By Scot and Maurine Proctor

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and the household of God:

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.  Ephesians 2:19,20

Joseph Smith said the southeast corner of the temple is the point of greatest light, and so the cornerstone is laid there, the last block to be placed in a temple, the moment of completion.  We’ve developed a tradition around this event.  A box is filled with significant historical documents, a granite block is slid in place and the First Presidency member (or member of the Twelve) who is dedicating the temple takes a bit of cement on a trowel, daubs it into the groove and then turns the trowel over to the next person to do the same.  It’s a bit clumsy as everyone struggles with getting “the mud” (as President Hinckley calls it) just right, practice does not make perfect, and yet it has great meaning.  Christ is the cornerstone and we dedicate this house to the Lord.  Through this photo series, we’ll show you how it happened this week in Ghana.

click photos to enlarge

The box that will be sealed beneath the coverstone is wheeled across the temple parking lot the day before the dedication.

The box is heavy with a copy of the scriptures, histories, a hymnbook, newspaper articles, books and pictures—a glimpse of the Church in Ghana at the year of dedication.

Russell Tanner, Director of Temple Building for West Africa and Elder R. Conrad Schultz, second counselor in the Area Presidency, slide the box into the temple.

Liam McVeigh, local contractor for the temple joins the others to help with the coverstone.

West Africa Area Presidency looks on while the final touches are given to fitting the stone.

President Sheldon F. Child, center, poses with his counselors Elder H. Ross Workman (l) and Elder R. Conrad Schultz.

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Click here to go to Part 2 of Laying the Cornerstone of the Temple in West Africa

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After receiving her education from University of Utah and Harvard, Maurine Jensen Proctor, the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Meridian Magazine, began her writing career with McGraw Hill Magazines and the Chicago Sun-Times. She has created award-winning television documentaries, has written a radio show for more than six years that played on 300 radio stations, and was a long-time writer of The Spoken Word for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

She, and her husband, Scot, have written several books together, including Witness of the Light, Source of the Light, Light from the Dust and The Gathering. They also edited a new version of Lucy Mack Smith’s biography of her son called The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother and The Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt. They were formerly the editors of This People magazine.

Maurine has been a part-time Institute teacher for the past 13 years and is the mother of eleven children and grandmother of three.

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