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How thank-you letters and children’s drawings helped uplift and inspire workers who built the Helena Montana Temple

The notes and drawings from Helena Latter-day Saints were posted in an Alabama manufacturing company’s break room and in the construction trailer in Montana

HELENA, Montana — The same construction teams that worked to put up the walls of the Helena Montana Temple also put up some other temple-related walls of their own — inspiring wall displays filled with colored drawings of the temple from young Latter-day Saint children in Helena, and letters of appreciation and testimony from local youth and adults.

The colorings and correspondence were posted for workers to see and read in a new break room at the Blox facility in Bessemer, Alabama, where the temple’s modules were manufactured in the design-manufacture-install process used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the first time.

And more pictures and letters were later papered across the walls of the on-site construction trailer placed by Haskell — a global architectural, engineering and construction company with one of its more than two dozen offices located in Salt Lake City — on the Helena temple grounds during installation of the modules and finish work.

In both cases, the pictures and notes were not just casually tacked up and left so workers might perchance pause and glance at them during a free moment. Rather, Blox and Haskell supervisors meticulously posted and arranged the notes and pictures, creating a choir-like visual ensemble that shouted out a common refrain of appreciation and testimony.

Even more, they made it a point of having employees read the messages to help uplift and inspire the work on the temple, whether it be manufacturing modules or installing and stitching them.

Each envelope contained one color drawing, one thank-you note and one small packet of jerky produced and donated by a company in nearby Lincoln, Montana. While a welcome treat, the jerky became secondary, with the real food for thought being the colorings and the personal messages.

Now complete, the temple will be dedicated Sunday, June 18, by Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The Helena Montana Temple in 2023.
The Helena Montana Temple in 2023. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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The start in Helena

Ground was broken for the Helena Montana Temple on June 26, 2021, signaling the start of construction just two months and 22 days after President Russell M. Nelson announced the Helena Montana Temple in April 2021 general conference.

Within a few months, local Latter-day Saint leaders started looking for ways to express not only their appreciation to workers in Alabama, but also their testimony of the house of the Lord’s importance in their lives and in their worship.

“We asked our members — from Primary age to adult — to either color a picture of the temple or write a thank-you note,” said Helena Montana Stake President Bret R. Romney.

One of the thank-you letters and pictures sent from Latter-day Saint children, youth and adults in Helena, Montana, to workers helping to manufacture and install the temple during its 2021-2023 construction period.
One of the thank-you letters and pictures sent from Latter-day Saint children, youth and adults in Helena, Montana, to workers helping to manufacture and install the temple during its 2021-2023 construction period. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Leann Bywater, the stake Primary president who helped organize the effort, asked a young man to create a simple drawing of the temple that Primary children could color. Some children did it as a Primary class, some on their own, and others with older siblings and parents composing notes of appreciation.

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“We decided it would be a nice and fun way to do something appreciative for those who were building the temple,” Bywater said. “And the kids were very excited to be a part of that and to do something for those who are providing service for us and for our community.”

Youth nights were scheduled for young men and young women to write notes, while some Helena members set aside a family home evening to contribute to the project.

The effort resulted in 500 individual packets. “The idea was that these individual thank-you gifts would be distributed to each individual employee at Blox and at Haskell,” President Romney said.

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The reception at Blox

The first wave of 150 envelopes with drawings, letters and jerky arrived at Blox in late October 2021. Several supervisors began opening the packets at the front desk; as they opened a few envelopes to understand their contents and then saw the drawings, notes and letters, they promptly took the envelopes planned for individuals and created a companywide communication.

“It was a powerful and uplifting moment,” emailed one supervisor to other company officials.

Workers assemble a portion of the Helena Montana Temple at the 50-acre Blox facility in Bessemer, Alabama.
Workers assemble a portion of the Helena Montana Temple at the 50-acre Blox facility in Bessemer, Alabama. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Chris Haueter, a Haskell project manager based in Salt Lake City, moved to work at and collaborate with Blox for the first six months after the latter began producing the Helena temple modules in Alabama. He saw the reaction to the Helena thank-yous.

Haueter recalled Scott Sink, a foreman on a Blox manufacturing line, who was touched as he helped open the first envelopes. Sink called for an official plantwide announcement, ensuring that all who had a hand in the temple project would know where the cards and letters came from, the significance behind them and where they would be displayed.

Others started emailing questions: “How should we present this gift to the entire Blox team so everyone can be as strengthened and uplifted by this expression of gratitude? How do we want to display and preserve these special tokens of appreciation to help us not forget the ‘why?’”

Blox line foreman Scott Sink and his family post pictures and letters sent from Latter-day Saint children, youth and adults in Helena, Montana, that express appreciation to those helping to manufacture and install the temple during its 2021-2023 construction period.
Blox line foreman Scott Sink and his family post pictures and letters sent from Latter-day Saint children, youth and adults in Helena, Montana, that express appreciation to those helping to manufacture and install the temple during its 2021-2023 construction period. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Replied another supervisor: “The teams who worked on #1 [the Helena temple’s modules] and who may work on #2 will see the scope of gratitude, and it will inspire them that their work actually means something outside of their realm. We want to work with a higher-level goal, leave nothing on the table at the end of the day and strive to be better than we were yesterday.

“We may never meet the people we are doing this for, but the letters provide a sense of connection to the purpose.”

Sink insisted on taking the lead in helping others see and read the drawings and letters. With his wife and children, he created a display on the main wall of a newly created plant break room. And once the massive break room wall — more than a dozen feet high and some 20 feet long — was filled, more letters and pictures were posted on adjacent walls.

At the on-site trailer

Haueter went even further when a similar box of letters was delivered to the on-site trailer serving the Haskell crew and subcontractors working on the Helena temple construction. Every letter was read, and all letters were either displayed on the Haskell trailer wall or taken home by an individual team member.

The Helena Montana Temple is installed at the temple site in 2022.
The Helena Montana Temple is installed at the temple site in 2022. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“When we had a new crew arrive, we would have a preconstruction meeting with them to go over the rules of the site — and we would also have them each read a letter out loud, Haueter said. “This was done to impress upon them the importance of the work they were doing and inspire them to do their best. There were often tears shed during the readings.”

In the end, the project came full circle, with Blox and Haskell employees being the ones expressing appreciation and the Helena Stake members being blessed by the letter-writing project.

Drawings from children and thank-you notes from youth and adults are posted on the walls of the Haskell construction trailer on the grounds of the Helena Montana Temple during its construction from late 2021 through early 2023.
Drawings from children and thank-you notes from youth and adults are posted on the walls of the Haskell construction trailer on the grounds of the Helena Montana Temple during its construction from late 2021 through early 2023. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Said Haueter: “I want to personally thank the members in the Helena temple district that expressed their gratitude for the hard work. I have come to love the people of Helena and have a deep appreciation for their devotion to the Savior and desire to have a temple near their home.”

And the Helena Stake members were blessed in the end as well.

“What was great about the project was it brought the stake together to really contemplate what a blessing the temple is and how appreciative we are of it,” President Romney said. “It raised the level of appreciation because we had to express it. And so that was a blessing to our stake.”

Drawings and colorings from children and thank-you notes from youth and adults are posted on the walls of the Haskell construction trailer on the grounds of the Helena Montana Temple during its construction from late 2021 through early 2023.
Drawings and colorings from children and thank-you notes from youth and adults are posted on the walls of the Haskell construction trailer on the grounds of the Helena Montana Temple during its construction from late 2021 through early 2023. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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