The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE

Casper, Wyoming, is part of a region that played a unique role in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Between 1847 and 1868, the city — along with central Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and the Lakota Nation territory — was a thoroughfare for more than 60,000 Latter-day Saint pioneers on their overland trek to Salt Lake City.

Most Saints came across the plains without severe incident, but the handcart companies of 1856 suffered starvation, exposure, death and other ordeals. A significant event was the 1856 Sweetwater River rescue, in which young men carried desperate pioneers across the freezing water.

One of those young men was David Patten Kimball, great-grandfather of Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“My grandfather, Crozier Kimball, explained to me that one of the reasons these young men were heroic was because they were following the prophet,” said Elder Cook. “He taught me that following the counsel of the prophet in our own day would be equally heroic.”

Now, Latter-day Saints in Casper will participate in that kind of heroism by rescuing their ancestors through temple work.

On Sunday, Nov. 24, Elder Cook dedicated the Casper Wyoming Temple in a single 10 a.m. session broadcast to all units within the Casper temple district. It is the Church’s 201st dedicated and operating temple.

“Here in mortality, we have the privilege of being the congregation of the righteous to find our ancestors and, by proxy, perform sacred ordinances for those who are in spirit prison,” Elder Cook said ahead of the dedication. “As we do so, we do for them what they cannot do for themselves.”

To read the full article, CLICK HERE