Many Hands Make Light Work: Young Men Unload 15,000 Pounds of Temple Marble in One Evening

In June 2000, the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple was ready to be faced with Imperial Danby white marble. Many of the smaller temples built at this time—including the temple in Baton Rouge—used this beautiful marble, acquired from a quarry near Sharon, Vermont, birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Truckloads of the beautiful white stone were arriving daily.

One evening, an 18-wheel truck arrived at the construction site after hours. Only the marble foreman was still on site to receive the shipment of 10 crates of marble, each weighing three-quarters of a ton. The foreman unloaded two crates with a forklift before a hydraulic line on it broke, rendering the machine useless. A few phone calls were made, and within 15 minutes 25 strong men were there, ready to assist with the seemingly insurmountable task. The truck driver made an attempt to help the situation by backing the truck closer to the temple, but in doing so he managed only to get stuck in a pile of sand.

The young men went to work and unloaded the remaining eight crates, totaling approximately 15,000 pounds of marble. They then went the extra mile by placing the marble, piece by piece, around the temple where workers could use it as it was needed. Through the entire process, only one piece of marble was broken.

After transporting all the marble, the young men focused their efforts on freeing the stranded truck. In a unified effort of strength, they managed to rock the big semitruck off the sand pile. All of the evening's diligent labors required only one and one-half hours' time — a task that had seemed impossible when the forklift failed was completed in a night by willing hands that arrived within minutes of a few phone calls.