Setbacks that Feel Like a Blessing • followHIM Favorites • Oct 5–11 • Come, Follow Me 2026

In 1857, as Latter-day Saints celebrated the tenth anniversary of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, news arrived that a third of the United States Army was marching toward Utah. The temple foundation, ten years of painstaking work, was covered with dirt to hide it from the invading force. Temple Square looked like a freshly ploughed field. When the army finally left years later, the Saints uncovered their work—and discovered that the foundation was defective. Large cracks had formed. The small stones and mortar could not have carried the temple’s weight. Brigham Young ordered the entire foundation removed and replaced with granite, saying he wanted the temple to endure through the millennium.

This story, drawn from a 2020 devotional by former BYU president Kevin Worthen, is the centerpiece of this episode of Follow Him Favorites. The hosts use it to illustrate a single, patient argument about divine perspective.

The mechanism: interruption as revelation

The hosts’ framework is straightforward: what looks like a catastrophic setback can become the condition for a better outcome that would otherwise have been invisible. The army’s arrival forced a pause in construction. That pause, in turn, exposed a hidden structural flaw. Had the work continued uninterrupted, the temple would have been built on a defective foundation—and might not have stood.