Beautiful Fall is in the Air

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."
Fall is here in New York, and all the beautiful green trees that line the parkways and streets are showing their fall colors. Yesterday, Dick and I took a walk along the path that is behind our apartment building, and these are some of the gorgeous scenes we saw.

This is our street, Garth Road. Our apartment building is on the right of the picture.

Today as we drove to Church, we saw more and more colors. Two weeks ago, when Billy and Amy were here, the colors had just barely started to turn.

Last night, there was a couple's dinner at the home of the 1st counselor in the mission presidency, Bill Darger. His home was built in 1929, and all the houses on the whole street were built by the same person. The builder really liked the sea, and on each fireplace, there is a brass sculpture of a ship on the sea. I didn't get a picture, but it was very impressive. This house reminded me of an English house. Sister Darger LOVES Halloween, and she decorates her whole house in Halloween decor. Here is the table that the couples sat at. Sister Darger is on the far left in the above picture. I might mention that she is an attorney in New York City and is the Stake Relief Society President. She's quite amazing.

Here is the living room in the Darger's home.

Here's a picture of all the senior couples. We get together for a dinner about every two to three months. The Dargers home is within walking distance of our apartment. Sister Darger made wonderful enchiladas, and the couples brought salads, sides, rolls and dessert. We really had an enjoyable evening just mainly visiting and getting to know one another better. Some of these couples don't have much interaction with the other couples because they live too far away.

As we came home from Stake Conference today, we saw children all over the place painting Halloween pictures on the windows of the businesses along Garth Road. They were helped by their parents, and everyone lookedl like they were having a great time. Dick and I walked along the street tonight and looked at all the paintings. What a fun thing to do for Halloween.

I thought this little girl was SO cute and asked if I could take a picture. Later, when we walked by, the pumpkin head was filled in with a face, and there was a golf bag and golf clubs painted in the picture. Notice that the pumpkin is wearing a Scotish kilt.

I couldn't end without saying what a wonderful Stake Conference we had today. The whole conference was about missionary work. The first speaker was a Chinese convert who told his sweet conversion story and how the Lord directed him in his and his family's life. He set the stage. Then, a returned missionary spoke about his conversion and his desire to go on a mission despite the fact that his father was in a care center. He went to North Carolina. Two mothers told about their missionary sons and the growth they had seen in them. President and Sister Smith (the mission president and his wife) spoke also. Sister Smith told how much she loved the missionaries, and President Smith told about his barber and the things he had learned from him as they discussed the gospel. The Stake President closed with a strong testimony of missionary work. The spirit was strong and we were blessed for attending. The Gospel is true and does change lives. One of the ladies that we have been involved with is investigating the church. She has a Word of Wisdom problem, but she wants to get baptized. We are praying that she will be able to overcome her problems and get baptized.. She's Jewish, but she has a testimony of Jesus Christ. Her name is Kim Leibskind. Her baptism date is set for November 27th.

Conference Weekend, Apartments Inspections and the Virginia Dalebouts

Conference weekend was wonderful. It was different from the conference weekends we've had before at home. We didn't get conference on our TV, so we went to the Scarsdale Chapel to watch conference. Almost everyone had conference on their TV, so there were just a handful of us who watched at the church, mostly missionariers and a few other members--about 20 in all for the English. And they also had Spanish and Portuguese in other rooms in the church. This tree is outside of the church. I had Elder May and Elder Canfield stand under it so I could get a good shot of the tree.

Here is a close up of Elder May and Elder Canfield.


Of course, it wouldn't be conference weekend without "Grandpa Dalebout" pancakes. We invited the the Schoutens and the AP's over for breakfast Sunday morning. They had a great time making shapes out of the batter. Elder Butler has the smile, and Elder Fox has the GQ look. Voila! Here is the finished product. We also had some quiche-like treats in a ham ring that Shelley taught me how to make when we were in Texas. That just might have to be a regular from now on.


Every six months, we have what is called a "Conference Cleaning." It happens the week of General Conference. The missionary apartments are to be cleaned "spic and span" from head to toe. We have three apartments that we inspect. All three were in top notch condition. We have other inspections in between and they haven't always been as good, but this time they all did a great job.


Here are the elders in Rye Brook--l to r: Elder May, Elder Canfield, Elder Montuy, and Elder Rahman.



The elders in New Rochelle invited us to eat with them when we went to inspect their apartment. They set their table up on their deck. They had cooked crab, chicken, potatoes, beans and rice. I didn't taste the crab, but none of them liked it very well. The rest of the food was very tasty. This is Elder Dennis (related to Ron Dennis) and Elder Dos Anjos, both Portuguese elders.

The last apartment we inspected was the AP's apartment. They did a great job of cleaning. As you can see, they are very proud of their accomplishments. Elder Fox and Elder Butler.

We feel very happy to have children near enough to us to come and visit us. On Friday, October 8th, Amy and Billy drove up to Scarsdale for the long Columbus-day weekend. We had a great time with them. Here they are in St. Patrick's cathedral on 5th Avenue in New York City.


On Saturday, they had a street bazaar for about a mile down 6th Avenue. It was fun just wandering down the street and seeing all the people.



Radio City Music Hall

After we walked down the street, we went to see Lion King. It was fantastic! We all really enjoyed it. I didn't get a picture that looked good in the theater.

Sunday, we attended church and just relaxed and enjoyed each other. On Monday, we took part of the day off of work and went to Port Chester with Billy and Amy. We walked around and got a bite to eat at a El Salvadorian restaurant.

This picture was taken at the harbor in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Here's a picture of Billy and Amy standing by a beautiful tree in Greenwich, CT.

Last week, three of our great missionaries went home. Here is Elder Stone when he came into the office the day before he left for home.

Elder Butler (on the left) also left to go home. His parents came to pick him up, so he didn't leave until today. He gives his report tomorrow in Phoenix.


We had transfers last week. Elder Dos Anjos was transferred up north. We will miss his gentle, kind personality and giving him five or six packs of fruit snacks each week. He loves those fruit snacks.




Today, we went to Costco to pick up 150 apples for the missionaries for training sessions next week. Here is what we saw on our way home. The colors have really started changing in the past week.