Ringwood and Elder Koichi Aoyagi, and their wives. Stevenson, president of the Asia North Area, presided at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Sapporo Japan Temple with his counselors, Elder Michael T. On Saturday, October 22, 2011, Elder Gary E. The land was once occupied by the Shin Sapporo Golf Center and offers convenient access from the Hokkaidō Expressway and the Ooyachi Subway Station. A charming, well-known pedestrian bridge decorated with colorful circles and supported by a soaring, graceful arch-known locally as "Rainbow Bridge"-crosses the river at the north edge of the temple site. On May 2, 2010, the location of the Sapporo Japan Temple was announced as a large parcel of land on the Atsubetsu River, adjacent to the campus of Hokusei Gakuen University. 'Let us build a temple in this northern island.…It is our dream, it is our mission.'…We have prepared ourselves so that we may be worthy to enter the temple and the Lord has given us the greatest blessing." 4 Temple Site There are no words to express my joyous feelings." He further explained, "We started to have one vision five years ago. President Hiroyuki Domon of the Sapporo Japan West Stake said, "My heart was literally burning like a fire. News of the announcement-so long desired by the Saints of Hokkaidō-was met with shouts for joy, prayers of gratitude, and tears from an overwhelming sense of the Spirit. Monson announced the construction of the Sapporo Japan Temple during the Saturday morning session of the 179th Semiannual General Conference. Elder Harrison Ted Price, a missionary serving in the Northern Far East Mission, recorded in his journal: "In this prayer, he told of countless blessings from the Lord that have been enjoyed here to date, and went on to prophesy-'there will someday be many church buildings-and even TEMPLES built in the land.'" 2 Announcement On July 17, 1949, Elder Matthew Cowley made the first prophecy regarding the temples of Japan during the dedicatory services for the old Tokyo mission home-now the site of the Tokyo Japan Temple. The members in the Sapporo Branch back then said to me, 'Someday we will build a temple in Sapporo.' I am happy that this day has come." 1 As early as the 1960s, Hokkaidō members held to a belief that a temple would be built among them one day as described at the groundbreaking ceremony by Elder Koichi Aoyagi in a reflection of his own missionary experience there: "I was a missionary here in Hokkaidō 46 years ago. When the mission reopened in 1948, missionaries returned to Hokkaidō, and the Church began to grow. By 1924, the mission had closed, leaving behind a handful of members-most of whom could not be located following World War II. Missionaries of the Church first arrived in Sapporo in 1905. The Sapporo Japan Temple was the eighth temple built on the continent of Asia and the third built in the country of Japan, following the Tokyo Japan Temple (1980) and the Fukuoka Japan Temple (2000). The captivating architecture and grounds of the temple offer the beauty of Japanese culture and tradition, featuring distinctive trees and plants, large landscaping stones, and an enchanting pond and waterfall spanned by a pedestrian bridge. The beautiful Sapporo Japan Temple anchors a complex of supporting buildings including an arrival center, a patron housing facility, a temple missionary housing facility, a combined residence and office for the Japan Sapporo Mission, and space for a future meetinghouse.
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