Wilford Woodruff Journal 4: The Savior Appeared to Him in the Holy of Holies at the Salt Lake Temple Dedication (1893)

Wilford Woodruff was the fourth President of the Church when the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in April 1893 — forty years after the cornerstone was laid. He had outlived Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Wilford's lifelong colleagues, and had himself waited decades to see this moment.

Woodruff did not publicly disclose what he experienced in the temple's Holy of Holies, but a brother who was present and heard him tell some of the Saints reported the account:

'President Wilford Woodruff told some of the saints that our Savior had appeared unto him in the east room in the Holy of Holies, and told him that he had accepted of the Temple and of the dedicatory services. President Woodruff saw the Savior and talked with him face to face.'

This account aligned with a promise in Woodruff's patriarchal blessing given decades earlier, which read: 'Thine eyes shall be open to look within the veil to behold the things of eternity. Yea the Lord of Glory shall appear unto thee. Thou shall put thy hands upon his feet and feel his wounds with thy hands, that thou mayest be a special witness of his name.'

The BYU academic study of Woodruff's spiritual gifts notes: 'While this promised blessing appears to have been fulfilled in literal terms, he seemed to indicate that in varying degrees, this gift was his throughout his life.' Truman G. Madsen observed that Woodruff lived 'as if with one foot in the spirit world and one foot in this one' — the only man in LDS history comparable to Joseph Smith in the richness of his communion with those beyond the veil.

Woodruff had also been told on multiple occasions by those from the spirit world that he would live to see the temple dedicated. He recorded in his journals that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and others from the spirit world had appeared to him at various points in his life.