Opening of the 2nd Container in Astana, Kazakhstan - 8 February 2009

It's been a great week ! It's always good to have places to go and things to do!

A couple of weeks ago we were invited by Raigul Duikenova to see the opening of the 2nd container that was sent from Salt Lake to Astana. Raigul is the director of the Akmolian League of Large Familes who help over 1500 families with 4 or more children and live below the poverty level.
Raigul's daughter, along with the man who helped open the container and Mira looking inside the container where Anne and Raigul are checking out the contents. After opening the container, Raigul invited us into her apartment where some of the ladies in her organization had prepared a lovely meal for us. She told us that they wanted to do something for us because they were so grateful for the clothes and items that they would be receiving from the container. They served us a lovely meal of "Plov", a Russian rice and meat dish, which was delicious! And of course, lots of fruit and vegetables. It was so kind of them. The lady that is sitting next to Anne, moved here from the Ukraine after being married at the age of 15 and has 11 children. Raigul (standing) has 12 children and we have met most of them. They are a wonderful family! The others in the picture are members of the organization and were there to help with the meal and opening the clothing container.

Thursday of this week, Raigul invited us over to where the clothes were being distributed. The "Akimat", or city officials, had given her a room, in a building by her apartment, where the people could come and select the clothing that they wanted.

Some of the ladies and men in the organization painted the walls and Raigul's husband made racks to hang the clothes on. Then with the help of her family and members of the organization, they folded and ironed the clothes and put them in piles and stacks. They went to so much work to make it look nice. We were amazed!!

You can see how neatly the clothes are folded and stacked. We were thrilled about the signs that they put on the walls. We thought that was such a nice gesture!

These ladies are checking out the clothes and were very grateful to the Church.Anne, Raigul and Roy. Raigul is a wonderful, caring lady who does so much for everyone and tries to help those in need. We have grown to love her also. She was grateful for all that we did to get a container of clothing for her. It makes us feel good when we can help so many!

Here are some pictures from our handicapped English Club that we go to on Saturday afternoon.

Adil, Veronica, Aman, Masha and Yerbol are some of our students!

Mira, Timur, Dinara and her little brother playing the game.
Roy helping Yerbol and Damir play Bingo using English words. The kids loved it!!

Brother Kareen Vardynian, a wonderful artist who belongs to the Branch in Almaty, has painted a picture for the Church's International Art Competition.

We found out a couple of weeks ago that his painting has made it into the finals!! Because they have to have the original for the final judging, they rushed it by DHL to the United States and Utah. The Branch had a party for him and a send-off for the painting. Isn't it beautiful!! We hope he does well!

It was just us and Zhanna for Church today but it was wonderful!! The spirit is so strong and it makes us focus on what it really important in life. Because of her work schedule, we have our meetings at 7:00 a.m. so that she can go to work. We love her for her dedication!

This week we found out that the NRT for 2009 in Kazakhstan has been approved and also the Correctional School project was also approved. We are excited about both of those. We are working on two more projects and will be visiting another orphanage this week. We love to keep busy!

We are doing great and we hope all of you are too. Isn't the gospel wonderful and we are so grateful to have it in our lives! Thanks again for your love and support.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling