This is where we live.

This is looking up our street to the East.  Our apartment building is up the alley to the right.  The canopy is a little cafe and there is a karaoke bar downstairs.

 

Our apartment building is 12 floors.  We are on the fourth floor.  Our little sunroom is just above the brown "box".  The window on the left is the kitchen and then the next window is our office/extra bedroom.  We have two elevators, a large one and a small one.  We try to take the small one because the large has been broken twice with us on it.  Anne was stuck on the large one for 50 minutes last Sunday until Rick and Elder Neuenschwander came back to the apartment.

The beautiful blooming lilac bush was a welcome greeting for us when we first arrived.  It always smells so good when we come up the alley.  After our morning walk, Rick took the picture of Anne standing next to the stairs leading to our padezdh (our sector of the apartment building).  There is a security guard stationed in a little room just inside the door.  He takes care of maintenance and helps us when we have heavier items to carry inside.  He's very courteous to us and we feel safer having him there.

This is the view from our kitchen window.  The building in front of us is just being completed and is very nice.  It will probably be higher priced apartments with businesses on the ground level.  The business at the lower left is a beauty salon.

Still looking out the kitchen window a little to the right is the Ramstore.  It's a small, three-story mall with a good-sized grocery store.  We are able to buy many American products with the Shop-Rite label, plus some Nestle's, Hershey, Kleenex, Tide, Kraft and even Kirkland's cheddar cheese!  But still no chocolate chips, shortening or Pam. :(

The view from our bedroom window is the best.  We can see snow-capped mountains in the distance and watch the sun coming up over the mountains.  That's if we are up that early--
5:00 am.  We are experiencing longer and longer daylight, but it won't be as bad as Russia because we're so much further south.

Another nice view from a taxi cab we were taking to attend an English Club at a local university with the sisters.  Getting used to the mountains being in the south has been difficult, but remembering that our family and home are west helps keep the direction straight.

This is Kazakh tenge.  This is still very much a cash society, credit cards aren't accepted in a lot of places.  Getting used to paying several hundred or thousand tenge has been difficult, but we're finally able to put it in perspective a little.  $10,000 tenge is about the equivalent of $67.00.  The exchange rate is close to 148 to $1.  When we first saw prices at the grocery store, we were a little concerned, but now 300 tenge seems miniscule.

Some things have not changed!  The street sweepers are out every morning with their straw brooms and orange jackets.  We've found that Almaty is really much cleaner than most Russian cities and there is grass growing in more areas.  We've seen grass being cut with lawnmowers instead of by hand with long blades.  People who are in need of government assistance are given these jobs so they are productive.  Something the U.S. could learn from.

These are the delightful missionaries we serve with.  From left:  Sister Talakh, Sister Dick, Elder Asiniforov and Elder Jensen.  They all get along well and are such hard workers.  Both Elders have served in Russian branches as branch presidents.  We feel like we have the best in the mission and, hopefully, we'll have four additional great missionaries assigned here in the next few weeks.

On P-day, the missionaries can use our computers to write home and receive letters.  Our little office is crowded, but we wanted the computers in the same room so they could use them.  We enjoy "rubbing" elbows when we work together on our computers.  Sisters Dick and Talakh are enjoying their computer time.

Being here in the spring has been a real treat.  The tulips, daffodils, lilacs and many other blooming bushes and trees have been so wonderful to see.  We thought this scalloped planting bed of yellow tulips was really fun.  It continues around the corner and down the other side of this park.  There are planting beds and planters everywhere to enjoy.

This is the branch building.  Rick is unlocking the door for a meeting.  They recently were able to rent an upper floor which has been renovated and includes a kitchen.  It's very spacious inside and, of course, the Church has done a wonderful job of renovation and updating.  The chapel is on the left and the Relief Society room is on the right.

The building is completely surrounded by fence and the parking lot has been painted with boundaries for basketball, volleyball and tennis.  During the summer, the missionaries sponsor a sport day, so it gets used a lot.  We're looking into replacing the basketball standard with a portable one so it can be moved in and out.  The Relief Society room has a ping pong table for use during the winter.

This is our car!  We love being able to get around so easily.  What a treat for us.  It's a Honda CRV and is wonderful because there's room for large grocery trips and hauling things to and from the building.  We feel like we're very pampered.  We rent the car from the father of a member, Gosha, who has been called to serve in the New York, New York City Mission.