The Lumber Miracle

The construction of the Laie Hawaii Temple in the 1910s was fraught with challenges, not least of which was the difficulty of obtaining building materials on a remote Pacific island during World War I. Lumber, essential for framing and interior work, became nearly impossible to procure as wartime demands consumed the global supply chain. The temple project ground to a halt, and workers and Church leaders turned to prayer.

According to accounts that have been passed down within the local Hawaiian Latter-day Saint community, a storm drove a freighter carrying a large shipment of lumber onto a reef near the Laie coast shortly after the prayers were offered. The ship was stranded, and its hull was in danger of breaking apart. The captain, needing to lighten his vessel quickly, offered the entire cargo of lumber to the Saints in exchange for help unloading it before the ship was destroyed.

The temple builders eagerly agreed. Working around the clock, they off-loaded the lumber and transported it to the construction site. The lumber proved to be exactly what the project needed — the right dimensions, the right quantity, and delivered to the right place at exactly the right time. Construction resumed, and the Laie Hawaii Temple was dedicated on November 27, 1919, the first temple outside the continental United States.

The story of the stranded ship and its providential cargo has become one of the foundational narratives of the Laie Temple, told and retold in the community as evidence that the Lord's hand was in the building of His house. While the precise details vary in different retellings — the name of the ship, the exact date of the storm — the core of the story remains consistent and is deeply woven into the spiritual identity of the Hawaiian Saints.