Field Trip

Silver Lake American Fork Canyon, Utah 2005



While living in Utah County I became friend with Rob and his crush then girlfriend, then fiance, now wife Erin. All of us enjoyed outings so I planned this one to Silver Lake in American Fork Canyon.
I remember we had to drive really far up a mountain and I think that Erin drove in the SAME CAR THAT THEY HAVE NOW.. Erin told me today that, that car is having car trouble since this was in '05 she can not blame me. I wish we had been driving my current car because it has 4-wheel drive .. but I did not have that then ANYWAY I DIGRESS!
We started out on that hike and it was one of those hikes that you have to sign in to.. something in me LOVES those hikes.. I just feel SO COOL!!! like KELI ANN WRIGHT was HERE!!! today!!! on this hike..!!! and sometimes they have something at the summit you sign into too.. like I MADE IT!!! I wonder if they have anything like that here in the DMV??
anyway I remember when we were hiking I asked everyone that we passed " how much longer to the lake? and everyone seemed to say that it was " 15 more minutes" ... ................................... I wanted to do that to people on the way down ..but Rob said remember how we felt .. let's not.. but I did once anyway.. :)
When we got to the lake it was amazing! SO BEAUTIFUL like WE HIKED TO AN ALPINE LAKE IN THE MOUNTAINS!!! there were some teenagers up there jumping off rocks into the water which they said was ICE COLD.. I can imagine and there were people that were hiking all the way around the lake even in the snowy parts.
We had a picnic up there. It was a great day!
Erin is now a married stay at home mom with two kids Emily is 3 and Elliot is 19 months. I said that we needed to go somewhere! because this picture reminds me that I barely ever see Rob.. so, we will hopefully go camping in September!

missionary Keli

My friend Catherine taught RS this week. The lesson was about " missionary work" she asked me to talk about how it was to be a new convert and go on a mission. I meant to only take five minutes.. instead I took fifteen or maybe twenty but this is what I said
When Catherine asked me to do this I said no.. but she does not know why.. the reason is because when I was on my mission.. we would go to member's houses every night and every night the member would say where are you from and my companion would say wherever she was from in Utah or Idaho ( I had a few from different areas) but they were mostly from Utah and Idaho.. then they would ask where I was from and they would say WOW.. you live near DC I went there once!!! ..and my companion was ignored.. after awhile I would just say that I was from VA instead of outside of DC and if I just said VA then they would bring up Williamsburg..
Then they would find out that I was a convert.. and they would want to hear my conversion story .. every night they would want to hear my conversion story.. and some of my companions got so annoyed.. they did not want to hear about VA or my conversion story every night..and I soon began to feel like my story was not worth anything..and I should not even tell it..and so when Catherine called me and asked me to talk.. I felt like I can not do this..but then as I was praying I realized that everyone's story is worth sharing and these are my miracles, you have your own miracles.. and hopefully one day I will get to have a daughter or son that I can teach them to be confident and help them to know that their story is amazing..! and to never feel diminished by their story..
so here is some of my story...When I had been a member of the church for 15 months I decided to go on a mission.. the missionaries came over to my house one night and asked me when I was going to go on a mission I said " never" because I seriously thought that all girl missionaries were fat, nerdy and total losers..
they then said things to me like  "well you probably could not go anyway.. you dont' even have any appropriate clothes.. and I found one outfit I could wear and I said I have this.." and they said wow one outfit.. that is all you have.."
that night after they left I kneeled down and I prayed and I felt like I WAS supposed to go on a mission.. so I called my bishop at ten pm at night and told him that and he said " how old are you and I said 24 he said when will you be 25? I said in two months.. he said no that is to old.. you need to stay here and get married" I said "OK GREAT to who?" ...I said I had really prayed and I really felt like I was supposed to go on a mission.. He said that he would pray about it and if I was supposed to go then he would give me my papers and if I was not supposed to go then to never bother him about it again.." I was so nervous.. because this was the first time that I had prayed and really felt like I got an answer but did I?? I was hoping that I did.. so I had to have a lot of faith.. then I went into his office on Sunday and he passed me my papers and said here.. you are supposed to go on a mission.. After that he told me that I had to dress like a missionary because I was wearing really inappropriate clothes.. I prayed and prayed and really wanted to go to somewhere in the US speaking English ( and I am not going to go over that whole story again because you can scroll down I just wrote that story a few weeks ago) I said Bishop Alires, I really feel like I am supposed to speak English on my mission and got to America.. he said why.. I said because I have a gift and my gift is to talk to people and to be a good speaker.. and I need to use my gift.. he said maybe the Lord does not want you to talk..
When I got my call to the California, Ventura mission speaking English I showed him that and I said " THE LORD DOES WANT ME TO TALK!!"
I am so grateful I served a mission some days were hard and depressing and crazy like the time my companion and I were tracting and she was like "this whole street is going to go up in flames" because they were so mean to us... some days were amazing and happy and cool like the time we were tracting and felt like we should go back to someones house and she wanted to be baptized but through it all I knew I SHOULD BE THERE...
once one of my companions said I don't want to do this.. why do we have to do all this work.. I said because WE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE IN THIS AREA THAT ARE ORDAINED TO TEACH THE GOSPEL IN THE ENGLISH SPEAKING LANGUAGE TO THESE PEOPLE!!!!
I felt that way then.. and I still do..
I am so glad that Catherine is my friend and asked me to speak.. when she introduced me she said " this is someone I respect" WOW.. wonderful words from someone that is basically my hero...
also when I sat down my friend Jan and her daughter Sarah and my friend Julie said THANK YOU SO MUCH! and Jan said I wish you could speak every week.. ! amazing compliment..
and then when I was leaving a new lady Jenae was in her car driving away and she said " Hey Keli thank you for sharing that! " another amazing compliment!
I am so grateful I went on a mission!!! and am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!

babysitting Keli

Sometimes I baby-sit for Oliver age 5.  Oliver is WAY into Star Wars right now.. so he talks about it A LOT.. I said " well who is Luke Skywalker's dad?" he said " oh that is a Jedi Knight that died a long time ago" I said " no it is Darth Vader" he said "NO! but Anakin is good.. " He said " why couldn't Luke and Leia just go up to him and say  Dad it is us your kids!!!" I said "because by that time he was more machine than man.."... I said when Anakin starts losing all those limbs.. he is becoming more machine.. so yeah I spoiled the whole franchise for him.. now I need to email their mom and dad and make sure that Star Wars was not that near and dear to their heart and they are not too annoyed at me for ruining it for their son..

babysitting Keli

I went for a walk a couple of weeks ago with Fletcher age 3 and Desi age 23 months. While we were walking on a trail in the woods in Arlington,VA at a place called Lubber Run Park Fletcher started asking me all sorts of questions about the wildlife if that park. He inquired if their were snakes in that park. I said " yes but we might not see one" He said "are there snakes in South Dakota" I said " yes" he said " are there snakes in Florida" I said "  yes there are snakes everywhere" he said " even in the air" Hey Desi, Miss Keli said that there are snakes everywhere so there are even snakes in the AIR"... I was like" well um"..
He also asked me if there were bears in the woods..I swear every kid that I take care of is CONVINCED that there are bear and wolves off any trail.. I guess I read to them way to much or SOMETHING... :)

random Keli

Recently my brother went on a trip to Salt Lake City with his volleyball league to play in a tournament. My brother is not LDS and had never been to Utah. I asked him some of his thoughts about Utah here are some things he said:
1. that there were " no cars anywhere" that when he went out there was like " no one on the road.." I said oh I know compared to here.. but people there think that is TRAFFIC..they say things like is the traffic there as bad as it is here?? like um............people there think if you are going 45 mph and there are other cars on the road that you are " in traffic" I would love that to be the case when I go home tonight..  instead of sitting there for 45 minutes and going 5 mph..

2. there were homeless people everywhere.. I don't think that my brother realized that SLC IS a big city in Utah.. but I guess he was comparing it to what if we had homeless people everywhere here in the suburbs..because SLC looks like a suburb HERE..

3. everything closes early.. he said there was " like nothing to do" and you would just go out at night and it would just be other people from the volleyball tournament roaming around looking for something to do..

4.They have really strange liquor laws he said that they were in a restaurant and he ordered a drink and they let him have two in one hour and then one an hour after that and none after that.

I was like but did you like the mountains!!!! he was like " oh yeah they were nice"

and there you go one non-LDS person's brief opinion of SLC

missionary Keli

So When I knew I was going on a mission and when my papers were in.. I had a few desires.. I wanted to stay in the CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES speaking ENGLISH..all for selfish reasons really.. like I wanted to get mail..and it took ages to get mail back in the dark ages of 1999-2001 before missionaries were allowed to email.. I also was scared to learn another language..scared to live in another country where the comforts of the US of A were not so readily available.. but I did not even want to go to Canada or HI or Alaska.. NO I had .. I mean I just HAD to go to the continental US.. speaking English.. and I had another stipulation.. I had to go to a state I had NEVER been.. to.. my first choice was the Provo, Utah mission.. because I had never been to Utah and wouldn't it BE COOL to be a missionary in UTAH!!?? People told me to NOT pray/say whatever that I wanted to go to a certain place because then that would NEVER happen.. oh well I did anyway.. I just had to go to the continental US speaking ENGLISH.. and I had such faith that my prayers were answered.. and I went to the Ventura, California mission .. here is a picture of me in April 2000 in Agoura Hills, CA at a members house.. one of the wealthiest areas of my mission.
PRAYERS ARE ALWAYS ANSWERED..and sometimes the answer is sure why not :)