When Jesus appeared in the Kirtland Temple (April 3, 1836), he said the following to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery:
Yea,
I will appear unto my servants, and speak unto them with mine own voice, if my
people will keep my commandments, and do not pollute this holy house. (D&C
110:8)
There is only one known account
of the fulfillment of this promise, and it is late and thirdhand. In a letter
from Luna A. Paul to Lynn Paul on May 15, 1922, we read that:
I
wanted to tell you about Zebedee Colter (Coltrin). This man was called by
President Taylor to go and help start the work in the Logan Temple and on his
way he visited a brother here in Ogden. While he talked to Brother Potter and
two other men and he told them he wanted them [to] remember what he said. This
is as near as I can remember as Brother Potter told me. He said that he was
with the Prophet Joseph in the Kirtland Temple and he said that Joseph had
called him to help with this work and he said that Jesus the Christ came there
and drilled them in the Temple work and he was there day after day and far in
the night every day for two weeks and took them through the ceremonies time and
again. He said he stood and talked to them just as I am talking to you. And
then Zebedee Colter (Coltrin) described him his height weight color of eyes and
hair but I cannot remember only he was tall and I think blue eyes, but not
sure. I was going to write this at the time but put it off. He said that what
he told them was true and then he explained a lot of things that Joseph and
others of the L.D.S. had done and said that he was the only one living that was
there at that time and he has since died. How thankful we should be to know the
truth. (Luna
A. Paul letter to Lynn Paul, May 15, 1922, pp. 2-3)