Dreams Fulfilled – Rwandan Saints Journey to the Temple

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In the middle of the night of August 20, 2026, a busload of weary travelers arrived at the Nairobi Kenya Temple, having navigated two international border crossings and an arduous thirty-one-hour bus ride from Kigali, Rwanda.

For most of these members, this was their first experience attending the temple.   For two days members participated in endowment ordinances, performed baptisms for the dead, and the sealings of husbands and wives and children to parents. 

For Ernest and Sylvie Kubwimana, their arrival was literally a dream fulfilled.  Ernest serves as the elders quorum president of the Kagugu branch and has prepared himself for this day for a long time. He recounts how he and his wife searched among many denominations to find a church to join but were disappointed and decided to no longer take their family to church. 

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It was during this time, he relates, that his wife received a dream that impacted her significantly.  In it, she saw a house she described as a beautiful white house and inside, people dressed in white with white robes.  Also in her dream, she was shown words written on the outside of the house saying, “Holiness to the Lord.”  Sylvie then heard a voice telling her, “I want you to join this church.”

From that time, Ernest and Sylvie were on the lookout for the white building she had seen in her dream. 

In 2022, Ernest was searching for sponsors for the school he runs. One man he spoke with didn’t send him a sponsor but instead, sent missionaries to see him.  Upon learning about the gospel, he decided to be baptized.

Shortly after, the family received a visit from the branch president. During his visit the branch president showed their family a picture of the temple, which Sylvie immediately recognized as the building from her dream that she had been searching for.  Excitedly, she, along with the rest of their family, committed to join the Church.

So, they had been prepared, Ernest explains, for coming to the temple.  And now being here, he states, “We find the temple is where people are close to the Lord, and we feel it.”

Gasanze Branch President, Franco Gakwaya, who led the group, was also visiting the temple for the first

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time to receive his own endowment.  He explains that this is the first group trip that has ever been made to the temple from Rwanda.  He describes his feelings about being on the temple grounds saying; “I felt a change in me… it was like I was with God.  Of being in the temple he said, “I feel calm.  I felt like I was separated from anything else of this world. Very pure effects. So warm inside, and very happy.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley stated: “The days of pioneering in the Church are still with us; they did not end with covered wagons and handcarts. . .  [The pioneers] marked the path and led the way. Ours is the obligation to enlarge and broaden and strengthen that path until it encompasses the whole earth.”

Having pioneered the way, President Gakwaya looks forward to the rest of the members, throughout the Kigali Rwanda district, experiencing the blessings of the temple.  “The rest are excited to come, and I think in the future, many will come.” 

Fidelite Ranku Rije, also among the group, encouraged “every member of the Church, especially those who have not yet had the opportunity to go to the temple, to plan well and set a goal to go there.  The temple is a holy place”, she adds, “and going to it helps us get closer to God, become stronger in faith, and get spiritual blessings.” 

She further testifies that “When we go to the temple with a humble and ready heart, we have peace, joy and strength to continue living by following the teachings of Jesus Christ.  I also testify that the families who are sealed in the temple can maintain their unity, even in eternity, if they continue to honor the agreement they made with God, this I testify from the bottom of my heart.”