A simple utility class for converting Date to Java 8's LocalDate and vice versa. Via: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22929237/convert-java-time-localdate-into-java-util-date-type

DateUtil.java

public class DateUtil {

  public static Date asDate(LocalDate localDate) {
    return Date.from(localDate.atStartOfDay().atZone(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());
  }

  public static Date asDate(LocalDateTime localDateTime) {
    return Date.from(localDateTime.atZone(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());
  }

  public static LocalDate asLocalDate(Date date) {
    return Instant.ofEpochMilli(date.getTime()).atZone(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toLocalDate();
  }

  public static LocalDateTime asLocalDateTime(Date date) {
    return Instant.ofEpochMilli(date.getTime()).atZone(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toLocalDateTime();
  }
}

LocalDateTimeUtil.java

public class LocalDateTimeUtil {
  public static long betweenInMinutes(LocalDateTime t1, LocalDateTime t2) {
      return ChronoUnit.MINUTES.between(t1, t2);
  }
}