Kadena Okinawa Temple and Family History

More steady progress on the Okinawa Japan Temple this week. Some additional machinery was brought to the site along with some heavy barrels which appear to hold water or some other liquid. More rubble piles are visible and now some boards or plates appear to have been laid out.

  RootsTech 2021  was awesome! I participated in a few different portions of the conference: group session for German family history individual session for family history strategy temple and family history instruction (handle separately) various tutorial videos (Korean/German family history research) keynote addresses I was blown away by how much specialized information was available across a variety of topics and regions and how much I was able to learn during the conference. I went into the conference as a real novice and gained tons of insights into how to do German family history research as well a whole slew of new resources--including several websites and various working-aids--that I can use to research gaps in my family tree and discover new names. I felt empowered after learning from professional genealogists. I'm excited to dig in and use my new resources and leverage my new knowledge; I'm sure both will help me for years to come. I am SOOO glad I choose to participate

A little more earth was torn up this week and you can now see small flags inserted into the ground, presumably to mark where the foundation will be or otherwise aid future construction.  Additionally, there's a new notice to passersby about the temple. The notice specifically mentions that visitors will be able to tour the temple once construction is complete. (Let's all remember to invite our neighbors!)

It has been three months since the Okinawa Japan Temple site groundbreaking ceremony and dedication and there is FINALLY some visible progress on construction as of March 7, 2021! Over the last week, a digger showed up and started some surface-level excavation. You can see several small piles of rubble, including one closer to the nearest fence. Okay, it isn't much progress--we're still basically just "breaking ground"--but we'll take it! 😀

There was still no sign of construction progress on the Okinawa Japan Temple as of February 28, 2021:

Here's another belated construction update. There was no progress on construction of the Okinawa Japan Temple as of January 17, 2021:

   Okinawa Japan Temple Groundbreaking Ceremony, December 5, 2020 The groundbreaking ceremony for the Okinawa Japan Temple was held on December 5.  As part of the ceremony, a dedicatory prayer for the temple site was offered by Elder Takashi Wada of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Per the invitation of a local church leader, I went back and re-watched the prayer. It took a couple minutes for me to locate the dedicatory prayer. At first I mistakenly searched for it in the recording of the temple groundbreaking fireside. Eventually I looked at the groundbreaking ceremony and found that the dedicatory prayer began right after  55:12 in the video . Some things that stood out to me during the prayer were the repeated invitations to live temple-worthy lives and to be prepared to serve in the temple after the edifice itself is built and dedicated. These ideas dovetailed well with one of the themes that I noticed in several addresses by Elder Wada