29 June 2008 - Here and There in Kazakhstan

This last week we needed to take a trip to Almaty to meet with Svetlana Rahimzhanova to get everything finalized for the Neo-natal Resuscitation Training that will be here in a couple of weeks. Svetlana is our visa clerk for all of the missionaries in Kazakhstan and is also the translator for the NRT Team. She is the one who knows all the ins and outs of this program and we literally couldn't do this without her!! She translates for the doctors and knows the medical terms. When they needed another translator in Turkey for the NRT in June, they flew her from Almaty to Ankara, to help with the training. She is invaluable and we just love her because she is a fun person to work with and she is also a member of the church!!

On Monday, after our flight, Sveta took us to meet with PhD Professor Dr. Tamara Chuvakova, who is 70 years old and head of all the Neonatal training for all of Kazakhstan, to plan another NRT for next year. She and her assistants, Dr. Zarina Beisembayeva and Dr. Aliya Aubakirova were excited to think that we were already planning for next year when we haven't even done the one for this year yet!! They are very gracious and wonderful people and we are excited to work with them.

We also met with Elder and Sister Vincent, who are the leadership couple in Almaty. They are doing some humanitarian work in Krgystan and trying to get the Church registered in that country. We had a wonderful dinner with them and Gary Despain, who flies for Air Astana, and is from Mendon, Utah. It wonderful to visit with other members of the church! We miss that!!

On Tuesday, Sveta took us to her home where we finalized our plans for the NRT. Her mom, Galina, made us Russian pancakes (crepes) which were delicious! We had a wonderful time visiting with the two of them. They are very special people!! The next time we come, her mom wants to teach us how to make "bauyrsak" which is fried bread and is really delicious!

The missionaries invited us to their English Club on Tuesday night. It was good to see them again. They always want to know if we are staying for church and tell us that we need to come more often. They have 3 classes of English going on and they have quite a group of people. We met some of them and they wanted to know why we would leave the United States and our families to come to Kazakhstan. We tell them what we are doing and they can't thank us enough. We said goodbye to two of the missionaries that are being transferred. One of the young missionaries is from Taylorsville, Utah and has 3 months left. He said that serving in Kazakhstan, has been the best part of his mission.

On Wednesday, Sveta took us to the Church building in Almaty. We had to to get some more literature to give to the government officials in Astana. We have to give them literature each time that we get our visas renewed.Notice the chapel is on the ground floor with apartments above it. All apartment buildings have businesses or stores on the ground floor. The building is small but beautiful and is adequate for the 80 members of the branch.

We went shopping with Sveta at the Barholka where we picked up a few souvenirs and then took our favorite visa clerk to dinner before going to the airport. What a great time we had!!

A couple of weeks ago we attended the ballet here in Astana. The tickets were $4, which is cheaper than a pound of butter! What a deal!!

This is the ballet and opera house in Astana. They are doing some remodeling on the outside right now but the inside is beautiful.

Anne and Mira inside the lobby of the Ballet and Opera House.

We had a wonderful time at the ballet and will be going to "Othello," the opera on the 30th of June. We are getting in some culture while we are here!!

This is a picture of the US Embassy. It is the largest foreign embassy in Astana. Our nation was the first to recognize Kazakhstan's independence. We go to the embassy every three months to get a notarized copy of our passports so we don't have to carry them with us everywhere we go.The other day as we were walking home from the Ramstore, we saw this Stop sign and were taken back because it is nothing like the small, rectangular, white and black stop signs that you see in this country. So we had to take a picture of this American stop sign!! The funny thing is, these 3 young men, who spoke a little English, tried to tell us what it meant!! We laughed all the way home!

Another sign of how Americanized this city is becoming is this picture of the Mega Mall where we do our shopping if we want American food. Ramstore is the name of the grocery store you see in orange letters. (In Russian, P says R!) They even have a Baskin-Robbins store.

Besides Coke and Pepsi, we even have Red Bull!! Somehow, people are the same in every country!

We even saw this skate boarding competition in the park next to the Red Bull car! Events like this will be happening all this week to celebrate the city of Astana's 10th birthday as the nation's capital.

This week we will be attending some of those events and will put them on the blog for next week. We are also getting ready for the NRT which will be in 2 weeks!! We hope everything goes on schedule, but we're not really planning on it!

We love and appreciate all of you and your support!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling