A New Year's Wedding

On New Year’s Day Richard and I drove to his home in Iowa.  It was a wonderful time to visit and talk with all of the family who were in town for the sealing of Richard’s brother Mark and his wife Minnie.
(Who were married this June for immigration purposes).  December 31^st was the one-year anniversary of Minnie’s baptism, so on the first day the Nauvoo Temple opened after the break, January 3^rd, 2012, Minnie took out her endowments and she and Mark were sealed for time and eternity.

They had their reception the evening before, on Monday, January 2^nd, 2012 at the Ottumwa, IA ward building.  So bright and early Monday morning some of us were at the church decorating! Leah (Richard’s brother Danny’s wife) got up at the crack of dawn and headed to Wal-mart for decorations to augment the lovely things that Maureen (Richard’s Mom) had already purchased. Danny thoughtfully tended their baby girl, Kate, while myself, Leah, Christina and Rachel (Richard’s sisters) tackled the task of turning a carpeted half-gym into a charming winter wonderland. We could NOT have done it without the incredible help of an amazing trio of sister missionaries who gave up their P-day to help us. Richard and his dad Ken spent almost the entire day putting up lower ceiling of lights strung across the gym and draping some down the sides.  As chief boss decorators, Leah and I were of the opinion that due to our extremely limited material base for decorations, the dimmer it was inside the better. Lol. So Richard put up A LOT of Christmas lights (thoughtfully donated at the last minute by several members) which enabled us to completely douse the overhead lights. I wish I had pictures, but Mark and Minnie haven’t sent them to me yet. :(

The reception started at 4:30, the rest of Richard’s siblings who were attending arrived about 4 pm, and we were ready to roll. Everything turned out beautifully-I confess to being a bit astonished at how well it looked. We had set up chairs for a ring ceremony, and Minnie’s Dad was able to ‘walk her down the aisle.’  Minnie’s parents were there from China, and after the cake-cutting her Dad gave a darling speech and welcomed everyone in attendance to come visit them in Beijing. 

Minnie's parents the Ma's, Ken and Maureen Goering.

The next day Richard and I left around 8 am with Mark and Minnie to arrive in Nauvoo (about a 90 min. drive) for Minnie’s endowment, as I was her escort. The entire temple experience was absolutely beautiful.  Everyone braved the freezing temperatures and high winds to greet the bride and groom as they exited the temple, and Letty bossed everyone into position for a couple quick family pictures.

Josh Goering and his niece Kate Goering (Danny's). Moira Goering McKell and Emily McKell

Richard the stud carrying out all the girly stuff I loaded him up with.

Kate and Uncle Josh

Minnie and Mark, her parents, and her best friend Vikki.

Letty bossing people for pictures

My parents had come from St. Louis for the endowment session and sealing, and they were an incredible help holding things and carrying and taking pictures etc etc. (Almost all those that I have for the blog are from my parents’ camera). After waving goodbye to the Goering gang, Richard and I followed my parents back home to St. Louis, stopping for dinner at the Golden Corral!

It was a good thing we had my parents to follow home, since Betsy had chosen that morning to get frisky with her speedometer.

Mark: Ummm, Letty, why does it say we are going warp speed?

Letty: (glancing at the speedometer which was hovering around 110 mph for a few minutes before spinning wildly around the wheel) “Ummm…because the anti-matter engines are offline?”

It was the end of a very eventful Christmas break, and we both started work the next day.  We spent much of the break playing, much of it working/serving, and very little of it sleeping and/or cleaning and organizing our house, so the New Year had a bit of a rocky start.  We still have random Christmas presents spread across the floor of our front room, and piles and piles of mail, still not all the way sorted after our return from Europe.