City of Flowers

As we have said before, Almaty is a very beautiful city.  We want to take you on a couple of our favorite morning walks.  Almaty was the capital of Kazakhstan until 1999 and is still the largest city with about 1.4 million people.  Astana is now the capital and it has about 300,000+.  We live close to the buildings that used to house the country's government.  The buildings are very impressive and the area around them is kept manicured.  This building is at an intersection just south of us.  We have never seen flowers inserted into the side of a building like this.  The horizontal brick/column areas are actually banners.

Turning just a bit to the left, we see this beautiful mountain landscape.  Notice the flower containers hung over the guard rails of the street.

Here is another shot of the flower containers hung over the street guard rails.  Our branch building is just 2 blocks back up this road behind us. When we haven't had rain for a while, we  see water trucks with special sprayers for watering these flowers.

Just a little further on our walk is this garden and lawn in front of a business/apartment building.  Notice the electric lawn mower in the lower left corner.  We didn't see that at all in Russia.  Normally the grass and weeds were just left to grow however long they could.  It was very typical in Soviet countries to have businesses on the ground floor of a building and apartments for several floors above it.

On the street corner pictured above, kiddy corner from the building with the flowers in its side, is this clock.  The solid green is astro-turf and the flowers are in pots inserted into holders in this structure.  They also have some very beautiful new office buildings here in Almaty, as you can see in the background.

Another route we take on our walks is to the north (or downhill) from our apartment building.  This flower display is just on the other side of the Ramstore mall.

We walk down the street about a block and then turn down this street which goes behind a big government building.These beds are mostly marigolds, petunias and salvia.

When we get to this point, the fragrance is  almost overpowering, especially if there is a little breeze.  The rose gardens are huge all along this walking mall in front of the government building.  We can also hear the sound of the fountains behind us.

This is just one of the beautiful rose gardens with several brilliant colors.  The roses are the largest we've ever seen.

We should have put a hand beside these to give a perspective of their size.

A little further down in our walk is this park area with several statues and flower beds.  The park and the dome in the background are part of the roof of an upscale underground mall.  At night, different colored lights illuminate it and another dome to attract people to come shop.

This is one of the main government buildings.  It is the one we walk around.  The beautiful circle flower planting in front of it mimics the large crest on the building.  The wonderful water fountains we posted on a previous blog are on the left and right side of this building.

There are more flowerbeds and pots planted all across the front of the building.

After we walk up the right side of the building, past the water fountain, we come to another part of the street we turned down earlier.  Here we are greeted with more wonderful, fragrant roses.  Notice the street sweeper, on the left, out early to clean up the litter.

After walking behind the government building, we come to the other end of the street-side flower plantings we showed you earlier.  The fragrance here is also very pleasant because of the flowering trees and bushes.  Across the street is another government building which is completely fenced, but we can see through the fence to the lovely gardens and fountains around it.

P-Day At The Zoo

One of Sister Dick's greatest desires before leaving Kazakhstan was to ride a camel.  She heard they had camel rides at the zoo and so we decided that would be a fun P-day activity.  She was so excited to ride that her enthusiasm attracted many passers-by.

Anne really wanted to ride also, but was concerned about how she would get on.  The camel must have felt her anxiety and knelt down to accommodate her.  He had to be coaxed with much resistance and bellowing before he would stand again.  He has such a darling face that you wouldn't think he would be so resistant.

Not to be outdone, Elder Jensen decided he would ride also.  Rick, Elder Anisiforov and Sister Talakh couldn't be persuaded to try this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We thought the little buildings that provide protection for the different animals were really unique.  They are built with small stones and the roof line is unique.

The collection of beautiful birds was impressive.  The colors and patterns of the feathers were amazing.  We could certainly see where many of the Kazakh clothing colors and designs come from.

It's hard to see, but there is an intricate pattern on the back of this bird.  The striking black, yellow and gold coloring is astounding.

This camel would have been much harder to ride!  All of the animals were shedding their winter coats and looked a little mangy.  He has the same cute face, though, and wanted to be petted.  I'm sure he would have been accommodating if we were trying to ride him.





As we were passing the giraffe exhibit, Anne mentioned that was her favorite animal.  Sister Talakh said it is her favorite also.  She was happy to have her picture taken with the giraffes.

Does Rick look a little worried here?  Anne thought it would make a cute picture to have the eagle appear to carry him away.  It was actually a large statue.

This is one of the gardens we pass when we walk in the mornings.  There is a statue of one of the Kazakh orchestra conductors in the background.  It is just south of the National Art Museum.

This beautiful fountain is refreshing to see and hear each morning when we walk.  The beautiful mountains are the backdrop and most days, the skies are blue.

This is looking in the opposite direction with the pools of water and the flower beds.  This complex has several government buildings and each day the grounds-keeping crew is busy keeping it beautiful.  Is it any wonder why we enjoy Almaty!

Mission Presidents and Patriarch visit

 On Thursday, May 3rd, President and Sister Woolley, the APs, the senior couple from Astana (the Maxwells) and President and Sister Gibbons (Novosibirsk mission) arrived.  President Woolley took all the senior missionaries to dinner at the Royal Tulip Hotel.  It was beautiful and the food was good.  The Zone had their Christmas party there last December.  Elder and Sister Neuenschwander arrived that evening, too late to join us.  Elder Neuenschwander is now one of the patriarchs serving this area.  He was one of the Seventy for 19 years.

On Friday, the Astana elders arrived and we had Zone conference with both mission presidents.  Rick had been asked to attend Elder Neuenschwander as he gave patriarchal blessings to the Almaty members.  He had to make sure each member had their recommend and make sure there was quiet during the time that the member was in being interviewed or blessed by the patriarch.  The patriarch gave 5 blessings on Friday, 6 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and 4 more on Monday.  Rick didn't get to attend much of the zone conference.  Anne prepared a wonderful lunch for the conference and, of course, everyone commented on the rolls.  Even Rick's coleslaw got some comments of appreciation.  On Saturday evening the branch had a wonderful dinner for the visiting authorities and then President and Sister Gibbons gave a fireside.

Here the missionaries are preparing their progress reports for our missionary correlation meeting on Sunday morning.  Elders Jensen and Anisiforov are on the left and Sisters Talakh and Dick are on the right.  Alexey Kuzmin is in the center.  He is the assistant branch mission leader and executive secretary.  He just returned from a mini-mission to Nizhniy Novgorod.  During his  6-week mission he met, taught and baptized one person and had 2 others prepared and left 11 progressing investigators.  He has been a blessing to us.  He is a partner in a furniture making business and he made us a kitchen cabinet to our specifications that fits perfectly into our little kitchen.

We had a very special testimony meeting on Sunday with all the visitors there.  After our meeting, as is tradition here, these two young members opened their mission calls in front of all the branch members.  It was a very emotional time for everyone.  Sabina opened hers first and read out loud to gasps and applause, Salt Lake City, Temple Square Mission.  Next, it was Gosha's turn.  He already knew where he was going but had kept it a secret.  He read that he was going to the New York, New York City Mission.  Everyone applauded and were thrilled for both of them.  These two already speak very good English.  Gosha's father is the one we rent the car from.

On Sunday, after all the meetings, all the visitors came to our apartment for dinner.  Anne had another wonderful meal prepared.  It was enjoyed by everyone with lots of praise shared.

On Monday, President and Sister Woolley met with us and our four missionaries and discussed what the missionaries could and couldn't do with the current restrictions.  We then all loaded in his rented SUV and he took us up in the mountains.  Here are the Woolley's with the mountains in the background.

This was one of the many wonderful views we had as we went up the mountain road to the top.

Here are our four missionaries before the elders went on a hike and the sisters went with us in the car.  Elders Jensen and Anisiforov, and Sisters Talakh and Dick.

Elder Jensen climbed down the hill near the mountain creek to take a picture of some ruins of an old structure.

Sister Talakh, on the edge of a cliff, was joyous as she celebrated being in the mountains.

On the way up the mountain road there were several places where families could rent yurts to stay overnight.  In some of the desert areas, yurts are still used as people's homes.










The beautiful wild apple trees were in bloom all along the road and up the mountainsides.  It was breath-taking.  Almaty means "apple" in the Kazakh language.  We were told that all apples in the world trace their origins back to Almaty.  Very interesting.

Here is a radio / TV tower that is built up on top of one of the mountains overlooking Almaty.  When this tower was built, one requirement was that it had to be a little shorter than the one in Moscow.

President Woolley took us, the Neuenschwanders and the missionaries up to the base of this tower to a restaurant to eat on Monday night.

We all loaded into a gondola and rode the cables up to the top of the mountain to get to the restaurant.  Patriarch Neuenschwander and his wife Joanie are pictured here with Rick and Anne.

The Patriarch's first wife died of cancer and he met Joanie in the church office building a few years ago.  They presently live in Istanbul and participate in helping to train the four missionaries who are getting ready to proselyte in Turkey.

At the top there was a neat little apple fountain where Elder Jensen posed.  Notice the homes built on the side of the mountain in the background.

This is a view from the top.  The main road you can see is El Farahbi, just south of our apartment.  Notice the green building in the upper right side of the picture and on the left side of El Farahbi.  That is a small shopping mall and the branch building is at the base of the building behind it.

Here we all are at dinner with the view in the background.  At the far end of the table are the Woolley's across from each other, then the Neuenschwanders, us and the young missionaries.

As the sun set behind us, we had a wonderful meal together and very enjoyable conversation.

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.