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.

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...

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 .)

A week ago I stopped by  the site for the Okinawa Japan Temple and found that the  temporary office or guard shack that appeared in early November had disappeared: Okinawa Japan Temple Site Emptied on Nov. 29, 2020 The groundbreaking ceremony for the temple was held on December 5.  (The dedicatory prayer for the temple site can be found at 55:12 in the video .) Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony was limited to just 30 participants--including the Asia North Area President and  the Church's de-facto ambassador for sushi : Elder Takashi Wada. (A temple fireside was held on December 6, with at least 371 people joining in via Zoom...though that number probably represents well over 500 people since many of the Zoom attendees were families sharing a single account.) Here are some pictures taken while the groundbreaking ceremony was being set up: Okinawa Japan Temple Immediately Prior to Groundbreaking Ceremony on December 5, 2020 (Photos Courtesy of Anonymo...

I'm not much of a social media user but I'm going to share a few gratitude thoughts related to temple and family history over the next week. I'll likely keep them pretty short but I hope they are still useful to you. I think all of us can benefit from reflecting on our many blessings --yes, everyone has many--as a form of positive thinking. Thought for Day 1: I am incredibly grateful for the blessing of having temples on the earth. (As of today, there are 159 temples operating, 8 dedicated temples under renovation, and 63 additional temples under construction and/or announced throughout the world. ) In particular, I am grateful for temples because they allow us to access the amazing blessing of having our families sealed together forever--"for all eternity"--through sacred ceremonies prescribed by God. Regardless of the difficulties and challenges we encounter in life, if we maintain faith and continue to do our best in following Jesus Christ and keeping His comma...

I stopped by the site for the Okinawa Japan Temple and snapped a few pictures: A new solid white metal-panel fence that goes around the entire site has replaced the see-through orange netting; this makes it pretty hard to see the inside of the construction site from street-level. But I got creative and was still able to sneak a few shots that revealed progress: And as you can see, the asphalt of the former parking lot has all been removed. The digger is also gone and there's no other signs of heavy equipment. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Construction Preparation Begins for Okinawa Japan Temple (Photo Courtesy of Keny G.) It is the first week of November 2020 and construction of the Okinawa Japan Temple has started! So far it looks like they have fenced off the parking lot and set up a temporary office or guard shack of some sort. Next I imagine they'll begin to remove the asphalt parking lot. It even looks like they already have a digger on site. These are small steps of progress but it is very exciting to see things get rolling! The fact that the temple construction begins with some demolition probably has more than a few good life lessons for us, chiefly how sometimes it is necessary to get rid of good things to make room/time/energy for better, i.e. more important, things .

 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

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...