Happy Birthday to Two People We Love

On April 28, 1971, a baby girl was born to Richard and Evelyn Dalebout. We were so excited to have a girl. That was 40 years ago. How time does fly, and yet it does seem like it was a long time ago. On April 28, 1978, a baby boy was born to Richard and Evelyn Dalebout. We were so excited to have another boy. That was 33 years ago. Last year, 2010, we celebrated both their birthdays at a family reunion up near Park City. Here's a picture from that celebration. This year, Amy is in Kansas, Matt is in Michigan, and we are in New York. BUT, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TWO PEOPLE WE LOVE!

Here's a cute picture of Amy and Scott on the Temple grounds at Billy's and Amy's wedding.

The picture below was taken on our way to New York. We stopped in Kansas to see Amy and Scott, and Bob Kimball took us to the country club to eat.

This cute picture was also taken at Billy's and Amy's wedding. Matt and Stacie.

The picture below was taken on our way to New York at a Tiger's game. Matt, his boys, and Grandpa.

We're so glad that Amy and Matthew are in our family. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Spring? Or Is It?

The daffodills, forsythia and trees are budding and blooming. However, the weather is still trying to decide if it's spring. Dick and I took a walk through Central Park after working in the Family History Center. It was rather cool, but it was a nice walk, and there were many signs of spring. We love walking and getting some exercise. We haven't done much of that during the winter. Despite the signs of spring, we are still having LOTS of rain.

Some of our great missionaries came to the temple to go through a session with a member. l-r: Elder Huerta Luna, Elder Montuy, Elder Martindale, Rose (the temple guard), Sister Tobon, Sister Angell, and Elder Lambert.

These sisters are such good missionaries. Sister Tobon is on the left, and Sister Angell is on the right. Aren't they cute!

We love having visitors. Billy and Amy came to visit us last weekend. They wanted to go to Ellis Island. So, we took the subway down to Battery Park, where we boarded the ferry boat and headed to the Statue of Liberty. The wind was blowing so hard and it was an overcast day. We didn't stay too long on Liberty Island, as Amy and Billy wanted to spend a lot of time at Ellis Island.

Here are Amy and Billy posing on Liberty Island, with the hazy New York skyline in the background.

The picture below is Ellis Island, where many immigrants landed during the years of 1892 and 1934.

Here is a picture of some of the immigrants and luggage they may have carried.

We had a nice tour of the medical aspects of Ellis Island, as people came in and were given physical exams. Most of them were admitted to the United States, but a few were rejected because of their health and other reasons. Below, Billy holds up a passenger manifest. The weather had really deteriorated when we left Ellis Island. It was raining hard and the wind was really blowing. Oh well, that's spring in New York this year. We had a nice time with Billy and Amy. It's been fun to have them close enough to visit us periodically.

Back to work at the Family History Center. Here is a picture of the other missionary couple who are serving in the Family History Center, Elder and Sister Smith with Dick.

Last Friday, we were able to see the crowd assemble to wait for a bride and groom to come out of the Manhattan Temple.

I snapped a picture of the bride and groom as they went out the door.

Yesterday, we took a ride to Westport, CT. to go to a senior couple's dinner at Stuart and Rebecca Hunt's home. Stuart Hunt is a counselor in the mission presidency. We took Elder and Sister Wilhite with us, and because we were a little early, we toured around Westport a little while and saw many homes that were built in the 1700's. Here is Sister Wilhite standing in front of an old home. It was built in 1766. That's pretty old.

Below is the home of the Hunt's. It's quite a beautiful home. And, it is in such a beautiful setting.

Here is a picture of President Smith (on the right), President Hunt (in the white shirt), and all the other senior elders, except for the Smiths from the Family History Center.

Here is a picture of the older sister missionaries. Sister Smith is on the right, and Sister Hunt is third from the left. We had such a great time socializing with these wonderful missionaries. We had a great meal, which all of us provided, and then we had a great time talking and telling stories about what we are doing.

Today was Easter Sunday. Dick and I spent most of Sacrament meeting helping one of the sisters in the ward take care of her 15-month old twins. We didn't get too much from the meeting. But, Sister Lee really needed help. After the meetings, Dick ordained Teddy Thomas (on the right) to be an elder. Dick and Teddy have worked together on family history, and Teddy has become our good friend. Mark Levin (on the right) was also ordained by Brother Stephenson, a high councilor. Mark is also our friend.

We are grateful for Easter and for the resurrection of the Savior. We are so grateful to be able to be on a mission. We love working with people and seeing the happiness that comes to them when they find some of the ancestors. The spirit of Elijah is well and alive. And, the Gospel is true.

Our New Assignment

Happy Birthday to Owen. He's two years old tomorrow, April 6th. He is such a fun little boy, and I've been told that he is talking up a storm. This picture was taken at Christmastime with Amy and Jacob and Owen. They're all cute, eh?

Two weeks ago, we were able to attend the temple with the departing elders: l-r: Elder Lopez, Elder Berry, Elder Irvine and Elder Fox. We really have grown to love these elders. They will hold a place in our hearts forever.

Here are the Schoutens and us with the departing missionaries and the AP's. We love these young men, and we love the Schoutens. They will be going home at the end of the month. We will miss them.

These two elders serve in the area of the temple: Elder Faulkner and Elder Nevarez.

We were able to attend the baptism of Nettyla, whose mother and sisters are members of our ward. She is a sweet little girl. When the bishop tried to put the water in the baptismal font, the tap would not work. So, several men and children got buckets and pitchers and tried to fill it. Meanwhile, the bishop went into his office and said a prayer that they could get the tap to work. He went back out and turned it on, and it came on. He said Nettyla's baptism was a miracle and thanked those who helped fill the font.

We took a couple of our missionaries out to eat at Mezzaluna, an Italian restaurant. This is Elder Scott and Elder Willard. Elder Willard was transferred from the Westchester area. The two missionaries have been companions for over six months.

This is what we see every day that we go down to the temple. It's amazing that it stands right in the middle of Manhattan. This picture was taken across the street in the cafeteria at the Julliard School of Music.

We really enjoyed conference weekend. A handful of us attended the sessions at the Scarsdale church. But, before conference, we enjoyed Grandpa Dalebout pancakes with the AP's and the Merrells and Schoutens.

Elder Garside and Elder Zwahlen did a great job of turning the pancakes. They were good sports.

Elder Garside wanted to make a "smiley face" pancake, so he made the smiley face first and then put batter around it. I think you can see the smiley face.

Sister Merrell took this picture before we ate.

Our new assignment takes us to the temple to work in the Family History Center. This sweet lady is Rose, who is one of the guards at the temple. She welcomes people to the temple and others who come into the building. She's a darling.

This is our Family History Center. It's small but it seems to stay quite busy. We have four computers and two microfilm readers, as well as two scanners. We are really enjoying working there. Most of our patrons are not LDS. They just love family history. It's fun to see how excited people get when they find out things about their ancestors. For, example, last week, I had a lady who was convinced that she wouldn't be able to find anything. But, we were able to help her find quite a bit on her line. She told me that she felt like the stone that was in front of Christ's tomb had been rolled away and that she was finding out some of the things she's wanted to find out for a long time. Today, Dick helped a lady and she was so touched that she started to cry. The spirit of Elijah is alive and well in New York City.

Here is our makeshift sign until we get a professional one. We have a brother who is working on one for us.

Rose and I share a hug. We go to the Family History Center Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Then, we are working in the temple on Thursday. We spend about two hours each day commuting. Today, our train was having security problems, so we waited for about 40 minutes and no express train came. So, we took the local train, which was packed, and I mean packed. We stood on the train for about 30 minutes while the train made numerous stops. Many kids were going home from school. Here is a shot of some of them.

The Gospel is true, and we're grateful for the opportunity to serve. I told Dick today that I have never been in an area where the people are so diversified, so many nationalities.