(Compiled by Dennis B. Horne)
July 1984
started like every other month, but drastically changed on the 6th. I was a
little slow getting to work that morning because I had a bad night and was in
the shower when President Gordon B. Hinckley called. I dressed quickly and
rushed to his office where he called me to be the president of the New Zealand
Temple. I accepted the call and then went to my office in the Church Office
Building to recover. After a few short minutes, I went home, talked with Marva,
then went to the airport and flew to Lubbock, Texas for a welfare assignment.
***
On the 14-16 of August, the First Presidency held a seminar for the new temple presidents. It started at 8:00 a.m. in the auditorium, and all General Authorities were invited. President Hinckley, Elder Howard W. Hunter, and Elder Grant Bangerter were the speakers. We were in meetings the rest of that first day on the 22nd floor and over in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a very spiritual day, and it was wonderful to hear the General Authorities speak and teach us. There were 13 new temple presidents altogether. I remember hearing President Hinckley saying, "I feel a little sorry for you brethren who are going to leave your loved ones and families and go away to the different temples. The only one I don't feel sorry for is the one who is going to New Zealand. His is a very special assignment." I did find out that most everybody would have liked to have the assignment at the New Zealand Temple.
Elder
Thomas S. Monson gave a first-class ban quet in honor of Marva and me that
evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Lion House. . . .
The next
morning the temple seminar continued at the Jordan River Temple. We all
participated in an endowment session. We then changed into suits and spent the
full day in meetings. They really taught us a lot of things we needed to know.
President Hinckley, President Hunter, and eight other General Authorities
joined with us for a two-hour testimony meeting in the temple. President
Hinckley called on twelve of us, including me, to speak in that meeting. We
concluded the three days of training with a nice banquet in the evening. This
was the finest seminar I had ever been to. On Friday, 17 August 1984, I went to
work most of the day. President Hinckley set us apart for our various
assignments and gave to me the sealing power.
***
On the 31st
we went to the Salt Lake Temple in the morning. I sat in on a marriage
conducted by Elder L. Tom Perry and one by Elder Marion D. Hanks so I could
learn more about performing marriages and sealings.
***
A most
unusual thing happened on 15 December. At 3:00 a.m. the bus arrived from
Wellington with a large group. While the temple was filled with 250 people, we
discovered that the water system ran dry and there was absolutely no water in
the temple. The fire department had left a large hose running and had emptied
our four large tanks at the temple. This was unbelievable to have all these
people in the temple and have no drinking fountains, no toilets, or anything
else working that needed water. However, the fire department got busy and
helped solve our problem by mid-afternoon.
***
Christmas
morning I went to visit my old friend, James Elkington, who was then 86 years
old. He was one of the greatest men in New Zealand and had been one of the
first patriarchs there. Among the Maoris, he was known as a paramount chief,
which is about as high as they come. I had known Jim for years. As a young man
in 1921, he had been President McKay's personal body guard when President McKay
first visited New Zealand and attended a Hui Tau (annual conference). Jim was
his personal bodyguard again when President McKay returned to New Zealand to
dedicate the temple in 1958. Everywhere President McKay went, this big, giant
Maori was by his side. I spoke at Jim's funeral only a year later.
***
During
February the temple was closed for three weeks. During that time many repairs
were done, along with painting. This was a difficult time for me. I was
restless and anxious to get the work done. D___ B____, our head engineer, was
very slow in getting anything done. I was probably much too hard on our
employees who were not getting the work done in a timely way. I was
disappointed in the work that had been done when I inspected it on the 25th. I
felt we could have done it all in ten days or two weeks, instead of being
closed for three weeks. I corrected that for the next year.
***
Arthur
Bedford, the former Temple View Stake president, was hired to be our new chief
temple engineer. I found out we could pay him as much as he was earning, so we
hired him and then gave him a good raise. I think that was one of the finest
moves I made during the time I was president. To change the recorder and then
to change the engineer were the two best physical changes we made. Brother
Bedford could get more done in a week than we had previ ously been able to do
in a month.
***
In early
1986, when I was president of the New Zealand Temple, we heard that we were
going to receive three new Maria Theressa chandeliers for the celestial room. I
was told that the Church had purchased them and that they would be shipped to
us later in the year.
These chandeliers
were made in Czechoslovakia and then shipped to Hamburg, Germany. They were
then loaded on a ship and arrived in Auckland in October. We did not get them
through customs until sometime during the Christmas holidays. Because of a
pageant we were preparing and other heavy responsibilities we were not able to
begin to assemble the chandeliers until February of 1987.
On Monday,
February 2, while the temple was closed, seven of us spent all day assembling
the first chandelier. It was hanging in the center of the celestial room that
evening. We estimated its weight at five hundred pounds. Each chandelier had
twenty-four arms radiating from the center, with forty-eight crystal bowls and
light globes. Each chandelier has cut crystals of twenty-five different shapes
totaling 2,755 in number.
Sometime
during the night I woke up and thought about that chandelier and had a very
uneasy feeling come over me. I thought to myself, "something is
wrong." I just couldn't figure out what it was. Early the next morning I
contacted our temple engineer. He expressed that he too had an uneasy feeling.
We went into the temple and looked at the chandelier and immediately we were
able to see that the ceiling was sagging a little from the additional weight it
was bearing.
I called
President Garry who is an architect and he contacted a structural engineer who
we brought into the temple when we closed in the evening. He went into the
ceiling and discovered that there had been a rather poor welding job done at
the time the temple was built. This one chandelier could probably hang and be
okay. However, any other additional weight or disturbance would likely cause
the entire ceiling to come down.
Before we
could assemble and hang the additional chandeliers we had to correct the weakness
in this part of the temple. The structural engineer designed some large plates
to correct the problem.
On Monday,
February 16, eight people working about seven hours, were assembled and hung.
Since the chandeliers were installed, almost everyone attending the temple has
been delighted with the luxurious and lovely addition to this sacred room.
There is no
doubt in my mind but what we were impressed by the Spirit of the Lord to the
fact that there was a problem and to not hang the other chandeliers until
corrections were made, thereby saving the problem that would have been created
if the ceiling had come down.
***
We were not
worrying much about records, but it just seemed like week after week we were
reaching numbers that had never been reached before in the temple. It was hard
to tell exactly why, except the people seemed to be fired up and enthusiastic
about attending the temple. I am amazed as I look back now at how many of these
people I knew personally. What a great time we had just meeting them every week
as they faithfully attended the temple.
***
On the 19th
of April, Elder Bruce R. McConkie passed away. This was only two weeks after he
had given a great address in the general conference of the Church. Bruce and
his family lived on Lambourne Avenue just a couple of houses away from us. Our
children all grew up together. His boys learned how to cut our hedge, and both
his boys and our boys played basketball together. Bruce and I were great
friends. He was always approachable and a pleasant, interesting, happy man.
On 20 April
1985, we celebrated the 27th year of temple work in New Zealand. During the
first 27 years of the temple, 18,482 individuals received their own endowments,
with well over I million endowments performed vicariously for the dead.
***
Sister Ora
Aspinal had her 90th birthday on 22 October 1986, and her daughter brought her
to the temple. When her daughter escorted her to the elevator by the large
assembly room where her four sons were standing, Sister Aspinal let out a large
"war whoop" that you could hear all over the temple. Three of her
sons regularly attended the temple, but one had not been to the temple for many
years, and she was thrilled to see these four, fine sons in the temple. Sister
Aspinal was a great soul who blessed my life on my first mission. She is a
true, 100%, Maori-happy and relaxed! I spent New Year's Day 1940 in her home. I
noted in my journal that "now she thinks she is president of the temple,
and I do not argue with her."
On 14
February, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, Elder Dean L. Larsen, and Elder Philip
Sonntag, with their wives, arrived in Auckland to hold a regional conference.
We went up on Saturday, and I attended a four hour priesthood meeting. Sunday
morning there was a general session at 10:00 a.m. and one at 2:00 p.m. with
lunch in between. Elder Maxwell was wonderful and easy to understand. At the
conclusion of the conference, he gave an Apostolic blessing to all the people
who attended both of the sessions. Marva and I were greatly impressed with
Sister Maxwell. She was a pretty, lovely person. The two sessions had 6,400
people in attendance, and it was hard to believe it was the same Auckland I had
served in years ago.
***
On 18 March
1986, while serving as president of the New Zealand Temple, I dreamed a very
unusual dream.
In my
dream, I was at a stake conference, sitting in the rear of a building. As the
meeting broke up and only a few people were left standing in the comer of the
chapel overflow, a man quickly approached me. It was President Matthew Cowley,
my old mission president, exactly as I knew him years ago. He wore a beautiful,
double breasted, jet black suit which seemed to sparkle.
He took
hold of me, turned me away from the people, and began talking to me. Without a
special greeting or small talk of any kind, he informed me that my life would
be changing dramatically within a short time and told me who I would be working
with. He gave me a real vote of confidence; and although he didn't smile or
laugh, he made me feel at ease. Then he left as quickly as he came.
I turned
back to see the people still standing around. I knew everybody but especially
recognized Sister Amelia McConkie. I was going to say something to her but
didn't.
I had not
dreamed of Matthew Cowley for many, many years. After the dream, I could no
longer sleep, but lay there for a long time thinking about it—and thought about
it all day, despite how busy it was in the temple, with three General
Authorities and fourteen mission presidents in attendance; and Marva and I were
planning to fly home that evening with the General Authorities for a short visit.
I tried to figure out the meaning of the dream. Had I finished my work here on
Earth to receive a new assignment? Was I going to be released as temple
president and do something else? I shall not soon forget the dream.
***
The 25th of
March was a cool, rainy day, but as usual it was nice in the temple. I wrote a
few letters, and then the telephone rang. President Thomas S. Monson was
calling me. He talked for a few moments and then, representing President Ezra
Taft Benson, issued a call to me to be a General Authority and to serve as a
Member of the Seventy. He also talked to Marva and told us to get tickets and
come home for conference. After the call, Marva and I just sat a few minutes to
think about what the important and sacred calling really meant. We were not at
liberty to tell anyone, but the two of us realized rather quickly what was
happening in our future.
***
On Sunday,
29 March, President Monson once again called me. President Hinckley was trying
to locate Douglas Martin who was out of the city. I had an idea of why they
wanted to speak to Doug. Fortunately, I was able to get him on the phone and
connected through to President Hinckley. Doug also received a call to the
Seventy. What we did not know was that President John Lasater had also been
called. However, none of us were supposed to talk to each other about these new
callings.
The last
day of March we were in the temple. In the chapel meeting, I spoke to the
workers, and then we attended the first endowment session. We packed for our
trip home, and President and Sister Stan Philip drove us to the airport in
Auckland. He was all smiles. He was positive he knew why we were going home.
Temple presidents generally did not go home to conference.
***
Early the
next morning, Marva and I boarded the plane and were seated in first class. The
only other people in first class were Doug and Wati Martin and President and
Sister Lasater. No one could say anything, but each of us knew what the others
were going to Salt Lake for. We were all smiling, but finally got to talking a
little bit. By the time we arrived in Salt Lake, we pretty well knew why we
were going to gen eral conference. Marva and I were picked up by most of our
family (who were now expecting a big change in our lives).
On 4 April
1987, I was sustained along with seven other men as a General Authority of the
Church and a Member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
Early on
Sunday morning before the regular ses sion, I attended a 7:00 a.m. meeting in
the temple. Elders Packer, Faust, and Oaks spoke to the temple presidents who
were assembled. When the meeting was finished, we all went to the Tabernacle
for the Sunday morning session of general conference.
After
conference was over, the eight of us who were called to be General Authorities
went to the west boardroom in the Administration Building where we were
ordained and set apart to serve in the First Quo rum of the Seventy. President
Hinckley presided, representing President Benson who was unable to be there. He
asked President Monson to set me apart. This was a very important day, and
several of our children were able to be there. This was a general conference
never to be forgotten.
On Tuesday
the 7th, we met with the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve. Elders Faust,
Maxwell, Ballard and others gave us instructions. The next two days we
continued with more meetings, advice, and instructions.
***
May 1987
was a little different in many ways. We were still on the job serving as the
temple president and matron, but there were conferences to attend and many
other special meetings. Some of them were fire sides and socials to honor us
as we prepared to leave New Zealand for what we thought would be the last time.
On the 6th
of May, Elder Grant Bangerter called me to let me know that Milton W. Russon
had been called to be the new temple president. Brother Russon was a splendid
man, a former stake president, a former regional representative, and a former
mission president. I knew him well and felt that he would do fine.
***
I was the
president of the New Zealand temple when I received a phone call from the First
Presidency asking me to buy a ticket for my wife and me to fly home for
Conference and be sustained to be a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.
After we
returned and finished the last three months of our temple mission, a new
president was on his way to take my place. I called home to ask who was coming
to release us. Always in the
history of the Church, a General Authority has been sent to release the old
temple president, put in the new presidency, set them apart, and give them the
right to preside over that great temple in the Southern Hemisphere.
The General
Authority in the Temple Department said, “I don‘t know, I don‘t think anybody
is coming.” I reminded him that the new temple president was on his way and
that there was a big meeting coming up the next Sunday, that somebody ought to
get there. I suggested that there were a couple of General Authorities who were
serving in Australia. I told him to please find out who was coming so that an
agenda could be prepared for the transition.
In a little
while, the same General Authority called back. President Hinckley had said
nobody was going to be sent, that there was already a General Authority there.
President Hinckley continued, “You tell Glen that he‘s a General Authority. He
can release himself and put in the new presidency.” That‘s like asking a bishop
to release himself and put in the new bishop! Never been done in the history of
the Church! “Are you sure?” I asked. He repeated that President Hinckley just
said, “Do it!”
It dawned
on me that I wasn‘t just an old high priest. I had been called to a great
position, one that had the authority to release the temple president. You
should have heard me when I told the large assembly about the great and
wonderful things the old president and counselors had accomplished during the
last three years!
The [new
temple] president had already been set apart in Salt Lake by President
Hinckley, but at his request I had selected two good counselors for him, as
well as the matrons and assistant matrons. I then set all of them apart to
serve in that fine temple.
***
[Has some
repetition:] I had phoned Salt Lake two or three times to see which of the
General Authorities would come to New Zealand to take care of the change in
leadership. I was finally told by Elder Bangerter that he had visited with
President Hinckley, and President Hinckley said, "Tell Glen he is a
General Authority. He can preside over the meeting and make the change." So
that is exactly what I did. I conducted the meeting and released myself, Sydney
Crawford, and Stan Philip from the presidency. I went into some humorous and
marvelous detail of the great work that President Crawford, President Philip,
I, and our wives had done. It is not often we get to release ourselves, so I
did it with a smile. We then had President and Sister Russon speak, as well as
Marva who did her usual excellent best. I concluded with some remarks. After
having sustained the Russons, Rogers, and Hayes and concluding the meeting, I
set the two brethren apart as counselors to President Russon. I asked Pres.
Russon to set apart the two wives as assistants to the matron. President Russon
and his wife had been set apart in Salt Lake by the First Presidency.
After the
meeting was over, there was a reception line where all the people who worked in
the temple had a chance to meet the Russons and congratulate the new presidency
and their wives.
There was a
good feeling and much happiness as that part of our lives' work came to an end.
I wrote in my journal that "we have been treated like a king and
queen" by the people of New Zealand who honored us greatly. Serving as the
temple president and matron in the New Zealand Temple had been a special,
wonderful blessing for us. We had never been closer to the Lord or had any
experiences more wonderful than what we had in that beautiful temple in the
land we loved so much.
I learned,
while in the temple, that life can be like heaven. The missionaries and regular
workers in the temple are lifted up out of the world and it reflects in
everything they think and do. I learned more patience than ever before in the
temple. Things don't necessarily have to move in a fast way. I learned that I
didn't always need to rush. I learned that spirituality is a gift that comes to
those who deserve it most and is probably never exceeded anywhere other than in
a busy, active, spiritual temple.
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