Another Closing Presentation, A Night at the Opera and Visitors from Almaty - 20 April 2009

We had a busy week this week and were able to get quite a bit done!

We went to the Children's Hospital #1 and visited with them about doing a project to help their handicapped children that they work with. A project was done for them a couple of years ago and they have used the equipment very effectively and so we want to help them again. Hopefully, they will get back with us.

That same day, we attend a closing presentation of a project we did for the Children's Charity Fund of Astana City. The Church was able to donate computers, chairs, desks, bookshelves and sewing machines for the orphans and foster children that the organization works with.

This young lady is using one of the seven computers. Behind her you can see the bookshelves along with the chairs and desks.

These are the three sewing machines that we donated to help the teens learn how to sew.After seeing all of the equipment that the Church donated, we had our pictures taken with the director and the former director of the organization.
Anne, Aiman Mausenbaeva (director), Kali Mukataevich, (former director) and Roy.

Then we went into Aiman's office where they served us a lovely meal of salads, kolbasa, cheese, bread and fried bread with cabbage inside, and monties (steamed dough with a meat mixture inside) which we love and torte for dessert. We ate way to much and it was so good!! Most of the people gave a little speech and thanked us for all we had done for them. They told us that they have just gotten to know us and become good friends and now we are leaving!! It will be hard to leave such wonderful people because we feel the same about them!!

When we were ready to leave, Aiman presented us with a picture that we had admired previously that was in the room where they were going to put the computers. It is a picture of a traditional Kazakh gentlemen playing the dombra and it's all inlaid wood!!! Roy was thrilled and Anne cried! Mira explained to everyone there that Roy does marquetry (inlaid wood). Roy told them all that this is his most prized possession from Kazakhstan!!

We were grateful to be able to help this organization and know that they will make good use of the equipment.

We also found out that the Shaws, our replacements, should be here the first weekend in June. That means that we will probably be home the second weekend in June!! So we have a lot to accomplish and we hope that we can get everything done because the time is going fast!

Friday night we attended the opera, Rigoletto, with our favorite Air Astana pilot, Frank Tetreault, who had just arrived back from the US. It was great and the set and costumes were beautiful. It was a bargain for $3.33 and we had great seats down in front!! (We read the synopsis beforehand so we knew what the story line was!)

Saturday morning, Chris and Evelyn Pieper and their baby, Sofie, arrived here from a visit to Sharbakti on there way back home to Almaty. Chris is President Piper's son and is in Almaty on a Fulbright Scholarship and will be finished in July. They wanted to see the sights in Astana and we told them that we would love to show them around.

We saw the President's Palace and then toured the government Mall. This is taken in the top of the Byterick. Roy, Anne, Evelyn and Sofie, and Chris Pieper.
We also visited the Mosque and the Pyramid of Peace. We had a great day seeing the sights! We enjoyed having them with us and getting to know them!

It was great having the Pieper's with us for Church this week! Zhanna loved it because Chris was able to translate for her when she gave her talk in Sacrament Meeting. It's always wonderful when we can have members here to meet with us for our church services! We are so grateful that the Piepers were able to visit us for the weekend.

Next week we will be attending a Humanitarian Conference in Yerevan, Armenia with all of the East Europe Area Humanitarian couples. Roy gets to speak about the NRT program. We are excited to be able to go and participate!

We are grateful to be able to serve here and do this great work of the Lord.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling