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    The Newsroom Blog
    11 April 2016 | POSTED BY Jeffrey Hunt Champlin

    VIDEO: Family, Faith and Maori Culture Support Teen Weightlifter

    Kelsea Elkington, 15, from Takapuwahia is a promising competitive weightlifter invited to join the national Olympic weightlifting development team.

    Her success has a lot to do with being grounded in her large extended family, her church and her Maori culture, according to her father Jay Elkington.

    She and her family belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    As a family we focus on “the things that are more important in life.  And for us that’s the Church first, culture second and anything else we can fit in after that,” he says in the accompanying video.

    Jason Murray and a team of five other student video journalists from America, who spent their summer filming in New Zealand as part of an internship program from Brigham Young University, produced the video featuring Kelsea. 

    Brigham Young University (BYU) is part of the Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    Read Older Post Olympian Valerie Adams Marries Sweetheart in Mormon Temple Read Newer Post BYU Student Interviewed by Maori Television

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