Snap!!: My sister's wedding and proposition eight

This last weekend I went to Utah for my sister's wedding. I am very glad to be home, but the wedding was beautiful. My sister found herself a very nice guy and a good dad for my little niece. I brought my friend Taylor home with me and it was a good thing. It really helped me stay mellow and there was minimal fighting with the family.

We arrived on Friday and we went to see the Joseph Smith movie at the Legacy theatre. I love that movie. It was probably the fourth time I saw the movie and I still cried. It is a very touching story. We came out from the movie and in contrast with the beautiful Salt Lake City Temple, there were thousands of protestors protesting the church becuase the propositon 8 that was supposed to legalize gay marriages did not pass in California. The gay community blames our church. The fact is though is that we are not even the majority of those who backed the proposition. The Catholic church put out this statement,

"Like our friends in the Mormon faith, the Catholic Church has long
championed and promoted the sacredness of traditional marriage and the
importance of the family in our society," Wester said. "While
acknowledging that this position is not universally held in our society today,
our churches are committed to proclaiming the truth and we cherish our ability
to participate in the democratic process," he said.

I also really appreciated the following statement made by the previous slc catholic bishop,

"Catholics stand in solidarity with our Mormon brothers and sisters in support
of traditional marriage--the union of one man and one woman--that has been
the
major building block of Western Civilization for millennia.
"The
ProtectMarriage coalition, which led the successful campaign to pass
Proposition
8, was an historic alliance of people from every faith and
ethnicity. LDS were
included--but so were Catholics and Jews, Evangelicals
and Orthodox,
African-Americans and Latinos, Asians and Anglos.
"Bigoted
attacks on
Mormons for the part they played in our coalition are shameful
and ignore the
reality that Mormon voters were only a small part of the
groundswell that
supported Proposition 8.
"As the former bishop of the
Diocese of Salt Lake
City, I can attest to the fact that followers of the
Mormon faith are a good and
generous people with a long history of
commitment to family and giving to
community causes.
"I personally decry
the bigotry recently exhibited towards
the members of the Church of the
Latter Day Saints--coming from the opponents of
Proposition 8, who
ironically, have called those of us supporting traditional
marriage
intolerant.
"I call upon the supporters of same-sex marriage to
live by
their own words--and to refrain from discrimination against religion and
to
exercise tolerance for those who differ from them. I call upon them to accept
the will of the people of California in the passage of Proposition 8."

This whole event has stirred up a lot of emotion for everyone involved. I felt very hurt that people were being so hateful and intolerant of us when we are a loving and giving church. Marriage is a sacred institution ordained of God. And our faith is not the only one that believes that. Regardless of who is right or wrong , seeing all the protesters was pretty intense. Taylor wanted to march with them and "talk feelings" with them. My brother was a little freaked out though and I kinda was too so we didn't do it. But we did take a picture of ourselves in front of them.

So the next day was my sister's wedding, to a man by the way ;). It was a nice ceremony. All the bridesmaids were crying. We were kind of silly. But Heidi is my baby sister and therefore I was entitled to some very happy tears. Even though the bride is supposed to be the belle of the ball, I think the girl who really stole the show was my beautiful niece Kaelyn. She was amazing and everyone knew it. When it was her turn to walk down the aisle, she suddenly became shy and hid her face behind kitty. My mom had to go and get her and they walked together down the aisle. When she got up to the end crowd cheered! It was so cute, they clapped their hands with her and said yay! She was so beautiful.

On Sunday Taylor and I went to see Lani, Jordan, and Lael. Lael is a doll!! Lani gave me the best blanket ever. It is a halloween quilt that is so very awesome. She also gave me some halloween cookie cutters and even though Halloween is over I have been commanded to make Halloween Cookies anyway. I will gladly obey! Meg and Brit and I have a cookie making date which is yet to be decided. After our visit we went for a drive up Big Cottonwood canyon. It brought back a lot of really good memories with my dad. I had a lot of fun and it was beautiful and I got to not only see snow but I also ate some. So did Taylor. I think that even though my family has a lot of drama, the weekend went really well...especially in comparison to to her weekends.