We love you Dad!

As some of you know, my father has been battling cancer for a few years. Lately he had taken a turn for the worse. He died on Monday morning. Recently he fell and broke his hip and the doctors decided to replace it so that he could have some semblance of life and mobility. He did not recovered from that fall and operation. The following, from my sister Heather with some minor editing from me, is a testimony to us of the Lord’s hand in Dad’s life … “You know when grandpa was put in the hospital for the operation for his hip the blessing he received was that he should bear his testimony to the hospital workers and teach them the gospel, not that he would be fine - that was never mentioned...and although he has not spoken since Wednesday and so much of the time since he fell he has not communicated so that we could understand, these women who come to care for him now that he is home have been taught the gospel by his grandchildren as they talk to him about his example, his conversion, his missions etc. So thank you all for talking out loud and not being 'ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ' just because someone unfamiliar is in the room. Another blessing spoken according to the Lord's words and not mine--at the time I thought how silly the blessing was because he couldn't/wouldn't communicate so much of the time.”

We spoke to him (even though he could not communicate) via Skype last night and we expected it would be the last time we see and speak to him in this life. We look forward to seeing him, in glory, when we meet again.

Our week here has been full of mixed emotions. Viviane’s Mom also had surgery recently and is struggling physically but she was able to talk to her a bit by phone. We have been very blessed with such great parents who enabled us to learn of and follow, in our imperfect way, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Friday we were invited to Alina’s home for lunch and her Mom made the Kazakh national dish with horse meat. It was fantastic! She also had pickled tomatoes and a wonderful cake at the end. We spent all afternoon with them and thoroughly enjoyed learning about their family and sharing about ours. Later that evening Alina came to our apartment and had a lesson from the Elders about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a joy to see her learn about Him.

Alina's mom - Saule - cutting the horse meat and the 'five finger' national dish. Named this because you are supposed to eat it with your hands. It is meat and noodles is a great bouillon sauce with some onions and potatoes.

These are the pickled tomatoes. About an hour after eating until we couldn't move, Saule brought out the dessert which included some dishes of nuts, raisins, and dried apricots as well as an incredible 'cake'. Their cake here is very different than ours but is extremely good.

Sunday we had 29 people at church services (we only have 30 chairs!) and enjoyed the feeling of being with those who are also ‘trying to be like Jesus’. 14 of the 29 are investigators who are learning about the Church and Jesus Christ. In the late afternoon we went to a music club! I’m sure that raised a few eyebrows of the readers of this blog. We were invited by the young folks who run the club to give a presentation, before the club opened at 8, to their friends about the Humanitarian work the Church does around the world and we are doing in Kazakhstan. Two of them had recently taken a trip to the States for business (in Lehi, Utah of all places) and did the Temple Square tour and Humanitarian Services tour in Salt Lake City. We spoke to them for over 2 hours and they said they enjoyed it a lot. They then fed us Kazakh pizza and salad. Before we left, 2 of them sang a few songs for us – it is a karaoke club – and completely blew us away with their voices. It was a wonderful evening and we hope to meet with them again.