joseph H spurrier

THE HAWAII TEMPLE A SPECIAL PLACE IN A SPECIAL LAND aloha kakahiakaKakahi aka laia oukousoukou a pau I1 think I1 have been conscious had left the islands the five who of the temple in hawaii even longer stayed however began preaching than I1 have been associated with teaching and baptizing the church before myroymoy baptism in the account of the 1942 I1 saw and admired photographs establishment of the mission with of this taj mahal of the pacific the stories of elder george Q on coming to laie in 1955 to live cannon napela and others again and teach we went to the temple has already been told by myself and often and I1 was asked in 1957 to others in gatherings like this become an ordinance worker from was in the early yearstheyears the that time until the present with yearsit of the sandwich islands time off for a couple of sabaticalsabasabbaticaltical missionthatmission that the first reference leaves I1 have worked in the to a temple in hawaii is made in temple A year and eight months october of 1852 after their ago I1 was called as second october conference of the mission counselor in the presidency it is the elders gathered in the home of a very real pleasure therefore to david rice a haole convert at share with you some history of this waihee maui to share their special place testimonies before resuming their the hawaii temple was regular work As elder john dedicated in november 1919 closed stillman woodbury arose to express for renovation and remodeling in himself he spoke in tongues As 1976 and reopened and rededicated is required on such occasions one in 1978 to begin the story stood to interpretelderinterpret eldereider frances however it is necessary to look A hammond As recorded in the back many years before 1919 by journals of elders hammond bigler way of a general statement the and farrer elder hammond beginning occuredoccurred in nauvoo in 1843 interpreted as follows when joseph smith called the first 11 part of which ran the elders of the sandwich islands lord is well pleased with the they never arrived here but went to labors of his servants on the the society islands instead that islands and angels of the lord are is another story already told near us that the people we are capably by george ellsworth in laboring among are a remnant of the the summer of 1850 elder charles seed of joseph that they would be C rich visited the gold diggings built up on these islands and that on the middle fork of the american a temple will be built in this river in california and called ten land more elders from that temporal this statement would be mission to the sandwich islands remarkable even if the temple had these did arrive on december 12 not been mentioned in a day when 1850 but only half stayed within the hawaiians were dying like six weeks five of the ten flies with almost no children including the mission president being born and with prospects so

28 poor that consideration was being laie he stayed overnight at the given to closing the mission to ranch house after his visit and say they would be built up on the early the next morning in leaving land sounds somewhat less that he retired to a small grove of hau reasonable especially then but trees nearby for this morning they were built up on the land and prayer As he prayed he reports that also is another story the that brigham young and heber C statement so far as I1 can kimball appeared to him showed him determine is the first mention of the foundriesboundriesboundries of the ahupuaa of a temple in hawaii is regarded laie and told him that this would by many as propheticit and as a be the central place for the church prophetic statement it does not in hawaii and that a temple would stand alone be built here in connection with the public this event is recalled in the announcement regarding the temple dedicatory prayer of the temple the improvement era for september given by president heber J grant 1916 printed inan article by elder in 1919 it runs as follows john A widstoe entitled A we thank thee 0 father this remarkable fulfillment of that the promise made in a dream to prophecy he cited a quotation of thy servant william W cluff by brigham young made at the time of the prophet brigham young that the laying of the cornerstones for the day would come when a temple the salt lake temple april 6 should be erected in this land is 1853 in reply to the question fulfilled before our eyes what will the temple look like by the time elder cluff had president young answered that it reported his mission in salt lake would have six towers and that the city elders frances A hammond and brethren should not apostatize george nebeker had been dispatched because joseph built only one he to hawaii to secure a site for the went on to say that a templetampietawpietempie would establishment of a colony in hawaii shortly be built with no towers at as had been done in a number of all but with an elevated central places in the intermountain west portion on which would grow plants elder hammond without further and shrubs this account was communication with salt lake city buried in the journal of purchased the laie property in discourses and unknown to the january of 1865 for the sum of architects who drewdraw the plans for 14000 the 6000 acres with its the hawaii temple but the plans three and half miles of beach called for concrete plants to be frontage contained an inventory of placed atop the central section of five buildings 500 head of cattle the building anyway and this 500 sheep 200 goats 26 horses was the first of three temples several thousand centipedes and an built with no towers undetermined number of cockroaches A second supporting statement even before the discovery of was made during the mission of hawaii laie had been a significant william W cluff in 1864 he was place a puuhonua or sanctuary one of the elderseiders who was assigned for the koolauloaKoolauloa area the largest to survey the mission and to try to settlement of hawaiians between revitalize the church in hawaii waiteawaimea and lanikai on this coast in after the gibson experience he the 19th century it now became the visited the branches on windward headquarters for the church in oahubahu including the small branch at hawaii in june of 1865 forty

29 colonists including children came patriarch reed smoot but had not to laie led by elder george consulted with the rest of the bakerbekernebekerNe the colonists were joined first presidency or the council of shortly by a number of hawaiian the twelve on his return to salt families who had been defrauded of lake city president smith secured their hopes and homes in the gibson the unanimous approval of the experience on lanai conditions at twelve providing that the the settlement were less than proposition by presented to the ideal the place was barrennotbarren not a church in conference assembled tree in sight except in the hills three months later on october the winds were salt laden the soil 3 president smith proposed to the was sandy the water supply october conference that a temple be inconstant few crops would grow pulit in hawaii and called for a well and insects were numerous and sustaining vote the liahona a voracious church periodical reported in the by 1885 times had become even next days issue harder and many of those who had the decision reached at the gathered were ready to leave for general conference of the church other pastures which might seem yesterday to proceed with the greener joseph F smith formerly erection of a temple in the a young missionary to hawaii hawaiian islands is one of the most returned to laie now as a member interesting and significant events of the first presidency of the in church history in many a day church he urged the residents to the great forest of uplifted hands endure and to remain sayingthatsaying that which gave affirmation to the upon this place the glory of the proposal was also a most impressive lord will rest to bless the saints and eloquent feature who believe 11 many have work commenced three months later interpreted this as prophecyprophecya a on january 12 1916 first the old temple would be built at laie chapel had to be moved from the this is not a clear statement but site the ninety by thirty foot the interpretation does seem ninetonnine ton wooden I1 hemoleleHemolele was likely especially since when moved under the dldirectionrect1lon of the george Q cannon also of the first architects with brother hamana presidency returned for the golden kalili as foreman it was located jubilee of the mission in 1900 he at the present site of the laie spoke in very clear terms with north stake center where it stood mission president samuel E woolley until 1941 when it was destroyed by about a temple to be built here fire there is a scripture which ground was broken for the says much tribulation temple on the ath8th of february after 11 cometh the blessing and so 1916 but curiously there were no after the hard times at laie and cornerstone laying ceremonies the the desolation of skull valley construction proceeded under the joseph F smith once again in laie supervision of president samuel E and this time as president of the woolley with the firm of spaulding church stepped out behind the construction company of honolulu as historic old chapel I1 hemoleleHemolele contractors pope and burton of and dedicated that site for the salt lake city were the architects building of a temple he was and ralph E woolley was accompanied by charles nibley of superintendent of construction the presiding bishopric and ralph was the son of the mission

30 president and later as manager of the iosepalosepaiokepa the construction presented a settlement was called in july of number of problems the ground was 1918 to serve as the first coral and sandasand a poor foundation president of the temple he had a A large excavation was necessary to double task to prepare the people provide the necessary footing for for thetasktotemple and to prepare the the building modern earthearthmovingmoving temple for the people by the fall equipment was as yet unknown so of that year all was ready word the work was done with picks was expected momentarily scheduling shovels and blasting powder the dedication instead on these were handled by nennanmenman with november 18 1918 the message came names like kalili kaleohano that joseph F smith had died nawahine forsythe haili dedication of the temple was set keawemauhili kahawaii kaio and aside for a year broad the pay was was 1251251.25 per in september of the following day the days were ten hours long year the building was opened for and there were six of them each public visits and hundreds of week another problem was the persons toured the rooms and shortage of building material in grounds of the temple the grounds the local area was finally had the beauty of a formal garden decided to use crushedit lava as and the building was likened to a aggregate in the concrete and to jewel it had the general shape of pour a concrete building the a greek cross which may make it one pouring went day by day until upon of the only buildings the church completion the building stood a had built in that form the four monolith of artificial stone sides of the upper central portion during the april conference of are graced by four relief the mission the members were asked sculptured friezes representing the to donate 5005005.00 each for the four epochs in time as depicted in building of the temple the total the old testament the new donation from local members tripled testament the book of mormon and that figure the entire cost of the period of the emergence of the the building and the grounds is church in modern times variously quoted at between many were interested to 215000 and 265000 the discover that the building bore sculpture work in and around the some similarities to the ancient temple was done by leo and avard temple of solomon A statement fairbankslatterdayfairbanks latterlatterdayday saint artists from the architects indicates that who had achieved national acclaim this was so the murals in the ordinance rooms the extreme dimensions of the were by AB wright L ramsey and building from east to west are 102 leconte stewart in april of 1917 feet from north to south 78 feet the deseret news printed a story the central portion of the edifice which said that all was done on the arises to a height of 50 feet above hawaiian temple except the the upper terrace in this landscaping that was done under connection it may be interesting to the careful direction of joseph F state that if the now generally rock a botanist from the then accepted equivalent for the cubit college of hawaii now the is correct then the principle university of hawaii portion of the famous edifice of william waddoups who had antiquity had about the same cubic served as a missionary to hawaii contents as the temple in hawaii

31 finally on november 19 1919 groups began to come in on a telegram arrived for president excursions those from maui waddoups it read dedication arrived in the april easter recess thirtieth inform wesley from molokai they came at wesley in this case was E wesley thanksgiving from hawaii they came smith a son of the late president in july and from kauai in june smith As it actually turned out these saints came by shipaship a real the dedication occuredoccurred on november adventure it usually took 27 1919a1919 a thursday thanksgiving overnight but there was little day services began at 230 pm sleep even if one had a stateroom and were repeated on friday and these excursions have remained saturday an interesting feature remarkably constant though they was a special service for children were discontinued during world war held on sunday morning the II11 this year we expect kauai in capacity of the upper room where june maui in april hawaii in the services were held was only 310 july and molokai at thanksgiving persons which allowed 1239 to though now they come more participate in all of the services prosaically by air groups have some fifteen hundred persons come from other areas of the had come to laie on horseback in pacific as well As early at 1924 wagons and carriages in the novel thathqth first group came from new new means of transportationtransportationthe the zealand and saints have come from automobile by trainthetrain the old OR samoa tahiti and other places in & L line which came around kaena the pacific point to laie and others walked in 1930 president waddoups was the proceedings were conducted by released and there began a sequence the first presidency of the church of presidents each of whom have heber J grant anthon H lund made particular contributions to and rudger clawson elder stephen the operation and history of the L richards of the council of the temple castle H murphy presided twelve presiding bishop charles for a year after which he was W nibley and an elder arthur called to preside in the mission winter were also in attendance and president waddoups returned for in the remaining one month of five more years until 1936 in a 1919 fiftysixfifty six persons received case of musical presidents castle their temple blessings and seven murphy returned to the temple from families including over thirty 1936 to 1941 president murphy children were sealed the felt a strong kinship with the ordinance schedule of the new hawaiian people and reported temple was am ambitious one it proudly the three brethren of called for work tuesday through hawaiian ancestry who had received friday of each week baptisms for the sealing authority in the temple the dead were performed on mondays and the fact that many sessions and sealingsseadealingslings on fridays the were handled entirely by local schedule was implemented by workers he began an unauthorized ordinance workers such as elders translation of the ordinances to ross taylor edward forsythe the hawaiian language but it was robert plunkett henry reuter and never completed and the endowment sisters ivy kekuku apuakehau was never given in the language violet meyer and tsunitauni nachie albert H belliston became beginning in the second year president when murphy was released of operation neighbor island and was serving as hawaii led the

32 united states into world war II11 eventually however the green he saw the work in the temple drop faded to an even paler shade and in by over 80 in hawaiis first year a year or two the glistening white under martial law by 1943 when to which most are accustomed was president edward L clissold was restored another improvement installed it required a real act of occurring at this time was the faith to keep the temple open at installation of air conditioning all one endowment session per this was a marked improvement not week and an occasional marriage was only for cooling but for noise about all that could be managed control and humidity the ralph E woolley was called to visitors center was also enlarged preside following the war years and somewhat to provide for increased under his direction some physical numbers of tourists coming to changes were made in the building visit A glassedinglassed in entranceentrancewayway was added most of this work was done by to accomodateaccommodate hawaiian weather and labor missionaries who had come to two wings were added oneatone at either laie to put up the buildings of the side of the entrance to provide college and the cultural center more office space many of these men and their wives benjamin L bowring came in became ordinance workers in the 1953 to replace president woolley temple and the remainder were and during his administration two regular patrons in special monday significant developments occurred night sessions each week their first he enlarged the temple contribution to the temple ordinance schedule to provide work therefore was threefoldthree fold on tuesday wednesday thursday work was begun in 1961 on a and friday evenings and two much needed new information and sessions on saturday mornings visitor center the number of baptisms were to be done on visitors arriving had increased saturday afternoons this was dramatically and the facilities rewarded by nearly a threefoldthree fold were totally inadequate to properly increase in the volume of work done invite them to the temple grounds in that year the second elder hugh B brown of the first occurrence was the lighting of the presidency of the church dedicated temple by night the building was these buildings on october 13 illuminated for the first time on 1963 president brown returned december 18 1954 with special again in 1969 to preside at the services just after sunset the celebration of the golden jubilee temple world famous for its beauty of the temple president dillman by day was now even more beautiful after witnessing these events was by night president bowring was in 1963 replaced by rolan tietjen called to preside in the los who in his own turn was replaced angeles temple in december of 1955 by a third term of service in the and was replaced by ray E dillman office by president edward L during the years of president clissold president clissold had dillmans administration the by this time presided over almost temple was given a new coat of everything around paintapaint a pale green originally translation of the temple white the new shade was intended ordinances to japanese was begun to blend better with the under president clissolds landscaping the effect however direction as plans began to emerge was shock for most who saw it for excursion of saints from japan

33 to hawaii this work was done by installed at that time as temple elder tatsui sato the translation president the hawaii temple today was not complete when a crash is one of over forty the church has course of training was begun to in operation or under construction prepare local japanese to perform with the addition of temples in the the ceremonies in that language pacific and asia it is no longer the workers were still in training necessary for church members to and the translation was completed travel the great distances to on july 1 1965 the first receive their blessings and to do excursion arrived two weeks later work for their departed kin more translation was done correspondingly however the hawaii under president harry V brooks who temple district has been reduced to succeeded president clissold later include now only thirteen stakes that year this time elders tautua which by all considerations is tanouai and feagaimaalii galiaigaleai quite small the temple in laie is translated the ordinances to the a first in several ways it was samoan language president lloyd the first to be erected beyond the walsh replaced president brooks in continental limits of the united 1971 and served until the temple states the first of three temples was closed in 1976 for extensive of its peculiar design the first remodellingremodelling it was two years to be put up in a mission area of later that the first presidency of the church and the first wherein the churchchurchy led by president living endowments were received by spencer W kimball came to laie to the peoples of asiaasla japanese rededicate the temple the first chinese and korean services were held in the upper I1 feel that I1 must say in room of the temple with subsequent conclusion that the history of the ones being held in the nearby david hawaii temple has yet to be 0 mckay auditorium of the written I1 have only scratched the university campus surface but I1 am in the process of the original 10500 square doing more however much more feet had been increased to the needs doing there is yet much present 34000 which houses 163 more source material to be rooms the hours of operation were uncovered there are many reported increased to include both mornings occurrences which must remain and evenings four days a week with folklore for lack of supporting a full schedule of work set for evidence writing about the saturdays mornings the number of temple to this point has tended ordinance workers required to be journalistic rather than increased to nearly 300 and the historical and to lean toward the volume of work has grown apace emotion rather than the factual max W moody was called as there are undoubtedly countless president as the temple was experiences of a spiritual nature reopened and served for four years which have happened in the temple to be replaced by president robert and some use them as fodder for H finlayson president finlayson talks and papers my feeling will leave on june 15 of this year however is that they are likely to after just under four years of be sacred to those whose experience service they are and therefore elder arthur D haycock inappropriate to a paper such as former missionary and mission this thank you president in hawaii will be

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