The Wedding

Tuesday this last week I was handed a wedding invitation - the wedding of the daughter of the manager of our apartment complex. Her name is Ernestina - the name reminded me of the name my father wanted for me - Oscaretta. Ernestina goes by Tina - so that is pretty good. Ernestina was marrying Alexander. In Ghana temple marriages are not recognized by the government and so the couple must be married civilly first. Then within 3 weeks they must enter the temple or wait for a year to do their temple sealing.

The marriage was scheduled for Saturday at 2pm. We arrived promptly at the chapel as the invitation requested but we waited for at least a half hour before the marriage began. It was interesting. The choir sang songs from the hymn book while we waited for the marriage program to begin...religious songs that really had nothing to do with "love". Finally the program began with a processional as the bride walked up the isle dressed in her wedding dress, veil covering her face. The program began with an opening prayer and then two talks on marriage by members of the family that the bride and groom had chosen. One talked on eternal marriage, the other on the challenges of marriage and that the challenges were meant to be to refine our lives with God's help. They were excellent talks. Here in Africa the saints have a great understanding of the gospel, better than many in America. Maybe it is because they have so little in the way of material possessions that the spiritual blessings of the gospel mean a great deal and are internalized. After the talks the bishop married the couple, after which the bride and groom and the mothers and fathers signed the marriage license. Then the bishop bore his testimony of the restored gospel and wished the couple well. We all stood and the bride and groom walked down the isle and outside. After this ceremony, a reception was help in the cultural hall. But everyone had to wait for the pictures to be taken outside and we ended up leaving and going back home. Dad was coming down with a cold and we felt it best that we skip the reception.

It was interesting to me that this wedding was not hugely unsimilar to weddings in churches at home in that the bride walked down the isle on the hand of her father. But that is where the similarity ended. This service was much more spiritual. I felt I had been in a sacrament meeting.

This morning in sacrament meeting the bishop had the bride and groom bear their testimonies. I was amazed at the grooms maturity in the gospel. He bore a testimony that their decision to marry was not around passion and love as much as it was around the knowledge that they were meant for each other to help each other return to their Heavenly Father, that man is not without the women, and women is not without the man in the eyes of the Lord. He had completed a mission 4 years ago, courted Tina for 3 years and knew his next step to eternal life was to be married for eternity. She told had she had prayed to the Lord that she might be able to marry him in 2008 - she said their had been no talk of marriage and 5 days after her prayer he brought up the subject. Yes Heavenly Father does answer our righteous prayers. They bore testimony of the knowledge that they were beginning this relationship for eternity. It was really quite beautiful and though their decision to marry was very spiritual, you could feel the love they had for each other. I assume they will be going to the temple in the next 2 weeks.