23 - The Time Comes

It was now 1992; I was 23 and just finishing up my associate’s degree at the college and looking to graduate in a few weeks. I had dated 2 or 3 great young ladies during the previous year but none of them was the right person. One parting was particularly painful. I walked up to the top of campus where I would be alone and cried and poured out my heart to God. I told him that I was tired of messing around and that I wanted to find the right person and settle down and have a family. Little did I know how fast that was going to happen. There was one more young lady named Amy, that I knew and we had gone out with a few times. I went on a Choir Tour to Californian and she sent a nice card with a friend for me. I was planning on doing more with her but in my heart I knew that she was not the right one. I would have gone out with her more anyway just for something to do. One day I went to church and during sacrament meeting there were a few speakers assigned to speak. One was a young lady name Kelli Kendall. She was the last speaker. The brother before her took the ENTIRE meeting. The bishop leaned over to Sister Kendall, told her something and then she began to speak. By this time I was ready to get out of there and was thing to myself, “I wish this chick would shut up and sit down”. She had just arrived home from her mission and I truly did not hear a thing she said. After the meetings were over, I went out in the hall and the bishop called me over. I was serving in the Family Home Evening presidency at the time and he had called sister Kendall to be the other counselor. He introduced us; I gave her a big hug (we had a really huggy ward (I later learned that the hug about freaked her out)). We had to plan a quick family home evening activity because the one that was planned fell through. Sister Kendall (I soon came to know her as Kelli) suggested that we have a baseball game and picnic at her house because her parents had a big park behind their house. We agreed and Monday afternoon before work, I went over to help cook for the activity. During the activity I kept looking at her and thought that she was really cute. We laughed and she cut my forehead with a ring or her fingernail or something. We got along really well. The following day, I called her because I had accidentally left my mitt at her house and wanted to come and get it. She volunteered to bring it over to my house. When she arrived, we sat and talked for three hours about all kinds of stuff. We had a great time. My Mom later said that she knew that evening that we were going to get married. On Wednesday I had acquired some tickets to go dancing at the Palace (a dance club by BYU). I knew that Kelli liked dancing so I called her to see if she wanted to go. She was not home but her Mom gave me the number at her neighbor’s house and I called her there. She said yes and sounded very excited. I picked her up and we danced for several hours and then went to a friend, Steve Livingston’s, house to watch a movie. It was that evening, racing through a church parking lot to beat Steve home, that we first held hands. Kelli had previously been asked out on a date for three evenings in a row (Thurs. Fri. and Sat.) buy a guy named Val (she said yes because she had not met me yet and was looking for something to do). I had gone to HS with Val and new him to be a good guy. Thursday evening I get this call from Kelli asking if I wanted to come hang out at here house with her and Val. Val had taken her on a date earlier in the day, had been hanging out at her house for several hours and was suppose to leave and had not yet. She thought that he would get a clue when I came over. He did not. He suggested that we go and see a friend of his who was in the hospital. The problem was that he only had a van with two seats. He said, “The two of you will have to share that seat”. We were delighted to oblige him. Thus we sat together and held hands behind the seat where he could not see us, and he drove to the hospital to see his friend (it was all really bizarre). We finally all went home. The next day I was working (I worked with a company that trained mentally handicapped people to learn life tasks). I was able to take clients with me to places I was going Thus Jessie and I (Jessie was with me on Monday at the family home evening activity) headed to the same party that a girl in the ward was having and that Kelli and Val were going to go to. We played volleyball etc. and then we began playing some games on the floor. Kelli sat between Val and I and we (Kelli and I) held hands under the chair where Val could not see us. Everyone else at the party knew what was going on but Val did not see it (poor guy). The following day was Saturday and Kelli agreed to go with me early in the morning to help my sister Sharlynn move from one apartment to another. We had also agreed to go to the Jordan River temple together after we helped Sharlynn, which we did. While we were walking on the temple grounds I asked Kelli what she thought of us and she said that she thought that we would be getting married. I felt that way to but it scared me so bad that I said that I did not feel anything yet). We arrived for our session and they asked us to be the witness couple. We said that we were not married and they said that that was ok. So we did it. We had a great session. Later on that day I dropped Kelli off at here home. The week before I met Kelli I had set up a date with Amy for that afternoon. We were to go motorcycle riding in the afternoon and then go to the same party that Kelli and Val were going to. Amy ended up canceling at the last minute and so I went riding with just my friend who owned the bikes. I never called Amy again and have only seen her a few times since then. That evening (I was with Jessie again) we went to the party. Kelli knew that I would be bringing Amy (she new Amy in HS) but when I arrived without her Kelli was surprised (and very happy). The party was great. At the end of the evening, I had to take Jessie home I asked Kelli if she wanted to come with me. She said that she did. We went over to tell Val that I would be taking Kelli home and I did. (Val never really caught on and when we got married he ended up having a nervous breakdown and going into the hospital. We felt bad about that but there was nothing we could do for him.) The following day was Sunday; I picked Kelli up for church and have done so almost every Sunday since that time. That afternoon was the first time we kissed and we were married in the Manti Temple on September 24th 2002. There are many details of our courtship, of me being scared to death etc. that I will elaborate on at a later date. However I would like to say that Kelli is the love of my life my joy my inspiration. I am so grateful that the Lord saw fit to bless me with her in my life. She is truly me very best friend.