Helen Keller's Temple Square Visit

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched-they must be felt with the heart."
In 1936, the American Printing House for the Blind printed a seven-volume Braille edition of the Book of Mormon.

Four years later, on march 11, 1941, President Heber J. Grant presented Helen Keller with a copy of this new edition.  The Deseret News reports that she 'expressed her pleasure at the gift and read from the text with rapidity."

The next day, Keller visited the Tabernacle on Temple Square.  After answering question about being deaf and blind and learning to read, type, and talk, Keller had a question of her own.

Famous Mormon poet Emma Lou Thayne recalls being at the Tabernacle when Helen Keller asked for President Grant:

"There was a flurry of getting up from the front row, and President Grant walked up the stairs to the stand.  She reached out her hand and he took it.  "I would like, she said, to hear your organ play your famous song---about your pioneers.  I would like to remember hearing it here."

Keller placed her hand on the organ while the organist, Alexander Schreiner, played "Come, Come, Ye Saints."  Feeling only the vibrations from the magnificent instrument, she stood there in front of the congregation, and the tears flowed.

-LDS Living-