Central Eurasian Mission - Week 45 - January 22 - January 28, 2018



The picture above was taken on Monday at about 2:00 pm.  The previous day, Sunday, everybody in the mission received an email from the Mission President saying that there would be a mandatory SKYPE meeting on Monday at 1:00 pm.  This was definitely unusual because SKYPE meetings are always planned way ahead of time...so we knew something was "up".  I must say, I was impressed by the YVs attitudes - they did not wildly begin to anticipate the meeting and come up with all sorts of conjectures as to what was going to happen.  (I was, myself, but kept my conjectures to myself)  So, everybody showed up at 12:30 and settled in front of our tv and waited patiently while  SKYPE connections were made in Bishkek, Almaty, Astana, and a bunch of places in Turkey.  Finally, President Davis announced and explained that the Central Eurasian Mission is going to be reorganized on July 1, 2018.  At that time, missionaries in Kazakhstan will be assigned to the Yekaterinburg, Russia Mission.  The Bulgaria Mission (where Malcolm served) will be dissolved and become part of the remaining Central Eurasian Mission which will include Turkey and Bulgaria.  The location of the mission home has not been announced, but it may be in Istanbul or in Sofia, Bulgaria.  That was really all we were told, and there are many unanswered questions.  The potentially exciting part is that there may be exchanges with missionaries who are serving in Russia.  That would be great because now there are only exchanges between the two cities in Kazakhstan and that does not allow much variety either with companions or with different cities.  Also.....there may actually be native Russian speakers that could be in a companionship which would really help to learn the language better.  On the other hand.........there may still be the same or different visa difficulties which makes moving back and forth between Kaz and Russia an unreasonable expectation.  We really won't be effected -  we'll  still be in Astana regardless of the mission we are in and we'll still be doing humanitarian work and helping in the Branch and helping the YVs.  Going home we were scheduled to go through Istanbul, but now maybe we'll go home through Yekaterinburg - but really, it doesn't matter.  I think the Young Volunteers are holding off on their expectations until they get more information because, likely the change really won't effect them much.  Well, they will have a different Mission President and presidents are different and set the tone of the mission.  Stay tuned until July.

The picture above was taken just after we turned the SKYPE meeting off - they all began to email their families to tell them the mission news.  Afterwards I took the left over rice from Sunday dinner and made fried rice with eggs for lunch - wasn't the best, but it was food.

The last week has been exceptionally cold - anywhere  from -30 Fdegrees to -39 F degrees.  The coldness (-15 degrees F feels the same as -30 degrees F) is not unbearable because we have perfectly adequate cold weather clothing.  What is awful is breathing the cold air - the cold air sears your throat and it freezes your boogers.  I haven't walked in the morning for about two weeks - it is just too cold and too difficult to manage the scarf covering your face to let in just the right amount of air to be breathable, - and then trying to do it with heavy ski mittens is nearly impossible.  Not all of the sidewalks and roads are cleared of snow and those walkways are packed ice with big ruts where car tires have traveled.  With bulky coats and scarves and hats and hoods, one's peripheral vision is greatly reduced and you can't see your feet - and at night or in the shade, there are no shadows and you can't see the ridges and bumps in the ice.  Walking outside presents a sure and potential slip and fall with every step. We walk carefully, and so far, I'm the only who has fallen (just twice) - Dad has slipped but maintained his upright stature.  Then there is the breeze - it doesn't even have to be a wind.  Just a breeze blowing on a part of your face, which the scarf doesn't cover, creates a uncomfortable burning feeling.  I am not complaining.  I am just trying to notate the cold and how we are dealing with it.  It is quite an adventure, our limits are being stretched and strengthened, and I'm glad we won't be here for a second winter.

Here is a screenshot of our weather app.  A high of -24 and a low of -39.
Looking out our back window at night we can see the school, brightly lit up by halogen lights on tall poles surrounding the building.  One night, the temperature was so low that the halogen lights never fully turned on - they flickered all night long, probably severely reducing the life of the bulbs.



Every day last week all schools were closed (don't think the universities were).  In the evening everybody gets an email saying the forecast cold for the next day and telling which classes are close.



Today (Sunday night) we received the report for tomorrow - only First through Fourth grades are closed.

Dad felt really bad all week - some sort of stomach muck.  Our beloved doctor, Ryan, told us he should be taking Ciprofloxin (or something) which is for abdominal and gut and other lower pains.  It has worked.  Pills, drinking lots of water, and sleeping a lot has almost returned him to his normal 'bubbly' self.  One afternoon last week he perked up and said, "I want some KFC"  The KFC store is about a mile away, just down the block, really.  The sun was shining.  What a good idea.  Well, it was good idea until we realized we had a tiny head wind all the way there.  Then service was terrible.  The chicken was good, however.  And the walk home was okay cuz we had a tailwind breeze.  As soon as Dad hit the door, he went back to bed.  In hindsight, we should not have gone, and in hindsight, we should have brought two buckets of chicken home to munch on.

We submitted a project this week.  It is at the Mental Hospital which we have talked about before.  Our partner asked for silk screening equipment so they can specialize their sewing workshop.  The workers are recovering mental patients, and they really need this sheltered workshop where they can work and recover at their own pace.  We'll find out on Wednesday if the project is approved.

I gave a talk at church today - about Family History and so on.

Next week is Branch Conference and Zone Conference and Branch Council and Branch Activity Night.  So much in just 3-4 days.  I don't think it will be as cold.

I love this picture of Dad which I took as we walked to church this morning.



This is a famous Russian painting. I can hardly wait.

The Rooks Have Returned, by Alexey Savrasov.

Central Eurasian Mission- Week 44 -  Jan 15- 21, 2018



The picture above pretty much defined our week....sadly.  Dad woke up Monday morning and just kinda stood, stooped, at the edge of the bed.  I asked him, "what's wrong?"  He grunted, and I put him back to bed.  He had chills, aches and pains, a cough, sinus congestion, and the Big D.  I suspect he had some form of flu----even though we all got shots. He was a blob in the bed pretty much the whole week.  Elder Lowry had the same symptoms too and was out of business for two days.  Dad didn't go to English Club on either Tuesday or Friday nor did he go to Russian Class on Wednesday or Friday.  It was a lost week.

But......we did have two humanitarian meetings.  One was with Emin who had turned in documents for a project, but he hadn't done it quite correctly.  We didn't want to try to communicate what needed to be changed over the phone or via email and  we'd already made an appointment before we knew that Dad would be a blob.  I looked plaintively at Dad, and he got dressed, and we went together.  In hind sight, he should have stayed home because he just sat there in his chair and thought a mental chant something like, "I will endure, I will endure", and so forth.  So, we sorted things out with Emin, and he knows what needs to changed in his Project Proposal.  Then on Thursday we had a meeting with Tuleu, who with her husband, has an NGO where they help people who need money, and clothes, and help with stuff.  She isn't a member but is a "friend of the Church" so we needed to meet with her.  I went by myself as Dad was still a blob.  Turns out that the sort of work she does, does not meet the parameters of LDS Charities.  She said they have a bank account into which sponsors donate money, and then they use that money to help people.  Well.........that is not how LDS Charities uses the sacred funds that people donate monthly to the church.  So I told her we do not donate money or 'things' to individuals.  And, we only work with NGOs who have a project that does something that specifically promotes the self sufficiency and self reliance of people.  We'll see..........I told her we could talk again if she came up with an idea that would work.....but.......umm

Here is the shoe attachments we are wearing lately on our boots.  These are called YakTraks, and they work very well.



The coiled wires on the sole really grip the snow/ice and gives lots of traction.  You still have to be careful not to 'push off' with your trailing foot.  They are put on so tightly that they are nearly impossible to take off (except at home) so, when you go inside a building you have to be really careful on the floors (which are mostly tile or concrete) because you can slide fairly easily - but NOTHING like how you'd slide without them on icy roads or sidewalks.  The only downside is that they 'crunch' as you walk....minor problem.



You can hardly tell you're wearing them when they are put on your shoes.



I had taken off my YakTrax to loan them to the Taylors when they were here over the weekend, and without them I headed off to English Club.  I approached the site of the three little concrete steps which lead up to where our apartment building is.  On that particular day the steps were completely covered with packed icy snow.  Here's a picture now with some of the snow chopped off the steps.



I boldly proceeded down the slope, and my feet slipped out from under me.  My legs flew up, my bum went down, my back whacked the snow, and my head snapped back and cracked the icy snow.  I was down!!!  A passer-by immediately assisted me up, but I had to wait awhile before I could begin the walk to church.  Actually my tummy was kinda nauseous, and I was dizzy but I made it.  I only continued because we were having the gift exchange with all of the Young Volunteers, and I couldn't miss that because it'd been postponed twice previously.

Here are our gifts.  Dad got a plant and two packets of veggie seeds from Sister Nelson and I got a heat sensitive mug from Elder Paul.  When the mug gets hot, a picture appears on the side - my picture is one where we are all at our dining room (I am photo shopped in - holding on to a yellow pole in a bus...I think we were getting our flu shot).





Since the slip on the slope I have been continuously wearing my YakTrax - no sense testing fate.  The next morning when I got up I could barely move my head or hold it while getting up.  I had to roll over on to one side to get out of the bed.  I suppose I had a case of whip lash.

The snow continues to amaze us----everything about it...the gently falling snow, the wind blown snow, the terribly icy rutted roads, the ice packed sidewalks, the piles of plowed snow that must be traversed sometimes, the ice removal by city crews.  I realize that this is not new to many people from cold climates, but for us, it is a new adventure.

In some kinds of snow, there are ice crystals that sparkle - just like you'd expect to happen in a Disney fairy tale when a character walks along a snowy forest path. The whole ground sparkles, and the cars and everything.  Here is my best attempt at a photo of the sparkling, but nothing does justice to the real thing.





Then this morning when I was walking, it was not snowing, but as I looked upwards there were sparklelies everywhere just as if someone on an upper floor were throwing out shovels full of silver glitter that floated away into the distance.

Snow removal is intense and continuous.  After the roads are cleared, crews start doing parking areas.  This week crews cleared our parking lot.  When they started, the area was full of the cars of the residents.  I watched as a workman walked along the row of cars and soundly slapped the hood of each one.  That set off the alarms which notified the owners that someone might be breaking into their car.  Gradually all of the owners showed up and moved their cars.  Only one car was not retrieved by its owner, and it still sits in the lot.  The crew and equipment just worked around it.









I feel sorry for these men.  It is so cold, and they are outside all day....and they probably don't get paid well.



I am loving the Russian classes we are taking.  It is really fun to review what I've previously learned and to relearn what I've forgotten.  I am forcing myself to speak more Russian.



January 18 and 19 Orthodox Epiphany was celebrated here in Kaz.  Google Orthodox Epiphany if you want more - there is even a video of John Huntsman (the US ambassador to Russia) participating. Two of our volunteers went down to the river and made several videos.  Here is a still shot.



I can't help but add this last picture.  It is from the second floor of the grocery store next door.  I've previously posted a similar picture.  Here is where a hole has been drilled through the floor below so an electric outlet could be used on the second floor in the middle of the aisle.  This outlet was used to light up a Christmas tree.  But now, the outlet is tastefully concealed by a cardboard box.  Gotta love Kazakhstan.  You know, this just wouldn't work in the US, but here, it seems to work seamlessly - no one kicks the box or trips on the exposed cord.

Central Eurasian Mission - Week 43 - Jan 8 - Jan 14, 2018



This was a blizzard week.  My first clue was when I went downstairs to do my morning walk and discovered the two drifts of snow (shown above) which had been blown under our apartment building's entrance door.  No.... really, the first clue happened during the night - two times.  We open our bedroom window about an inch at night to try to lower the room's temperature to below  to below 60 degrees and we use two big 5 liter jugs of water to block the window from blowing open completely. So....I was sleeping and I heard (in my sleep) a big whirling whistling sound of the wind screeching through the crack of the window and then a big WHUMP!!!  I woke with a start and found that the wind had blown open the window - and  pushed the 10 liters of water about ten inches.  I readjusted the jugs and the windows again, went back to bed, but was startled awake again by a similar wind incident.

Oh, I so wanted to take great pictures that would show the fury of the wind as it whipped the snow into swirling whirlwinds and formed snowdrifts.  But sadly, the pictures only show darkness and footprints and, if you have a good imagination, you'll see blowing snow slither over the ground.



This is to show how deep the snow was



And this shows that the track I use usually walk on, but today it was covered with snow dunes.



I'm amazed to see how snow drifts are formed, all based upon wind direction and obstacles in the way of the wind.  On the left is a three foot snow drift and on the right the walkway is untouched.



And here I walked in it - such fun in the morning!



The snow and, mostly, the wind certainly do complicate our lives, but we are being militarily optimistic and good-natured about it all.  Honestly, sometimes the snow is magical because there are tiny ice crystals mixed in with the flakes, which makes the ground and the air sparkle.  You need to see it to understand.

The day after the terrible night was also terribly windy.  All schools were closed, the international airport was closed, all roads leaving the city were closed, and governmental employees were sent home.  There was all kinds of damage to buildings and terrible traffic jams.  The funny part was that we'd thought storms like this one were normal, but we found that the Kazakhs were trounced by it too.

There were even jokes circulating on the internet.  Here are a few:
During such abnormal Astana winds, my 120 kg gave me confidence.  Two models, a fitness instructor, a granny-vegan and iron man were holding onto me as I walked outside.
Actually, the weather is fine in Astana, only the slim women flying by the windows on the seventh floor kinda distract me from my work.
Due to the severe weather - the terrible snowstorm and wind in Astana, the residential complex, "Asia" has been re-located from the right bank of the river to the left bank.  The relocation of other poorly constructed residential complexes will be announced shortly.

After snow storms, the city goes crazy cleaning up the snow.  Big front loaders push and pile snow everywhere to later be loaded into dump trucks and taken....somewhere...



We had two good humanitarian meetings this week.

The first was with WAQYP - the governmental charity fund that has requested 250 wheelchairs.  We'd gotten to go ahead from our Moscow office to proceed with another meeting to discuss more details.  This time we also met with the President of the fund....he is on the left, and the vice President is on the right.



They have requested wheelchairs for cities all over the country, so it'll be interesting to see how it will all work out.  The church's Wheelchair Specialists will be here in Astana, in February, when many of these details will be taken care.  We are happy to be the boots on the ground who follow the directions of the Specialists.  The meetings in February will include Ministers of different governmental departments - like Department of Welfare and Department of Religion so we will be rubbing shoulders with legends.

And.....we met a second time with Marina at the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic.  This photo of the building says Transplantalogia.



Here is Marina on the right and the Executive Manager of the Bone Marrow Transplant department, Vadim Kemeeken.  Vadim started the first hematology work  in Kazakhstan ten years ago.  The government provides money for salaries and surgeries and food, but when it comes to simple services like beds and curtains, there is not enough money.  Marina is going to be working on her documents for us to make into a humanitarian project.



We finished our meeting right at lunchtime so we found the hospital cafeteria and had a nice lunch  I had some kind of curry and rice and dad had some kind of fish and rice.





As you know we are Humanitarian Missionaries........but we are also anything else the Mission Presidents wants us to be.  So we are also Young Volunteers'  associates, helpers, friends, google searchers, and grandparents.  And, we also have 50 years more of institutional learning and memory than they do.

So we do things with them - like this dinner of camel meat.  One of their investigators is from Shemkent, and she recently returned from that city with a bag of frozen camel meat.  What are Young Volunteers and three Kazakh friends supposed to do -?? have a camel dinner at our apartment.







On Saturday we had our weekly District Meeting, and the Taylors from Almaty came up too.  After the meeting we went across the road and ate at our favorite restaurant.  Ten people devoured our lamb sashleeks like buzzards.








For Sunday dinner I used my crock pot to slow cook the left over camel meat.  Then I shredded it and made a biscuit topped pot pies.  After dinner everyone relaxed.....



And we watched a TED talk about beauty, nature, and gratitude.  Here is the link.  It is a great 6 minute video.  Start at 3 minutes 15 seconds - or just watch the whole thing; it's nine and a half minutes long.

https://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_nature_beauty_gratitude/transcript?share=14ffb6d45e#t-186082

From the frozen frontier of the church.....

Central Eurasian Mission - Week 42 - Jan 1-7, 2018


The New Year started out with a big bang......at about exactly 12:01AM fireworks started exploding outside our apartment.  At about 12:15 there was a big blast that caused me to levitate to a standing position.  I looked out the window, and yes, there were fireworks just exactly like the ones at home.  So I reinstalled my earplugs and went back to bed.  From what we'd been told, the fireworks were supposed to be crazy, but to me it all wasn't all that grand.  The YVs had to be in their apartments by 5PM for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day so as to avoid any encounters with drunk folks who'd been celebrating a bit too hard.

New Year's Day morning we got up late ---looked at each other and thought, where can we go for brunch?, which child can we visit this morning?, is there a parade on the tv? can we go to OMSI?,  maybe we can go on a nice hike to a frozen waterfall?, maybe watch the Rose Bowl!  So we decided to go just for lunch, and to make the day special, we wanted to go to some different Kazakh style cafe (no KFC, no McDs, no Hardies.)...something local.  I'd seen a cafe behind our apartment that said 'Lagman Center' - that is where we wanted (I wanted...Dad probably wanted KFC) to go.  We headed out, got to the cafe......no cars parked in front - bad sign, but the door was opened.  We went in and saw that all the chairs were upside down on the tables, and the the distinctive smell of Mr Clean was prevalent.  A lady came from the back and said, in perfect Russian, закрыто - yes, of course we're closed, it's a holiday!  So we continued walking our way around the block.

This one was closed.  On the sign it says Complex Lunch which means a business lunch or a lunch with a set menu.  And sushi and pizza, and beer.  Not for us and not today.



This cafe (we knew it was a cafe because we'd been there before) didn't even say closed, the door was just locked.



Dead end at the entrance to this doner place.



This place looked inviting - Good Mood Food with a "Generous Lunch" (Щедрый Обед) which is how they describe their menu of the day.  Closed!



This place was open - called GameBurger, because there are gambling machines inside. It was creepy.



We passed some happy people getting out of their car, and the guy came up to us (I think he was drunk) and wished us Happy New Year and a bunch of other stuff.  No - we didn't want congratulations - we wanted lunch, "Please ask us to lunch!"  But no.....we were back to our apartment building by now.  Should we try the shopping center which is thirty feet in front of our building?  We tried the door, and it, too, was locked.  At this point we had the option of trying KFC, but the thought of walking a mile on the icy sidewalks and finding it closed was too 'real',  and we bagged it.  We ended up eating boiled, frozen pelmini, slathered with sour cream.  That was it!  Next year it will be different.          The following day at English Club everyone was wishing everyone a Happy New Year.  We asked them what they had done and to a one, they all said, "Oh we had dinner with our family and celebrated.  What did you do?"  We said that we'd eaten frozen pelmini because all the cafes were ....ah..... closed......oh.......   When we return home, we will make an effort to invite others who are out of towners or have no family to join us in celebrations.

We started a new project this week.  The previous volunteers had left us a list of people to contact.  One of the names was Marina who is affiliated with a clinic that deals with blood cancer.  We called her in May, but she was gone until July; we called her in August and she was gone until November; so we called her in December and got a appointment in January.

This is where she works - the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic







Marina is a lovely 48-year old woman whose nineteen-year-old son died four years ago from a form of blood cancer.  Since her son's death, she has devoted herself to serving adults who have blood cancer.  She says that her son's dream was that she would be able to form a fund which would help adults.  For that reason, she formed a Private Fund which she named, Amiram, her son's name.

Marina says that it is relatively easy to find charitable help for children, but that there is little interest in helping adults.  Adults don't generally want to ask for help, but they need it.  Besides being sick, they have probably lost their job, have had to leave their family for treatment in the 'big' city; they are depressed; and they probably don't have much money.  Her main purpose is to support the patients emotionally, help them fund the surgery, and help them recover.

Recently the bone marrow transplant department moved to a unit in the clinic with more rooms and more ability to admit cancer patients.  The problem is that many of the rooms have no beds (read - no beds at all) and no window coverings, which poses a problem because most cancer treatments, including medications and radiation therapy, increase one's sensitivity to the sun.





Marina envisions a project with us that would request beds to furnish some rooms and also window curtains because of the direct sunlight.  We are hopeful that we can make this a viable project which will be approved!

MAYBE...MAYBE... we are actually going to have a wheelchair project   I've reported previously that we'd met with a government charity to discuss the possibility.  Then later we met with our wheelchair group to see if they were interested in being involved.  So, on Friday night we had a skype  meeting with Cyndy and Rick Johnson from St George, Utah.  They are the Church's wheelchair specialists.  In 2018 they are planning to manage 9 projects in Asia.  They will be coming to Astana in February to meet with our potential partners to further discuss the project.  The Church has very definite guidelines that mush be followed or there will be no cooperation on a project.  So, we'll see what happens in February.

On Saturday - Jan 6th - we had our Branch Christmas Party!  You might think that it is a little late for a Christmas party, but Jan 7th is Orthodox Christmas......besides, the Branch President was out of the country until Jan 5th.  It was a great party! There were about 50 people there (at least 30 were non members from English Club).  It was a pot luck dinner and a Talent Show.  The event had been publicized for about a month at English Club.  Food was plentiful and kinda yummy.

Here are photos of the performers.  I post them because Dad and I want to remember who they are.

This is Gengis.  He lived in Canada for a year going to school and now is back in Astana going to school..  He's pretty good on the piano and at the very end of the program, he stood us and suggested that everyone sing a Kazakh song.  So  everyone did - except the Americans.  I got the feeling it wsa like singing America the Beautiful or maybe, Oh, Shenandoah.





This is Sveda who works at the wheelchair place.  She is an artist who decorates pottery pieces and she play the keyboard when their choir sings (this was the group for whom we provided musical production equipment).



This is Elder Topham.  Last year he did not have a talent, but now he can juggle tennis balls!



This is Elder Crawford (Rexburg) and Sister Nelson (Connecticut) performing a primary song.

And here is Sister Nelson doing a solo version of Jessica's Theme



And then the Willardson daughters.  Polina on guitar playing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.



Veronika and twins Lexy and Sophia playing Yesterday by the Beatles.



And all of them playing and singing something in Russian (all four are bilingual!)



This is Aigerim; we call her Aika at English Club.  She speaks beautiful English and is a very cultured young Kazakh woman.  She recited a famous poem from memory.

This is Yerkin - he's our English Club friend who is a wholesale supplier of sunflower oil and he also owns at least two restaurants ( the Arizona restaurants).  He also frequently gives us rides home from English Club.



People lingered after the program and enjoyed one another's company.  I must admit that I was a little remorseful that we will not share another Christmas Talent Show with them.

We likely have the final photo of the ice slide - this time with a lot of color and a final icy landing.  This was today, on Sunday, and most of the riders seemed to be Dads riding down with there children.  And also, a few groups of daredevil boys who came down in flailing groups of arms and legs and squealing happily.





Sunday night dinner as usual with all of us.  We were going to have our Secret Santa Gift Exchange tonight, but not everyone had done the necessary shopping.  So next week we should be able to display our gifts.



And so another week ends..........