TEMPLE BUILDING IN THE LATTER DAYS
This painting by the amazing Walter Rane is from JosephSmith.net.
The sacrifices of the early Saints to build their first temples are legendary. This week, rather than a discussion of the scripture, I'll share examples of three of them.
VILATE KIMBALL
“Our women were engaged in knitting and spinning, in order to clothe those who were laboring at the building. And the Lord only knows the scenes of poverty, and tribulation and distress, which we all passed through to accomplish it. My wife would toil all summer. She took 100 pounds of wool to spin on shares which, with the assistance of a girl, she spun, in order to furnish clothing for those engaged in building the temple. And although she had the privilege of keeping half the quantity of wool for herself, as her recompense for her labor, she did not reserve even so much as would make a pair of stockings. She spun and wove and got the cloth dressed and cut and made up into garments, and gave them to the laborers. Almost all the sisters in Kirtland labored in knitting, sewing, spinning, etc, for the same purpose, while we went up to Missouri” (Heber C. Kimball quoted in Kelly, Latter-day History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, p. 163).
JOHN TANNER
Sometimes it’s easier to give when you don’t have very much to lose. When a man has a lot of wealth, sometimes he tends to define himself by it and cling to it like a lifeboat. But not John Tanner.
John Tanner was a wealthy convert. He had outlived two wives, and then married a third (having a total of 21 children!) when the missionaries found him. His infected leg was healed by the missionaries, and the next day he was baptized. He committed to help the church and sustain the prophet. He was so wealthy that he used six wagons to move his family from New York to Kirtland, and provided ten more for other church members.
The day after his arrival in Kirtland in early 1835, he met with Joseph Smith and the high council and lent them $2,000 to pay off the mortgage on the temple property, plus another $13,000 for other purposes. He contributed to the temple building fund, and he signed a $30,000 note for merchandise to help Saints move to Kirtland. (Whoa! $30,000 in 1835!!!)
When he moved his family from Kirtland to gather with the saints in Missouri three years later, he had to borrow a wagon. He had very little money left. He endured all the trials of Missouri and Illnois. Despite his humble circumstances, a few months before Joseph Smith was killed, “John returned the $2,000 noted signed in Kirtland as a gift to the Prophet and was blessed by Joseph that he and his posterity would never beg for bread.”
He provided food and help to the saints as they left Nauvoo, arriving in Salt Lake City himself in 1848. He died two years later, a faithful and humble friend to the end (Garr, Cannon and Cowan, Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, p. 1219-1220).
REYNOLDS CAHOON
Reynolds Cahoon had left Kirtland to serve a mission to Missouri. After his release, he asked whether he could return to Missouri, to “Zion.” The answer given was no, he was needed to serve on the Kirtland Temple building committee (D&C 94:14-15). He fulfilled that position well.
Later his family was chased out of Kirtland with the rest of the saints, and then chased out of Missouri, finally settling in Nauvoo. Again Brother Cahoon was called to the temple building committee, a calling which scared the daylights out of him. “I think I never was placed in so critical a position since I was born,” he said.
He moved to Salt Lake City with the saints and died there in 1861. His obituary in the Deseret News called him, “a true friend to the prophet of God while he was living, full of integrity and love for the truth and always acted cheerfully the part assigned him in the great work of the last Days.” (Susan Easton Black, Who’s Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, p. 46-48)
SACRIFICE REWARDED
It took the saints 3 years to build the Kirtland Temple, and they had to leave it behind after only two years of service, but they took with them the blessings they had received through sacrificing to build the temple and through their participation in the temple after it was built. The physical body of the temple decayed (later to be restored) but the spirit of the temple moved on with the saints and is still with us today.
BECOMING A TEMPLE PEOPLE
President Howard W. Hunter encouraged us to become “a temple people.” Our predecessors in the Church had to make sacrifices to build and attend temples. We likewise must sacrifice to enter the temple.
What kind of sacrifices have you had to make (or will you have to make) to enter the temple? What kind of sacrifices do you make to help others enter temples in their home countries?
Smithfield, Utah Temple, August 2025
Photo from ChurchofJesusChristTemples.org
I live in Logan, Utah. There is a temple 3.5 miles from my home. I could walk there in an hour. Another will soon be finished 6 miles from my home in Smithfield, Utah. Also, I have a car so I don't have to walk to either one. And if I didn't drive, I could ride the free city bus.
Meanwhile, another temple is being built on the other side of the world, in the poorest country in Africa, Sierra Leone. My brother and sister-in-law lead the Sierra Leone Bo Mission. The temple is being built in the neighboring Freetown Mission. Even though Sierra Leone is smaller than the state of Maine, and Bo is only 170 miles (273 km) from Freetown, it will take the people in Bo 4 hours to get to the temple if they can get access to a motorized vehicle. Sierra Leone has one of the lowest vehicle ownership rates globally, with only 25 vehicles per 1,000 people, or 1 vehicle per 40 people.
Freetown Temple site, satellite image
from ChurchofJesusChristTemples.org
Building this small temple takes a herculean effort because there are few good building materials readily available, few skilled craftsmen, few tools, and again, no highways. The foundation has been built three times as these craftsmen learn to build and as different materials must be tried. Now the upper structure has begun. It likely will also be built three times before it is satisfactory temple-quality work.
Freetown Temple; same source
And who is paying for this temple? The people of Sierra Leone certainly cannot! Their per capita income is less than $900 a year.
Here is the joy of being in a worldwide church community: those of us who have so much, who already have temples, who already have highways, who already have cars--we are paying for this temple with our tithing. And the saints of Sierra Leone deserve this! It is a country exploding with gospel joy as people flock to the church--and stay.
120 people were baptized in Moriba Town, Sierra Leone, August 23, 2027.
The previous month, 110 were baptized in the same location.
It is likely that Sierra Leone Bo has the fastest growing church membership in the world. The Bo Mission opened July 1, 2024. In its first year 2,910 people joined the church. And the number seems to be increasing exponentially, at least in some places like Moriba Town. In the month of June alone, each pair of missionaries baptized an average of 53 people.
With the help of their brothers and sisters in the worldwide Kingdom of God, the saints in Sierra Leone will get their temple and be endowed and sealed as families. As the gospel flourishes in Sierra Leone, the country will rise and prosper.
In Jesus Christ's living church, "it's always 1830 somewhere in the world."
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Note to all my readers:
If you are a retired couple (or know of one) who would like to serve in this amazing mission, email me and I'll get you a Zoom meeting with my brother and his wife to see if you think it's a good fit. You can choose how long you serve. If you are able to teach piano lessons, there are many missionaries there with keyboards in their apartments, anxious to learn from a real person. My husband and I are not retired and my medications are not available in Sierra Leone so we cannot serve there, but I feel we are really missing out! My sister-in-law says the mission is all-consuming but because of that they are filled with joy and love every minute! Every missionary feels like their own son or daughter. Children flock around them and treat them like grandparents. If you feel the desire, don't wait for a call--make that call yourself! You'll serve under two of the kindest, smartest, humblest mission couples ever! (And they even took a pizza oven with them!)
Email me at thepianoisgrand@gmail.com or check out the "Sierra Leone Bo Mission President and Sister Wyatt" Facebook page.
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