A couple of weeks ago, we had a zone, district, and trainers' conference. It lasted for three days. Elder Dalebout, Elder Schouten and President Smith taught during the three days. It was pretty intense. The two pictures below show the Schoutens and Smiths during lunch. Elders chat during lunch at the conference.

On Saturday, August 7th, Dick and I went up to the family history center, which is in the same building as the temple. We spent three hours training in family history. Afterwards, we walked 24 blocks to Times Square. On the way, we saw the Ed Sulivan Theater, which houses the David Letterman show.

We went to Times Square, where we saw LOTS of people and LOTS of huge electric signs. Dick and I felt uncomfortable there. As we were walking along, an LDS mother with two kids passed us and said: "Hello missionaries."

Sister Smith wanted to get a picture of the office staff. Front l-r: Elder Butler, Sister Smith, President Smith, Elder Fox. Back l-r: Elder Schouten, Sister Schouten, Dick and I.

We took the AP's out to eat at the Blue Moon for some Mexican food.

Elder Butler was kneeling by Sister Schouten, helping her with something. I thought it was such a great picture, so I took one. I said it looked like Elder Butler was proposing to Sister Schouten.

Elder Butler is a ham sometimes. And, Sister Schouten looks like she is thoroughly enjoying it.

When we were at the Family History Center at the Temple, we met Ron and Linda Inouye. Linda said that her son, Scott, was in the same singles Colonial Ward in Arlington that Billy had been in. She said her son kept telling her to look for the Dalebouts. So, we met, accidentally, at the temple. As we were talking to them, Dick remembered that he was their twin daughters' bishop up on campus. Those two girls both went on missions, one to Russia and one to Japan, while they were in his ward. Now, they are married and both have children. What a small world. The Inouyes live in Scarsdale and invited us to dinner with them at the Scarsdale Country Club right on the golf course. We really had a nice dinner and visit with them. As it turned out, Brother Ron Inouye is an attorney, and we needed his help for a housing problem that the mission had. The picture below shows the Inouyes and their son Dallan.

We were privileged to attend two baptisms last Saturday. The man in the middle is Mark Levin. He has been coming to church since we first came here. He had a question he needed answered, so he called President Monson and talked to his secretary. In less than an hour, President Monson called him back and talked to him over an hour. Mark was very impressed with President Monson's kindness. Mark is single and a retired police officer. Elder Wilkins baptized him (2nd from the left), and Elder Wu (left) helped teach him. President and Sister Smith are on the right.

Marietta Allen was also baptized. We didn't know her but she seems like a very nice lady.

Here we are with Elder Wu and Mark Levin.

We love these missionaries. Elder Lambert is on the left and Elder Montuy is on the right. They often visit the office to get their mail because they are in the Mission Office Zone. They are great missionaries, whom we have grown to love. Elder Lambert was transferred yesterday, so we won't see him as much.

Yesterday, eleven of our missionaries went to the temple because they were going home the next day. This is a picture of some missionaries whose apartments we inspect. Only one of them went home--fourth from the right, Elder Ames.

After we left the temple, Dick and I walked over to Central Park and hoped on a bicycle carriage, and a fellow from Turkey took us on a tour of Central Park. It was fun. I didn't get a picture of that, but I did get a picture of the beautiful fountain in the middle of the park.

As we came out of the park, we walked past the Donald Trump Hotel, where there was a lot of screeming and clapping. All we could see was a couple of black cars and mostly teenage kids surrounding it. If we would have gotten there five minutes before, we would have been able to see the Jonas Brothers. But, they were in the car by the time we got there. Oh well

All but one of the eleven missionaries left today to travel home. Elder Amison, from England, is not leaving until tomorrow night, so he traveled around with the APs. I love this picture of Elder Amison wearing a New York Yankees hat. He was very proud of it. He was also very helpful to me. He was able to help me put together a mission newletter template. I was amazed at his skill. I've been trying to figure microsoft publisher out for the past month, and he helped me so much. I told him he needed to stay an extra two days to help me with the newsletter. He's got a great accent.

It's hard to say goodbye to these great missionaries. You really get attached to them. But, bless them to move on with their lives.