Closing Presentation in Osakaravka and Saying Goodbye in Kazakhstan - 12 October 2008

This has been such a busy and trying week, one of a lot of ups and downs but I guess that goes with life.

The first of the week we didn't do too much because Anne was trying to recover from a sinus infection. With lots of medication (that we brought from the States) and rest, she was feeling pretty good by Wednesday to resume our regular activities.

We went to an English class on Wednesday at a university here in Astana. The teacher wants us to set up a conversational English Club with her Kazakh group and her Russian group of English translators. We are pretty excited about it! We will let you know more about it next week.

Friday we took a trip to Osakaravka, a town (village) located about an hour and a half from here and southeast of Astana. We did a project there for a handicapped children's organization and we went for the closing presentation.

This young man has only one eye and is legally blind. He is demonstrating the exercise bike that the Church donated.

This lady works in the government office and she is helping this young man demonstrate how the massage machine works.

This young man is showing how well the treadmill works. There were also some hand held massage devices for use for the lower and upper back that were also donated by the Church.

Ludmilla is the NGO that we have been working with on this project. She is a wonderful lady and we have grown to love her. She is also trying out the massage machine and thinks it's great!!

This is the Director of Labor and Social Protection, Svetlana, who we also worked with on the project. All of the ladies were just wonderful that we met and they were so grateful for the equipment that was given for their youth.

After the presentation, Ludmilla wanted to take us, Mira and our taxi driver, to her cafe for a snack. She fixed us wonderful Russian dishes of rolled pancakes with sweetened cottage cheese inside, pastries with meat inside, and cabbage rolls which were all delicious!! Nuts, dried apricots, raisins and juice all accompanied the snack. And of course, we had to try everything!! It was wonderful!

On the way home from Osakaravka, Roy took these pictures of a Muslim cemetery.

In the cemetery, every family has their own fenced in area.

It was a beautiful day and a wonderful drive to see that part of the country!

With much sadness in our hearts, we had to say good-bye to the Wikle family who left Saturday night for the U.S. All the members of the church in Astana (Zhanna and us) went to see them off. Pictured are Zhanna, Robin and Gene and Anne, Samuel, Jacob and Caleb. (Roy is taking the picture, of course.)

These two "babushkas" (substitute "grandmothers") will miss little Samuel very much! We took turns holding him each week at church!

We will never forget the Wikles and all of the help they gave us in this strange and different place that we felt so foreign in. We literally could not have made it here in Kazakhstan without them!! We will never forget them and the wonderful members of the Church that they are!! We wish them well and much happiness in their new adventure!

We had a wonderful Church service today with just us and Zhanna! She's trying to learn English and we are trying to learn Russian and the Spirit is helping us!! We pray every day that we will be able to get missionaries in here soon. We continually pray that the Lord will soften the hearts of the leaders of some of these nations so that it can happen!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling