“Rebuilt Kirtland Stake Center, Ward House Dedicated,” Ensign, Feb. 1988, 74
Rebuilt Kirtland Stake Center, Ward House Dedicated
Kirtland, Ohio—On assignment from President Ezra Taft Benson, President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, visited Ohio the weekend of November 21 to dedicate meetinghouses in Kirtland and Hiram.
On Sunday, November 22, President Monson dedicated the Kirtland stake center. The building had been destroyed by an arsonist’s fire eighteen months earlier. At the dedicatory meeting, members who had wept when the building had burned shed tears of joy as the rebuilt structure was dedicated.
“I am delighted to see what is taking place in Kirtland,” President Mortson said at the dedication. He added that he had taken the opportunity “to visit the Whitney Store and the John Johnson farm, to have an hour in the Kirtland Temple … and to reflect upon the history of the Church in this choice part of our Heavenly Father’s vineyard. … What a period of schooling was and is the Kirtland period in the history of the Church.”
President Monson toured the John Johnson farm on Saturday, when he traveled some thirty miles southeast of Kirtland to Hiram, where he dedicated the chapel for the Hiram and Solon wards. President Ezra Taft Benson broke ground for that building in March 1986.
The Johnson farm is the site where sixteen revelations, including section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants, were given.
At the Hiram dedication, President Monson referred to Gustav Wacker, whom he had met while serving as a mission president in eastern Canada, and praised his faithfulness in paying tithing.
“People like Gustav Wacker and Sister Wacker who contribute their tithes have a part in this chapel and every chapel throughout the world,” he said. “We have these beautiful buildings because of the faith of the tithe-paying members of the Church.”
He counseled members to have the tolerance to accommodate the beliefs of others, and to be good neighbors. “Here in Hiram, in this sacred place, each one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to become. Let this building be an aid, a road map, a lighthouse to guide you on that pathway that leads you to eternal life.”
On Saturday, President Monson visited the Kirtland Temple, where the Savior and other heavenly messengers appeared to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. The Kirtland Temple is owned by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
President Monson also visited the Newel K. Whitney store, where, in an upstairs room, Joseph Smith established the School of the Prophets. In the store, President Monson recalled the struggles and triumph of Joseph and Emma Smith and the early Church leaders in Kirtland.