Laie Hawaii Temple Family Hisory Miracles

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The Laie Hawaii Temple has been the means to bringing blessings to all the islands of Hawaii, and enlarged the reach of the temple blessings to far away islands of the sea, thousands of miles away. When the Laie Temple was first built the countries assigned to the temple were Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Japan, and Australia. As the Church continued to grow throughout the Pacific and Asia, the number of countries blessed by this temple continued to increase. Hawaii plays an important role in the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ to many countries, it is a blessed land chosen by God to fulfill an important purpose.

All Will Be Made Possible Through Christ

While some members were able to leave their homes in the Pacific and immigrated to Hawaii, others were not able to "gather" in the same way. The faithful Saints from wards and branches from various nations organized group trips, called excursions, to the temple. This is an example of a spiritual form of gathering. It provided a way for Church members to travel to receive temple ordinances and then return home to build the Church in their own nations.

At the dedication if the La'ie Hawaii Temple, President Heber J. Grant prayed for the Lord to open the way for Saints in New Zealand and all the Pacific Islands and to secure their genealogies so they could come to the temple and be sealed to the family of God.

Temple excursions began with a group of Maori Saints in New Zealand just six months after the dedication of the La'ie Temple. Though 5,000 miles (8,045 km) away from Hawaii, these Saints rejoiced at the news of the dedication.

Waimate and Heeni Anaru desired to be part of the first group to travel to the Hawaii temple. Yet the task seemed impossible because of the family’s poverty and the required cost of 1,200 New Zealand pounds for the trip—a large sum of money. This couple was in need of a miracle to make it to the temple.

For years, the Anaru family followed the prophet’s counsel and gathered their genealogical records. Those records then sat in stacks while the Anarus waited for a miracle to occur, when they could obtain the money needed to make the long trip. Their son, Wiwini, knew of his parents’ faith: “Mother never ever despaired that she would [not] someday kneel with Father at a temple altar.”

A miracle did occur. Waimate received a contract from the New Zealand government for a large land-development project. His income from this project provided sufficient cash paid in advance to cover the cost of the trip to Hawaii. Waimate and Heeni overcame their fear of ocean travel and journeyed to Hawaii with a group of 14 Saints in May 1920. They received their endowments and were sealed. The impossible had been made possible with faith in the Lord and the help of a loving Father in Heaven, the way was opened.

The Anarus’ family story is only one story among thousands about Latter-day Saints who traveled to the Laie Hawaii Temple in the early years, to receive ordinances and claim the promises offered by the Lord in His house. These efforts required great sacrifice, but it produced stronger Saints who returned to their homelands prepared to lead the Church.

President Monson said: “As we attend the temple, there can come to us a dimension of spirituality and a feeling of peace which will transcend any other feeling which could come into the human heart. We will grasp the true meaning of the words of the Savior when He said: ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid’ [John 14:27].” The power of peace through our Savior Jesus Christ is given to all who attend the temple righteously, and the Saints from around the world are able to have that same power of peace."

Genealogy Work Laie Hawaii Temple

When temple ordinances become available to a nation, they bring the Lord’s blessings not only to those living in that country but also to those from that nation now on the other side of the veil. This blessing has been felt by members in Asian countries, where their culture has meticulously recorded genealogy for centuries.

Kwai Shoon Lung’s parents migrated from China to Hawaii. He was born in Kauai in 1894 and baptized in 1944 on his 50th birthday. Brother Lung taught family history at church and told his class, “I had a vision one night in which I saw many of my dead kindred beckoning me to work for them.” Three days later he received his genealogy from his aunt in China: 22 pages in Chinese script revealing his ancestry back to AD 1221. Together with his son Glenn and daughter-in-law Julina, they have completed thousands of ordinances in the temple for their family. Glenn and Julina Lung later served faithfully as president and matron of the Laie Temple from 2001 to 2004.

President Henry B. Eyring gave a talk in 2005 entitled "Hearts bound together" about doing our genealogy for those who have passed on. He spoke about the dream given you President Joseph F. Smit hand said:

President Smith also saw the leaders the Savior called to take the gospel to Heavenly Father’s children in the spirit world. He named some of them: Father Adam, Mother Eve, Noah, Abraham, Ezekiel, Elijah, prophets we know from the Book of Mormon, and some from the last days, including Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff. Think of the power of those missionaries to teach the gospel and to touch the hearts of your ancestors. It is not surprising that Wilford Woodruff said while he lived that he believed few, if any, of the ancestors of the Latter-day Saints in the spirit world would choose to reject the message of salvation when they heard it.

And He has trusted you by letting you hear the gospel in your lifetime, giving you the chance to accept the obligation to offer it to those of your ancestors who did not have your priceless opportunity."

The Scroll That Wouldn’t Burn

Michie Eguchi came to Hawaii from Japan in the early 1900s and brought with her a silk Japanese scroll. Her granddaughter Kanani Casey served a mission in Japan and later discovered that her grandmother’s scroll traced her family’s ancestry back almost a thousand years.

In 2013, Kanani’s house burned to the ground. She and her family lost nearly everything in the fire. They had stored their genealogy in plastic tubs underneath their bed. After the fire, they went back to the house, only to find a mountain of ash and soot.

“The only thing that I really hoped to find was the copy of the scroll with its translations and history,” Kanani said. “I was reassured that all the temple work had already been done for my Japanese ancestors, but the copy of the scroll was so precious to me.”

As Kanani and her husband, Billy, waded through the ashes, they eventually found a blue plastic bag. Inside the bag, they found the copy of the scroll, along with translations and a family history book, amazingly still intact. The scroll was just a little burned around the edges, but it was the only thing in their bedroom that survived.

Kanani feels the Lord preserved the scroll “for the benefit of my posterity as a testament of his love for us and to show the importance of doing family history and temple work” (in Christensen, Stories of the Temple in Lāʻie, Hawaiʻi, 172–74).

By Jean B. Bingham

Relief Society General President in 2018 said "As troubles in the world increase and the pressures of daily life build up, we must keep our focus on the things that really matter. It is easy to focus on the negative and on worldly woes, as if we were looking at our failures and problems through a microscope. Being in the temple reminds us to keep an eternal perspective. Like a massive telescope focused on stars beyond our immediate sight, the temple opens our minds to a higher and broader vision. It allows us to see, hope for, and work toward becoming all that Heavenly Father has designed us to be. It helps us focus on eternal truths—on Heavenly Parents who love us and desire to help us, on our true worth as Their children, and on what we are capable of becoming as “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). In the temple, the plan of God is taught and eternal covenants are made. In the temple, we are given the tools to become our highest and best eternal selves."

For more stories on Hawaii Click here:

Gold Rush Missionaries called to Hawaii

George Q. Cannon Hawaii

Mission of Joseph F. Smith

Mission of Lorenzo Snow to Hawaii with Joseph F. Smith

Joseph F. Smith Hawaii Mission Mother

References:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2019/10/the-laie-hawaii-temple-a-century-of-gathering?lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/2018/01/the-temple-gives-us-higher-vision?lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2005/04/hearts-bound-together?lang=eng