Laie Hawaii Temple, Lumber Miracle

To watch on Youtube click here: https://youtu.be/pGooVgAY_ro

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The faithful members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sacrificed to build the fifth temple of the Church in Laie, Hawaii dedicated in 1919. The Laie Temple was the first operating temple built outside of Utah. The Laie temple was a monumental temple, bringing the blessings of the God closer to members across the sea, who were prayerfully seeking. While building the Laie Temple there is a magnificent account of a miraculous miracle of God when the lumber to build the temple ran out. The Lord answered the prayers of the faithful temple building members of Hawaii, and delivered the lumber in an unexpected way.

The Laie Temple was site was dedicated June of 1915, before the formal announcement in October of 1915. These years were pivotal for the world with the start of the first World War, beginning a year before, in 1914. They were difficult times for the world, and it slowed temple building. With the World War raging commodities were difficult to acquire, especially in the Islands of Hawaii. At one point of the building process, lumber had run out. There were no lumber ships coming to Hawaii, and it appeared as though the temple building would not be able to continue without the needed supplies.

Retelling of the story by the wife :

"... the temple ran out of lumber and ships were not coming here as much because of the First Wold War was going on. Ships were going to Europe. And so it was during the pressure time that Ralph found his way to the chapel and went up into the belfry and knelt down and called on the Lord to please help. He needed lumber for the Temple work couldn't go on.

Now when he left the chapel and joined the men up at the Temple he was told that there was a lumber ship that had gone adrift out here in Laie Bay, between Goat Island and the other island. He was so surprised that there would be a lumber ship this way because usually ships go right on to Honolulu. How this ship got off course and came out here to Laie and of all things to get stuck on the reef out there.

Now he called Honolulu and found out that ship, that the lumber was destined for either Alexander & Balwin or Dillingham Company. So he contacted them and told them that he needed lumber, and they said to him 'We don't know how that ship got there. You can have the lumber, because we don't know what we're going to do to get that ship off the reef.'

So the missionaries were used, as well as the fathers and the sons of the Laie community to go out to that ship. They either swam out or they canoed out or else they walked to Goat Island and it wasn't too far to go on the ship. And then they would climb the ship, up on to the ship and then I was told they tied lumber together to form sort of a raft and they tossed it overboard. Then one fellow would jump after it and push it. With the waves pushing from the back they got the lumber to the shore."

The Lord had a plan for building the Laie Temple, even during the difficult years of the first World War. The Lord showed His power to His children by answering the prayers so evidently. The ship stuck on the reef was no coincidence but a miracle from God to His children.

Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles simply and beautifully said:

“Miracles are divine acts, manifestations and expressions of God’s limitless power, and an affirmation that He is ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever’ [Moroni 10:19]. …

“… Miracles are extensions of God’s eternal plan; miracles are a lifeline from heaven to earth.”

Thus, a profitable way to study the Savior’s miracles and learn from them is to remember that each miracle points to something larger than the event itself."

References:

"Gathering to Laie" by Riley M. Moffat, Fred E. Woods, Jeffrey N. Walker p114