Great Week!!

This week more of our work paid off by having 3 more of our projects approved. Our project for the handicapped kindergarten playground, the beds for the girls dorm at the orphanage, and the lesson tools for the group that give speech therapy to non-speaking handicapped children are now being funded so that is exciting for us and for our partners. We also had to send a rejection letter to another group. It is always difficult to reject their ideas but we have to be selective with the use of these sacred funds that come from your donations and make sure that they are used for the greatest benefit - we pray a lot about these decisions.

The week ended with a visit from our Mission President and his wife. All of the missionaries here met with them in a District meeting on Saturday afternoon where they taught us from the scriptures and gave us encouragement. Earlier that afternoon we witnessed 2 more baptisms here in Astana. Svetlana and Bakeet are awesome ladies who love the Lord and want to do His will. The picture has the 4 young missionaries in the back with the Mission Pres and his wife and Svetlana and Bakeet in white in the front. Today at our church meeting they received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and are very excited and happy. We have now had 3 baptisms for our little group this year (how is your Ward doing?). After our Church meetings today we had a little 'reception' for all in attendance to celebrate the baptisms yesterday - juice, water, Sprite, lady finger cookies, and chocolate croissants. After the others had gone the Mission President interviewed each of the missionaries. All of us then went out for a meal at the Ali Baba which is a semi-outdoor restaurant near the river. I had lamb kebabs and Viviane had plov (sp?) which is roasted lamb and garlic over flavored rice. The food was excellent!! In the picture with me (the only way I get into any pictures is to do self-portraits!) you can see some of the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Here is a web site that you can access to see some panoramas of the city.







Here is a very funny picture taken in our part of the world ....



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Lastly I leave you with a quote from Henry B. Eyring on why maintaining high standards is so important ... "The Lord sets His standards so that He can bless us. Think about those blessings: He promises those who meet the standards the help of the Holy Ghost. He promises personal peace. He promises the chance to receive the holy ordinances in His house. And He promises those who endure in living His standards that they will have eternal life ... Because we love the people we serve, all of us want to do better in lifting our Heavenly Father's children to the faithfulness and purity they need to have all the blessings of the Lord ... You begin by holding up The Lord's standards clearly and without apology. And the more the world drifts from them and mocks them, the bolder we must be in doing that."

We bear our testimony that this is true.