, Bible-inspired pickup line proceeded from my mouth and the class gave a quick laugh.

"What?" The girl, Rachel, asked. Then, realizing it was a joke, turned and walked away. I felt my head drop a little, I closed my eyes and shook my head slightly. 

"That was awesome!" A few of the students said as they walked up to me and headed for their cars because the school day was over.

"I didn't think you'd do it," Brother Fryar said as he reached for his wallet. "Here you go."

"No, it's alright. That was just for fun; It was for the class," I said.

My first person on my list of five people is Brother Fryar. He was my seminary teacher at Pine View High School my junior year. 

Here is a picture of Brother Fryar I found on the internet. Thanks to whoever posted it.

High School is a strange time for a lot of people. I was one of those that was incredibly quiet and kind of awkward. As mostly everyone else, I was still trying to figure out life. I didn't know for sure what I wanted to do after school.

He might have not known it because I was typically late and loud (yes, the quiet kid) in class, but his lessons both within the gospel and outside of it had a profound influence on me. He was the first person that made the gospel interesting to me (and it was the Old Testament year).

Since, I was a bit more outspoken, this was when I started to break out of my shell a bit. Brother Fryar dealt with me in the best way possible. He knew I was learning, even if I didn't act like it. He would call on me to do the most random things, like this pickup line for example. I was the go-to joker, which I really enjoyed.

Brother Fryar was the one that got me interested in people and the gospel, and for that I thank him.