Reminiscent of early Church members living in Nauvoo, seminary students attending Wasatch Jr. High School in Salt Lake City determined to help with the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple — one penny at a time.

On June 16 their teacher, Gregory A. Ezell, took more than $120 in pennies — donated by the students — to Church headquarters to be placed in the fund for the Nauvoo Illinois Temple.

President Gordon B. Hinckley announced in general conference April 4 that the Nauvoo Temple, completed in 1846 and destroyed later by fire and a tornado, would be rebuilt. The more than 180 Wasatch seminary students, who were studying Church history, were excited about the announcement. Then, while watching a Church history video on Nauvoo, the students learned that the women in Nauvoo resolved to save their pennies to help pay for construction of the temple. When their teacher stopped the video, they had a great idea: They, too, would collect pennies for the Nauvoo Temple.

So the seminary council found a large plastic water jug and encouraged the students to donate pennies. As the pennies in the jug increased, so did the excitement for the project.

"It was a chain reaction," said Brother Ezell. "They wanted to be able to contribute to the new temple in their own way."

Seminary president Parker Tweed noted that the students hoped to pay tribute to the early pioneers who sacrificed for the temple. Donating pennies, he explained, was one way every seminary student could participate.

"We wanted to feel like we were a part of [the reconstruction of the temple]," said Parker. "The pioneers were really strong, they dealt with a lot, they went through a lot for us."

Brother Ezell said even though a penny was worth a lot more in the 1800s, the 13- and 14-year-old students who donated pennies today made their own kind of sacrifice for the temple. "Most don't have jobs," he explained. "Some kids, you could tell, brought in their entire penny jar. They purposely went home and brought what they had. In some form or another, that is a sacrifice."

And many students, including Buffy Tateoka, contributed not only money to the project, but also time — spending hours after school counting and packaging the more than 12,000 pennies.

"It gave me the feeling that I was involved in something great," she said.

Brother Ezell noted that almost all the students felt as did Buffy, that they were helping to build something great.

"I think the [students] understand that this is not just another temple," he said. "[The Church] is rebuilding a legacy and they wanted to be a part of it."