A Couple from Ghana Traveled by Freight Vessel to the London Temple — and the President Opened It Just for Them

For decades the London England Temple was the only temple accessible to members across Europe and parts of Africa. Many members knew a temple visit would be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

In the late 1980s, a couple from Ghana saved their money and traveled to the London Temple aboard an uncomfortable freight vessel. They arrived in England on a Friday night and found the temple Saturday afternoon.

To their sorrow, they learned the temple was closed on Saturday afternoons. The last session had begun thirty minutes before they arrived. The temple would reopen on Tuesday — the exact day their freighter would return to Ghana.

After traveling so far, their window had apparently closed by thirty minutes.

The temple president — Arthur Henry King, who presided over the London England Temple from 1986 to 1990 — learned of the couple's situation and was moved. He quickly gathered some temple workers and Saints together and organized a special session outside the regular schedule, arranged exclusively for this couple that afternoon.

They received their endowments and the sealing ordinance. The sacrifice of their long voyage was honored. They left the temple late in the day filled with the peace and joy found in temple blessings, and returned to Ghana having completed the sacred ordinances they had traveled so far to receive.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History: The British Isles, Religious Studies Center, BYU):

The London Temple even served Church members in areas far beyond Great Britain. These faithful Saints often made significant sacrifices in traveling to the temple. For instance, a couple from Ghana traveled to England by freighter, arriving on a Friday night. When temple president Arthur Henry King learned about their situation, he quickly gathered some temple workers and Saints together and organized a special session. The couple from Ghana received their endowment and sealing blessings. "There they were, a couple of human beings, who were going to become kings and queens," the temple president reflected, "looking as is if they were fully capable already of being a king and a queen, looking magnificent in their white attire." The Ghanaian couple left the temple "filled with joy."