It never rains, but what it pours. Here is our story of the temple closure Jan 3-18, 2010.
For at least 6 months we have known that the Mérida México temple would close the first 2 weeks of January 2010 for maintenance. The designer, in Salt Lake, has been sending blueprints and fabric samples of materials for furniture during that time. The Temple Department obviously knew what was planned, because projected expenditures were included. President Dyer has been receiving mysterious rolls of something and materials are stored in the warehouse on Calle 72, north of the temple.
About a month ago, the Facilities Manager, the Temple President, Bro. Oropeza, and others involved walked through to make a checklist of all the projects that needed to be done. (Gerhard missed that one because we had doctor appointments scheduled.) Then the people in charge of the facilities went on their Christmas vacations for two weeks, along with almost everyone in official positions.
At last Gerhard began to be involved, when he received emails asking about wallpaper, the paste machine and the paste for the wallpaper project, so he started checking to see what had arrived.
The map shows the locations and the distances involved in this story.

• Saturday night, Jan. 2, the Lees, a couple who do the wallpaper in temples all over the Americas, arrived to check on things and to get ready. They went to the church meetings that began at 12:00 noon in the Centro Stake center on Sunday and rested up.
• On Monday preparation began for placing the murals in the first endowment room. There were no murals, no paste, no furniture---men had come from Oaxaca to work---only the local painters and plumbers were able to do their little projects. Even the replacement for the baptismal walkway was the wrong color and had to be returned :( Emails and phone calls began to volley from Mérida to México City to Salt Lake and back.
  
• The wallpaper came down in the first room on Tuesday and the walls were prepared for the murals. As it turned out, plywood also had to be put up before the murals could be placed. The ceiling tiles in the men's dressing room came down--but there was some tension until the replacements arrived, and they were the correct size. A one-ton shipment of furniture was expected to arrive next week, since it had to come from Laredo. The Lees took vacation days and went to Chichen Itzá on Tuesday, and Uxmal on Wednesday. An email announced that the murals were released from customs in Laredo, so it would be possible for them to be here on Thursday. Gerhard was at the Temple from 7:00 A.M. until 10:00 P.M. that day.
• On Wednesday Pres. Dyer was at the temple in the morning and we went grocery shopping. Pres. Dyer expressed his displeasure at the lack of foresight and organization, then said we would just have to sit back and let the people responsible work their way out of the mess :) The wallpaper paste was found--it had been sent to the Hermosillo Temple by mistake! The Distribution Center in Mexico City was sending the wallpaper shipment but we would have to find a way to pick it up from the Estafeta office, since the rolls were too long for their delivery trucks.
• Thursday the long-awaited murals arrived--along with two rolls for the Cebu Philippines Temple! I had to look at a map (actually two maps) to visualize the location of the Philippines. Probably the shortest distance to send the murals from the Caribbean to the North Pacific Ocean would be through Mexico City---again. Scary thought!!
  
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• 40 buckets of wallpaper paste came also. There was a mystery as Sis. Lee's camera disappeared. People worked long hours that day. Gerhard went over just after 7:00 A.M. and came home about 11:30 P.M. just in time to catch his birthday calls from Rosie and Elena who had waited until then.
  
• Friday we were up early to eat breakfast and Gerhard put in a new bottle of water we had needed, then got to the temple before any workers came. They probably needed more sleep:) Pres. Dyer substituted for Gerhard so he could eat lunch at home at noon--for the first time this week. Sis. Lee found her camera just where her husband had packed it away, in one of the tool suitcases! About 11:00 P.M. Sis. Lee called to tell Gerhard that she had lost her wallet when she got out of the taxi and the police were there with her. There has been no report of anyone finding it, so they canceled their credit cards.At midnight the rain came in bucketsful. The men from Oaxaca worked as long as they could (3:00 A.M. when Gerhard came home), hoping to finish on Saturday.
• Saturday we were eating breakfast on a rainy morning when Gerhard got a call that a truck was at the temple to pick up the flooring to send back. Off he went about 7:00 to begin another day. Pres. and Sis. Dyer left to go to a stake conference.
• In the evening, Elder Smith called from Cancún to tell us of their bad luck. Sister Smith had slipped on the wet street and broken her right wrist, so they were in the hospital where she would be operated on to put in a plate and screws.
  
• 4:00 P.M. Gerhard called for something to eat, so I got a sneak preview of the first mural that is actually up! From this point the happy ending begins.
  
• January 10-18 saw happy endings. Even though the hours were just as long, the feeling was different. The work crews saw progress each day, with the murals finished on Monday, and the second instruction room, the bride's room, the hallways, the lobby and the vestibule successively. The groups putting in the surveillance system and the smoke detectors worked many hours inside and outside. Their work won't be noticed, and hopefully won't be needed, but patrons will notice a difference in the interior decorations.
  
• The new wallpaper is much lighter in color and each area has a different design. Today's temple decorations seem to create a spacious feeling and the art work helps to center thoughts on our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the House of The Lord and each detail should be as perfect as possible to symbolize Holiness to the Lord.