Kurdistan Iraq: April 2019

Dear Family and Friends,

April has been an amazing month---

Humanitarian Work:

We signed a formal certificate for donations to Barzani Charity Foundation. The donation from LDS Charities will be for medicine, medical supplies and dental supplies for the refugee camps. The number of people who will be recipients is numbered to be 29,000. It will be our largest project for this entire year. (photo #1 & #2) the man in the photo with Ken is the President of the Foundation, his name is Mousa. He said LDS people have helped him know God better.

The Chicken Ranch project by the Tigress River has begun. We will be supplying 3,000 chickens, chicken feed and the materials including water and electricity to build chicken coops. It will be the primary economy of a small village by the name of Pahklujia. They will raise the chickens, then sell them to help sustain the village. The money earned will be used to buy more chickens. The turnaround on the chickens is estimated to be about 45 days from hatching to selling. The whole project is expected to be self sustaining to the people and will not require any additional funds to support them. Photo #3 is the picture of the ground being prepared. A photo of the 3,000 chickens will come after they arrive😊.

Teaching English to Kurdish Nurses has been so enjoyable! They are so appreciative and happy to be learning English. They come after a full shift at their hospitals and sit for 90 minutes to learn. Ken is loving teaching with me and adds fun comments and activities. (photo #4)

650 Wheelchairs are arriving from China. Mark and Georgia Anderson, from Cottonwood Heights Utah, came to Kurdistan for a week to train and measure recipients for chairs. Mark is a physical therapist and they are on a Humanitarian mission. They help with wheelchairs in Jordan and Kurdistan and go to each country twice a year to train our partners and help manage the receiving and distribution. We had an educational and enjoyable week with them. and YES, we ate the whole piece of bread! Photo #6 is of Ken visiting with a college age girl (Bashah), who is studying to be a doctor. She is receiving a wheelchair. She has no legs.

Many people have asked if we got to watch General Conference--It didn't come on until 7 PM both days so we stayed up until 1 AM watching it and every session was wonderful. It was also beautiful to see the shots of Temple Square and all the flowers.

Our semi-annual Mission Conference was held in Cairo, Egypt last week. Elder Jeffery Singer is our Area Authority and he and his family were able to be with us. They live in Bahrain, in the UAE. We received wonderful training and counsel from him. It was so kind of the hosting couple, who were in charge (Mark and Lori Hoer---Steve Hoer's brother), to plan a day of sight seeing for all of us. We went to the Manesterly Palace and Nilometer in Cairo, the Egyptian Museum & Mummy Room, the Great Pyramids at the Giza Plateau, the Sphinx and an evening light show at the Sphnix. We even had dinner on a boat on the Nile River.

We continue to be impressed with the People of Kurdistan. We hear so many stories of modern-day Good Samaritans---of people who say, "If my neighbor is poor, then I am poor." We were out walking last night and saw a family out on their drive way skinning a sheep. We stopped to watch and they said they have a sheep ranch and kill some often to take the meat to a refugee camp. People don't hitch hike here (only few have cars). They don't need to hitch hike---they just stand by the road and cars and trucks stop by to pick up strangers to give them rides. It's just as common as waving at someone. Students get rides to school and back to their villages. Workers get rides to work. Everyone is very trusting of one another. We picked up two college age boys one day on a highway on a 3 hour trip----they didn't speak English-----we don't speak Kurdish. I am so grateful for all those parties of playing Charades through the years. It was kind of ridiculous but here we had these 2 cute guys and we had no idea where to take them! (I did a great job of charades, however!) I told Ken not to do that anymore---too embarrassing. We stopped at a roadside market to buy a few planted flowers. The cute little Kurdish man asked us where we were from and we said America. He said, "AW, America! Isis come and kill many people. America come (he acted out an airplane). They save us. Thank you America!" He wanted to give us the plants for free but we said, "NO! We want to pay." After a lot of effort on our part, we paid for one and he gave us one.

So many people thank us because we are from America. We personally haven't done anything to deserve the thank you's, but many of YOU have. We are so proud to be from America. So proud to be from a country who helps countries in need. Thank you to people like Marc Summers, Doyle Asay, Ossie Soto, Matt Burke, Sam Aston, Joe Aston, Stan Burrows, Steve Zwahlens, Carey Holgate, the many temple workers who have served in the military and the many many others we aren't aware of.. YOU are the Good Samaritans in the world. Thank you for helping these wonderful and kind people of Kurdistan!

We love you all but love the Lord more. If Kurdistan is where the Lord wants us to be, this is where we want to be.

Love and Happy Wishes,

Elder and Sister Asay

Ken and Joyce

Mom and Dad

Grandma and Grandpa

P.S. This is a joke the Kurds love to tell: "When Iraq and Iran play each other in soccer, who wins?" Answer: America!