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Laie Hawaii Temple: Youth present cultural celebration — 'The Gathering Place'

LAIE, Hawaii

In the moments before a production staged to celebrate the rededication of the Laie Hawaii Temple, 2,000 youth stood shoulder to shoulder and listened to President Thomas S. Monson.

The event, titled “The Gathering Place,” marked the completion of the renovated Laie Hawaii Temple, which will be rededicated Nov. 21 by President Monson, and celebrated Laie, Hawaii, as a “gathering place” for early Church members and others. The youth from across the temple district had to crowd together to fit on the floor of the Cannon Activity Center on the BYU-Hawaii campus. They stood because there was not enough room for them to sit down.

Youth from Makakilo Hawaii Stake dance during the Laie Hawaii Temple youth cultural celebration Nov.
Youth from Makakilo Hawaii Stake dance during the Laie Hawaii Temple youth cultural celebration Nov. 20, 2010. | Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News

“The beautiful Laie Hawaii Temple, which will be rededicated in the morning, is the reason for this great celebration,” President Monson told the teens. “It shines as a beacon of righteousness to all who will follow its light. We thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings this temple and all temples bring into our lives.”

Then President Monson promised the teens, “Tonight will be a night you will never forget.”

President Monson greeted the youth with characteristic warmth, taking time before and after the event to shake hands with and speak to some in the capacity congregation. He wore his lei for only a few minutes before presenting it to Sierra Blimes of Laie, Hawaii. Later he walked into the crowd to personally greet a young woman sitting in a wheelchair, Briana Garrido, 15, of Wahiawa, Hawaii.

“It was the most amazing thing,” she said. “I have never been so thankful.”

Brianna said participating in the event gave her the opportunity to be with hundreds of other Latter-day Saint teens. “I am really sad that it ended,” she said.

The 42,100 square-foot Laie Hawaii Temple sits on 7.6 acres that was part of an original 6,000-acre plantation purchased by the Church in 1865.

Originally dedicated in 1919, the temple was the fifth operating temple in the world and the first completed outside the state of Utah. Today the temple serves Church members living in Hawaii and the Marshall Islands. Another Hawaiian temple, located in Kona, was completed in 2000.

sarah@desnews.com

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