This is the Barahoka, a wholesale bazzar where we bought the food relief items. We spent $12,300 worth of clothing, shoes, boots, underwear, etc. for flood victims. The Barahoka is HUGE. 3 miles lon and hlf mile wide on both sides of the street. thousands of shops.

Snow in Almaty the last of March. It was so beautiful, but everone hated it so much. They thought spring had come. It reminded us of Idaho.

These 2 young men are return missionaries, Max and Demi from the branch. They served in Russia. Demi broke his arm just before coming home doing a karate chop.

The Almaty branch holds a sports day on Saturdays for a couple of hours. Rain or shine or "snow".

One morning we looked out our bedroom apt. window and there was alot of people gathered in the courtyard. We didn't know what was happening. We watched as people talked to the group and then we saw a man on a stretcher, we thought, then we realized it was a muslim funeral and this man wasn't going to be put in a coffin just put in the ground. There are around 12 apt. buildings that surround the courtyard and this man lived in one of the buildings.

Almaty from the 15 floor of another missionaries apt. See the beautiful mountains.

President Woolley-mission president, Lena- convert of 6 months very sweet, one of our favorite people in the branch, and Jack(name tag) only in Almaty.

Jack in the stairwell. Most stairwells look like this one in the apt. buildings. This is a 5 story building. We are lucky we live on the third floor not the fifth. No elevator in this building. Very typical Russian apt. building. Hundreds of these in the cities here. This one was built about 60 years ago.

This is the living room. It has big windows also with a tv that gets the BBCnews in English. It has 2 large chairs and a couch.

This is the bedroom. Two large windows that looks out over the court yard and small closet space.

This is the bathroom. The washer machine is in the bathroom too. No dryer.

In Almaty, our new apt. pictures are the next few pics. this is the kitchen. This apt. rent is $700 and is on the third floor with no elavator. About half the size of the Astana apt. which costs $900. The church pays for the one in Almaty.

On International Women's Day the young missionary elders honored all of us sister missionaries with a box of chocolates and a rose.

This is Elder Weihing(wine) a new missionary that had an infection in his leg that made it swell up. The other missionaries danced and he was elevating his leg. It took over a month before the swelling went down. They never figured out what was wrong it just got better because of priesthood blessings.

This is Nona. She is taking the missionary discussions. It is taking her along time to accept the church. She calls the elders her boys. She gave us a beautiful book about Kazakhstan. She has been teaching at the university all her life. She is very witty and as sweet as they come.

This is the young missionary elders doing the manly dance for International Women's Day on March 8. We also got a new granddaughter, Annabelle, Rocky and Jenise's first baby.

Zhanna, our member in Astana came down to Almaty to get her temple recommend also. She rode the train there. And that night she rode it back so she could be at work on Monday morning.

These are the members in Kyrgystan. the lady, Jyldyz, in the middle is our translator there and works with us on projects in Kyrgystan. She is visiting the branch in Almaty. She got her first temple recommend this time when she came to visit with our help.

They felt sorry for us so they gave us a new apt. in Almaty-600 miles south of Astana. Now we have 2 apts. one up north in Astana and one down south in Almaty.

In March it is still very cold in Astana, -30F. and lots of snow and ice. You can see not to many people out on the street.

At most of our closings of projects the director likes to feed us as a thank you. This is what Aiman fed us.

The other project is a 40 foot Deseret Industries container full of winter clothing, household items and new tied quilts. The director is Aiman.

When we got back to Astana there was a couple of projects we needed to close. This is a regional hospital that needed 2 fridges for their medicines and a microwave.

On Valentine's Day we gave Zhanna and Mira a scarf and hat. This is Mira with hers. She is possing by a Christmas gift she gave us on the tv.

This is Clara, the director of an organization for abused and abandoned women with children and wants us to do a project of sewing machines.

Since last February we have been unable to get on our blog. Today June 4, 2010 we tried and it came up. Surprise! So we are going to do a little catch up here for March, April and May. If everything goes ok here arfe some new things to look at, if not we did try and we will keep trying. We are well and happy and actually we are headed back to Almaty for a month to do work in the south. The the first of July we will be back here to do a week of NRT work in two other cities.

Jack on the same day.

Pamela after mile walk just before we came into the apt. -30F Wind 11 miles NE wind chill -54F

Since we have been back here to Astana from Almaty we weather here is extremely cold. They say it is a record cold year for them here. The highs have been in the minus single digits and the lows have been -30F. A typical day would be around -30F and by noon from -20F to -25F with a wind chill generally always the wind blows here, very few days even in the summer there isn't a wind. It blows anywhere from 5 to 15 mph that puts the wind chill in the -50'sF on a -30F morning. This year they have been letting the children out of school when it has been -20 or lower. The problem has been that the children have not been in school for the last 2 weeks. We try to go out a little every day and walk at least a couple miles or more. We really have to bundle up and we can walk about a mile then we are looking for somewhere to get warm. So on these extremely cold days we plan a place that is about a mile away get something to eat then head back to the apt. If we can find a day where it has warmer up to -20F we notice alot more people out and about playing on the frozen river or skating at the numerous skating rinks through the city or sledding. They bundle the small children and enjoy themselves.

On our way back to our apt. after visiting the NGO along the river walk we passed by this lighted tree.

The other day we met Ludmilla, NGO that runs a school that works with handicapped children. She proposed a project that might could do for her. this is her asst., her, and us.

Also we have found 3 different swimming areas in the river where they keep the ice cut and away from the water and some people take a dip in the freezing cold water.

Next to our building is the river. They built a large iceskating area on the river. The river becomes a huge playground for iceskaters, cross country skiiers, sleders, and ice fishing.

In the middle entrance of the iceskating rink they built an ice prince and princess out of ice blocks.

They built a tower with 2 sets of stairs at one end of the rink and made an ice slide. Quite a hit with the kids.

In the winter in Astana they built this beautiful iceskating rink out of ice blocks they cut out of the frozen river. The blocks are about 6" thick, 12" long and 8"wide. Literally thousands and thousands of ice blocks.

At the closing they gave us pastires to eat with juice and asked us alot of questions. from left to right-Mira, Ludmilla, 2 assistants and Sveta, the lady we worked with on the project.

The young people in this picture are mentally handicapped, the director,Ludmilla and the asst. Sveta are also in the picture.

When we got back to Astana we had to do a closing in Oskarafka, 100 miles south of us. The church gave them a gym , massage table and a bookcase.

The night we went to the 5-finger supper, we caught a bus back to our apt. It was snowing so hard and the roads were so slick we had to walk up the hill because the bus couldnot make it.

This is Norzya, our taxi driver in Almaty, and her husband; they invited us over to supper of 5-finger with horsemeat. It is wide noodles, potatoes, and you are to eat it with your fingers.

Quite often we would cleanup behind the missionaries at the church, we went to the closet and this is the broom we found. Standard equipment throughout the whole country.

The next two pictures are a few blocks from our apt. and the trees are full of snow not frost, it was a very beautiful day. Looking down the path and looking up the path.

In Almaty we lived on a hill and you could see the smog over the city even in winter. This is a smoke stack from a heating plant. They heat water and pump it through the radiators of the apts. buildings for heat.We were on our way to a travel agency a few blocks from our apt. when we saw this.

This is a Christmas tree! that the branch put up in the foyer of the church. On the 25 Dec no one in the country celebrated except the members. It was a working day for the country.

We went walking one day and this is a decorated tree we saw. They call it a New Year tree not a Christmas tree. And Grandfather Frost comes New Year's day and brings presents.

This is Backett who was just baptized the day after Christmas. He is the last member to join the church here in 2009.

This is one of our responsibilities-is to shovel the snow at the church. The snow was about 8 inches deep that day and the missionaries are right behind us coming to teach their lessons.

The first big snowstorm. This is the street we on walk to the church which is a 20 minute walk.

This is Sister Corbett from Canada and Sister Oaks from Utah with their gloves.

Before we left Astana we went to the outdoor bazzar and bargained on some winter gloves-6 pair of men's and 6 pair women's - with fur lining. Because we bought so many pairs we got a good deal. They were about $5 a pair. They made a great Christmas present for the missionaries and other special people we work with.