Kendra

Kendra Mayer was born 11 July 1981 in "the house on Laurel Lane" in Oregon City where her mother still resides.

Although she had some initial health problems, she's grown into a healthy young lady!

Ever-smiling and always ready to have her hands busy doing something, she has developed into a woman of many talents who loves to serve others and does so frequently. Like her siblings, she attended from preschool through highschool in Oregon City. Her best subjects were friendship and fun!

Being such a fun person to be with afforded her many opportunities. Such as attending TWO Senior Proms. She also attended Prom while attending BYU. Dancing and socializing are favorites.

Kendra and Natalie won a contest for the best Fruit bowl salad at an institute Luau. Just one of many fun-time memories together.

Below they are shown at a beach clean-up. One of many service related projects in which Kendra gets involved.

Photo above is BYU prom dress with sister Polly. Below is Kendra at Polly's wedding. Polly lives in Provo, Utah with husband, Erik Carlson.

A service project done for her church Laurel achievement was helping the community to collect and fill 1000's of shoeboxes as school kits for shipment to 3rd World Countries.

Recognizing the needs of underprivileged children gave Kendra impetus for other endeavors. As well as going to Costa Rica as an exchange student during a high school summer, Kendra has been able to travel to Russia with a BYU group. She spent five months there teaching English to kindergarten age children. It was a very rewarding and exciting experience for her.

Even Best Friends have things come between them occasionally. Natalie was married in the Portland Temple in 1999

The people she met and served were the best part of the entire experience. The children were eager and friendly. The other teachers worked well and enjoyed their free time together.

They rushed briefly out into the cold at a train stop in Samara to take this picture before Kendra froze into an ice statue forever!

As you can tell from the above photos, the snow gets DEEP in parts of Russia!

Another Russian Host family; Dustin (paplito), Mom, Alfia and Diana. It was fun for Kendra to actually live with a family while she was in Ufa .

Lots of souvineers made it home as gifts and treasured memories.

Now Kendra is off on another adventure as she returns to further her education, currently at BYU Idaho.

Back in the USA! Goldengate Bridge with school chums Camille and Jenny. Good to be home, but missing those sweet kids!

Dustin, Kendra, Kelsey, Angela and Laurel on the rooftop of a teacher's home. The girls are huddled in the snow above.

Whoops! This was taken back in Russia. Kendra with her host mom and sister, Diana above; and on the Utah Lake back in the USA with stepbrother, Nathan.

Kendra returned from Russian to live at home for a few months working and going to Clackamas Community College before being accepted and going to BYU Idaho after Christmas. She is loving her experience there for now.

As of January 2003, the plan is to head back to Russia as soon as the Visa's come through. Kendra will be teaching again and this time it will be a paid employment opportunity! She is very excited and will be gone for the next eight months, with a full knowledge of the bitter cold winter that will be in store for her. But, as always, she's packed that warm smile that will keep her moving through life and warming up the place wherever she goes.

Kendra had another great stay in Russia as a teacher supervisor. She was there for almost five months and was able to visit with her previous host family as well as seeing some of her previous students. It was another wonderful experience for her and has further inspired her decision to try to serve a mission for her church.