A Mormon Wedding

The main reason we were back in NZ was for my brother in law Haroma's wedding. He is the youngest of 9 (my husband is number 8) so it was a bit special seeing as he was the baby.
Our family belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as Mormons. Generally when you get married you get married in a temple, as opposed to a church or beach or garden or any other kind of place. We believe that marriage is not only 'til death do you part but lasts beyond death into the eternities. The only place this type of marriage ceremony can occur is in a temple by a person with the right authority. The ceremony is called a sealing ceremony, because it is the sealing together of two people.
The ceremony itself is sacred and the exact words and promises are not spoken about outside of the temple. It is not that they are secret, it's just that they are sacred. Suffice to say the bride and groom make promises to each other and with God. The bride and groom wear white and always look beautiful. What bride doesn't look beautiful on her wedding day?
The ceremony can only be attended by those worthy members of the LDS church, and the ceremony usually only includes family and close friends. The helps to maintain the reverence and sacredness of the experience. If you are not a member of the LDS church and unable to go into the temple you can walk the temple grounds or visit the visitors centre. The ceremony is usually pretty short.
The rest of a Mormon wedding day usually proceeds in much the same way as any other wedding. The bride and groom emerge from the temple doors hand in hand, the bride in her beautiful wedding dress. Family and friends are waiting congratulate them. The brides dress is modest, no plunging neck lines, and always with sleeves, long or short as long as they cover her shoulders.
The bride and groom will usually have bridesmaids and groomsmen if they so choose. After the ceremony and photos the wedding reception is like any other wedding reception, speeches, songs, toasts etc but you probably wont find any alcohol!

Haroma and Tamara looked awesome on their special day, and I am sure they had an amazing time. We were so blessed to be apart of their day and look forward to seeing them grow together.

Here's a few photos of the day...

Time Out for Women Conference

On Saturday my Mum, sister and sister in law attended a conference for women. It is run by Deseret Books which is owned by the LDS  (mormon) church which we belong to. It was an awesome experience, despite the fact that we were all exhausted! and by exhausted I mean that at one stage we had all fallen asleep during a presentation.
There were around 2000 ladies in attendance from all over NZ. It was really awsome being able to see people that you hadn't seen in years.
I will tell you of one of the best things we all got out of it. One of the speakers, Hillary Weeks spoke about "Saying Love". She shared and experiment she did with her family which was somewhat crazy, but had really neat results. What she did was fill two jars with cooks white rice. They were then put into a room with all the same conditions. She then had her family speak loving kind words, in their nicest loving voices to one jar of rice (like I said crazy). To the other jar she had them yell and scream and be nasty. At the end of the experiment the jar that received loving words spoken to it remained a perfect jar of rice, while the other jar which had received hate had turned into a gross slushy moldy mess. There is a scientific reason behind the actual results something about the vibrations from your voice having and effect on the rice. However the experiment proved to teach a bigger lesson that just the scientific one.
The way in which we speak to our children, husbands, partners, parents, siblings and friends has an effect on them. If we are to continue to speak harshly can we not expect the result of that harshness to be a damaged person? I find that often the mother sets the tone for the household. Have you ever heard that saying "happy wife, happy life". If the mother is happy, it flows out onto her whole household, whereas when she is upset and frustrated that too will inevitably alter the mood of the family.
It is true that there are times when pure exhaustion and frustrations are going to push us over the edge. It happens in my house as I am sure it does in your house. My aim is to make those situations few and far between. How am I going to do that you ask? By Saying Love. Each time anger and fustration rear their ugly heads I will find something of worth in the situation. Whether that be looking at how beautiful and cuddly my baby girl is when she has woken me up for the 8th time in the night. Perhaps its just laughing at the fun Auron has had while he threw buckets of water out of the bath, flooding the bathroom and saturating Lili who was already dressed. Realistically it's only going to take an extra 5 mins to mop up all the water.
We really enjoyed the conference and the things we came away with. I think I enjoyed the company most. It is not often I get to spend the day with these 3 lovely ladies who are some of my closet friends.

Kristen Mum Me and Eleanor

Mum Me and Ellie

Utah

On our last day in San Francisco we went and did a little shopping. It was a beautiful day...would've been perfect for sight seeing. Breakfast today was at a little place called Honey Honey. Tiny little place it was. Aarahi ordered for us today, on my instructions to buy the baby a fruit cup and yoghurt, he returrned with 2 MASSIVE pancakes with banana, cream and maple syrup. Auron was impressed and actually ate most of it.
We flew from San Francisco to Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. The view from the plane was incredible! We actually nearly missed our connecting flight in Las Vegas as we were an hour late.
In Salt lake we were met by Aarahi's cousins and Mum and Dad who arrived the day before us. For the past few days we have been staying with family and it has been GREAT! They are such amazing people and we have really enjoyed being there and getting to know them.  We had a little family reunion where Aarahi's dad taught some songs in Maori and taught the guys the haka. They did so well! and were all soooooo excited! One morning we went out to an all you can eat french toast and pancake restaurant for breakfast. The trick was on us though as we could barely get through one serve! not bad for $5 though.
We visited the Salt Lake temple and went to a session there which was an incredible experience it's such a beautiful place to be. We feel very privileged to have this opportunity, and especially to share it with family. I have always wanted to visit the Salt Lake Temple ever since i saw the movie Mountain of the Lord. I wondered to myself yesterday if this is what they imagined it would be like in the future?
After the temple we went to a Mexican restaurant called Red Iguana, all I can say is YUM!!!!!!!! The food was authentic, and the hosts lovely. From the outside it looks like a bit of a dump but it has a big reputation. We arrived at 430pm and only just got in (they dont take reservations) by the time we left the line outside was long and the wait appoximatly 2 hours! They made Auron a cake for his birthday too which was nice.
Today we had the opportunity to go to General Conference. It was so special to be able to see it live instead of on a wall in the chapel. The music sounded beautiful and the spirit was so strong. The others missed the afternoon session and said they would look after Auron so Aarahi and I were able to go together. That was probably the best part of our whole trip I think.

Auron with the monkeys 

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

The LOVELY Hall family that we stayed with

Outside the conference centre

Inside the conference centre

Aarahi's oldest brother Wiremu and his wife Kristen at the Salt Lake temple door

The gang at the Red Iguana

Just SOME of our food

Auron and Story (he followed her around all night)

The guys learning the Haka