“The Eternal Plan Became Real”

In 1970 Korean Saints prepared for their first group trip to the nearest temple, in Laie, Hawai‘i. Because there were government restrictions on international travel at the time, especially for couples, mission leaders had to work for six months to secure permission for six couples to go in August. Choi Wook Hwan, who was part of this first group, returned home feeling strengthened. “It opened our minds and awakened to us how we can receive salvation. The eternal plan became real; our testimonies have been strengthened so much it is hard to explain.”

Over the course of the next decade, a few other Saints were able to reach temples, whether through a later group trip or during business-related travel. Han In Sang, for example, treasured his opportunity to enter the Salt Lake Temple during a business trip in 1971. When he returned home, he told a large congregation of Korean Saints about the experience: “I went inside the temple, touched the walls and the chairs,” he told them, adding that if they wanted to touch the temple through him, they could shake his hand. After the meeting, no one went home without first shaking In Sang’s hand. “That was as close as they had come to the temple,” he reflected.

Kim Ki Young, another Korean Church leader who had the opportunity to attend the Salt Lake Temple, talked about the mixed feelings he had because he had attended without his wife. “I was happy to be there,” he said. “But I also felt pity. I witnessed a couple’s marriage and felt such soul grief that my wife was not with me.” By 1981 only 100 of the 20,000 members of the Church in South Korea had received their temple endowment, and only 20 couples had been sealed.

The blessings of the temple became closer for Korean Saints in October 1980 when the Tokyo Japan Temple was dedicated. In an area conference in Seoul just days before that event, Church President Spencer W. Kimball told the Korean Saints, “If you will live the gospel, … if you will pay your tithes and offerings with honesty, you will be blessed of the Lord.” Some Korean Saints were able to attend the Tokyo temple dedication a few days later. At one of the sessions, In Sang gave the closing prayer, and he prayed a temple would soon come to Korea.

Korean members at Seoul temple

Seoul Korea Temple staff, circa 1989.

The next April, President Kimball announced that nine new temples would be built—the most in a single announcement to that date—including one in Seoul. When the Seoul temple was dedicated in 1985, In Sang served as translator for Gordon B. Hinckley of the First Presidency. During his address, Hinckley stopped and put an arm around In Sang and recalled their meeting in Tokyo. “This man prayed to the Lord one of the few prayers I remember,” President Hinckley said. “He spoke to the Lord with a plea that He would permit construction of a temple in his native land.” That prayer—and the prayers of countless Korean Saints—had been answered.