Roy & Anne's Blog

February Update - 14 March 2010

2010-03-14T21:00:00.013-06:00

I know that I am late this month but I wanted to let you know what we did in February!

We flew to Arizona to see LeAnne and Dave's family and to celebrate Truman's 12 birthday!! Truman loves to play his trombone and sounds really good!! We were impressed!!

Saturday night, we went to "Organ Stop Pizza" to celebrate Truman's birthday! Dave's parents were also there with us! It is a really fun place where this guy plays anything that the audience wants on this big massive organ. We have been there several times and we really enjoy it!
Great Grandma Welling had a good time listening to the music and enjoying the
food.
Roy and his mom out for a walk around the block.

Sunday was a very special day, not only because it was Truman's birthday, but because he received the Aaronic priesthood and was ordained a deacon by his dad, Dave.

The Woods Family: LeAnne & Dave, and Newell, Landon, Truman and Fielding The whole bunch of us: Newell, Landon, Grandma Welling, Truman, LeAnne and Anne. Back row: Fielding, Dave Zina and Ron Wods and Roy.

Sunday night we had ice cream and cake after Truman blew out the candles and...

opened presents. He especially liked the $20 from Grandpa and Grandma Welling!

While we were in Gilbert, Arizona, we visited Mike and Maradell Brown, who we served with in the East European Area. They were over all Humanitarian Directors and they came to Astana to train after we arrived in Kazakhstan. We have become good friends!!

The end of February we attended the Scout Banquet where our Webelo's showed off their catapults which they had made!! They were pretty proud of them!!
That's about it for February!
Love,
Anne and Roy

January Family Fun - 31 January 2010

2010-01-31T20:44:00.016-07:00

It has been a wonderful January spending time with family and friends!! We had Ryan and Tiffanie and their family and Michele and Kenny and their family and Gavin and Kara with us to spend New Years Eve and Day with us!! Kamron, Calista, Easton, Jaxon, Tiffanie and Ryan just relaxing! Ryan had a terrible staph infection and couldn't work so they were able to come and spend some time with us!

After ice skating most of the evening on New Years Eve, it was time to relax and play some games!! Bridget, Michaela, Michele, Taryn, Kenny, Kara, Gavin, Parker and Kamron.

We spent most of the month of January ice skating with family, friends and much of the ward!!This is a picture of our ice sheet!! We think this was one of the best years for the ice. Roy really worked hard on it each night watering it down and it really paid off!We couldn't believe how good the weather was this year!! We were able to have cold weather for a month which made the ice really good for skating!

On Martin Luther King Day, Michele brought her family up to go skating one last time!
Gavin and Parker getting ready to play hockey!The hockey game is on and Parker is going for the puck!!Michele and Michaela out on the ice. Michaela became quite the hockey player!!
Roy out playing his last game of hockey with the kids!Michele and Parker out on the ice.
Ainsley was a real trooper out on the ice and got pretty good at skating!!

Chris and Melissa and their kids and Nancy all came that same day to skate!! Everyone seemed to have a good time! WE sure have enjoyed the ice this year! And it turned out to be the last day for skating!!
We've had a bunch of snow this year and it still keeps snowing!! This was such a beautiful sight!Here is another beautiful picture of our back yard taken from the kitchen window.
We've also had a lot of ice sickles on our house. The one right next to the front door was most interesting because it went clear to the ground!! It has been a wonderful January and it's been so fun to be home with our family!! We can hardly wait for February!!

Anne and Roy

December Update - 10 January 2010

2010-01-10T18:48:00.031-07:00

We had a wonderful December!! We were surrounded with family and friends and it was great!!

The first weekend in December we spent in Salt Lake City seeing the lights on Temple Square. It was beautiful!! Gavin and Kara went down with us and Grandma. We met Michele and Kenny and their family and Megan and her kids. We had a great time!

Here is some of the family: Grandma Welling, Parker, Gavin, Taryn, Michele, Anne, Drista and Roy. The lights were so beautiful!!

Anne and Roy with the temple in the background. It wasn't nearly as cold as Kazakhstan!
The Salt Lake Temple - taken from the plaza.

A much closer picture of the Salt Lake Temple. It was so beautiful!!

We went to the top of the Joseph Smith Building and took this picture!

Here are some of our family: Gavin, Michele, Michaela, Taryn, Kenny, Drista, Roy, Ainsley, Grandma and Parker.

It was wonderful to be able to see the lights on Temple Square this year.

The next weekend we went to Gavin's graduating from Utah State University! We are so proud of you, Gavin!! Way to go!!
After graduation, Roy, Kara, Gavin and Anne!! We were going to take pictures outside, but there was a snow storm out there!! We had a great time and Megan and her girls and Michele and her three youngest were able to come!!

Christmas was a little different this year. We called it a Senior Citizen's Christmas!! My parents were there, along with Grandma Welling!! We had a pretty low-key day but we had fun!!On the 26th day of December, we had the Nicholas Christmas Party here in Fielding at the Town Hall. Grandma and Grandpa Nicholas are in the background visiting with family. Trevor Tustison is busily reading a book!

Bridget, Drace and Michaela having fun at the party.
After the party, we invited everyone here to ice skate on our ice sheet! Ainsley Kingsford is trying out here new skates and Parker Kingsford is playing hockey. Anne, Melissa, Kara and Nancy enjoying the cold and watching the ice skaters!

Ainsley, Bridget and Taryn Kingsford enjoying the ice!!
Drace and Megan Ricord out having fun on the ice!! We were so proud of all of the kids who stayed with the ice skating. Some of them got pretty good!

It has been a very enjoyable December! The thing we loved the most is being with family again. We missed that so much in Kazakhstan!! It was good to have family get-togethers in our home again!

We hope your holidays were also wonderful!
Roy and Anne

November Update - 13 December 2009

2009-12-13T20:18:00.012-07:00

Well, it's half way through the month of December, so I had better fill all of you in on what happened in November.

We have had a very busy month, but it is a good kind of busy because we have been able to be with family. So it has been wonderful!!

First of all we decided that we needed a bigger room for all of our family to congregate in, so we decided to knock out a couple of walls in the basement.This picture shows the absence of the two walls that we knocked out--from the post to the wall on the left and the post to the wall on the right. (The opening between the two rooms was between the two posts.

Because it is a bearing wall, we needed to put in a steel beam to hold up the house. Roy spent a lot of sleepless nights and talked to a few people before he decided it was good to go!!
Gavin was part of the crew that helped with the beam!! Roy and Gavin helping put the steel beam up on the two steel posts at each end!! It was a good job to have done!!Now you can see how the steel beam overhead sits on the steel posts at each end. And look how big the room is!! Here they are putting in the new carpet! Roy built two cabinets on each side of the far room for toys and games and such! It's great!!This is how the basement looks now! We have a family room now that we can all fit it. Roy has done a great job with the building of the cabinets and doing all the finish work. That's our Christmas for this year and we just love it!!

Just before Thanksgiving we went to Zillah, Washington for the funeral of Uncle Judd. I was able to get a picture of the sisters that were there-- Aunt Shirley, Aunt Beth, Aunt Kathryn and Mother. Being at the funeral was such a spiritual experience for each of us and we were so glad that we were able to attend.

After the funeral they had such a wonderful dinner for the family and we were able to visit with all of the Allsops. It was so good to see all of them again!! At the table is Aunt Kathryn, Mother and Dad. Standing are Uncle Ross and Aunt Jo and Sharon Day.

We were so glad that we have been able to visit Uncle Judd and Aunt Kathryn on our way to visit Aaron and Kim. We will surely miss those wonderful times we had with them!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of family here. Aaron and Kim and their family were able to make it down from Washington, along with Kenny and Michele and their family. Clint and Megan's family came too, and also Gavin and Kara. We had quite a group and we loved every minute of it. We missed the Wellings and the Woods!! Grandpa and Grandma Nicholas were also here along with Grandma Welling. We had about 18 pies for the group, which we ate all weekend!!After dinner we all sacked out on the couch!! Grandpa (asleep) and Grandma Nicholas, Anne (asleep) and Kara. It was a wonderful weekend!! We are so grateful for all of the wonderful blessings we have received this year!! It is good to have family around us again!

More Fall Fun and Frolics!! - 1 November 2009

2009-11-01T18:57:00.023-07:00

We have been so busy doing family things that I haven't had the time to keep up the blog, but I'll try to do better!!

In September we took a trip to Oregon and Washington. We left Grandma Welling with Debbie in Oregon while we traveled on up to Richland, Washington to see Aaron and Kim and their family.

They are all doing well! We had such a great time with the grandchildren, Gabriela, Everett, Daniel and Madeline!! We hope to see them at Thanksgiving!

Before we left Washington, we stopped in to see Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Judd!! They are as wonderful as ever and we had such a fun time with them. They gave us 3 and a half bushels of pears, some peaches and apples which we have really enjoyed!! We love our visits with them and look forward to seeing them each year.

We had a wonderful visit with Bill and Debbie in Prineville, Oregon They always show us a good time when we come. Grandma had a break from us, too, which is always nice.

On the way home we stopped in to see Ryan and Tiffanie in Meridian, Idaho. While we were there, we celebrated Calista's birthday. Here she is opening the quilt Grandma Welling made for her and Kamron is helping.Ryan, Tiffanie, Easton, Jaxon and Calista. (Kamron was somewhere else!)
Aren't they just the cutest family!!

In October, we were invited to Adelaide's 1st birthday.
She had fun blowing out the candle on her Elmo cake.
Drace, Bridget, Ainsley,Drista and Taryn having fun together at the party!

We also were able to attend the Nicholas Halloween Party! Ellen and Boyd did a great job and everyone had a good time especially the kids!!
Samantha, Hazel and Oliver - Grandma Welling, Anne and Roy Welling in our "Crayola" costumes.Megan and her girls, Adelaide, Drista and Drace, are all dressed up for the Halloween Party!! Gavin (in the background) dressed as a BYU fan!!

Michele (Mrs. Smartie Pants) and girls, Ainsley, Michaela, Taryn, and Bridget, are ready for some fun, too.
Jason and son, Isaac, are ready for the rodeo!!
Seth, dressed as Hagrid (doesn't he look amazing!!) and his mom, Elaine.
Nancy came to the party as a "Killer Bee"!! And last, but not least, we have Kilun, Chaetun, Brekan, and Zadun dressed in adorable costumes.

A good time was had by all!! Thanks again, Ellen and Boyd and family!!

Well, that's been it for the last couple of months. Right now we are doing a remodeling job and we'll see how that goes. We hope to be done by Thanksgiving!!

Anne and Roy

Lots of Fun Get-Togethers for August - 31 August 2009

2009-08-31T11:04:00.001-06:00

The first weekend in August, Grace and Jim invited us to their home for a barbecue!! We had a great time visiting with family!! We had brisket, ribs and chicken and wonderful salads, desserts and breads!! Thanks, Jim and Grace, for a fun evening!!

Jessica Nicholas, Grace, Mark and Tawnya having a good visit!!

Enjoying the food!! Elaine Jensen, Bart Jensen, Grandma Welling and Dad and Mom. Thanks again to Jim and Grace for the great get-together!!

The first weekend in August we went to Mount Pleasant for our Couples Reunion. We had a wonderful time!! Thanks, Ellen, for all the fun games and activities that we participated in! Floyd and Elaine Jensen, Dad and Mom, Anne, Grandma Welling (front row). In the back row we have, Ellen and Boyd Cook, Grace and Jim Tustison, Nancy Baker, Mark and Carole Nicholas and Roy! Our reunions are so much fun and we want to thank Kevin and Kathy Bell for the use of their cabin!! Here we are seeing the sights in Mount Pleasant - Dad, Anne and Carole Nicholas!We also were able to attend church in Mount Pleasant! One last picture before leaving!! Roy, Grace, Nancy, Grandma Welling, Mark, Dad and Mom, Floyd and Elaine, Anne, Jim, Boyd and Ellen. Thanks again, Ellen, for all of your hard work!! What a great family we have!!

Towards the end of August (22nd) some of our family got together to do the project of freezing corn and what an undertaking it was!! Gavin and Kara, Kenny and Michele's family, Megan and Clint's family, Chris and Melissa and their boys, Nancy, Dad and Mom, Grandma Welling and us were all the participants!!

We started at 6:30 a.m. to shuck the corn!! The crew did a great job!! It consisted of Gavin, Grandma Welling, Parker, Chaetun, Xadun, Melissa, Michaela, Drista and Ainsley. Bridget, Nancy, Kenny, and Dad are out workng there somewhere!!
Dad did a great job shucking corn and we really appreciated all of his hard work!

The crew in the kitchen consisted of Kara, Nancy (at the sink), Anne, and Michele bagging corn. Megan is in there somewhere keeping the correct time on all the pots of water!! We ended up doing 237 bags of corn out of 100 dozen!!! We were actually done by 2:00 p.m. which I thought was pretty good!!

Feeding the cows the corn husks - Michaela, Brecken, Ainsley, Xadun, Chaetun, Drace, Drista, Kara (standing), and Megan. Taryn is in the front!!Roy is feeding the cattle as they follow behind the pickup! This was a real treat for all the kids to see!! It was a big job, but with all of the family helping out, we accomplished quite a bit in a short time!! It is a good job to have finished.

This last weekend my roommates from college got together at the Zaugg's cabin up in the Uintahs.

Friends Forever!!!! Terry Fillmore, Carolyn Zaugg, Judy Angell, Glo Greenhagen and Anne Welling. (Mary Larsen lives in Indiana and wasn't able to make it!)

The Guys!! Harold Fillmore, Roy Welling, Mark Zaugg and Jerry Greenhagen!!

Mark and Carolyn Zaugg, Judy Angell, Harold and Terry Fillmore, Roy and Anne Welling, and Jerry and Glo Greenhagen. What a wonderful time we had laughing, crying and eating and more of the same!! It was just great to reminisce about old times!! We are all such wonderful friends and decided not to wait 40 years until the next time we get together!!!! Thanks again to the Zauggs for the cabin and all of the wonderful food!!

It's been a great August! I also had the wonderful opportunity to take a couple of trips with some ladies in our ward to go to the Salt Lake, Draper and Manti Temples. We had such a great time and I hope to be able to do it again!!

It looks like September will be just as busy!!

A Busy Last Two Months!!! - 17 August 2009

2009-08-17T09:39:00.017-06:00

I can't believe how busy we have been since we got back from Kazakhstan, but I'll try to catch you up on what is happening with us!!!

We had our homecoming the end of June and had many of our friends and family with us!! It was so much fun to see everyone!!

We also had a wonderful 4th of July Celebration with the Welling Family!

In the evening, all the adults and children looked forward to the fireworks! Parker, our oldest grandson and his Uncle Aaron, our oldest son, are trying to figure out which fireworks to light first!!

Gavin, our youngest son, lighting sparklers for Michaela, Bridget and Everett!! What a fun time we had that day celebrating our nations Birthday!!

Craig Vincent invited us to his home in Salt Lake to see Sister Ieera Kabdigaliev, from the Almaty Branch, and wish her well as she enters the MTC to serve in the Rostov Russia Mission. Craig Vincent (the tall one), Chuck and Karen Ball (the couple we replaced in Astana) and Grant and Ruth Radmall (who the Balls replaced in Almaty) and Sister Ieera Kabdigaliev. It was wonderful to see everyone again!

Craig Vincent and his wife served as the Leadership Couple in Almaty, Kazakhstan. We grew to love them so much!! They took care of us each time we flew to Almaty for business or Zone Conferences!! Our hearts go out to Craig because his wife, Pat, suddenly died of heart failure the first part of July. It was such a shock to all of us!! They had just been home 90 days from Kazakhstan when it happened. We will miss her very much!!

We also had the opportunity to go to the Open House of the Oquirrah Hills Temple with our whole family! We were so impressed with the beauty of the temple and the grandchildren enjoyed it, too! Afterwards, we had family pictures taken at Wheeler Farms.

The Roy Welling Family

Our Adorable Grandchildren

Our Wonderful Children and Their Spouses

Also in July, we went to the Wight Family Reunion up at Beaver Mountain Ski Lodge for 4 days. We had a great time there playing games and visiting with family. Here Parker is playing the Frozen T-Shirt game!! What a blast!!

On the 19th of July we were invited to Ainsley's Birthday celebration! We even took all 3 grandparents with us. It was fun to see some of the grandchildren again!! It's always a treat to be with family and we love the get-togethers!! Bridget, Taryn, Drista and Drace are watching Ainsley blow out her candles!!

Toward the end of July, we took a road trip to San Diego for our neice's wedding!!

After arriving in San Diego, we met up with LeAnne and Dave's family!! It was fun to be with them again. Here we are on the pier watching the waves come in!! Truman, LeAnne, Newell, Dave, Fielding, Landon, Gavin, Grandma Welling and Anne.

The day before the wedding, we spent the day sight seeing! We went out on boat-like-vehicle to see the seals! Roy, Anne, Grandma Welling, Kara and Gavin. We had a great time!! Grandma loved it!

It was fun to see all of the seals out sun bathing!! Being out on the water and seeing all of the security boats was really interesting too!!

We attended Lacey and Brad's wedding in the San Diego Temple! It was a wonderful experience because we had never been there before and it is such a beautiful temple!!
We took this picture on the temple grounds of the San Diego Temple!! It is so incredibly beautiful and white!! We are so glad that we took the time to go!! Thanks to Gavin and Kara for offering to go with us! It made for a wonderful road trip!!

Well that's about it for the last two months! It has really been a busy one but enjoyable, never the less!!

Wrapping Up Our Mission Experience in Astana, Kazakhstan - 20 June 2009

2009-06-17T10:07:00.015-06:00

Okay, I know I'm slow!! The jet-lag is finally waning and we wanted to finish up with the last three days of our mission!! We can't believe that it has come to an end!!

First of all, we want you to know that the day before we left to come home, the NRT equipment was finally allowed through customs without any taxes!!!! Yeah!!! We wanted to do cartwheels, we were so excited!! We were sure we wouldn't find out until after we were home. It has taken 2 months to clear customs!! What wonderful news!

Tuesday we had Zhanna come over for dinner, Sunday School and English class. We were able to show the Shaws how we did everything so that they can continue on with Zhanna. She had a wonderful time and takes part quite a bit now! Her English is really improving and she is warming right up to the Shaws!! The transition is going really well!!
Wednesday we went to Kamka'a office and visited with her family and Kulnazira and other NGO's that were there! It was very tearful because we have learned to love them so much and they have become such wonderful friends to us!! They gave us some gifts to remember them by. We will certainly miss them!! In the picture are Roy and Anne, Kulnazira, Kamka and Ramazon and their grandchildren!! Wednesday afternoon we did some more training with the Shaws!! They are going to do a great job!! We are so glad that we were able to spend some time with them and get to know them. They are wonderful, dedicated people that will continue the work!

After we sent them home, we began to finish up packing and also to finish up the last minute reports! Anne finished cleaning up the house while Roy finished up some other things that had to be done. Roy was even working on the reports when Mira and Sergei, our taxi driver, came to pick us up at 2:30 a.m.!It was terribly hard saying goodbye to Mira, our translator for the last 18 months!! We love her so much!! She has become like a daughter to us!! We will never forget her!! We have relied on her so much and we could have never done what she did without her help!! She has been invaluable to us in every way; especially with the NRT documents that she had to do. She worked so long and so hard, we just can't thank her enough!! "We love you, Mira!! We hope to see you next year when you come to the United States!!"

How does one say goodbye to people and places that they will never see again? It has been extremely difficult to leave a culture and a people that we have grown to love and really care for! We will never forget these people and their wonderful kindness to us while we have been here!! We boarded our Lufthansa plane at 4:30 a.m.;said goodbye to Kazakhstan and flew to Frankfurt. From there we flew to Denver and from there to Salt Lake City, Utah. After 36 hours in the air and in airports, we finally made it home to Utah.

Our family was there to welcome us at the airport!! It was so good to see all of them. We were excited to be there with them!!

Thanks so much to all of you who have followed our blog!! It has been fun to hear from you!! We appreciate your love and support for us!

We know that our life will not be nearly so exciting that we are home!! But we will try to keep our blog updated!

Our mission was wonderful! We would recommend it to anyone!! We have learned so much about people and customs and countries that we certainly hope we can go again!! The gospel is true, our Savior died for each of us that we may live again, our Heavenly Father knows and loves each of us, and we can live with Him again if we keep the commandments!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling (for the last time!)

Saying Hello and Goodbye in Astana, Kazakhstan - 7 June 2009

2009-06-07T09:35:00.011-06:00

Wow!! What a mission!!

We are down to the final few days and it has been very difficult but exciting to welcome Elder and Sister Shaw, who will replace us, and to say goodbye to some very dear friends!!

But before we get to that, we want to let you know that we are still waiting on customs. Surprise!! Surprise!! We were hoping to get the equipment through before we leave, but we're sure Elder and Sister Shaw can handle everything. All of the documents are in and it is still a waiting game. Hopefully, we will hear tomorrow!!

The good news is that we said goodbye to the old computer and finally said hello to the new one after a six week wait!!

We had our computer tech, Mira's brother, Kazbek, come and set it up for us and put on all the programs. One of them happened to be in Russian so he had to get the English version and come again the next day!! We appreciate all the work he put in to get the computer up and going!! He is a fine young man and we will miss him!!

Frank Tetreault, our friend and Air Astana pilot, took us out to lunch at Astana Park. We had a wonderful time visiting about our plans for the future. He will be leaving to go back to the US a week after we leave!! We hope to keep in touch! He made our stay in Astana that much more enjoyable because of all of the cultural events that we attended with him. It was wonderful to get to know him and his wife!

This little "babushka" cleans our entry way and stairs into our building plus the elevators. She does such a good job and is always pleasant and happy to see us. She is going through some difficult times, but we wish her the best.

We picked up Elder and Sister Shaw bright and early Saturday morning!! They are excited to be here and eager to learn everything they can about what we do. Their first responsibility, though, is to get over jet lag which they are trying to do!!

Our last Sacrament Meeting in Kazakhstan was pretty emotional for all of us!! The Spirit was very strong and many tears were shed. It was hard saying goodbye to Zhanna, who we love so much!! We will miss her terribly but we know that the Shaws will love her and she will learn to love them!!

We will never forget Zhannagul Beckenbi and her testimony and sweet spirit that she has. She is the only native member in Astana and hopefully there will be a branch here someday!!

And now we turn the reins of this assignment over to Elder and Sister Shaw from Rexburg, Idaho!! They will do a wonderful job!!

This mission has changed us in a lot of ways...

This is how we looked when we came out into the mission field

AND...

.. .this is how we look now!! But we think that a couple of weeks home and lots of rest and we will be back to normal!!!

Our time has come to an end here in Kazakhstan! This has been the greatest experience of our lives. We have grown in so many ways!! We are blessed for having had this experience and because of it we will never be the same. Our Heavenly Father has truly blessed us and our family!!

We will see you all in three days!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Birthday Celebration, Children's Day Celebration and More of the Same (Custom Problems) in Astana, Kazakhstan - 1 June 2009

2009-05-31T21:58:00.018-06:00

It's great to be busy here in Kazakhstan!!!

Besides celebrating Roy's birthday on Wednesday, we went to the closing ceremony of a project we did at the Tseleningrad Regional Hospital.

The Church donated 6 new gurneys to the hospital. We were able to see them and meet with some of the nurses and doctors who use them. They are so grateful to have them!

One of the head doctors who took us around to look at the gurneys also took us to the operating area. They had us put on the hats and masks and everything!! We thought that we were just going to take a picture of a gurney, but the doctor motioned us right over to where they were operating!! (They actually thought Roy was a doctor and wanted to consult with him!!) We were really surprised that they even let us in there!!

Dr. Galina, Head of Obstetrics, and Dr. Marat Dostygarinov, Administrator and Head Surgeon who we worked with on the project.

In the evening we took Mira, Kazbek, (Mira's brother and our unofficial computer tech) and Zhanna to "Ali Baba's" for Roy's birthday dinner! We had wonderful salads and "shashlek" (kabobs) and the company was great too!!

Kazbek, Mira, Roy and Zhanna outside of "Ali Baba's" after dinner and on the way home!

Each week on Zhanna's day off, we have her come to our home; we have dinner, our Sunday School lesson and at 7:00 we have our English lesson for her and Aliya.

We met Aliya Tulebaeva on our trip home from Armenia. We sat next to each other on the plane and she asked what we were doing in Astana. We told her that we were Humanitarian Missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She told us that she also believed in Jesus! Then she said, "This is a good day!" She asked if she could come and spend some time with us and help her with her English. We told her that we have a member that we are helping to learn English and that she can come when Zhanna comes. So each week we have conversational English with these two young ladies. It's great and it has definitely made a difference with Zhanna! They have become friends.

Thursday we were invited to Aiman and Kamka's (two NGO's we work with) Children's Day Celebration at Astana Park. There we were given a "Thankful Letter" for the items that were purchased by the Church for their organizations.

After the celebration, Aiman invited us to a dinner she was having to celebrate her birthday and also Roy's birthday because they are on the same day!! The meal was delightful, as always, and the company was even better!

Kamka Medievna, Anne, Aiman Mausenbaeva and Roy showing off the letter we received from them! We love these ladies!! They and others gave toasts to us and wished us well as we leave to go home!

This week school was officially out!! On the last day of school, the young ladies that are graduating have a tradition of wearing black dresses with these cute white aprons over them!! This is a Soviet tradition and one that they have kept! We took a picture of these young ladies out on the River Walk!!

Saturday we had our last English club with the handicapped children. We made peanut butter cookies with M&M's because it is an American treat! It was hard saying goodbye to all of them. We were able to visit with the parents too!! What a treat!!

Sunday was a pretty special day because we had the Jones family, who are living in Sharbakti, visit us for the last time! Heather and the children are flying to New York Monday morning! Nathan will stay here for a month or two and finish up his research and then fly to the US and spend some time with them.

We are so grateful to have had them in our home this past 9 months. It has been good for us and we hope it has been good for them! We knew that they were going to try to come each month and we would look forward to it!! It helps when you have members of the Church that you can interact with!! One doesn't realize how much you miss that until you don't have it!! They made our stay here in Astana more enjoyable. Zhanna especially liked it when the Jones family came because Nathan speaks Russian fluently. The Lord is continually aware of what we need and provides for us!!

I'll bet you are all still wondering about the customs problems!! All of the documents are in to customs and the deadline is Tuesday. We are still waiting with baited breath!! If this doesn't teach us patience, nothing will!!!! Hopefully, by next week, we can let you know of the outcome!! We just have to remember that the Lord is in charge and everything will work out!

We have been blessed greatly and especially for the love of friends and family! It's wonderful to have such support in our lives!! The gospel is true!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Making Wonderful Friends in Astana, Kazakhstan - 24 May 2009

2009-05-24T06:40:00.013-06:00

This past year and a half we have spent time going to the Kazakh University of Humanities and Law to meet with the translators there and talk English with them. We have enjoyed the young ladies and have become very good friends to some of them.

Saturday we had a dinner for a few of the young ladies that we met in the first class when we first came to Kazakhstan. We wanted to get together with them and find out what they have been doing since they graduated.

Zarina, on the far left, has been our substitute translator. She has been wonderful to fill in when Mira has been gone. She is very special to us and we have grown to love her. Bilimzhan and Zhanara are two of her classmates and they are wonderful young ladies, too. They have all been to the United States on the Work and Travel program that is offered here. We enjoyed meeting with them the first winter we were here in Kazakhstan. Mira, our translator, actually helped us get into the university to meet with them each week.

Mira, Bilimzhan, Anne, Zarina and Zhanara. Bilimzhan and Zarina are both trying to go to the United States to further their education. We had a wonderful time visiting over dinner. We told them that if they ever get west of the Mississippi, to let us know!! It was hard to say goodbye to them!! We will never forget what special young ladies they are!This is the Russian group of translators that we have been spending time with. Back: Oksana, Anne, Allema, Lena and Azhar, teacher. Front: Dina, Kundous and Christina.

Roy and Anne with the Russian group of translators. When we say Russian, we mean that they went to Russian speaking schools. We loved the young ladies and got to know them quite well!!

These are the Kazak group of translators. Dinara, next to Roy, speaks very good English and dreams of going to the US. Sultanat is next to her and is one of the few practicing Muslims that we saw at the university. Bizhan, next to Anne, is from a family of 10 children. The other girls in the class are Gani, Nurgul, Zarina, Kama, Ulzhan, Bota, Aidana, and Kunnur. (Some of the students were absent.) The last day we attended the class, they gave us these cute Kazakh caps!!

These are the 4th year translators who are graduating this summer. These young ladies were a fun group to be with. They are Zamira, Diana, Zhuldys, Azel and Saina.

Markhabbat, Zhupar (teacher), Diana and Azel

Zhupar, the teacher of the 4th year students, became a real friend to us. She is a very dedicated teacher and appreciated us coming each week to her class.

It was hard to say goodbye to all of the students that we have gotten to know. What a blessing it has been for us to learn about each of them and their culture here in Kazakhstan!! They are special to us and we will never forget them!

We had Spring a couple of days this week and we were able to take a picture of all of the beautiful apple trees in bloom!! They are everywhere here in Kazakhstan!

When we woke up this morning, we had snow on the roof tops!! This has been a very long winter!!

We are still working on getting the NRT equipment through customs. If we can't get the necessary documents this week, they may have to send the shipment back, which would be devastating to the training that we have set up for July!! We just need to have faith that it will happen!!

Our time is getting close and we know that it will be hard to leave these wonderful people. We are working hard to get everything done!! We have truly loved this experience!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

A Day Trip to Borovoya, Kazakhstan - 18 May 2009

2009-05-18T05:00:00.019-06:00

After catching up on a few things this week, we decided, with the help of our friend, Frank Tetreault, that we needed to take a day trip to Borovoya, which is about 2 and a half hours from Astana. Borovoya is the nearest mountain resort to Astana and many people go there for rest and relaxation during the summer. People always ask us if we have been to Borovoya yet. We decided that we can't go home without seeing this wonderful place, so we decided to hire a taxi and away we went!!

When we got to Borovoya we found a small town, with lots of hotels and resorts and several sanatoriums. They all surround Lake Borovoya which is nestled in the trees among large rock formations.

Sergei, our driver, took us to a huge cropping of rocks and told us that we should climb to the top. When we got to the there, we took these beautiful pictures!!

It was amazing to drive from the steppe into this mountain region and see all of this beauty which seems to be out in the middle of nowhere!!

The rock formations are just amazing!!

This is beautiful Lake Borovoya!! This was taken on the very top of the huge rocks. You can see the road down below.

This rock is one of many with a unique formation that was eroded away by the effects of nature. We saw this all over the area.These are the exhausted hikers (well maybe just two)!! Roy, Anne, Sergei and Mira. This is the trail up to the top of the rocks!! It's a good thing we did this first or we probably wouldn't have had the energy to do it later in the day!!

Out in Lake Borovoya is a large cropping of rocks that look like a sphinx. Any picture that we have seen of Borovoya has this huge rock in it. The rock is called Zhumbaktas cliff or "Riddle-stone".

This is the "Riddle-stone" taken from the other side of the lake.

Roy and Anne with the Zhumbaktas cliff in the background!! (We got caught in a couple of thunder showers; hence, the wind blown and rained-on look!!) As you can see in the background, the area surrounding the lake is covered in pine trees.

Out in this clearing is a monument to Ablay-khan, one of the rulers during the 1700's. He is famous for uniting the early Kazakh people against the Djungars, which were from China and Mongolia. This is a very impressive monument!

This huge eagle is at the top of the monument! Of course, the eagle is one of the symbols of Kazakhstan. There are carvings and symbols of Kazakhstan on the monument as well.

Sergei took us to another area in the forest where there is a waterfall. This rock formation is on the way to the waterfall and looks like camel. Of course Mira and Anne had to have their picture taken on it!

When we got to the waterfall, this is what we found, a large layer of snow among the birch trees!! It was amazing! You can see how thick the snow in this area is. The waterfall is running underneath the snow!! Mira, Sergei and Roy

Mira, Frank Tetreault and Anne and Roy on the bridge over the stream where the waterfall is. You can see the snow in the background!!

Then Sergei took us to another area where there is a small lake called Bolshoe Chebachye. It has a lot of beach area with huge rocks everywhere. There is also a land mass that stretches out to the middle of the lake and has birch trees growing there and another sandy beach area. Roy is resting on one of the large rocks that are along the beach.

On the way back from the beach, Roy took this picture of this rock formation which is called the Okzhetpes cliff ("Inaccessible by Arrow") and on the top of the cliff it looks like a baby elephant lying down on it's knees!!This is a closer picture of the elephant. Pretty cool, wouldn't you say!!

We had a wonderful day and to top it off we ate at one of the cafes in town...and had "Shashlek" which is kabobs - chicken, pork and lamb. It was wonderful and very tasty!! Anne, Roy and Frank Tetreault.

We had a great day we had!! Sergei was a great guide and knew just where to go and we appreciate all he did for us. We are glad that we took the time to go. It would have been a shame to leave Kazakhstan and never have seen this beautiful area!!

As far as projects, we are still waiting for Moscow to give us the go-ahead on the new computer program. We are also still dealing with getting customs clearance that we thought we had for the NRT equipment. The fun never ends!!

Thanks to all of you for your love and support!! We are so blessed and have felt the "tender mercies" of the Lord constantly on this mission!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Victory Day Celebration in Astana, Kazakhstan - 10 May 2009

2009-05-10T05:39:00.018-06:00

Happy Mother's Day!!

We have become accustomed to dealing with customs here in Kazakhstan!! We found out that we haven't the right documents because the laws have changed, so we are trying to get the right ones supplied and a new letter written to the person in charge!! We (and Sveta and Mira) will be working on that this week! The shipment is in Almaty and we're trying to get all the documents in place so that we can get it through customs!! Wish us luck!!

Friday, Frank Tetrault invited us to go to the opera, Figaro, with him!! We found out that he and all of the other Air Astana pilots that are 60 years of age and over, are now terminated as of June 15 because of new Kazakh aviation restrictions! He was disappointed over that; so now he will be flying home a week after us. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to get to know him and his wife.

"Figaro" was great! The singing, the set and the costumes were unbelievable, as usual!!The guy who played "Figaro" is on the left. The opera was all in Russian, but we read the synopsis of the play before we went so we could figure out what was happening!!

On Saturday, May 9, was Victory Day which is celebrated as the end of the Great Patriotic War (World War II).

Raigul Dukenova, one of the NGO's that we have done a couple of projects for, invited us and she helped us get into the celebration. She is the lady behind the boy in front. Kulnazira and her granddaughter, Anne, Kamka and one of her office workers, Raigul and her two daughters, son and husband and Roy. We asked if we could have our picture taken with this representative of the Russian Orthodox Church. They said yes and so we did!! He didn't ask who we were but we wished we could have told him!!

These little ladies and gentlemen were waiting by the fence to get into the area closer to the monument. They are veterans of the war or their husbands were veterans of the war and many of the little "babushka's" wear their husbands medals. They were so sweet that we just had to have a picture taken with them.!!

While we were standing there they ushered these older people and the Russian Orthodox representative into the area closer to the monument. Because we were standing there, we walked in with them, even though we didn't look Kazakh at all!!

This is the monument where the celebration took place. There were thousands of people there. Soon there were black cars pulling up close to where we were standing.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, got out and walked in front of the crowd, which was about 50 yards away from us!! We couldn't believe how close we were to the President of Kazakhstan!! Here he is putting a large basket of flowers at the foot of the monument.

The military performed for the President.

Here is the President watching the military perform. We were so grateful that we ended up where we did because we got to see so much more that we did last year; we were behind the fence last year!!!After the President left and the crowd dispersed, we were in the area where we could have our picture taken at the foot of the memorial with the basket of roses. One of Kamka's voulenteers, Kulnazira and her granddaughter, Anne, Kamka and Mira. We decided that we can get anywhere if we have Kamka, Kulnazira and Raigul with us!!

Another picture taken at the monument. This is such an impressive monument and the relief pictures on the side are incredible as well.

On the way home, we stopped at the Byterick Park and took a pictures of these camels. Camels are actually in Southern Kazakhstan and not up north where we are.

In the afternoon, we took Frank with us to the Ballet and Opera Theater where they had a concert honoring the veterans. The lady in blue is playing a kobuz.

After the concert - Frank, Mira, Anne and Roy. We had a good time and it was nice to be out with friends!!

We hope all have a Happy Mother's Day and are able to talk to your family!! The gospel is true and we are so grateful to be members of this wonderful church!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Weekend in Almaty, Kazakhstan for Zone Conference - 6 May 2009

2009-05-06T06:29:00.019-06:00

We had a busy week getting invoices for our projects and working on other paperwork. We have a new program that was given to us at the Humanitarian Conference that is all done by computer and we have to become familiar with it before we can submit any new projects. So now we are trying to find the time to do that!!

Friday was Unity Day in Kazakhstan. Actually, it was originated by the Russians to unify all of the countries in the USSR. Now the people just celebrate the unity of the people here in Kazakhstan.

These children are playing the dombra and kobuz, which are Kazakh instruments, in the "Lollipop Park". There were displays everywhere of art and handmade items from all of the different schools in Astana. There were also talent contests in the park.They had games and competition of every kind!! Wrestling, judo, even arm and leg wrestling were some of the sports. There was something for everyone! We especially liked the way the judges were dressed!! It was such a nice day out and even quite warm!!

In the afternoon, we flew to Almaty for Zone Conference and stayed in the Vincent's apartment, because they haven't found a replacement couple for the Vincents yet. Despite the electricity going out three times and the water being turned off once, it was great place to stay!!

On Saturday we went to the Elder's apartment where Zone Conference was held with President and Sister Collins.President Collins, Elder Harker from Calgary, Canada; Elder Brandenburg from Seattle, Washington; Elder Despain from Casper, Wyoming; Elder McKay from Huntsville and Elder Welling. Sister Jensen from Springville, Sister Smith from Nauvoo, Illinois, Sister Collins from Mesa, Arizona and Sister Welling.

It was a wonderful conference and our last and we are so glad that we were able to go. It's been nice to be with the missionaries and feel of their spirit!

On Sunday we were able to attend Church with the Branch for the last time and say goodbye to them. We took pictures of a few of the members and wanted to include a couple of them in this week's blog

The Imangaziev Family- Sabina, Alma, Murat and Aruzhan. Murat was just released as the Branch President about 6 months ago. They have a son, Maxim, who is serving a mission in the Ukraine.

The Dautove Family - Elmira, Sultan, Damir and Adelia. Sultan is now the Branch President.

This is Iira Kabdigaliev who is waiting for her mission call any day now!! We hope to see her in August at the SLC airport when she leaves for the mission field. What a wonderful young lady she is and has such a strong testimony of the gospel!

President and Sister Collins will be leaving for home in July. We are so glad that we were able to get to know them and be a part of the Russia Moscow West Mission.

Sunday evening, the Piepers invited us over for dinner. We had a wonderful visit with them. Chris, Evelyn and Sofie Pieper will be leaving for home to Washington D.C. in July. We are so glad that they were able to spend some time with us in Astana!Monday, Sveta took us to meet with Tamara Chuvakova and her two assistants to ask some questions about the up coming NRT and for us to say goodbye to them! She is 70 years old and is still working!! This wonderful lady has been very instrumental in getting the NRT program up and going in Kazakhstan. She is over all perinatal training in Kazakhstan. We absolutely love her and her two assistants. Zarina's mother fixed us this wonderful meal of salads and horse meat and mushroom pie!! We loved it all! In fact it was the best horse meat we have tasted!! (I wanted to show pictures, but I can't get them all on the blog!!)

They were thrilled with the pictures we gave them. Anne, Dr. Aliya, Dr. Zarina, Dr. Tamara and Roy. We told them how much we loved them and that we would never forget them!! It was pretty hard saying goodbye!!

After the meeting at the hospital, Sveta took us on a drive where both sides of the road are lined with tulips of every color and kind. Then we went to this park that is being built that will have every kind of flower and bush and tree from Kazakhstan. This is the entrance to the park. Aren't the tulips just beautiful!!!!!

This is our favorite visa clerk, Svetlana Rahimzhanova. This young lady was the first missionary from the Almaty branch. She works for the church taking care of all of the missionary visas in Kazakhstan and all those that come from Russia for renewal. She has upwards of 20 missionaries at a time!! It's crazy for her and she is so busy! She also does all the work setting up the NRT with Marcia and George Bennett.

We absolutely could not function without her!! And sometimes we wonder if the Church could function in Kazakhstan without her!! She teaches Institute and English on the side. She also translates for us when we are in Almaty. We love her so much and will miss her terribly!

That's about it for this week! Sorry it is late, but we are getting down to crunch time and we are sooo busy!! We love you all for your support and prayers in our behalf!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Europe East Area Humanitarian Couples Conference in Yerevan, Armenia - 26 April 2009

2009-04-26T07:13:00.026-06:00

We had a wonderful time this year at our Humanitarian Conference in Yerevan, Armenia! We can't believe that that we are going to places we would have never dreamed we would see!! The Lord continues to bless us.

Wednesday morning at 6:30 we flew to Moscow and after a 4 hour wait, flew to Yerevan, Armenia. Yerevan is a beautiful place as well as the people. It was fun to meet some new couples and renew our acquaintances with couples that were there last year in Bulgaria. This is Vlad Nechiporov who is the Area Welfare Manager for all of the Europe East Area. He approves or rejects our projects along with the Area Presidency depending on the amount of money needed for the project. He has now been called as a Mission President and will be leaving his job on 2 May to serve in the Russia Rostov Mission beginning in July. What a wonderful opportunity we have had to work with him!!

Our conference was very spiritual as well as informative. Elder Gibbons, from the Area Presidency spoke to us about being missionaries first and to remember that we are disciples of Christ. He also told us that there are 87 couples serving in the Europe East Area.

Elder David Stapley, Europe East Director of Temporal Affairs, spoke and quoted Bishop Edgley who said that half of all humanitarian couples serve in the Europe East Area. He told us of things we need to be doing in order to be more effective as humanitarian missionaries. The goals of the Area Presidency are to strengthen welfare principles, strengthen marriage and families, and extending good will to those in need.

It was wonderful to hear the counsel of these brethren which helps us and strengthens us in our calling as humanitarian missionaries in this area of the world!!

On Friday afternoon, we went sightseeing which was a real treat for all of us!!

This is Mount Ararat which is actually in Turkey now because the Turks took over that area. Armenia still claims it, though. It was a beautiful sight to see where it is believed the ark landed after the flood!! Because of the clouds, we were only able to see part of it. But we were grateful for what we did see!We first visited Khor Virap Monastery. It is a shrine to Armenian Christianity. Mount Ararat is in the background. The monastery is located on the hills where the ancient capital of Armenia, Artashat, was situated and served as a prison then. The capital was founded by King Artashes I around 180 B.C.

Here we are standing on the wall of the monastery with Mount Ararat in the background. What a majestic mountain it is!

The monastery was built atop the pit or dungeon where St. Gregory, the Illuminator, had been imprisoned for about 13 years over 1700 years ago, as he was preaching Christianity in Armenia which was a pagan country then. (This building is where the dungeon is located.) Access to the pit has been preserved. It is 23 ft. down in the ground. It is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Armenia.

This is the chapel at the monastery. These are some of the missionary couples on the tour with us.

Inside the chapel are beautiful paintings. This is just an example. (Elder Welling wouldn't let me put them all on the blog!) After the adoption of Christianity in 301 A.D., this place has become one of the sacred places in Armenia and it forever distinguished Armenia as the world's first Christian nation. It happened during the reign of King Tiridat III.

This picture was taken as we walked down the hill from the monastery on our way to the next stop on our tour. These are the humanitarian couples from Turkey who we are especially fond of because we were in the MTC with the Looslis and the Fifields. Elder and Sister Loosli - Istanbul, Elder and Sister Keeler - Ankara, Elder and Sister Fifield - Izmir, and Elder and Sister Wellilng - Astana, Kazakhstan.

The next stop was at the 7th century Church of St. Hripsimeh which is a unique example of the Armenian classical architecture, built on the site of Virgins' Martyrdom for their faithfulness to Christianity. The tradition is that about forty Christian virgins fled from Byzantine to Armenia about the end of the 3rd century. Because they were Christians, King Tiridat III of Armenia ordered to have them imprisoned and then killed.After the adoption of Christianity, this site was considered to be a sacred place and later in the 7th century (618 A.D.), this church was built bearing the name of Hripsimeh, who was one of the virgins. The bell tower was constructed in the 18th century.

It was beautiful inside the chapel with paintings and ornate fixtures everywhere.

These two little Armenian "babushka's" were so sweet! We just had to take a picture of them when then asked me about my "detee" and "vanooke" in Russian!! I told them we had 6 and 20 in Russian!! They were so kind and helpful!! I gave them a big hug when we left!!

Our last stop was at the Mother Cathedral of Echmiatsin which is the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the most important religious center in Armenia. Originally it was constructed in 301 A.D.

This is the grave of one of the virgins that fled from Byzantine to Armenia and was killed. It is in the basement of the church.

Elder Welling in front of the Echmiatsin Cathedral. In the course of history the cathedral has been reconstructed and renovated several times. The interior of the church is covered with beautiful frescoes.

After the tour, the bus dropped us off at the Old Yerevan Restaurant where we were fed a wonderful meal of Armenian salads and barbequed beef, chicken, pork an lamb. It was so good! We loved it!! These guys were our waiters and they served us a delicious Armenian dessert of rice and squash with raisins, nuts and dried apricots! It was quite tasty!!

This is Elder and Sister Ireland who have been our Area Welfare Specialists and will be leaving on Monday to go home to South Dakota. What wonderful friends they have become!! We will surely miss them!!

What a great time we had in Yerevan meeting wonderful people and renewing our friendship with others! Serving this mission continues to bless us with so many wonderful experiences!

How blessed we are to be able to serve the Lord in our calling as humanitarian missionaries!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

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

2009-04-20T09:53:00.014-06:00

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

A Case of "The Grip"--Hence, A Slow Week in Astana, Kazakhstan - 12 April 2009

2009-04-12T01:12:00.013-06:00

Anne spent most of the week in bed with the flu, or what people call around her, "The Grip". It almost sounds worse than the flu, don't you think! But Mira and Zhanna both said that it definitely was "The Grip"! And it's pretty hard getting out doing things when one feels that lousy! We had to excuse ourselves from the English classes at the university and the English club on Wednesday. But with the help of the antibiotics and other medicine that we brought from home, Anne was able to start feeling better by the end of the week!!

The week wasn't a total loss, because we were able to get the letter from the Ministry of Health stating that we would be able to do another Neonatal Resuscitation Training here in Kazakhstan!! Yeah!! It has taken two weeks to get the letter signed; now Sveta, in Almaty, can began to get pre-custom clearance, which will allow humanitarian equipment through without additional charges. As soon as we get clearance, the Church will ship the equipment by DHL and it should be here in Almaty within 10 days. But the problem is getting it through customs, which takes two months even though we have pre-customs clearance and the training is the first week in July. We are a month behind, compared to last year, on this project so we are a little nervous!! We just keep praying that everything will work out!!

Friday, we visited another NGO about a possible project for some deaf young adults. They are remodeling a room, which we were able to look at, for this project to take place and we hope we will be able to help them with it. We will keep you informed of the progress.

Saturday, we went to the handicapped English Club. Afterwards, Elena Kolmogrova, the chairman of a handicapped children's group that we have done a project for, visited with us about doing another project for her. It is really a worthwhile project and we hope that we will be able to help her, also. We will keep you updated on this project as well.

On the way home, we realized we didn't have any pictures for the blog and we certainly CAN'T have a picture less blog!!!! So we walked to a park that we have been going to take pictures of, anyway, and shot these:

This is a new monument that was put up last year for Astana's Birthday.

At the top of the monument is the representation of the top of the yurta, which is a symbol of unity in Kazakhstan.

We liked the inscription on the raised stone on the floor of the monument. We hope and pray that Astana will become a spiritual capital, too!! Through the monument, you can see the Radisson Hotel, and to the right of it is our apartment building.

There were other statues in the park also; this one of a little boy looking at swallows building a nest...

and a monument of the "Kubuz", one of Kazakhstan's national instruments

It was such a cold windy day and as we walked home we decided to take a couple of pictures of the Esil River (or Ishim).

As you can see, the river is finally melting which is a month later that it did last year! Last week when we were out, there were still fisherman ice fishing! It looked a little scary then!!

We hope this week will be a little more productive than last week, but we continually count our blessing because we haven't had many health issues and that has been great!

We would like to wish everyone a "Happy Easter"!! That is the reason we are here doing what we are doing!

Love to all,

Elder and Sister Welling

Day Trip to Karaganda and Osakaravka, Kazakhstan - 4 April 2009

2009-04-05T07:53:00.009-06:00

On Tuesday of last week, we left Astana early in the morning for a day trip. We traveled to Karaganda to visit a day care center for handicapped children. We met Tatyana Ivanovna Kravchenko who is the director of the center and a very caring person. She has received some wheelchairs from the Church in the past and we promised her that we would visit her again.

Tatyana gave us a tour of her facility that she and her husband are in the process of completely renovating. This is where the children get computer training. They also have a physical rehabilitation room where they work with the children to help them with their muscle development and motor skills. We were impressed with everything she and her staff are doing.

While we were there, we met Sally Kim, from San Francisco, who is with the Peace Corp and has been assigned to help Tatyana and her organization in writing grants to help procure money and to write and publish information to help the Kazakh people understand and accept the handicapped people in their society.

We told her that we were from Utah and were here for 18 months in Kazakhstan. She said that she had relatives that live in Salt Lake City!! She asked us what organization we represented, we told her that she had probably heard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she said she had!! She was delightful and wants us and Mira to come back again before we leave Kazakhstan. Sally Kim, Anne and Roy Welling, Tatyana and Mira, our translator. We felt like the meeting went very well and we hope we can do a project for them.

Afterwards, Tatyana took us to a Handicapped Children's Hospital where we met the director who we visted with about some rehabilitation equipment. They are funded by the government with medical equipment, but the government won't fund rehabilitation equipment. Director of the Handicapped Children's Hospital, Amangeldi Artekov, Roy and Anne Welling and Tatyana Ivanovana. We had visited this hospital once before and they remembered us and were appreciative that we came back to see if we could help them in any way. We hope to be able to do a project for them.

On the way back from Karaganda, we stopped in Osakaravka to see Svetlana and Ludmilla, two people who we have worked with before. We are hopeful that we can do another project for them, also.

We got back to Astana in the evening but felt that the day went well and we accomplished all we had set out to do. We were glad to be able to visit with these wonderful people again.

All last week we were trying to get a letter signed by the Minister of Health giving us permission to hold the NRT. Without this letter we cannot get pre-custom clearance to ship the equipment here. We will be working on that this week as well.

This little bus is called a "Marchuka" and they go all through the city streets. They cost a little more than the big buses but they go to more places.

This is our basic mode of transportation. We wait at the bus stop for a bus and then sometimes 4 or 5 show up at once!! There is no schedule; just show up and wait until the right one comes along!! But the buses come pretty regularly so we usually don't have to wait too long!!

We were able to stay up Saturday night late and listen to the first session of General Conference. We were also able to stay up on Sunday night to listen to the first session on Sunday. What wonderful counsel we have received this weekend!! We were able to download the first session and have Zhanna listen to it in Mongolian on Sunday morning. She was thrilled!!

We hope you were all uplifted by the messages of the General Authorities and that your testimonies have been strengthened as ours have been.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Another Presentation and Keeping in Touch With the Jones - 30 March 2009

2009-03-30T04:59:00.017-06:00

It is starting to warm up with temperatures above freezing for the first time!! We are looking forward to the snow being gone and seeing a little bit of green here and there. Because of all the snow, there are rivers running everywhere but the city workers are trying to haul off the snow as fast as they can! When we go out, we literally "ford every stream"!! We have even shed our big winter coats and are down to our spring coats and our spring boots!! We're sure that we haven't seen the last of the snow storms but things do look promising!

This is right out in front of our apartment building where they are working!! The ice was so thick on the road that they had to bring in a big front end loader to break up the ice!!

Now, back to what we have been doing this week!! We have been pretty busy and it it feels good! Monday, was pretty much a holiday because of Nauryz (Kazakh New Year) on Sunday, they had Monday off. We worked on the computer and did paper work most of the day and then went out to see if there were any displays left over from Nauryz, but they were all gone!! Because of the economy, things were pretty low-key this year.

Monday night after the English Club, we went out and took some pictures of the new Spring decorations. This is in the Byterick Park.

This is the "Byterick" covered with fabric flowers. We actually met Frank Tetreault out taking pictures in the park also!!

These two trees are located on the Central Plaza and were put up for Nauryz, which is also the beginning of Spring here in Kazakhstan.

This large fountain on the Central Plaza has been turned into a giant tulip!

This lighted tree is located at Congress Hall near the Central Plaza. It's fun to see all the lights up for Spring!

Tuesday we went to the Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs to take him the papers that show some of the projects that we have been doing. He had been replaced with someone new so we explained who we were and why we are here. He told us that he was aware of us and wanted to come to see the closing presentations of our projects so he could let the city officials know what we were doing. We assured him that we would be glad to invite him!!

And it just so happened that we had a closing presentation on Thursday for a project we did for the League of Women. The director, Clara Yerzhanova, had asked for 3 computers to help train abused or deserted women.These are two of the three computers that the Church donated to this organization. The young man seated at the computer will be training the women.

Kulnazira, Roy, Anne, Clara and two gentlemen that were sent from the Deparment of Justice and Religious Affairs. At the presentation, Clara thanked us for the computers and told us that no one had ever helped her before. She was very kind and gracious. Kulnazira told the gentlemen what a wonderful organization that the Church was and that we truly cared about helping people. She is a wonderful PR person for us!! We just love her!!

Afterwards, Clara and Kulnazira fed us all lunch and we were able to visit with one another. The gentlemen from the ministry thanked us for inviting them! We all felt that it went well.Roy, Anne and Clara Yerzhanova after eating a delicious lunch! Clara is a wonderful compassionate person who cares about others. We are so glad that we were able to become acquainted with her. We meet the nicest people in our calling!!

Saturday morning the Jones stopped in for a couple of nights with us on their way back to Sharbakti. They had been in Almaty for a few days while Nathan Jones presented a paper at a university there. We enjoy having them with us. Heather and the children will be leaving from Astana on June 1st to go back to New York to visit and then on to Utah to visit family. Nathan will be staying in Kazakhstan to finish up his Fulbright Scholarship work.

Anne, Heather and Nathan and Jones, and their children Desi and Zoe. It has been wonderful having them attend Church with us each time they come!! We will miss them!

The attendence at our Church meetings: Elder Welling and Nathan Jones - Zhanna Beckenbi, Sister Welling, Heather Jones and Desi and Zoe. (Even though it's 7:00 in the morning, we look pretty good!) We love it when we have more than 3 people at Church! It's wonderful how the gospel can bring us all together!!

We just want to congratulate Bridget Kingsford on her baptism on Saturday! We are so proud of you, Bridget! We hope you had a wonderful day and will remember how special it was for you! We love you very much!!

We are doing well and hoping to make a difference here in Kazakhstan! We appreciate all of your prayers in our behalf! We love and appreciate you all!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Visa Renewal, Closing Presentation and Ballet in Astana, Kazakhstan - 22 March 2009

2009-03-22T05:17:00.018-06:00

This has been a busy week for us since Mira came back from Pavlodar. Our first assignment was to get all the papers to the Immigration Police so we could finish up our visa renewal. It took us until Wedenesday because some of the information on our papers was incorrect!! But by Wednesday night, we had our visas back and we are again legal for the last three months of our mission!! We always hold our breath, because we never know what additonal information they might ask for!!

Wednesday afternoon, we went to the closing presentation for a project that we did at the Specialized Correctional Boarding School. There are about 243 students at this school that are mentally or physically handicapped. Twenty-three of them are orphans who live there. Many others board there during the week because they live so far out of the city.

Earlier, we visited some homemaking classes where the students practiced their sewing skills.

These are more of the items that the students made. We also saw the shop classes where the students were able to learn to work with wood. They even have cooking classes where the students help make the food for the meals each day. We were impressed with the school because they taught the students life skills which is so important for these handicapped children.

In the gym, the students are getting the physical exercise they need to keep their muscles strong. We were so impressed with the school and the way that it was run that we wanted to do a project for them.These are the beds that the Church donated for those who live at the school. The beds that they had, were metal framed beds and were so rickety that they were dangerous to sleep on the top bunk. These beds have the built in drawers and a shelf inside the bed. We were thrilled with how nice they looked, and the students were so grateful for them, too.

The director of the school is Kusain Katkenov and we found him a wonderful and caring individual. We would definitely like to work with him again!!

After seeing the beds, the director took us into the gym where the students were gathered and applauded as we walked in. He told them that our organization had provided the new beds for them. It was fun being there with them.

They presented a short little skit about a rich man and a poor man. The streamers coming down represent the yurt.The students did a wonderful job and we enjoyed it all very much!! It's gratifying to be able to help out a good organization like this one!!

We spent Thursday out and about picking up invoices for the next project that has been approved.This is a picture of the new suspension bridge which was just finished and crosses the Yesil River. The thing that is unique about this bridge is that the arch suspending the bridge crosses from one side of the road to the other as it crosses the river. It is pretty cool!!

Friday night, Frank invited us to go to the Ballet with him and two other pilots. This is Jean-Pierre Simon, from France, Rosalind Heinemann, from Virginia, and Frank Tetreault, from Virginia, and Anne and Roy from Fielding, Utah. We saw three one act ballets-- classical, comical and traditional Kazakh.

This is the classical ballet,

This is the comical ballet,

and the is the traditional Kazakh ballet. It was all wonderful and we were glad that we went.!! Going to the ballet here is a bargain! It cost all of $3.33 a ticket!!

Today is Nauryz, which is the Kazakh New Year!! So Happy Nauryz to everyone!!Tomorrow is the rest of the Nauryz celebration, so it is also a holiday, so we will probably go out, if the weather is good.

We had our usual Church meetings with just the three of us and we are so grateful that we can meet together each week!!

May the Lord bless each of you!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Tulips Are Up!! in Astana, Kazakhstan

2009-03-15T04:08:00.009-06:00

This week has been pretty uneventful with Mira, our translator, in Pavlodar. She will be returning on Sunday night and we expect to be really busy this coming week!

The good news is that we have heard from the couple that are replacing us and hopefully, they will be here sometime in June. We have a lot to do to get ready for them!

We also found out this week that the project for the "Children's Charity Fund" has been approved and we are very happy about that!. We will be out most of this coming week getting invoices and prices for the computers, chairs and sewing machines for them.

Mira called us and told us that we have two closing presentations this week on projects that we have done!! That is always good news and we will let you know more about that in our next blog.

Now about the tulips...........

They are not up from the ground, but wired up on every lamp post, bridge and some buildings throughout the city!

After getting a hair cut, we took these pictures as we strolled through the "Lollipop Park" on the way to the grocery store.

We had our favorite Air Astana pilot here in Astana, Frank Tetreault, over for dinner this week and he shared some of his pictures with us.

This is the walking bridge behind our apartment building that spans the Esil River. The tulips are a real stand out!

As you can see, they have wired them to every lamp post across the bridge!

And, they are especially beautiful at night!!

These are the lights across the walking bridge into Astana Park!

These decorations are on the building next to the Radisson Hotel! They go all out with decorations here!!

So, this has been a good sign that Spring is coming! But as I write this blog, alas, it is snowing outside!! Everyone here is looking forward to Spring, because winter lasts sooo looong here in Astana, Kazakhstan.

We did go to a couple of English Clubs this week as well as visiting with the student translators at the University. It's nice to have things that keep us busy when we are not so busy with Humanitarian work!

The first thing we will do Monday, is to take our papers from the Akimat (Mayor's office) to the Immigration Police to see if they will renew our visas. We'll keep our fingers crossed!!

We want to congratulate Gabriela Welling on her baptism on Saturday!! We hope it was a special day for you, Gabriela, and one that you will never forget!!

How grateful we are to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! What would we do without the Church in our lives! What a blessing it is to have the Holy Ghost as a guide and a direction in our lives. We are truly blessed!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Things Are Looking Up in Astana, Kazakhstan!! - 8 March 2009

2009-03-08T06:15:00.017-06:00

We feel like Spring is finally coming to Astana because it hasn't been below zero all week!! We have also been able to go out and do more with the better weather.

And that is not the only good news; we were able to get our computer up and going again with the help of Mira's younger brother, Kazbik, who spent several hours working on it.!! He found out that we had 34 viruses which was causing all the problems for us!!! So now we're back in business again!! Also, we hope to get a new computer from Moscow, because we found out that ours is not Church approved. We'll see what happens!!Thursday we went to a closing presentation of a project we did for a handicapped organization who were given sports and exercise equipment. This little boy is playing ping pong on table that was provided by the Church.

Veronica, who has some physical disabilities, is trying out some of the exercise equipment. Her mother is looking on and Elena, the director of the organization is helping her.

This young man has some extreme physical disabilities but was enjoying using the exercise equipment. This equipment will be used by these youth to help strengthen their muscles.

This young mother has two mentally handicapped little boys, one year apart. They were having such fun with their mom on the exercise equipment.

Elena, the director of "Social Adaptation of Children", does a wonderful job helping the handicapped youth in Astana. She is a very kind and loving person and we enjoy working with her so much. We were glad that we were able to do this project for her organization. (She is standing next to Anne and Roy.)

Friday we were invited to a program at the University where we visit and speak English to two classes of translators. They wanted us to come and see the program that they were preforming in. When we got there, we found out that this program was to help recruit high school seniors to come to this University. And the professsor, over English translators, (in the middle) wanted us to speak about the importance of English. We tried to get out of it, but he insisted!!At the end of the program, this professor gave Anne her bouquet of flowers that were given to her for International Women's Day, which is celebrated on Sunday. She told us she gave them because we were foreign guests in their country. We thought that was so kind of her!! Aizhan, on the left, is the teacher of the students whose class we visit each week.

Friday we were invited to a program by Ludmilla, who is the director over a day care center that we just finished a project for. Anne, Ludmilla and Roy

These are some of the children that preformed on the program.

Ludmilla, her assistants and some of the participants dressed like little chicks. The program was to honor mothers for International Women's Day.

Because Mira has gone home to Pavlodar for a week, we had Zarina come and translate for us. She is such a sweetheart and we dearly love her! She has been so willing to help us out when we need her!

On top of everything else this week, Mira started working on getting our visas renewed. By Thursday, we were able to get our papers into the Akimat (Mayor's Office) for approval. If they allow us to stay, we will then take our papers to the Immigration Police who will issue our visas for 3 months, which will allow us to stay until June 23. When Mira gets back next week, we will start that procedure.

We had a wonderful sacrament and sunday school meeting with Zhanna today. We are so glad that she continues to come early each Sunday morning! We don't know what we would do without her!!

Today is International Women's Day in Kazakhstan which honors all women, from little daughters to grandmothers! We have never seen so many people with bouquets of flowers and candy as we have this week. It is a wonderful celebration!!

Love to each of you!! The gospel is true and we are so blessed because of it!

Elder and Sister Welling

Paperwork, Projects and Presentations in Astana, Kazakhstan - 1 March 2009

2009-03-01T03:27:00.017-07:00

Can you believe it's March already?!! Time is really going fast here. We were able to get some things done this week despite the cold.

We spent the first part of the week doing historical reports and final reports on projects that we have completed and then sent them to Moscow. Roy also got the information he needs to do a wheelchair project in Pavlodar.

Our biggest problem right now is our computer!! It is too old, or too slow, or has a virus; but just isn't working!! Roy has threatened to throw it off the balcony!! We are waiting for a call from Salt Lake for the tech people to tell us what to do about it. We are pretty frustrated at this point!! Hopefully they will call this week.

We were able to go to visit the Children's Charity Fun, who work with disadvantaged children and teenagers. They help nearly 3,000 people a year. We are hoping to do a project for them.

While we were out and about this week, we took some pictures of the fire trucks over here.

This is what a fire truck looks like in Astana, Kazakhstan. They were having a fire drill at the correctional school while we were there dropping off some papers.Fire trucks are orange and white and look nothing like the ones in the US! It's hard to believe that anything could burn around here because everything is made out of cement or brick!!

Friday we were invited to go to a "Living Stones" presentation held at the First Presidential Museum where they honored handicapped children for their participation in art.

Kamka Medievna, an NGO that we work with, was honored for setting up the program for the handicapped children and teenagers.The guest artist, from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with one of the students that participated in the project. This is one of the Church's wheelchairs.

The artist teaches them how to paint on rocks to make them "come alive". This is some of her art work.

The artist shows them how to create what they want on paper first and then on the rocks. These are two of the students that participated. The young lady, Masha, is in our handicapped English Club that we go to on Saturday.

This is some of the rock painting done by the children and teenagers. (It actually looked better in person. The camera doesn't do it justice, so use your imagination!)The students were grateful for the chance they had to show some creativity and we were grateful for the opportunity we had to attend to see some of the handicapped students that we have helped through different projects we have done.

We were able to do a project a few weeks ago which was a Montessori room for an orphanage here in the city. They asked for items that would help the children with their manipulative skills, which consists of lacing, buckling, things for sizing and shape, sight and touch, ect.The director of the orphanage along with Mira and Anne looking at the different items that were donated by the Church for the room.

The director along with Mira showing off manipulatives to learn to lace, tie, zipping, ect. These items were very well made and we were impressed with them.

Roy and Zhanna looking at more of the items for the Montessori room.

This is Zhanna, who we worked with on this project. She has an organization that helps individuals and groups. She was wonderful to work with and we enjoyed getting to know her.

We are still busy with our English clubs and visiting English classes at the university. It sure has helped to keep us busy and we have made some wonderful friends that we will never forget!

We are so grateful for the gospel in our lives and that we have a chance to spread the gospel through humanitarian work. May the Lords bless each of you!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Cold Weather and Handicapped Day Care to Warm Our Hearts - 22 February 2009

2009-02-22T05:06:00.010-07:00

Did you know that Astana is the second coldest capital in the world?? The first is Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia.

It was cold this week. "How cold?", you might ask. This morning it was -41 degrees F. with the wind chill factor!! All this week it has been -30 degrees to -40 degrees F. so we didn't get out as much as we would have liked to. Spring cannot come too soon!!

We did get out this week to a closing presentation on Tuesday for a project we did for Ludmilla Yeger Georgiyevna who runs a handicapped day care center for children.

These are some of the children at the day care center.

The children did a program for us which was fun to see. They are so cute!! Ludmilla does a great job with them!

We donated some items for the day care center. These balls, that the children are playing with, were part of the project.

Ludmilla uses performances to teach the children language skills and socialization. This wardrobe, for the costumes, was also part of the project so she could save them from year to year to cut down on her expenses.

Before we left for Almaty, the pump went out on the washer, so we knew we were facing that this week. On Wednesday, Mira called a repairman who came and was able to fix it, which was a relief because we didn't want to buy a new one! The Lord blesses us in so many ways!!On Saturday, Ludmilla had a sewing class for some of her students and teachers and we wanted to see the sewing machines that were also part of the project. Aigul, one of the teachers, is working at one of the machines.Lela is another teacher who works with the children. She is showing us another sewing machine that the Church donated to the organization. She is working on some costumes for a presentation on March 7th (which we are invited to) for Women's Day. Anne, Aigul, Ludmilla, Roy and Lela. We were glad that we could do a project for this organization.

While we were out and about on Saturday we met one of Mira's friends and we asked if we could take her picture. She was nice to let us do so! (We have wanted to show you some of the gorgeous fur coats over here along with their beautiful hats, but we don't always have time to ask complete strangers if we can take their picture. Besides, we're afraid they will look at us funny! Generally, it's so cold that we don't want to get out the camera!!)

We had Church 7:00 a.m with Zhanna today and it was wonderful! What would we do without her?!! Despite the language barrier, the Spirit helps us understand!

Hope it warms up so we can have a more interesting blog next week!! What can we say, we are trying to stay in and keep warm!

We are grateful that Ryan and Tiffanie's baby is over the RSV and is home from the hospital. The Lord continues to bless us!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Weekend in Almaty for Zone Conference - 18 February 2009

2009-02-18T03:32:00.019-07:00

We hope all of you had a "Happy Valentine's Day"!

It's been a week of pretty cold weather but we realize this is the last winter that we have to go through, so we will make it!! It's been in the -20 degrees F. all week! We can hardly wait 'til Spring!!

We wanted to make Sugar Cookies for the English Club. We spent the first part of the week looking for a Valentine Cookie Cutter, red food coloring and red candies. No such luck! We ended up making round sugar cookies, using strawberry jello to color the frosting and bought 2 packages of M & M's and picked out the red ones to decorate the cookies with. They made a hit at the English Club!! As Mira told us, we could survive anywhere!!

We had another project approved this week for the Woman's League who needed computers for training. We are grateful for that!

Friday morning we flew to Almaty for Missionary Zone Conference on Saturday. Friday night we were invited to go to see the ballet, "Gizelle", with Sister Pat Vincent.

This is the ballet and opera theater in Almaty. It is a beautiful building on the inside as well as the outside and we were so glad that we were able to go to the ballet!The ballet, "Gizelle", was wonderful and the scenery was beautiful! We have seen more opera and ballet in Kazakhstan than we had in our entire life!! We think it's great!

After the ballet, we saw Olga, one of the nurses from Kostani that we met while doing the NRT. We were so glad to see her!! She is attending school in Almaty to receive more training.

Olga, Anne, Pat Vincent, Nadezhda and Roy. Pat invited Nadezhda to meet us at the ballet. She is not a member, but her son and husband are. Her son, Dema, is on a mission in Russia now. She is a wonderful lady and we hope that she will eventually join the Church. We feel very blessed to have met her. We also got to visit with her in Church on Sunday!!

On Saturday, we were able to attend Zone Conference and to meet President Collins and his wife, our new mission president. Kazakhstan is now in the Russia Moscow West Mission. President Pieper, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy and our Area President, was also their with his wife. What a treat that was!! We also got to meet the new Elders and Sisters that are now serving in Almaty.

It was wonderful to listen to President and Sister Pieper and President and Sister Collins and hear what we can do to be better missionaries!! President Pieper has such a love for Kazakhstan and the people here and you can feel it!!

After our meeting, President Pieper took us to a wonderful Uzbek restaurant with wonderful food and the ambiance was great!!

Sister Collins, President Collins, Pat Vincent, Craig Vincent, Anne and Roy, Sister Pieper and President Pieper ready to enjoy dinner.

President and Sister Pieper, Roy, Pat and Craig Vincent, Anne and Sister and President Collins. We had a enjoyable time visiting and talking about Kazakhstan and what a wonderful place it is. President Pieper told us that they are working towards getting missionaries into Astana, but some events have to take place first and that we are on the Lord's timetable. We just have to be patient!

We were able to attend the Branch on Sunday and that is always a treat for us. President and Sister Collins spoke to us about how people can influence our lives and how trials give us the opportunity to see how we will react to things that happen to us. President Pieper bore his testimony about the 3 missionaries from the Branch, Maxem, Dema, and Rasheed, that are in Russia and the Ukraine doing such a great job and that their testimonies are so strong.

He also told us about the hard times that we are living in and that we need to pay our tithing, get out of debt and keep up on our food storage. He also told us that we need to have faith and that we need to rely on truth. He told the Saints that there will be a Central Asian Mission someday centered in Almaty with wards and stakes everywhere. He told us that God sees us in Kazakhstan and sees what we can become. All of our problems can be solved through faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ! It was such a wonderful meeting and the Spirit was so strong. We felt very privileged to be there and hear him!!

This is our accountant, Olga Berkaliyava, who pays for all of our projects when they are approved. She has to keep a record of all 9 documents and invoices so that we can stay legal. She belongs to the Branch in Almaty and has a 12 year son, Sasha. We love her so much and enjoy working with her!!

Sister Pieper is holding her granddaughter, Sophie, and President Pieper is holding the other baby, who are"stars" of the Branch!! These two babies are spoiled by everyone!! President and Sister Pieper's son and daughter-in-law, Chris and Evelyn, are living in the Branch while doing research for his Fulbright Scholarship.

The two young ladies in the center are sisters. The sister on the right is Erra and she is getting to ready to go on a mission. Her mother is the Relief Society President. Erra is such a dynamic person and will make a wonderful missionary. Sister Zonova is from Ufa, Russia (on the left) and Sister Jensen (on the right) is from Springville, Utah. They both are great missionaries!!

After Church on Sunday, President and Sister Collins and us were invited to the Vincents for Sunday dinner. We had an wonderful time and enjoyed getting to know one another better. President and Sister Collins will be going home from their mission in July but hope to see us at another zone conference before we leave.

President and Sister Collins and and Elder and Sister Vincent. What can we say about the Vincents!! They have been wonderful to us while we have been in Almaty. They plan fun activities when we are there and always are inviting us over for meals. They are the Leadership couple but do humanitarian projects on the side while also taking care of the young missionaries in Kazakhstan. Elder Vincent is a lawyer and a former member of the Seventy and has been working hard to get the Church registered in Kyrgyzstan. They do humanitarian projects in that country, also. They will be leaving to go home the 1st of April and we will miss them very much!

It has been a wonderful and uplifting weekend for us and we are so glad that we had the chance to go and be there with everyone.

It was hard to come back to the really cold weather in Astana, but we know that it won't last forever!!

We love you all and miss you too. The gospel is true and is the most wonderful thing that we have in our life!! We are so blessed!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

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

2009-02-08T00:19:00.013-07:00

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

Keeping Busy Despite the Cold in Astana, Kazakhstan - 3 February 2009

2009-02-02T23:15:00.012-07:00

It's been quite cold here but not as cold as last year! We do have more snow than we did a year ago. But we still have things to do so we bundle up and go out!

A week ago, we were able to visit a lady, Dr. Ms. Balkhiya Suleimenova, who is the Chief Physician of the City Ambulance Service here in Astana. She, along with another doctor from Aktobe, visited the United States to see the ambulance service there. They visited Iowa, Tuscon, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Salt Lake City and were in the US for a month. While in Salt Lake they were given a tour of Temple Square and the Area Presidency asked us to follow up and visit with her and let her know that we have Humanitarian Missionaries here in Astana and also to see if she had any more questions about the Church.

We asked her how she enjoyed being in the United States. She said that all of her life under Soviet rule she was taught that Americans were the aggressor and that they were very bad people. She said that it has taken her whole life to find out that just was not true. She told us that Americans are so kind and nice and that they care for one another. She was impressed with the ambulance service in the US and said that we have the best care possible.

While they were in Salt Lake City, they also visited Snowbird and sat in on the practice session of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. She showed us the pictures of her trip including some from Temple Square. She told us how much she loved being at Temple Square and the spirit she felt there. She also told us our religion is concerned about families and about people's souls and what we do matters in this life. That made such an impression on her!! We gave her a "Family Enrichment Program" book that tells how to have a Family Home Evenings. She was delighted with it and said she would use it for her family! We told her if she had any questions about the church to be sure and call us!

She took us downstairs where some wonderful "treats" were prepared for us by the staff. Dr. Suleimenova, Anne, Roy and Mira visiting about her facility here in Astana. Dr. Suleimenova has 720 employees and is over five different stations throughout Astana. This is the dispatch center of the city. She also told us that every ambulance must have a doctor and the training takes 7 years. The training for an EMT in the US is only 2 years and she feels that it is a much better way. She told us again that people really care for one another in the US and that the medical EMTs demonstrated that.

She thanked us so much for coming and invited us to a event that they will be having in February. She is a wonderful person and we are sure that we will see her again.

Wednesday was Mira's birthday and we wanted to take her out! On the way to the restaurant, we stopped and she took a picture of us because, as she put it, the day was so beautiful with the frost on the trees!

Anne and Mira enjoying their meal!

Roy enjoying after dinner conversation with Mira.

We don't know what we would do without Mira. We really couldn't function without her. She is wonderful and works so hard for us and always keeps us on the ball. We love her so very much and wonder how she puts up with us!

Anne and Mira in the park on the way home from the restaurant. What an enjoyable time we had!!

Friday of last week we visited the Tselenograd Regional Hospital to deliver some paper work for a project that we are doing for them and also took some receiving blankets, which were sent to us by Deanne Hughes, for the newborns there.

The blankets were so cute and the mothers were so grateful. Of course, the babies are just adorable!!

The mothers were so shy but very appreciative of the gift. We presented six mothers with blankets.

Deanne also sent this beautiful crocheted blanket and the nurses were so impressed with it that they are keeping it in the room where they prepare the babies to go home. Roy, Anne, Aigul, who is head nurse over the maternity section, Galina, who is the head doctor over maternity and an assistant, Aisulu. It was wonderful to be able to give out the blankets for the moms and their babies!!

This is a common scene this time of year in Astana!! Crews are everywhere, breaking up the ice or compacted snow on the sidewalks. It is as hard as rock because it is so cold!! They shovel it into big piles and then load it into trucks and haul it out of town.

We are truly blessed each and every day! We thank you all again for your love and support. We couldn't do it without all of you! May the Lord's choicest blessing be upon you!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Opening of the 1st Container in Astana, Kazakhstan - 25 January 2008

2009-01-25T04:56:00.016-07:00

This has been a busy week here in Astana! As we mentioned last week, both of the containers cleared customs and we were grateful for that. At the beginning of the week, Kamka, the recipient of one of the containers, asked us to come over to the place where the contents were going to be distributed. Kamka has been collecting used clothes from the people here in Astana for the handicapped and needed shelves and racks to display the clothes on. We wrote a project to supply her with these items and they came just in time to display the clothing from the container also. These shelves, hangers and baskets won't even begin to hold all the clothing from the container; but it will help a lot because they will put out more items each day.Tuesday we were invited to Kamka and Ramazon's home to have Bishbarmak with some of the people that Kamka works with in helping the handicapped. They also wanted to thank us for all we have done for them in helping get the container here.

Raigul (who also received a container), Rosa, Kulnazira, Aigul, Kamka and grandson are in the picture.

Aigul, Rosa, Kamka, Raigul and Aiman, Mira, Roy and Anne posing for the picture. All of these ladies have been with Kamka since 1998 and they never gave up trying to find ways to help the poor and needy. Each of them talked about Kamka and her tireless effort in helping those that are less fortunate or who have handicaps. She herself has two handicapped children. (Kulnazira is taking the picture.) We love them all! They are wonderful people!

After dinner we were taken out back to see the container and what was in it. They had lots of boxes of quilts that were made by Relief Society sisters! It was so wonderful to see the quilts! Pictured are Rosa, Mira, Kamka, Aiman and Anne.

Here the men are unloading the container. Towards the back are bales and bales of clothing. In the boxes are new wool blankets. We couldn't believe how much was packed in the container!

The men loaded the boxes of blankets and bales of clothing into Kamka's van to take to the place where they will be distributed.

This is the first sack of boots and bundles of clothing brought into the room where the clothes will be distributed. This young man is deaf and the other lady works for Kamka.

As we were going through the clothes and sorting them to put on racks, Anne found this shirt with "LaBeau's", famous for their raspberry shakes from Bear Lake! That was fun! We also found a Utah Jazz shirt and a Box Elder Middle School Choir shirt!

Kamka had specifically asked for walkers and canes, if there was any extra room in the container and all of these items were sent. The people here do not use walkers in Kazakhstan but when the people saw them and how to use them they were pretty excited about them. Mira told us that the only place she has seen walkers used is in the United States.

Kamka is explaining to this woman how to use the walker. She has an 18 year old son who cannot stand without holding on to something and a walker could help him. She eventually took the one that also has a seat on it so that he can rest when he gets tired.

Roy, Kamka, Anne, Kulnazira and Zhakupov Kairat Assetovich, director of the Homeless Shelter here in Astana. He took canes and walkers and lots of boots and clothing. He wants us to come and visit him to see if we can do anything to help their facility.

All of these ladies that were helping to fold the clothes and put them on hangers were psychologists and social workers. There were many handicapped people who helped also.

A tired but happy crew of young ladies! They worked hard all week getting the place organized and ready for the people. They will spend the next couple of weeks getting the clothing and other items distributed to the poor and needy.

It has been so very cold this week and we ended up being out in it quite a bit. But it just makes you appreciate the nice warm apartment we have!

We also visited a school for the handicapped, helped out at the English Club and met a wonderful lady who spent some time in Salt Lake. We'll tell you about her next week.

We did find out yesterday that Kazakhstan is now in the Russia Moscow West Mission instead of the Russia Moscow Mission and that President Collins is our new mission president. We will probably go to Almaty the middle of February to meet him.

We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to serve here in Kazakhstan! We are so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives; to know who we are, why we are here and where we are going gives us the peace that Christ talks about. We are grateful to our family and friends and for their love and support. You are all wonderful and we feel your prayers for us each and every day! May the Lord bless you in all that you do!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Cold and Snow in Astana, Kazakhstan, 18 January 2009

2009-01-18T06:39:00.011-07:00

The exciting news this week is that the containers from Salt Lake were released on Friday from Customs and delivered on Saturday to the consignees!!! We are thrilled!! We know that it wouldn't have happened if the US Embassy and the Lord had not helped us out and for that we are truly grateful!! We are continually blessed every day!

We spent most of the week just working on the projects. There is a 9 step paper chase that we have to do for every project and since it's been a slow week, we will explain it to you. (You might want to get a snack!)

When a project is approved, we have to get an official Letter of Request, stamped and signed and properly dated, from the organization of what they need, along with their Bank information, Tax Information and their Certificate of Registration. When we have these three documents, then we get the Prepayment Invoice from the vendor stamped and signed.

We then email this to Olga (she eventually has to have the original), our accountant who lives in Almaty, because we cannot handle any money, and she makes the Bank Transfer of funds to the vendor. Then Olga creats 3 Contracts and gives us all of the copies. We have to get all 3 Contracts signed and stamped by the organization and then we send them to Almaty, so the Branch President can sign and stamp all of them. Then Olga keeps one copy and sends the others back for us and the organization.

After the goods are delivered, we have to get a copy of the Delivery Invoice from the organization, stamped and signed and we send a copy to Olga and we keep a copy. Then we get a Final Invoice from the organization saying all taxes and charges have been paid. These are also signed and stamped. Olga gets a copy and so do we!

After the Closing Presentation, where we go and take pictures, we get a Letter of Acknowledgement from the organization, stating what the Church donated to them, signed by the organization--original to Olga and we get a copy. It's quite a process and sometimes we don't know what we have handed to us so that's where Mira comes in. She tells us what we need and if it is properly signed, stamped and dated!! If it wasn't for her we wouldn't know if we were coming or going!! She is a blessing in our lives!! And that's the story on the paperwork!!

It has been a pretty uneventful week but we had lots of snow fall and they even closed the roads into Astana because of the drifting snow. We stayed in when we could but did have to go out Wednesday night and boy, was it cold!!!!

Here we are dressed to go out. Roy even has his ear flaps down on his "shopka"!!

This is the upper walkway along our apartment building. It has drifted quite a bit, as you can see.

When we go out, we either take the high road, where Roy is, or the lower road, where the cars are parked! This is a lot more snow that we had last year!

These nice young lads were out playing in the snow and they let us take their picture!

We are keeping busy but trying to stay in when it's really cold!! It's been down in the single digits and with the wind chill it's even colder. Winter does seem to last forever here. Only three more months of it and it should be getting better!!

Thanks for all of the prayers, love and support from all of you. We feel it each and every day! We are so blessed to be here on a mission in Kazakhstan! We wouldn't trade this experience for anything! May the Lord bless you in all that you do!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Back to Work in Astana, Kazakhstan - 14 January 2009

2009-01-13T22:53:00.013-07:00

On January 7th was the Russian Orthodox Christmas so it was a holiday throughout Kazakhstan. We worked on the computer and tried to get caught up on the paperwork for the projects we have been doing.

On Thursday was a big New Year's Celebration at the Mega Mall in the Babylon Pirate Center. All handicapped children's organizations, along with the children of handicapped parents and the League of Large Family Organization were invited to attend.

Roy, Mira and Anne in front of the large New Year's Tree in the Babylon Game Center.

Here we are with Kulnazira, one of the NGO's we work with here in Kazakhstan. She is a real friend and we just love her!!While we were there, we also met Raigul, who is the director over the League of Large Families and Kamka and Ramazan, her husband, who were on their way to the Customs office to see about getting the two 40 ft. containers through customs. We wished them luck and told them we would keep our fingers crossed! The containers have been in customs since the 29th of December! (We'll fill you in on the rest of the story later!)

We took pictures of some of the children enjoying themselves on the rides!

We just had to take a picture of these cute little kids dressed up. It is customary for people to dress in costumes for New Year's parties so many of the children did. Aren't they adorable!!Over 500 children and teenagers were invited to this event. All of the children could ride these rides free of charge. They do this every year for the handicapped children's organizations.

Later in the afternoon we found out that the documents on the containers from the train company did not have the same wording as those that were sent from Salt Lake; they left off "Humanitarian Aid". Now the customs officials want the US Embassy to verify what is in the containers, which they can't do because they didn't send them!! We are now working with a gentleman from the US Embassy who deals with customs officials and he is trying to help us out. Hopefully, by the first of next week, we will be able to get these containers through!! This is really an exercise in patience!!

Before anything leaves Salt Lake, the organization that we are working with has to guarantee that the containers will be able to get through customs or they will not send them. The Church is spending so much money sending these containers and if customs rejects them, then they are sent back at the Church's expense. In Turkey, they ended up sending some containers back because they couldn't get them through customs after months of haggling with customs officials.

Saturday morning Nathan and Heather Jones, and their children, arrived from Pavlodar. They are on their way to Almaty to get new diplomatic visas so that they can go anywhere they want without having to register in every town. We enjoyed having them with us for the weekend!!

Walking home from the Ramstore on Saturday, we decided to get some pictures of the ice sculptors on the river.

Roy in front of the Kazakh poet, Abai. The weather was actually pretty nice that day!! No wind!!

The Jones Family: Heather, Desi, Zoe and Nathan all eating ice cream and cake before leaving on the train to Almaty.

It was also enjoyable having them here for Church. Zhanna called and asked if we could have church at 7:00 a.m. because she has a new job and has to work on Sunday! We told her we would do whatever time that would allow her to come. We were through with our meetings by 9:00 and had the rest of the day for reading and relaxation! The Jones boarded the train for Almaty later in the evening. They will be back in a couple of weeks on their way to Pavlodar. It's wonderful having company!

"Happy Birthday, Dad!" We can't believe your 95 years old!!!! Congratulations! We just want you to know that you are the best Dad ever and we love you so much! You are an inspiration to us all!

Thanks again for all of your love and support! We are so grateful for being here in Kazakhstan and for all of the things that we have learned. We truly love the people here!! Thanks again for your prayers in our behalf.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Happy New Year in Almaty, Kazakhstan - 6 January 2009

2009-01-06T04:34:00.011-07:00

Happy New Year to you all!!
Tuesday morning, before leaving for Almaty, we got the wonderful news that Ryan and Tiffanie had a baby boy, Easton Miles, born on the 29th of December. Both mother and baby are doing great!! We are very richly blessed to have 20 beautiful grandchildren!!

After our flight to Almaty, Sveta, our visa clerk, translator, and all-around go to lady, took us to meet with Dr. Tamara Chubakova and her assistants, Dr. Aliyah and Dr. Zarina about the Neonatal Resuscitation Training for next year.

We met at a lovely restaurant and were so happy to see each of them again! Dr. Tamara is over all prenatal training in Kazakhstan and Dr. Aliyah and Dr. Zarina were with us in July for the last NRT in Astana, Kostani and Kokshetau.

We discussed when the next NRT would be and where and all the details about it. The sad part is that we won't be able to be here for the next one but we will be in charge of getting everything printed, shipped and ready for the next training. The next Humanitarian couple will be able to be a part of this wonderful experience.Dr. Zarina, Roy, Anne, Dr. Tamara Chubakova, Sveta and Dr. Aliyah. These ladies are wonderful, dedicated doctors and our lives have been enriched by just knowing and working with them.

Wednesday was New Year's Eve and we were invited to the Vincents for a party with them and the missionaries. The pary began at 1:00 in the afternoon.Sister Pat Vincent is at the sink. Sister Davis, from St. George; Sister Samsonovich, from Vladivostok, Russia; Elder Craig Vincent and Elder London, from Orange County, California, all having a good time at the party.

We started out the party with a Scripture Chase for all of the missionaries. Then we had a Murder Mystery Dinner. Between the courses we had to solve the murder. That was lots of fun!

Elder London, Sister Davis, Elder King, from Idaho; Sister Samsonovich, Pat Vincent, Elder Volegov, from Latvia; and Craig Vincent and Anne (in front) watching a movie which was next on the list of things to do.

The missionaries changed their clothes before the next movie began. In front, Elder London, and Elder King. In the back, Elder Jonovich, from Arizona; Sister Davis and Sister Samsonovich. It was so fun to be with the missionaries! Elder King and Sister Davis will be leaving to go back to Moscow in the next week.

The party was so much fun and we enjoyed being there with all of them. We watched the fireworks at around 11:00 and left for our apartment at 12:30 p.m. which was nine blocks away but only took us about 25 minutes to get there! There were so many fireworks going on and everyone was out on the street having a fun time.

Saturday night the Branch had a baptism! Morat is the newest member of the Almaty Branch. What a fine young man he is! These are the missionaries serving in Almaty with the newest member. Elder Volegov, Elder Jonovich, Elder London, Morat, Elder King, Sister and Elder Vincent, Sister Davis, and Sister Samsonovich. Many members came to the baptism and gave their love and support for Morat. It was very special for us to be their for a baptism.

We had a wonderful Fast and Testimony meeting. It was nice not to have to be in charge of Sacrament Meeting for a change! It was also wonderful to have a variety of people bear their testimonies. The people in this Branch have very strong testimonies and they will be the ones that will move the work forward. It's not easy being a member of the Church in a Muslim country.

The Vincents invited us for dinner after church, along with Gary Despain, an Air Astana pilot from Mendon, Utah. We enjoyed the visit so much with all of them and it was hard to leave. The Vincents will be leaving the 1st of April and they still don't know who their replacements are!

While we were there in Almaty, it snowed for two days. It was beautiful and it wasn't even cold. When we flew back to Astana on Monday, we realized just how cold it is where we live. We don't know if we will ever get used to this cold!! But it sure was nice to have a break from it.

We hope you all have a wonderful new year and that the Lord will bless you in all that you do. We love you all!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Christmas Week in Astana, Kazakhstan - 28 December 2008

2008-12-28T04:14:00.018-07:00

It was another busy week here in Astana! Having the missionaries from Novosibirsk here for a few days with us was wonderful and we will never forget them. They had their visas by Monday night which was a relief to everyone! Not that we didn't want them to stay longer, but they were anxious to get back to their field of labor for Christmas, and we didn't blame them one bit! They left Tuesday morning for Moscow and then on to Novosibirsk.

Tuesday we went to a closing presentation for a project that we did for the Blind Society here in Astana. We donated 5 computers with special programs to use for those that are partially blind. We also paid for 80 pairs of glasses for this group because the government does not fund payment for glasses for those that are partially blind.This is Khamza Khazima Yerzhanovna who is the director for the Astana Blind Society. She had invited many of the people who are members of this group to come and be a part of this presentation. She presented us with a "Thankful Letter". We have enjoyed working with her.

Roy was asked to say a few words and then each of the members that wanted to speak and thank us took their turn. Khazima turned the time over to the group and then let them ask us questions about us and our church. It was great! We were able to explain to them about our humanitarian work and how our church is represented in over 160 nations in the world. They wanted to know how we get the money for these projects and we explained the principle of "Fasting" to them. They all applauded after that! They wanted to know about our family, how many kids, and how many grandchildren and they all applauded us for that and said that we are very richly blessed of which we totally agreed!! They wanted to know about the handicapped society's in America and lots of other questions. We felt like we were able to explain more about our church in this one meeting than we have done since we have been here!! It was a wonderful opportunity for us!

This lady is using one of the 5 computers that were donated by the church. The computers have external speakers because many of those who are partially blind have hearing difficulties, too.These two ladies received new glasses from the project. The lady from the optical store was also there and presented them with chains and glass cases. The people that were there were so appreciative of the glasses and the computers! It was a good presentation and we felt like we were able to explain a little more about our church and what we do.

Wednesday we made goodies to take to all of our friends we have made here in Kazakhstan.

Mira wrote the message in Russian to put on the gifts. Then we delivered some to Kulnazira, Kamka and Elena who are some NGO's that we have worked with this year and sang Christmas carols to them. We spent the next two days delivering the rest of them and teaching Mira some more Christmas songs.Wednesday night we went to the University English Club. This young man is Vitaly Tsimmerman. He wanted to give us a gift of the replicas of the dombra and the kobuz, Kazakh musical instruments, for our Christmas celebration. We thought that was so kind. He is such a delightful person!

Christmas Day was very busy! After opening the gifts we received from family, we went to the orphanage for a New Year's Celebration where "Father Frost" came and gave gifts to all of the children.

Here is "Father Frost's" granddaughter,(middle) "Snow Girl" with two of the handicapped children at the orphanage. The young lady on the left sang to the children. The lady standing in the back is Zhanna, who we worked with on the project for the orphanage. After the program was over, the director took us up to the room to see the materials donated by the church for the Montessori room. We will tell you more about it when we have the closing presentation in January.

Next we went to the "Duman", a fun center for families, for the handicapped day care New Year's Celebration. We saw children perform and had our picture taken in front of the big New Year's tree with Mira. After we left there, we sent Mira home and went to the University where the English department was having a Christmas celebration.

The students did a wonderful job and are so talented. We have grown to love each one of them. They all wanted to have their picture taken with us when it was over. Aizhan, their teacher, is standing on the left at the end.

It was such a cold day (-28 F) and we we weren't too excited to go out again that night but we were invited to the other English club's New Year's celebration.Here the students are having a good time playing games. We sat and watched and judged which one gave the best toast for the New Year in English. It was fun to be there with them. They are a great group of students and we enjoy working with them.

As we walked home in the frigid cold air, we reflected on what a different Christmas this was for us. Christmas here in Kazakhstan is an individual, personal celebration because there are so few Christians. We feel that our Christmas this year was more internalized because we realize what Christ has done for us personally and how important His birth was in our individual lives.

The next day we collapsed and stayed in and caught up on project and paper work. It was pretty cold outside so it was also a good reason to stay in.

Saturday we were invited to another New Year's celebration for the Blind Society, which is Kazima's group. We thought that it would be just a small group of people, but when we got there the whole gymnasium was filled with people!! We tried to remain inconspicuous by sitting on the back bench, but that didn't last long!

The people in charge came right over to us and wanted us to say a few words! Mira didn't want to, but we finally persuaded her to sing with us the only Christmas song she knew!! So when it was our turn, Roy said a few words and then we all sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas"!!Anne enjoying herself with one of the participants!

Everyone got into the fun and they danced around the New Year's Tree and sang songs. Father Frost and Snow Girl also came and gave out gifts. We got in and enjoyed ourselves. At one point, they put on a song that sounded more American than Russian or Kazakh so we danced the swing together and the people loved it.!!They were happy that we were enjoying ourselves! It was a fun celebration and we were so glad that we went!

In the afternoon, we met Zarina, who has been a translator for us when Mira is unavailable, to give her a gift. She was with her parents and we also got to meet them. They are as wonderful as their daughter! We just can't say enough about how good people are to us here!!

Sunday we were back to just the three of us for church. But we enjoy being with Zhanna so much!

We surprised her with a Christmas gift which she was thrilled about! (Thanks, Kara, for sending the gift.) It has been a wonderful week and it was nice to be able to be a part of so many celebrations and feel of their love for us.

Next week we will be in Almaty for New Years. We will also be able to be with the people in the Branch on Sunday. We plan on doing some business for the NRT coming up next year. We are looking forward to the trip.

Thanks for all of the wonderful Christmas emails and cards we received from family and friends. They mean so much to us when we are so far away! It has been a Christmas that has been very special to us. We hope you all have a wonderful New Year!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Dinner Out and Dinners to Feed the Elders In Astana, Kazakhstan - 23 December 2008

2008-12-23T06:20:00.010-07:00

We are slow this week getting the blog done because we have been so busy! Monday we were invited to another dinner. Aiman, an NGO, had a dinner and invited a local Muslim leader to come and bless her organization for the coming year.

Of course the table is full to overflowing as is the Kazakh custom. It was all very delicious.

The Beshbarmak was lamb and was very good. It is always cut up by one individual for everyone else to eat with their fingers. The round pastries are filled with meat and onions and were our favorite.

Aiman is in the center in front. Her husband and the former head of the organization are in the back. The young lady is the office secretary. They are wonderful compassionate people.

Anne in the park on the way home with her sack of Kazakh bread and lots of candy. The snow is beautiful when it isn't blowing so we can enjoy it.

Tuesday, December 16, was Kazakhstan's Independence Day. There was no school for two days and the children and families enjoyed the time to skate. This rink is in the square at the center of the city.

Thursday morning, 8 Novosibirsk Elders arrived by plane for their Russian visa renewal. Four of them we knew because they were here in September for their visas. We got them an apartment here in our building and they had dinner with us each day they were here, which kept Anne very busy trying to prepare enough to feed hungry Elders with a small stove and a very small oven. Saturday we went to see the Pyramid of Peace. Here we are in the very top with the white doves as a back drop.

This photo was take on Sunday after our church meetings and dinner. We could hardly believe the numbers. Roy still conducted but the Elders gave the Christmas talks, played the music on the keyboard (not the computer), prayed, blessed and passed the Sacrament and taught the lesson. It was great to have others here to take part and especially to sing. It was wonderful.

We hope you all had a spiritual Christmas Sunday too. We truly feel of his love for us here and pray that you will all have a wonderful time with your families and enjoy celebrating the Savior's birth.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Celebrating the "Feast of "Sacrafice" in Astana, Kazakhstan, - 14 December 2008

2008-12-14T03:20:00.013-07:00

We had a great week!! We are now helping in three classes at the university and doing an English Club at the university Monday and Wednesday nights. Zarina, a young lady that we have used as a substitute for Mira, asked us if we would help at a place where she has started to work, to speak to the students who are learning English. So on Wednesday night, after the English Club at the university, we walked from our bus stop to her work place and visited with the lady in charge and told the students all about us and why we are here in Kazakhstan. The students are 12 years old to middle age adults hoping to better themselves in their education and the business world. Some even want to go to the US, Canada or England for school or to visit family. They were enthusiastic and we enjoyed being there with them. We think they liked us so we will be doing that every Monday and Wednesday night along with the English Club!! That should keep us busy!!

Friday, while visiting with Kulnazira and Kamka about a "Family Enrichment Program" for non-members, they invited us to a Muslim celebration called "Feast of Sacrifice". This celebration is held 70 days after the end of Ramadan and commemorates Father Ibrihim's (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son. However, they feel that it was his son, Ishmael who they are descended from, instead of his son, Isaac.

We had "Beshbarmak" but it was with beef this time instead of horse! The meat is served on a plate of wide noodles and it was all very tasty!

This lady is cutting up the meat and serving it to us. Anne is on the left and the server just kept piling food on her plate where Anne would promptly move it to Roy's plate! The flat bread is called "God's Bread", kind of like a fry bread. The round bread is called "Baurysak" and it is our favorite!

Here we are waiting for the dinner to be served!

Kamka (on the far right) and two of her friends. Most of them had their heads covered in traditional Muslim fashion.

Kulnazira, standing, with some of the people she works with. Zarina, our substitute translator, is on the far right.

Roy, Aiman, Kulnazira, Anne and Kamka after the dinner.

Roy and Anne with Zirina, our substitute for Mira. We just love her and she is always around when we need her!!

Clara was also at the dinner and wants us to do a project for her next year. We wanted to walk her to her bus stop, but instead, she jay-walked across the busiest street in the city! She was so cute that we just had to take a picture of her in her leather coat and fur hat! Anne, Clara and Zarina posing for the camera.

Ok, a couple of weeks ago Anne got brave and made "Borch", a recipe that Sister Pieper emailed us!

Borch is a Russian soup made with potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, cabbage, garlic and tomatoes and other ingredients to your liking!

It's a very colorful soup and is served with sour cream and dill. We loved it and will definitely be making it again!!

President Alexey Marchenko was with us again for church today. He will be going back to Moscow on the 26th where he is the Branch President. We have sure enjoyed having him with us.

This week we will be getting 8 missionaries from the Novosibirsk Mission to renew their visas. They will be here until next Tuesday. It will be fun having them here with us!

Happy "90th" Birthday on the 16th, Mother!!!!!! We love you!!!

Thanks so much for your love and prayers in our behalf. We know we are truly blessed!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Talents and Culture in Astana, Kazakhstan - 7 December 2008

2008-12-07T04:44:00.051-07:00

This week started slow but we finished big!! We completed writing a project for a handicapped day care center and sent it to Moscow. We also got news of a project that has been approved for a handicapped organization here in Astana.

Friday we visited the Tslenigrad Regional Hospital and picked up the papers for their project that has been approved. We delivered some knitted hats (from Roy's mom and friends) to the orphanage for handicapped children. They were very happy to receive them!

We also visited the Astana Union of Handicapped and War Veterans of Afghanistan to see if we could help them with a project. They were very happy that we came by and told us that they would get back with us!

It seems like everything comes at once! On Saturday we were invited, by Kamka and Kulnazira (our NGO friends), to an Art Show and Concert where the participants were all handicapped children from different cities here in Kazakhstan! The Art Show was held at the "Duman", a Fun Center for families.

These are some of the pictures that were done by handicapped teenagers. We loved the traditional Kazakh pictures.

They even had baked items that the handicapped youth made which were also judged. These are more of the pictures that were done by children and youth. We saw many of the participants and we were so impressed with their ability to create such beautiful pictures and items despite their handicaps!!

While we were, we visited the Oceanairium and a new event called the Animated Jungle! All of the participants were able to go in free of charge along with the invited guests, which was us!! It was like going into the "Lost World", or something out of Indiana Jones!!

We had to go through this maze and came up on this HUGE spider which was trying to protect her babies!! It was pretty creepy!!

We saw everything from LARGE crocodiles, to a HUGE Tyrannosaurus Rex and a BIGGER THAN LIFE ape. We went down deep and saw all of these rock formations in a very cold place!!

Here we are in front of the Triceratops! We caught him looking right at us!They had these young men dressed up like a scary head hunters hiding behind bushes and rocks and they would jump out and scare the adults! They got Anne several times! She was pretty jumpy by the time she got through the maze!! It was a wonderful adventure that we were able to go on! At the end they had a program and the participants danced and sang! We were all pretty impressed with the animation and how well it was done!!

Later in the afternoon there was a concert performed by handicapped children and teenagers which was marvelous! These participants were able to perform despite their handicaps.

These young men were both physically handicapped but sang together and they were really a favorite. A young man, who was blind, played the accordion beautifully. There was lots of singing and dancing!!This young boy is blind and sang with perfect pitch!! There were some teenagers who recited poems and readings. One young man talked about mothers of handicapped children and how hard it is for them but they never give up on their child and they support them in whatever they do. He had everyone in tears!! We were so grateful for the opportunity we had to go to this concert!

We had to leave early because we had tickets to "Swan Lake" at the theater!

Never in our lifetime did we ever expect to see this famous ballet!! What a thrill that was! It was all Russian and Kazakh performers and beautifully done!

We invited Zhanna to go with us and Mira. We all had a great time there and really enjoyed the ballet! It was a very long day! Some days we have nothing to do and other days, we never stop!! But we would rather be busy!!

But today, Sunday, was the best day of the week! (Here Sunday is the last day of the week instead of the first!) Alexai Marchenko was here for our Sunday meetings! He lives in Moscow but is working on a project here in Astana for his company. He is a Branch President and worked as a CES coordinator for the Church for 10 years. He speaks Russian and English, which is what we have prayed for!!

Zhanna was so glad to have him here so that he could translate for her and he could translate for us. She said she had prayed for this day when she could bear her testimony in Russian and we could understand. The Spirit was very strong and many tears shed. We are blessed to have him with us even though it will only be for a couple of weeks. The Lord sees our needs and provides for us and for that we are so grateful. Zhanna, Anne, Roy and President Alexai Marchenko together after our Church meetings. Anytime we have someone new come to Church, we have to get a picture of them!!

We hope all is going well! We are so grateful to have the gospel in our lives and the knowledge that the Lord is aware of our needs and loves each of us!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Thanksgiving in Astana and Weekend in Almaty, Kazakhstan - 2 December 2008

2008-12-02T05:11:00.062-07:00

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We had our first Thanksgiving in Kazakhstan without a turkey, but we had good food and good conversation with wonderful friends we have met here. Nathan and Heather Jones and their children, from Sharbakti, spent Thanksgiving day with us along with Bakytzhan, who we are helping to understand English.

Frank Tetreault had to fly to Almaty and Mira and Zhanna Beckinbi had to work. But we had a great time with those that were here!

Anne and Heather were in charge of getting dinner ready and on the table on time.

Bakytzhan, Anne, Desi, Nathan and Heather enjoying the desserts. Anne made an apple pie, without lard, mind you, but she did have Crisco and it worked out pretty well!!

But Bakytzhan brought this beautiful cake for all of us to enjoy!! The cakes they make over here at this bakery are a work of art, as you can see!!Mira was able to come after work and meet the Jones family and taste the desserts. It was fun to be with some of our good friends on Thanksgiving!!

Friday morning the Jones family left by train for Almaty which is a 23 hour ordeal; but we were able to fly to Almaty in the afternoon for Zone Conference which only took us an hour and a half!! Lucky us!!

When we arrived at the airport, President Cranney, our Mission President, and his family had just arrived from Moscow, so we were able to visit with all of them on the way to the hotel. They had two of their children with them, Caleb and Kathryn, because they are on their way to Madrid, Spain to get their visas renewed. What wonderful people they are!!

Saturday we attended our first Zone Conference and it was great!! President and Sister Cranney spoke to all of the missionaries and gave us some insight on what we can do better and what we need to keep doing! There are now 48 missionaries in our mission which is down from 70 missionaries. Of those, 22 are North American missionaries. More and more it will be up to the members to fellowship and bring in new converts.

President Cranney and Sister Cranney and Sister Vincent talking together during a break at Zone Conference.Sister Samsonovich, from Vladivostok, Russia; Sister Davis, from St. George; Elder Janovich, from the Phoenix area, Elder King, from the Arco, Idaho area; Elder Galo, from Florida and Elder Volegov, from Latvia, singing a hymn during Zone Conference. They are such great missionaries and so dedicated to the work!!

Elder Volegov, Elder King, Elder Galo, Elder Jonovich, Sister Samsonovich and Sister Davis after receiving their mail from President Cranney. (Sister Samsonovich cannot wear her badge yet because she isn't accredited. It took Sister Davis 70 days before she was able to proselyte.)

We all went out to eat for lunch on Saturday during our Zone Conference. President Cranney is the gentlemen sitting on the left. We had a great time with everyone there!

Saturday evening we were invited to dinner at Elder and Sister Vincent's apartment. They are the Leadership couple in Almaty. Elder Vincent has been a member of the Seventy. They are from Salt Lake and will be leaving in April. They are wonderful people!

President Pieper's son, Chris and his wife, Evelyn and their baby daughter were there, too. He is on a Fulbright Scholarship in Almaty. Zhuldez (on the far left) is the Vincent's translator in Krgystan and she is a member of the church.

Also at the Vincents were Nathan, Heather, Zoe, Desi, Roy and Gary Despain, an Air Astana pilot from Mendon, Utah. We all had such a good time together and being with members is so great!!

On Sunday after church, we wanted a picture of Sveta Rahimzhanova, our visa clerk, and her mom, Galina. They are such wonderful people and we love them so much!

We were also able to get a picture of the Cranneys; Sister Cranney, Caleb, Kathryn and Roy. We enjoyed being with them for Zone Conference and church. We hope to see them again next time they are scheduled to come to Almaty.

This is Murat Imangaziev, our driver to and from the airport and the former Branch President. What a great guy he is! He and his family are really stalwarts in the Branch. He has a son serving in Kiev.

We had a wonderful time in Almaty but it was just too short. We want to come back again as soon as possible! It's so wonderful to attend a branch and feel the spirit of the members!

May we all be grateful for the blessing that the Lord has given us.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

From Dignitaries to Dogs in Astana, Kazakhstan - 23 November 2008

2008-11-23T04:02:00.027-07:00

This fall, we have been visiting a couple of English classes each week so that they can hear Americans speak. While we were there, one of the teachers asked us if we would help them with an English Club twice a week. We told them that we would love to as long as it didn't interfere with our humanitarian work here in Astana.

Monday was the opening for the English, Japanese, and Kazakh Clubs. Those in charge told us that it would be very informal and that we should come up with a game or something really fun to do to introduce what we would be doing in the English Club. When we got to the university, we were taken to a different room with a large table which had individual microphones at each chair!! It was a beautiful conference room with huge chandeliers!! We looked at each other and needless to say, decided to scrap the fun and games we had planned and Roy prepared a formal introduction about why we are here and what we are doing!! He did a great job! We have found in Kazakhstan, that we really need to just "go with the flow" and usually everything turns out all right!!

This gentleman speaking is Shigeo Natsui, the Ambassador of Japan, and he was invited by Mr. and Mrs. Tomoko Miyata, who teach a couple of Japanese courses at the university.This wonderful lady is Depale Pal, the Director of the Indian Cultural Center here in Astana. She spoke about how English is so important to learn because it is spoken in so many countries. She was there representing the English language and we were grateful for what she said about how important English is in the world today.

The man on the left is Sergey F. Udartcev, Rector of the University and the man in the middle is a wonderful professor that we love and have gotten to know very well. (He has friends who are LDS professors at UCLA who he says are very passionate about their religion!!)

Mr. and Mrs. Miyata and their translator wanted to have their picture taken with us also.

All the students involved in making this happen wanted to have a picture taken with everyone. It was very enjoyable to meet all of these interesting and wonderful people.

We are working on another couple of projects that we hope will get approved by this week. We also had one of the professors at the university call to see if we would help a young man, Bakytzhan, to speak and understand English better so that he can pass the interview at the US Embassy in order to get his visa to attend the University of Houston, where he has been accepted. He has to have a visa to get there and he has one more try before classes start in January. We told her we would love to!!

Bakytzhan came Friday evening and we spent 3 1/2 hours with him. He is a wonderful young man and very bright. He told us that we are the first Americans that he has every heard speak and he would like to spend some time listening to us and have us ask him questions so that he can understand and answer them better. Then Roy invited him to go to the circus with us on Saturday because Frank Tetreault, the Air Astana pilot, had invited us to go and Bakytzhan could listen to him talk, also.

Roy, Bakytzhan, and Frank enjoying the circus....

along with Mira, Damir, Mira's nephew, and Anne.

This is the Russia Moscow Circus and they had all different kinds of acts with animals and acrobats. The dog acts were just adorable!!

This was one of the bear acts which were quite good!

During the intermission the children could buy a ticket to ride on this camel.

This was the best animal act of all!! This kangaroo was very fun to watch in this boxing match!

These two acrobats were just incredible and they were fun to watch. They were probably the best act at the circus. We enjoyed it all and especially the people we were with. We have made such wonderful friends here and it seems we are meeting and making more friends each week!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families this week. Living in Kazakhstan has made us more thankful for the things that we have in our lives; like our family, our country and our Church. We are so blessed and grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to serve this mission. It truly has blessed our lives.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

It's Getting Cold, Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, in Astana, Kazakhstan!!!! - 16 November 2008

2008-11-16T04:35:00.021-07:00

The snow has already come to Astana!!! It really isn't too bad yet, if the wind doesn't blow. Roy bought a hat for the fall so Anne decided to get one, too. (Actually, I hate wearing hats; but everyone tells me I should wear one or I will get sick!) Everyone wears hats; hats of every kind, from mink to knit. They even have stores here with nothing but hats! We had to break out the winter coats again and the snow boots! It gets icy pretty fast. Once it snows, it doesn't melt until spring!!

Roy in his new "kapka". Doesn't he look great!! When it gets a little colder he'll wear the Russian "shopka".

Two weeks ago in our English class, we had a discussion on favorite foods. We had a great time because food is something that is easy to talk about. We took Peanut Butter M&M cookies to share with them. The next week Oxsana brought us these delicious rolled cookies made with a waffle iron called "trubochki" (little pipes or tubes). Sometimes they fill them with something sweet!! They reminded us of waffle cones but they were a lot thinner.

After class, the students invited us to a program on Friday night at the Pyramid of Peace put on by the university students. Each department nominated a young lady to represent them in the contest to choose a new "Goddess of Justice". (It would be like a "Miss U of U" or "Miss USU" or "Miss BYU".)

The students from each department then presented a short production highlighting their department, the young lady they had nominated and her platform. The costumes and scenery were incredible!We were told that the students have practiced every day for a month to put together this program. It was evident by the singing and the dancing that was preformed.The young lady holding the justice scales was the winner of the event. We had a wonderful time and were so glad that we were invited to attend!

After the performance we took this picture outside the Pyramid of Peace looking back at the President's Palace and the Byterick. It was so beautiful!!

One of the projects that we have written for the Tselinograd Hospital was approved this week. We are writing another project for a handicapped group here in Astana. We will be starting and English Club at the university on Monday of this next week so wish us luck!

Our Sunday meetings are wonderful!! We are so grateful to have Zhanna with us and we love her so much!! We wish that we had more members to have her associate with but we must be patient--all in the Lord's time!! She is a good example to us because of her diligence to attend Church and even though we struggle communicating, we seem to understand through the Spirit!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers! As a Church, we need to follow the prophet's admonition to pray that the gospel will be spread in all countries. "... Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance." (Alma 8:10)

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

From a Day With the President to a Night at the Opera - 9 November 2008

2008-11-09T04:10:00.011-07:00

Monday morning President Pieper, President of the East Europe Area, came to Astana to visit some government officials and to spend the day with us and find out how things are going. What a treat that was for us!! President Pieper and his family came to Kazakhstan some years ago with American interests, along with two other American families. They started the Branch in Almaty, Kazakhstan which now has 80 members. They were there for 5 years and he was then called to be President over the St. Petersburg Russia Mission. Then he was called to serve in the First Quorum of Seventies and is now the Area President.

We could tell from visiting with him that he has a great love for this East European Area and especially for the people of Kazakhstan. He told us that the number of American missionaries are decreasing in Russia because of the trouble with visas. They are continually trying to find a solution to the problem. He said that he wishes things would move faster in this area but we are on the Lord's timetable and we shouldn't get in a hurry!

President Pieper wanted us to meet one of his colleagues that he used to work with in Almaty, but who now lives and works in Astana. Her name is Galina Khazova. (President Pieper, Galina and Anne)

As soon as we met her, we fell in love with her. She is such a wonderful, outgoing person and she speaks English. President Pieper was hopeful that we could befriend and invite her to do things with us; but during lunch we found out that her company is moving her back to Almaty. We told her we would love to help her in any way we could with the move. We hope to be able to see her again. (Roy, in his new fall hat, Galina and Anne)

While President Pieper rested on our bed (he was fighting a cold), we had a meeting here in our apartment with Nadezhda, from Pavlodar. She was in town visiting family and Mira brought her here to sign some papers to finish up the project we did for her and to discuss a possible wheelchair project for her next year.

After the meeting, President Pieper was able to visit with Nadezhda. We explained to her that he was the leader over all of the members of our church in the East Europe Area. She was so impressed!! Through her tears, she explained to him how grateful she was for the handicapped equipment that she had received from our Church. Mira told us later, that on the way home Nadezhda told her that she had only been with us for an hour but she felt so uplifted and happy!! Of course, we know it is the Spirit!

After a meeting with a government official about the overall feeling of their attitude towards religion, President Pieper came back to our apartment and told us that the meeting went well. We ate dinner and visited until he had to leave for Moscow. It was wonderful to be with him throughout the day and we realize the what a great and difficult responsibility he has for this area of the church because he works with so many countries where religion is being suppressed. We were so glad that he would come and spend some time with us.

Tuesday was election day and because our ballots never came, we weren't able to vote. Because of that, we realize how important the opportunity to have a say in the election process is. So many of these countries over here do not have a say and consequently, they live differently and do not have the rights that we do in the United States. We should be grateful for the great democracy the Lord has blessed us with.

And how blessed we are that the transition from one president to another can take place without conflict and dissension. We are very blessed to live in a country such as ours and we are mindful that the new president will need our full support and prayers.

After inviting Frank Tetreault, the Air Astana pilot, over for dinner on Friday, he invited us to go to the Opera on Saturday with him.

Here we are at the opera, 5th row and only $4.00. Pretty good deal!!

It was a Kazakh opera and this is the hero and the heroine.

This guy is the villain. For this scene, the whole stage was transformed to look like the inside of a Kazakh yurt! It was very cool looking!

The best part about this opera was the costumes; they were all in traditional Kazakh dress.

This was the curtain call with the four main characters. (Don't you just love the villain's hat?)

We enjoyed the opera very much. We didn't understand a word because it was all in Kazakh but the music was beautiful. We hope to go again soon as things are winding down for the year.

We enjoyed having Zhanna, our Mongolian sister, for Church with us this week. She wasn't able to come last week because of work. It was just the two of us, but...."where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:20) So whether there are two or three of us, we still feel the spirit and are able to partake of the sacrament. What a blessing that is!!

May the Lord bless each of you.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Happy Halloween in Astana, Kazakhstan - 2 November 2008

2008-11-02T01:41:00.014-06:00

It has been wonderful weather this last week and we have enjoyed being out. We hope it stays this way for a while and that the cold doesn't come too soon.

The good news this week was that our latest project was approved for the Blind Society. We will be getting them 5 computers with special programs for the blind and also 80 eyeglasses. This is Khamza Khazima Yerzhanovna, who is the director of the Blind Society. She is a wonderful lady who cares so much about the people in her organization and tries to find ways to help them. We enjoy working with her.

On Wednesday we went to the university to help in one of the English classes and the students asked if we would like to come to their Halloween program that all the English classes were to participate in on Thursday evening. We told them we would love to!

On Thursday evening we were at the university again where Aizhan, the teacher, took us to this wonderful auditorium. As we walked in, this lady stopped us and said since we were Americans, we should judge their program since Halloween was celebrated in Europe and America!! We declined, but she insisted!! Reluctantly we agreed to the task at hand and she seated us directly in front of the stage. We were to judge the best skit, costume, carved pumpkin, and poster!

The President of the University was at the program and welcomed us there and thanked us for coming to participate in their program.

The skits were all stories the students had read about or they made up their own scary story.

This skit is about the Adams Family. We were impressed with their interpretation of Halloween because they don't celebrate this holiday in Kazakhstan.

We thought that they all did a wonderful job with their skits! We told them that they made us feel at home because we love to celebrate Halloween in the United States.

This group of young ladies are in one of the classes that we visit each week and their skit was pretty good too!

Some of the students that participated in the Halloween program.

This group won for the best pumpkin carving. We don't really know who won for the best skit and costumes because we don't really understand Russian even though all of the skits were in English!!

The lady standing next to us is the Head of the Department of English at the University and her name is Marazhana. She is the one that asked us to be the judges! She is going to get in touch with us later about coming to visit her class.

This is another group that wanted their picture taken with us.

After the program some of the students that Aizahan teaches wanted a group picture on the steps of the university. Aizhan is the one in the red coat. They are such wonderful young ladies, we can't help but love them all!

The University as night is really quite a beautiful sight! (How poetic!) We had a great time and were glad that we went.

President Pieper, our Area President, will be here tomorrow for some meetings with some government officials and to spend some time with us. We are looking forward to his visit.

Thanks for the wonderful support and prayers in our behalf and for all the missionaries throughout the world! We are so grateful to be members of this wonderful world-wide church. The gospel is true and the greatest blessing in our lives.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Samara, Russia Missionaries and the Jones Family from Sharbakti in Astana, Kazakhstan - 27 October 2008

2008-10-27T06:44:00.012-06:00

What a busy and wonderful week this has been! Last weekend we found out that we would be getting 8 missionaries from the Samara Mission on Tuesday night for visa renewals. We went to the airport, (us and Mira) at 7:30 to meet them but it took them until 9:00 to get all of the information filled out for their Kazakh visas. After Mira checked all of their paperwork to make sure that it was correct, we then sent that information down to Almaty to an agency who extended their Kazakh visas (so they can come again in three months). Then they will send them back to the Russian Embassy in Astana for their Russian visa renewals. It was late by the time we got back to the apartment.Elder Dalley, Elder Holbrook, Elder Waltman, Elder Stoker, Elder Erickson, Elder Clouse, Elder Watson and Elder Flack eating Apple Crisp and Ice Cream. We rented 2 apartments in our building for them to stay in while they were waiting for their Russian visas.

Wednesday night we invited Zhanna over for dinner with the Elders. She was thrilled to have them there. They visited with her for some time to find out her knowledge of the gospel, when she was baptized and all sorts of things we didn't know. We had a testimony meeting with her that was wonderful. They all spoke in Russian and the Elders took their turn translating for us. She even made a sign for them that said "Elders, Welcome to Astana!" It was a wonderful evening!

These three Elders, Elder, Erickson, Elder Holbrook, and Elder Waltman, picked up their Kazakh visa extensions from Mira on Thursday morning and flew to Uralsk, which is a city in western Kazakhstan and just over the border from Russia, about three hours from Samara, Russia to get their Russian visas. The process worked so that means in 3 months, with the extended Kazakh visa that they have, they can now drive down to Uralsk and get their visas in 1 day!!

Some of the information was filled out incorrectly on the other 5 missionaries applications, so Mira spent Thursday afternoon with us and the Elders so we could get them done correctly and back to the Embassy.

Thursday evening we had the Elders and Zhanna over for dinner and then they gave her a lesson on how to share the gospel. It was great to see them teach her and the Spirit that was there was just amazing!

On Friday after dinner, the visas were delivered to our apartment and all the Elders cheered!! We are so grateful that we didn't have any problems. When they called President Bennett, their Mission President, we could all hear Sister Bennett cheer in the background, she was so excited! Getting their visas is a big deal, because they already have 12 missionaries from their mission stranded in Stockholm, Sweden and they have been their for 4 weeks because the Russian Embassy won't give them their Russian visas. The missionaries gave us a spiritual thought about missionary work and they all bore their testimonies to us before they left for the evening. What wonderful Elders they are and truly dedicated to the work!!

Saturday morning we left for the train station to pick up the Jones Family from Sharbakti, a little town outside of Pavlodar. It is about a 10 hour train ride. They are members and want to visit us once a month so they can attend Church.

Since the Elders had not been out all week (except to the store across the street from our apartment) and couldn't go because they didn't have their visas, we decided to go out on Saturday and walk the river. Nathan and Heather and the kids went with us, too.

It was a beautiful day and the wind wasn't too bad. We bought some things for the Elders that they couldn't get in Russia which they were thrilled about! And Heather also bought some things she couldn't get in Sharbakti; so it was pretty profitable!

On Saturday evening, after dinner, the Elders prepared a wonderful Family Home Evening which we all enjoyed! Desmond and Zoe especially loved the game that we all played!! Elder Dalley, Elder Clouse, Elder Stoker, Elder Flack and Elder Waltman with Desi and Zoe after Family Home Evening.

Elder Clouse, Elder Dalley, Elder Waltman, Elder Stoker, and Elder Flack flew to Moscow on Sunday morning. We will never forget these wonderful Elders! They bring such a special spirit with them!

It was wonderful having the Jones family with us and Zhanna for Church! We loved having them with us this weekend and hope that they will be with us each month. We are already planning Thanksgiving!! After dinner, we went for a walk along the river and through the park. Such a wonderful family! We love them so much!

Keep praying for the missionaries and especially for the leaders of these countries that they will soften their hearts toward missionary work. We love being a part of spreading the gospel hear in the East European Area! Thanks for all the prayers!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Lack of Water But Not Paperwork in Astana, Kazakhstan - 19 October 2008

2008-10-19T06:27:00.010-06:00

This week we had a lot of paperwork to catch up on with the past projects and the one that we just got approved for the Blind Society. We didn't get approval for the project for the Deseret Industries Training in Salt Lake, which we were really disappointed about, but we can see the wisdom in not spending a great deal of money on one person which is the underlying factor behind the Church's humanitarian efforts.

In the middle of trying to get our project paperwork caught up to date, the water was turned off every day! Fortunately, it was after we had our shower!! It was turned on again in the late afternoon but came on in a lovely shade of brown!! We were glad to have it every morning and evening but the rust has caused the hot water in the kitchen to stop working. So we have been doing dishes by packing hot water from the bathroom to the kitchen. Through the help of the neighbor, our translator and the cell phone, the repairman is coming on Monday to fix it. Yeah!!!

A couple of weeks ago we were asked to go to the Kazakh University of Humanities and Law and speak to the 2nd year English students.

This is a brand new campus for this university and just barely opened at the start of the school year.

The front was patterned after the Supreme Court building in Washington D.C.

This is inside the front door of the university.

The halls are big and beautiful and wide. It is quite a beautiful university.

Mira, Anne and Aizhan, the teacher of the 2nd year English students. (Aizhan also helped us out as a translator for the American doctors during the NRT.) She has two groups of students, Russian speaking and Kazakh speaking. She wants us to come and speak each week in her classes. She would also like us to start a conversational English Club with them at the beginning of November. We are pretty excited about that!

These are the Russian speaking students who are in their 2nd year of English. They are wonderful young ladies who are eager to learn all about American style English, as opposed to British English! We love them already!

Here we are talking about holidays in America and comparing them with Kazakhstan holidays. We also told them a little about ourselves and let them ask questions about us. A couple of questions were political in nature and we had to say that we can not talk politics at all. We also had to sign a paper telling the Head of the Department that we would not talk about our Church unless asked and we would not teach doctrine or proselyte. This week we will be visiting both Kazakh and Russian classes. It should be fun!

On Saturday, we found out that we will be getting 8 more missionaries from the Russia Samara Mission for their visa renewals. They will be here on Tuesday and will be leaving on Friday, hopefully. The Samara missionaries have been going to Stockholm, Sweden. But today we found out from President Cranney that there are 13 missionaries that are still waiting for their visa renewals in Stockholm and it has been 3 weeks! Hopefully, we can get it done in a timely manner. We don't know what we would do with 8 missionaries for two weeks when they can't even proselyte here! Anyway, we love having missionaries come!

We just want to let you know that Clint and Megan had a baby girl, Adelaide Anne; born on Wednesday, the 15th of October. We were able to see her the day she was born and she is a beautiful little thing! Mother and baby are doing well. Congratulations to the Ricord family!

We love the gospel and are so grateful for the opportunity we have to serve here in Kazakhstan. It is a blessing in our lives. We love our Savior more each day because we know that this is His work and we are helping to further that work here in this part of the country. We are so grateful to be members this Church!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

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

2008-10-12T05:28:00.014-06:00

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

Closing Presentation in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan - 5 October 2008

2008-10-05T05:51:00.015-06:00

Monday morning, we flew to Pavlodar, a city east and north of Astana and close to the Russian border, for the closing presentation of a project we did for a handicapped organization. Mira left Friday for Pavlodar to be with her family for a celebration during Ramadan, a Muslim celebration. Mira met us at the airport with Nadezhda, the Deputy Chairman of the organization, "Optomist". Nadezhada brought a bouquet of flowers for both of us and thanked us so much for coming. During the ride to her office, she was so emotional and grateful to us and wanted us to know how much they appreciated the help. When we got to the office we were introduced to her staff and of course, they fed us breakfast of sandwiches and salad and juice! On the left is Lena, Administrator, Nadezheda and Roy.

They took us to another building across town where the equipment, that was donated by the Church, was located. When we got out of the van, these two ladies were there to greet us with a plate of Russian rolls with salt in the center. Mira told us that this is a traditional Russian welcome and that we were to break off a roll and sprinkle it with salt and then taste it. The media was there and caught it all on tape!!

Nadezheda presented us with a plaque thanking us and our Church for the equipment for their handicapped organization. There were lots of people there and Roy was interviewed on camera about how we came to do a project here in Pavlodar and why we chose this organization. Roy explained that our Church helps organizations in over 160 nations and that we try to help as many people as we can.

This is a 3 in 1 Power Gym that we donated which helps with both upper and lower body strength.

Each of the men that demonstrated on the gym were all physically handicapped but very athletic.

This man is demonstrating the exercise bike which was also donated by the Church along with ski boots and bindings for amputees. This organization has social and athletic events monthly to keep them physically, socially, and mentally active and to help them feel a part of society.

After we checked in at the hotel, they invited us back to their office for dinner! These people in Kazakhstan eat more than Mormons!! It was a lovely dinner of fried chicken and puree (mashed potatoes), wonderful salads, cok (juice) and more! At the dinner, Nadezheda gave us some more gifts and thanked us again for all the help.
During the meal, the lady in white sang a special song that she had written about Pavlodar. It was so beautiful that she had Mira in tears and Nadezhda sang along with her. We felt very privileged to be there with this group of wonderful people. There were lots of hugs when we left. We hope to be able to see them again.

After taking us to the hotel, we went sight-seeing around Pavlodar. Here we are at the big park in the city that is next to the beautiful river. It was so cold and windy, we thought we were going to freeze!!

We also went inside this big, beautiful Russian Orthodox Church.

We were invited to Mira's home for dinner that evening. We had a lovely meal with manty, baursak, tomato salad mixed with homemade sour cream, fresh fruit, nuts and dried fruit and pickled tomatoes, and raisin filled tarts and fresh home-made raspberry jam!! It was so delicious and candy and chack-chack to top it all off. These are Mira's parents, Dametken and Asylek Mussabekova.

During our visit, Dametken presented us with two horses and a couple of trivets that were made by the teenagers from the handicapped orphanage, where she works. She also sent us home with homemade sour cream and raspberry jam, which we loved! They are very thoughtful and gracious people!

We flew back to Astana Tuesday morning and did some follow up on our projects the rest of the week. We hope to go to Osakaravka this week for a closing presention.

We enjoyed listening to conference, the Saturday morning session and hope to be able to listen to Sunday morning's session if I can get this blog done!! We hope you all enjoy conference, too.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling

Visa Succcess Times Six in Astana, Kazakhstan!! - 28 September 2008

2008-09-28T06:01:00.007-06:00

What a week this has been!! I'm sure that you're all dying to hear how our visa work went. Well, on Monday afternoon, Mira called the city offices to find out if our permission to renew our visas was ready to pick up and the official told her, yes. We were thrilled!! When we got there he told us he had heard about some of the projects we had been doing and he had also heard about us from Kamka Medievna and that he was renewing our visas for 6 months!! (Maybe we are making an impression!) We could have hugged him!!! We were so excited!! So off we went to get copies and then to the Immigration Police!! But the Immigration Police wanted a copy of the Registration and Charter of the Church and also a document stating why we were here in Astana. We had the copy of the Charter and the Registration but we didn't have the other document. They have never asked for it before but Mira told us that these were new rules. We called Svetlana, our visa clerk in Almaty, and she said that that document does not exist!!

Mira went back the next day and told the lady at Immigration Police that we don't have that document and she told us that would be fine for this time but that we would have to have it the next time we renew. So we were able to get our visas!! Hooray!! Sveta said that she would tell Moscow and see if they can draw up the papers for our next and last renewal in March. What an ordeal!!

On Wednesday morning, we went with Mira to the train station to pick up the Elders from the Novosibirsk Mission. (This is a trial run to see if they can send missionaries here to get their visas renewed instead of sending them to Estonia or Madrid, Spain; and also to see if it will be less expensive in the long run!) They are wonderful young men and it was a joy to have them here for three days with us!!

Elder Bindrup from Las Vegas, Nevada and plays soccer for BYU, Elder Bendixsen from Carlsbad, New Mexico and has a identical twin brother who is in the Vladivostok, Russia Mission, Elder Luddington who is from Cheyenne, Wyoming and loves to sing, and Elder Jesse from San Clemente, California and loves to cook!!

Mira made sure all of their paperwork was correct for their visa renewals while we fed them all breakfast. While they were filling out their papers, we received a call from Svetlana, in Almaty. She was surprised that the Elders had come because the two Elders that were sent to Almaty to renew their visas had been rejected and were forced to remain in Almaty for an extra two weeks!!

The next morning Mira was at the Russian Embassy bright and early. When she finally got in out of the freezing cold, they wanted to see the missionaries train tickets from here back to Novosibirsk to make sure that they were only going to be here for just a couple of days. Roy and two Elders jumped in a taxi and off they went to the Russian Embassy with the train tickets. When they got there the consulate told them he needed copies so he told Mira to come back tomorrow!! It's so frustrating!!

So Mira came back to the apartment and made copies and got everything ready for the next day! We sent her home and took the missionaries sight-seeing which was so much fun!!

Elder Jesse, Elder Bendixsen, Elder Luddington and Elder Bindrup at the President's Palace.

Elder Luddington, Elder Bindrup, Elder Jesse and Elder Bendixsen on the Government Mall.

The Elders and Elder and Sister Welling on the Government Mall. We also went to the Mosque and they loved it. They asked questions and were able to converse in Russian, of course! It was so interesting to us and we learned a lot because they translated for us what was being said!

Friday morning Mira was at the Embassy bright and early again! When she did get in she called Roy and said they needed $240 more dollars to get their visas processed and to hurry because they close at 12:30. So we dropped everything and ran to get a taxi. (It was 11:40!) We didn't have time to call the Elders. We hurried as fast as we could because the missionaries were leaving tonight on the train, hopefully! We gave Mira the money and she went in again. We waited and hoped all of this was going to happen on schedule! She came out and informed us that we would be able to pick up the visas at 5:00 in the evening!! She was leaving for Pavlodar at 2:00 on the train.

We called the missionaries and they were relieved that the visas would be going through. Roy went with the missionaries while they checked out the souvenir store and stopped in at "Ali Baba's" for just a taste of Kazakh food. They had "Baursak" (bread) and "Horse Kabobs" which they loved!! They also went to the history museum and then over to get their visas at the Russian Embassy. They all breathed a sigh of relief when Elder Bindrup walked out of the Embassy with their passports!!

Then Roy took them to the Ramstore, which is a Turkish chain but they cater to Americans, and they bought Salsa, Ranch Dressing, Ortega Sause and Taco spices and more to take back to Russia! They acted like kids in a candy store! That was their favorite place!!

It was hard to say goodbye to them that evening. What a wonderful opportunity we had to be with the missionaries!! We loved being with them and talking to them and feeding them and feeling of their Spirit and enthusiasm.!! Hopefully, they will be back in 3 months to renew their visas again if Moscow approves of it. It was just wonderful having members of the church here with us.

Saturday morning Roy went with Gene Wikle to the train station to pick up Nathan and Heather Jones and their two children. They are living in a small village near the Russian border. He is doing research for his Doctoral Degree. It has to do with the Russian citizens of German descent that were moved here at the outbreak of World War II.

They spent the weekend with the Wikles. We went out to dinner on Saturday night and they were with us for church Sunday.

Heather and Nathan Jones and their two children Zoe, 2 and Desmond, 4. They are originally from Southern Utah and have a home in Philadelphia. They have lived in New York City for nine years where he served as a Bishop.

This is the largest group yet that we have had for Sacrament Meeting!! So we had to take a picture! The Jones family on the left and the Wikle family on the right. Anne is sitting by Zhanna Beckenbai, our Mongolian sister. (Roy is taking the picture!) The Jones hope to be able to come once a month for church. We are so thankful because he speaks Russian very well and is able to communicate with Zhanna, too! It was wonderful having them with us!!

We have two closing presentations this week to attend. We are well and happy and trying to get as much done as we can before winter sets in. We are not going to get fat so that we can hibernate for the winter but we do want to get the work done!!

We hope you are all continually praying that the Lord will soften the hearts of the leaders of the former Soviet Block countries. The missionaries struggle continually with the rules and regulations and it certainly is hampering the work.

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling