PHOTO ESSAY

“Because I have been given much, I too must give,” the choir sang on the bright, hot day of the Cebu City Philippines temple dedication, hovering under white umbrellas to shield them from the sun and waving bamboo fans to cool their faces.

With a temple about to be dedicated in their midst, there could be no more appropriate song, but its meaning shone brighter when you recognize the material conditions of most of the Filipino Church members. They earn very little. Minimum wage in their country is 73 cents an hour, but what they were singing was completely right.

Some of them may have dressed in their beautiful clothes in a two room home where they had to fetch water, but the temple is their truest home.

With the temple blessings awaiting them, they have been given more than they could imagine, and the Spirit witnessed that to the assembly.

“Because of thy great bounty, Lord, each day I live.” They do not feel poor, but bountifully blessed, which spills over into a kind of joy that marks the Filipino personality.

We asked one former temple president to describe the people and he answered, “kind, thoughtful, committed, gracious.”

They understand the next line of the song as well. “I shall divide my gifts from thee, with every brother that I see, who has the need of help from me.” They are generous with one another, watch out for each other—and when they join the Church, they turn around and bring friends and family with them.

Yet this means even more. As the nation in this region of the world with by far the most Latter-day Saints, they believe their children will be the missionaries who turn and influence the countries of Asia to begin to swell with members, these lands that have so often been tough to penetrate.

“As I have loved you, love one another,” they sing, anticipating the moment when the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, will come out from the first dedicatory session in his white clothing for the cornerstone ceremony.

With him was President Henry B. Eyring; Elder Dallin H. Oaks, who is especially endeared to the Filipinos because he served as Area President from 2002-2004, while an apostle; Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy, who also heads the temple department; Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the Church; and members of the Area Presidency, Elder Keith R. Edwards, and Elder Won Yong Ko, and Elder Michael John U. Teh.

The cornerstone ceremony at temple dedications is a moment for President Monson to interact casually, and sometimes playfully with the members.

“They tell me I have to go to work now,” President Monson quipped. “I’m not a mason,” he said, though, he has certainly had plenty of experience from the many temples he has dedicated, including eight since he became the president of the Church (and 15 more that he has announced).

“Do the best you can, and I’ll try to do the same,” he told those who came after him to add mortar to the joints. “They’ll come and redo it all and make it look right after we’ve gone anyway,” he said.

It is his way of saying, remember this. In fact, in one way or another he told the people several times, “Remember the day the temple came to Cebu City.”