Reactions to Announcement by Latter-day Saints
As the Temple closure approached, many members took the opportunity to partake of the sacred spirit of the Lord’s House to ‘…rise up and Temples enter.’ There were instances of Temple patrons who had not held a current Temple recommend for many years, decades in some cases, who made the necessary changes in their lives to qualify to enter the New Zealand Temple one more time before the renovations began. Ordinance workers and the Temple presidency were blessed to assist these patrons and refresh their knowledge of the key signs and tokens only imparted in the temple.
In the final weeks before closure the numbers attending were exceptional and most sessions were near-full or full to overflowing. “Seeing the Temple this full and being reunited with friends, members and family members in the Lord’s House was wonderful to see during those final days before it closed.”
President Ronald K. Reti, Whangārei NZ Stake President reminisced later. Saints travelled from all around the country to attend while they had the chance, not knowing that soon a global pandemic would curtail their chances to attend a Temple anywhere. In their letter of 13 April 2018 announcing the closure date the First Presidency stated that ‘…during the temple closure, Latter-day Saints may choose to travel to other temples in the Pacific and elsewhere.’
Many stakes, wards and branches in NZ planned to visit temples in Australia, Tonga and Samoa and initially many did. Youth who had never travelled overseas had the joy of forming strong bonds with their class and quorum members and leaders on a foreign temple adventure.
President Simon Thomson, President of the Hastings NZ Stake shared “Initially the temple closure seemed a little far away. As the date came closer, there was an increased urgency about the work. Units and families made the trip to Hamilton to participate in temple ordinances. Once the closure came, Wards and Branches got busy planning youth trips and unit trips to temples in Australia and throughout the Pacific. Our ward planned a trip to the Apia Samoa Temple and raised in excess of $12,000.
COVID came along and delayed the plans. The faith of the saints in Hawkes Bay didn't dwindle, however. During lockdown, the push came to do indexing as a Stake. During 2020 the target was first 50,000, then 100,000, then 250,000. As the number of indexers swelled, the target grew and grew. The final count of indexing and reviewing for 2020 was 2,636,368 by 170 indexers, with 2,017,726 from Hastings 2nd Ward alone.” The temple’s closure was newsworthy throughout the area. Many articles were published, and members found themselves being asked what the closure meant for them and their families.
