In the Astana(ACTAHA) Park we saw about 20 of these yurts. they are tentlike that the Kazak people lived in years ago when they had the nomadic life.Very sturdy.

Jack standing on the bridge that goes over the river just ouside our apt. a little ways. The big horse on the bridge , there are 4 of them at the ends of the bridge. there are statues like this all over town.

We live right next to the big Radisson Hotel. It is a very expensive. Down the road is a nice big hotel that is only half the price of the Radisson. Jack is standing here in front of it.

We are off to the ramstore(pamctop) that is in a big mall. where we can buy some American food. It is a little more than a mile from our apt. They cater to the western customers. we see alot of customers in there but no other Americans. Americans are few in number here. It is a very, very windy day here. I am to be blown away.

This is one of the caretakers we talked about in last pic. the reason we took this we want you to see the broom she is using.it is a typical broom they use here to sweep with, the streets, sidewalks, apts. we see these brooms every where. you see the city employees everywhere cleaning up after the people with these brooms. it is a perfect witchs broom.

This is Jack in front of the flower in a park. they have alot of parks.this is part of the presidental palace area. it takes up about four city blocks and there were 40-50 caretakers out taking care of the grounds. it is a popular place to go. the people here put their snack food trash and butts, and bottles on the ground. so the city workers go out early and clean things up.

out sightseeing the next morning before work in Almaty, this is Pamela in front of Presidental Palace. He also has one in Astana. our apt. there was close to the church and the church is in the center of town almost. we walked every where we went except to the airport. so we walked about 4 or 5 miles every day before 9am to see the city and what it was like. it is the cool time of the day andwe wanted to do some exploring.

Out sightseeing in Almaty, we went to the Ramstore. it is a store like walmart with food, etc. that caters to foreigners mostly to Americans. Jack is standing by an ice skating rink inside the mall the Ramstore is in. you have to pay more money for items here than in other grocery stores but we can find food we like-chicken breast fillets, skinless, boneless, and breakfast cereal.

we had a little time in Almaty so we went sightseeing this is Pamela in front of an historical museum. beautiful ponds with fountains that would come on every once in awhile. all the fountains were different. and the beautiful flowers.

This is a picture of Elder Harker. he wasn't in the last pic because he was taking the pic. he is the zone leader and was our favorite because he remined us of our son, Allen, his mannerism, enthusium and soft spoken. he transalated for us at the Sacrament meeting.

After the conference we all went on a bus ride to a restraunt that was closed when we got there, preparing for a wedding so we went right back where we started. our whole zone climbed on the buses, packed like sardines and went about 4 miles away, it was closed so packed back on the bus and went back, a different bus going the other way and ended up going to an Iranian restraunt and they fed us Iranian food. it was pretty good and the owner visited and joked with us.

June 19-22, 2009, in Almaty this is us with the elders and sister missionaries in the zone that we are a part of,from right to left, Elder Kruglyak-from Ufa, Russia, his companion, Elder Brandonburg-from Seattle, WA., Jack, Pamela, the zone leader, Elder Harker-from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, his companion, Elder Baxter-from Baker City, Oregon, Sister Smith-from Nauvoo, IL., and her companion, Sister Zhymazhanova-from Tyumen, Russia.

June 19-22, 2009 we went to a zone conference. in Almaty. this is a picture of President and Sister Collins, the mission president of the Moscow West Mission, and Jack and Pamela. the Collins will be going home after 3 years of service the 1st of July and there will be a new mission pres. come

today we met with some ladies to set up 2 new projects to order a big container of household and clothing items that is gathered by Deseret Industries. these are huge containers, between 15-20K dollars in one container. they are 40 ft. long and are shipped here on a boat. this is just the start of the prljects. left to right-Aiman, Pamela, Jack, Raigul, an associate, Mira, and Aiman's husband.

this is our dryer in Kazakhstan to dry our clothes. in this pic Pamela is hanging a wahed batch of clothes.

We were invited to a closing project ceremony June 17 at Social Addaption for Children(SAD). the picture shows new computers the church bought for this organization. The lady nears to the camera is an assistant to Elena, chairman of the organization, Pamela standing by Mira by the other computers. The church gave them 4 new computers to teach the handicap how to use them.

This is Pamela and Mira Mussabebekova, our translator. she goes out with us to do business,and helps us here at the apt. to do business. She knows all about what we do. she is 24, a nonmember, unmarried and we can only answer her questions when she asks about the church. she likes what we do for her country. she is an excellent translator and is paid very well by the church.They say she is worth her weight in gold, but she doesn't weight a lot. If she wasn't here we would have a very, very hard time.

These two pics are of Zhanna, our member who comes faithfully every sunday, and Nathan Jones who comes once or twice a month from a village about 250 miles away, and Jack and Pamela

Just across the street from our apt. is a small grocery store, so we probably won't go hungry. we have been in there a few times is alike any store we have been in-very small, and someone follows you around to make sure there is no shoplifting it not just us but everybody, but that is how it is in all the stores here.

here Pamela is in the kitchen eating her fruit, they have alot of here. the living room, kitchen and bedroon all have small patio. we are on the third floor surrounded by bigger buildings, that is our view

here is Pamela fixing her hair in the bathroom, with the washer, no dryer. this apt. has another 1/2 bathroom for guests

this is a rare occasion, this is the bedroom Jack is in bed and i'm up

on June 10 the Wellings left and on June 11 we moved into our apt that will be our home for the next 2 years. the pic here is our living room, office, and chapel.

KAZAKHSTAN ASTANA

MORE OF THE CITY

After 48 hours of being in airpots and airplanes, we arrived in Astana, Kazakhstan, about 5:40 am Kazak time, which is 12 hours ahead of home. we were in an apt for 5 days overlooking the city and river. these next three pictures is a panarama of what we could see out our window 8 floors up. A beautiful city. Kids swimming in the river on the far shore. The first night we stayed there there was fireworks, they must have known we were coming.

This is the Provo Temple. The missionaries favorite gathering to go into and around.. This is Jack and Pamela standing at the entrance overlooking the MTC.