Getting to the Temple....

Most of us who were raised LDS have known that as soon as we were 12 years of age we would be able to attend the youth Temple trips and do baptisms.
I remember my first trip to the Seattle temple, I was nervous, excited, and wondering what I would find when I got there.
Porter was lucky and turned 12 before we moved overseas. He had the chance a couple of times to attend the Albuquerque temple. It was a four hour drive and we thought that was so far! Then we moved to Okinawa Japan. Okinawa lies approx. 900 miles from the southern tip of Mainland Japan. It takes around 3-4 hours by plane. That 3-4 hour drive does not seem like such a big deal anymore! When we approached the district about taking all of our youth to the temple, we were told that it would be too difficult. Thanks to one wonderful YW President, who wouldn't let it go that easy, and a branch presidency that got behind her full force, a trip has been planned for our branch! That same amazing YW Pres. has found us tickets that are not too expensive, and hopefully housing will be as easy to take care of. It's different when you are overseas. It's not as easy to call the Stake President in Tokyo and ask if our youth can be housed and fed for a weekend. So, between the airline tickets, housing, food, train tickets (to get around Tokyo), the cost will be approximately 300.00 per person. The kids are going to be doing some group fundraisers, but we are limited in what we can do on a military base, and even more so in the community. Because it is a very small plane that goes to Mainland, we need to have our money earned, and tickets purchased by the end of January. The trip is planned for the month of May. It would be so amazing if these kids could earn this money themselves! Thanks for looking, and check back for more pictures. The kids have a day off of school tomorrow, so they will be working hard all day and we will take some pictures!