Kadena Okinawa Temple and Family History

 The tall heavy equipment that appeared last month is now spread out across the temple site and large piles of dirty almost as high as the surrounding fence are now present:

 Over the last month (April), there was a jump in activity and changes at the temple site. In the first week of April, a digger re-appeared but no significant changes were noted: During the second week of April, metal panel flooring expanded: During the third week of April, the site looked similar until several large and tall pieces of heavy equipment appeared in the middle and front of the site:

The machinery that showed up at the Okinawa Japan Temple site last week is now gone and the site looks more cleaned up in general. About one fourth of the site is now covered by some sort of paneling, though it isn't clear if the paneling is made of wooden planks or metal sheets.

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 participat...

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 addre...

I recently saw the exciting news that there will be free family research help as part of RootsTech 2021 :  https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/RootsTech_Connect_Research_Help . You can receive help in two primary ways: by attending a group session: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/RootsTech_Connect_Research_Help#Group_Research_Sessions . by scheduling a personal online consultation:  https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/RootsTech_Connect_Research_Help#Online_Consultations . Group sessions, which will be held generally between midnight and 7am Japan time, are being offered on the following topics: British Isles Nordic Countries Asian Countries Germany Latin American Countries US and Canada FamilySearch Research Wiki Digital Library For the personal online consultations, the point is to get more customized help so there is a huge variety topics you can choose from. Consultations, which are mostly available in the mornings Japan time, are offered in four languages: English, ...

Have you heard about the annual family history conference called "RootsTech"? It's a multi-day event with inspirational speakers as well as workshops on various topics related to family history. Well, it's that time of year again. RootsTech 2021 will be held February 25th through 27th. (That's Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the United States, so it will be mostly Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Japan/Korea.) This year's conference will be 100% online and 100% free. It is a great opportunity to learn more about FamilySearch , learn about family history in general, and be uplifted. Here's the main website for this year's conference: https://www.rootstech.org/?lang=eng . Here's a spot where you can learn more about RootsTech: https://www.rootstech.org/about?lang=eng . Registration is very simple. It takes maybe 1-2 minutes. You can use the live chat function to have a robot register you or you can register yourself here:  https://www.rootstech.org/...

For this second of two belated December 2020 construction updates , I'm sad to say the Okinawa Japan Temple again showed no noticeable construction progress as of December 27, 2020: The small silver-lining is that after a few weeks of rainy weather, the sky was back to its normal Okinawa beautiful self. (If you're wondering why this update is a little late in reaching the blog, check out my previously posted confession .)

This is the first of two construction updates from December that I'm posting a little late. There were two reasons for my tardiness is posting: First, my family and I were busy having lots of Christmas fun. Second, there really wasn't an noticeable construction progress. (Then again, maybe mystical dwarves were hard at work underground preparing the ground for the temple foundation and I just didn't hear them.) Here's what the Okinawa Japan Temple site looked like as of December 19, 2020: The barren spaces missing grass are where fake grass had been rolled out for the groundbreaking ceremony .

A few weeks ago, a few videos related to the Okinawa Japan Temple groundbreaking and fireside were released: Brief overview of the groundbreaking and fireside events of December 5th and 6th Full video of the groundbreaking ceremony on December 5th Full video of the post-groundbreaking fireside on December 6th . (For more information on the Okinawa Japan Temple groundbreaking, see our previous post about it .)

 Some great details were released about the Okinawa Japan Temple in May 2020: "The Okinawa Japan Temple will be located on a half-acre site at 7-11, Matsumoto, Okinawa Shi, in Okinawa-ken, Japan. Plans call for a two-story temple of approximately 10,000 square feet. A temple patron waiting area will also be added on to an adjacent existing meetinghouse." The location is right beside Kadena Air Base, specifically between Gate 2 and Gate 3. It can be found on GoogleMaps:  https://www.google.com/maps/place/Church+of+Jesus+Christ+of+Latter-Day+Saints,+Kadena+Branch/@26.3578946,127.802066,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x93303d44b6f6199e!8m2!3d26.3578946!4d127.802066 . Along with the information above, there was an official rendering of the future temple: Photo Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coban-guatemala-okinawa-japan-temples-renderings

President Nelson Reviewing Items from Salt Lake Temple Capstone Photo Credit: Deseret News Even though currently we are not able to attend the temple, we can help the work move forward in many ways, such as the following: Live worthy of and keep a current temple recommend; Work on your family history--President Nelson mentioned this during the April 2020 General Conference. This will enable you to prepare names to take to the temple and share family history with others, especially your family; Help others do family history work, including through indexing projects on FamilySearch—this was also mentioned by President Nelson during the April 2020 General Conference; Pray that the Okinawa temple will be completed quickly. Here are the invitation and promise given by President Nelson during the April 2020 General Conference: "While worshiping in the temple is presently not possible, I invite you to increase your participation in family history, including family history research and i...

Hi! This blog, entitled " Kadena Okinawa Temple and Family History",  is not an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints   but is meant to be a source of tips and inspiration related to temple and family history work. I'll try to share tidbits I learn from time to time--mostly related to FamilySearch.org --and hope you will find them useful. Also, since plans to construct the Okinawa Japan Temple were officially announced , I'll try to give periodic updates and other news regarding the temple. (Hopefully anyone looking for info on "LDS temples",  "Latter-day Saint temples",  or "Mormon temples" will find their way to this blog.) If something posted seems off or doesn't quite make sense, please forgive me. I'm still figuring this out myself. 😃 (Feel free to pass me feedback.) If you are looking for related information on social media, you might try the following hashtags: #okinawatemple #okinawajapantem...