Halloween

 As we drive back and forth to Talgar we almost always see someone driving a donkey cart down the side of the highway.  Anne had been wanting a picture of one, so when we passed this one on the road, just outside of Almaty, we pulled over and took this picture as he drove by.  They stay over to the side of the road, but sometimes they can cause a little traffic jam.  It is quite rare to see a white donkey.

 Halloween

Anne enjoys Halloween and goes all out for it.  It just happened that it was on Wednesday and we had district lunch that day.  She designed and made this witch cake.  Rick called it a Kazakh witch because she had dark skin.  The hair was made of string candy.  There were also two candy frogs on the brim of the hat and two white mice crawling around.  

 Anne collected glass bottles and painted them orange with jack-o-lantern faces.  She covered the placemats with some Halloween tissue paper.  (The gummy residue of the tape was very had to get off later.)  She painted jack-o-lantern faces on oranges for each missionary.  (She tries to encourage them to eat fruit and veggies as much as possible.)  She also filled surgical gloves with popcorn and tied them to the back of each of their chairs with the "Parable of Popcorn" tied to it.

 We had wonderful, festive food to eat.  There was a vegetable dip in a spider made of croissant dough.  The deviled eggs had a pimento stuffed green olive slice on top to make them look like weird eye-balls.  The Waldorf salad in the back had gummy worms in it.

There were also these beautiful hot ham and cheese sandwiches

 The missionaries modified their attire in the spirit of Halloween.  Elder Brinton, on the right, put his clothes on backwards.  (He said it was very uncomfortable.)  Elder Beckh put on three ties.  Elder Hansen put one of his ties around his head, but had a bigger surprise later.

 Anne was a black cat.  She dressed all in black and we bought some cat ears at a novelty kiosk.  At the same kiosk, Rick bought a top hat and a gray mustache.  Everyone said that he looked like the Monopoly Man.

 After we were all sat down, Elder Hansen took off his coat and revealed his concealed ties.  He became an instant tie rack.  The other two Elders didn't even know he had done this.  They remarked, "That was why you were in the bedroom so long with the door locked."

 Sisters Nelson and Blomquist creatively cut cookies to be served at a different event later.  Some of them spelled "Trick or Treat," and there were witches and skeleton parts as well as other Halloween characters.

 They surprised us at the door with mustaches on their upper lips and a super big one they made out of poster board.

 More Music Night

Olga and Surgey promised the first night they came that they would come back and perform.  They came back the next week and performed three songs.  Surgey played and Olga sang.

Norkent has been to several music nights and enjoys playing and singing for us.  He has  come to church a couple of times and stayed for all three hours.  It is sad that we can't teach him about the gospel.

Our branch registration was approved just before the October 26th deadline.  Out of 46 church organizations that applied, only 17 were approved by the government.  We were one of them.  Astana has also been approved and have some permissions to preach.  Almaty hasn't received any permissions yet.

One of the highlights was to have this young man finally agree to get up and perform.  He sang some songs in Kazakh and some in Russian.  Elder Beckh accompanied him on the bongo drums.  It's a fun video to watch.

Sister Nelson plays her flute each week.  We appreciate her musical talents.  She also plays the piano and accompanies others.

We bought the music stand for the branch so that it would be easier to read music either standing or sitting.  It folds down compactly to fit in a carrying case.

 Murat Maskeyev has been a member of the church for over five years.  He has never been married.  He is a university graduate in history and worked for the National Archives for 10 years.  Now he rents out an apartment he owns,  is one of the many gypsy taxis, and grows pumpkins.  He is 1st counselor in the Sunday School Presidency.  Last week he was ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood and got his temple recommend. This week he is flying to Kiev to receive his temple endowments.

 Cooking Exchange
Arina, our YW President, asked Anne to teach her how to make rolls and lemonaid pie.  Anne agreed, if Arina would come and teach her how to make her Plov.  This is a very popular dish in central Asia and many take great pride in their own recipes, but we think Arina's is extra delicious.  It is a rice dish with meat, carrots and onions.  Arina's previous job was as a cook in an elementary school.  The sisters came and translated and also learned from both of these "world class cooks". 

 Deema's baptism
We don't have permissions to preach yet, but a miracle happened.  Deema walked into the branch one Saturday and wanted to know more.  He had been to church in Novosibirsk ten years before with his mother.  His parents have since divorced and he moved to Kazakhstan with his father and sister.  Elder Anderson couldn't get his six month visa and so has been in Novosibirsk for a while.  Deema was taught by Elder Anderson over Skype.  We took the missionaries and Deema out to dinner after the baptism.  It was a wonderful day.

Murat and Aleeya have been receiving English lessons and attending our music night.  He is a professional dancer and a business trainer.  The first time he came to music night he danced to some of the swing music.  He surprised everyone by grabbing Anne as his partner.  It was so fun.  We all wished we had taken a video of it.  One of our members told him at last Friday's music night that Deema was being baptized the next day and the two of them showed up at the baptism.  Murat also came to church the next Sunday and stayed for all three hours.  They are a sweet couple.