During the temple renovation Aug. 16-Sept. 2, 2008 Gerhard spent about 10 hours each day working with the different contractors and cleaning crew. He learned about the House of the Lord from top to bottom, inside and out. One of his special projects was the dehumidifying and temperature controls that hadn't worked for several months. For a man who doesn't like to talk on the telephone, he spent a lot of time talking with people at the Temple Department in Salt Lake City where many parts of the temple operation are controlled.
After the temple reopened, people complained about how cold it was inside; some left after one session because they were freezing; and the first week as we left the temple after our shift and came out into the warm, humid weather of Mérida our glasses fogged up. Gerhard tried various ways of changing the temple temperature; he studied the manuals and received e-mails with drawings of the controls from Bro. Terry Haws; he even took pictures and videos of the controls functioning, and finally on Friday, Sept. 5, he found a little wire that was not attached in the control box. When he came home he was very happy, and he has commented that he, Bro. Haws and the Lord fixed the problem. Since then no one has commented that they feel too cold.
Here is Gerhard's picture of the control box. The light-colored wire at the middle right was the culprit.