Through the camera lens, we often saw how grimly set their faces can be.  When life is so grueling, ready smiles evaporate.  That was why a Day of Celebration was particularly appropriate.  The gospel should teach the youth joy as well a obedience.

Another problem to solve quickly, in putting on a program, was costuming.  With a native sister for guidance, the wives of the Area Presidency plunged into the local markets, scouring the stands for the vibrant, multi-colored African prints to supply for each stake. If this was a day of blossoming for the Saints in Africa, they were going to look that way, like vibrant African flowers on the stage.

Cornerstone Ceremony

On the Day of Celebration, the early-morning cornerstone ceremony was a small, but significant gathering, because in attendance were the pioneers of Ghana—stake patriarch Joseph W.B. Johnson, who had started several small congregations long before the missionaries arrived; Elder Emmanuel Kissi, Area Authority Seventy, who had joined the Church in England and returned to Ghana to help the fledgling Church here, and Priscilla Sampson-Davis, who had been baptized the first day the missionaries arrived and had kept a steady stream of copies of the Book of Mormon coming to Ghana.

Elder Michael Kirkpatrick, public affairs missionary, said of these Saints, “I don’t know of anyplace else where the first pioneers are still here to see the dedication of the temple in their land.”  It was as if Parley P. Pratt could have been at the dedication of the Salt Lake temple, that is how significant these living, breathing people are in Ghana.

Elder Sheldon H. Child said to the small assembly, “You are no longer members of another kingdom.  You are now part of the household of God.”  He explained that the cornerstone had symbolic significance for a temple.  If the household of God is described in terms of the building of a house, its foundation is built on prophets and apostles and the chief cornerstone was Jesus Christ, Himself.  This temple in Ghana was a further invitation to come into the kingdom and be nurtured in the house.  “I bear my witness that the dedication of this temple is the most historic thing that has ever happened in Africa,” he said.

Member Meeting

That afternoon members filled a large auditorium to receive instructions from Elder Child, Elder Russell M. Nelson, and President Gordon B. Hinckley.  At one point, President Hinckley told the audience that there were four things they must do.  At this, almost in one united gesture, nearly everyone pulled a sheet of white paper to take notes