He Dreamed of an LDS Temple 15 Years Before It Was Built

He saw the temple in Africa 15 years before it was built. Kelvin Té grew up Muslim in Sierra Leone. But on January 9th, 1991, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Just one year later, he was called as one of the first Sierra Leoneian missionaries sent to serve in Ghana. About 6 months into his mission, Kelvin had a vivid dream. He was back at the mission home in Acra, Ghana.

But behind it stood something that wasn't actually there, a temple. Kelvin dreamed that he walked inside and performed sacred temple ordinances. At the time, that would have seemed almost impossible. There wasn't a single Latter-day Saint temple anywhere in West Africa. Kelvin finished his mission and returned home to Sierra Leon, but he never forgot that dream. Then years later, the church announced that the first temple in West Africa would be built in Acra, Ghana.

Until then, Latter-day Saints in West Africa who wanted to attend a temple faced enormous distances, traveling as far as Johannesburg, South Africa or London, England. And when Kelvin learned where the new temple would stand, he was stunned. It was behind the mission home, the same place he remembered seeing it in his dream. The temple was announced in 1998 and dedicated in 2004.

Now Kelvin just had to get there. In 2007, Kelvin and his family joined about 60 church members, leaving Freetown Sierra Leon on a 5-day journey to the temple. They traveled overland through Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Foso before finally reaching Ghana. Their bus broke down again and again, sometimes in isolated, heavily forested areas. At night they slept inside the bus for safety and when they became stranded villagers sometimes opened their homes to the women and 10 children traveling with them.

Finally they reached Ghana. Kelvin walked onto the temple grounds and entered the building he had first seen 10 years earlier. For 3 days the group attended the temple and for Kelvin the most important moment came when he and his wife Aminata Joyce Té were sealed together for time and all eternity. Then the group faced another 5-day journey home. Only this time, something was different.

After all those breakdowns on the way to Ghana, Kelvin says they traveled the entire way back to Sierra Leone without a single one. Kelvin couldn't have known what the next 15 years would bring. He only knew what he had seen and he kept moving forward in faith. And maybe that's the lesson in this story. We don't always get to see what God is preparing for us down the road. Sometimes all we can see is the next step.

So, if there's something you're still waiting for, praying for, or trying to understand, keep walking with Christ. You may not be able to see what's ahead, but you can trust the one who can.