"Joseph Smith and his counselors, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams, were duly appointed “to obtain a draft or construction of the inner court of the house.” Williams later described the ensuing vision. “We went upon our knees,” he remembered, “called on the Lord, and the Building appeared within viewing distance: I being the first to discover it. Then all of us viewed it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us.” The finished building, he said, “seemed to coincide with that I there saw to a minutia."
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/revelations-in-context/a-house-for-our-god?lang=eng
For the time, the Kirtland Temple was beautiful. But it is hardly anything compared to the temples that are built today. Why might this be? Because God showed them what was to be built, but he was not going to build it for them. They had to deal with the limitations of the day-- of their construction skill sets and of the materials that they could get access to and that they could even afford.
And our day with the advance of well-being due to specialized free market economy, our contributions to the temples are our donations to the church organization and our service in them, including the occasional cleaning of them. Almost as soon as the church can afford Hunter Temple, from donations and from profit on various Investments, new temples are built in order to give more Saints the opportunity to serve.
It doesn't seem with the building of the first temple in our dispensation that the Saints initially had any idea that work for the dead would be done in them, but it seems clear that they immediately knew that great endowment of inside and power would be there inside completed temples.
Find out more about John Johnson selling his farm for the building of the Temple.
In Missouri it was much more difficult to build the temple, because the saints were much different than so many of the settlers there. They were opposed to slavery, they would rather preach the gospel to the Native Americans than fight and subdue them, and the evening and Morning Star? Was the first news publication in the area, making it all the more ironic that it was destroyed by the settlers. The Mormon newspaper did give news items, but probably from an LDS perspective that rankled the settlers.
Doctrine and Covenants 94 happened chronologically after section 95. it is therefore likely that the three people referred to in section 95 are hyrum Smith, Reynolds Cahoon, and Jared Carter, specifically named in section 94
Section 95:1 whom I love I also chasten. Everyone experiences struggles and suffering, which is a sign of God's love and awareness for them.
Section 95:4 talks about God pouring his spirit over all flesh, not just of church members.
Although Christ's church is the only official organization that is his, preparing temples is the ultimate indication that his gospel is for everyone and eternal life is within everyone's reach.
These sections are very little about physical buildings, although buildings seem to be an excellent means for God to share divinity intimately with his children. These sections are more about the patterns for becoming like--and bringing others to become like--our Heavenly parents.
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