20 April 2008 - Ins and Outs in Kazakhstan

In the last two weeks we have been in and out doing humanitarian work as well as in and out of spring and winter!

This is Zhanagul Beckanbai. She is our Mongolian sister who comes to church each week. She moved here from Kostanai so that she would be able to attend church and enjoy the blessings of the gospel. There are no members in Kostanai.

This past month has been interesting; with the Wikles in Arizona for the birth of their baby, there have been just the three of us to church. She speaks Russian fairly well and speaks very little English; and of course, we know very little Russian! But the spirit is still the same! We sing in Russian and she talks in Russian but her prayers are in Mongolian and she reads from her Mongolian scriptures. We all enjoy of the spirit no matter what language! She is a wonderful addition to our group.

Everywhere you go in the older sections of town, we see the remnants of the Soviet era. These pipes are the two hot water systems. One is for heat, the other for domestic use.

They go up over the streets and up over the driveways. And yet the cold water is buried underground so that it won't freeze! There are two huge coal burning power plants that provide all of this hot water and also the electricity for the city of Astana.

We met with our friend, Kulnazira and Raigul Dukinova (lady on the far right), who is the Director of the Akmolian League of Large Families. Here organization helps families with 4 or more children under the age of 18 who are living below the nation's poverty level. They are currently helping more than1500 families and over 8,000 people. We delivered our second batch of hats, from Roy's mom and sister, to her and she was thrilled!

That same day, a father came in to pick up a wheelchair for his young son. Kamka wanted to have our picture taken with him receiving the wheelchair. He was very grateful. Our substitute translator, Zarina, is on the far right.

We visited Murat Abdymomynov, who is the Director of the Society of Young People with Limited Physical Abilities. He himself is blind and we are in the process of doing another project for him. He wanted us to try out the massage bed that was given to them by the Church to help the handicapped and others. We both tried it out and thought it would be great to have one in our apartment!!!! This handicapped young lady supervises the use of the machine.

The first main street north of our apartment is Kenesary Street named after Kenesary Kasymov, the Kazakh khan, who is a descendant of Ablay-khan, the leader of the liberation fight against the Russian tsars. Almost all of the streets are named after famous generals or poets and writers.

Here is Roy standing at the base of the statue of Kenesary along the river. (Notice no hat, no boots, no coat!)

This is taken at Kenesary's monument looking up the river toward our apartment behind the Radisson. It was actually warm enough that the mosquitoes were out!!

Four days later it snowed and blew all night and most of the next day!! Notice the 6 foot drift outside our apartment.

This is the front door. Notice how high the snow!! This is the biggest storm since we have been here in Kazakhstan! Of course when we got here, it was too cold to snow!!!

This is inside the door below the mailboxes! It has since warmed up a little and the snow is nearly gone but they tell us that it can happen through May and into June!!

We will be going to Bulgaria next week for a Humanitarian Conference with all of the couples in the East European Area. We may not get a post on the blog because we won't be back until Monday morning. But stay tuned.

Just a side note: Kenny and Michele's daughter, Taryn, will be having open heart surgery on April 28th, the day we get back. Please keep her in your prayers!! Thanks again for all of your love and support!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling