Having our first Young Womens activity in our small branch!

By Kesley Pope
  
 A couple weeks ago we planned our very first Young Women's activity! When we first started talking about "young women's activities" they had no idea what that it was! It was my time to be a mini missionary! I was able to explain what you usually do and can do for activities! They were so interested in it!
     The upcoming sunday we were deciding what we should do for our activity. We had all sorts of ideas like, bowling, going to see a movie, going to get ice cream ect. Then one of our girls came up with an idea to go visit the less active members in the village (thats where all the girls live) I thought that was a great idea! Our final decision was to make home made cookies for these girls that were un-active in the church!

  That following Saturday Tasha and I made these really yummy cookies! We were all going to meet at the Kindergarten in the village. I was kinda scared cause I have never really seen a village before only in pictures! So I was nervous. To be honest me and Tasha thought no one was going to come! We thought it was just going to be us. We are driving there and I was so excited! We get to the elementary and one of our girls were there with the Young Women's president! We are waiting for the girls its been like 20 min or so! Then we see them come through the gate! All the girls were right there! It made me so happy that they all could make it!
     We start to walk towards the village its sooo hot outside like at least 90 degrees! They keep asking
"Are you okay? Do you need to rest?" Me and Tasha say no but secretly we are dying!! We get to the first girls house! And of course... She's not there! The family says give her 40 mins she will be back home soon! Ugh thats soo long! It was so hot also! I left the house and I went to play with the kids they were so cute oh my goodness! Finally the girl came back to the house and she was so happy to see us! She started to cry she says " I didn't know you guys really cared about me that much!" it was so cute! We gave her the cookies and she was just so thankful it was adorable!
     We start walking to the next girls house and we have seriously been walking for hours! Its killing Tasha and I. All the girls are so used to it! Its amazing! We get to the next girls house! She was really cute and kind! We got to share some thoughts with her and she was so happy and she says " I wont disappoint you ill be at church tomorrow!" - Next day at church I was able to bare my testimony in sacrament about what we did and how grateful I was to be able to do that activity! It was a unforgettable experience!

Missionary split #2

By Porter Fairbourne

While my cousins were here, Adam, Johnny, Josh and I went on splits with the missionaries. We were  first dropped off at the missionaries' house to study the scriptures.  After studying for an hour we left and started to walk.  We walked on dirt roads filled with trash and goats. We walked for about 20 minutes until we got to our first house and it turns out that they were not there.  So we walked about 10 minutes to our next house.  We went to this community of connected houses and so we walked in. This house was a nicer house.  It has good couches and a TV.  We taught a 30 minute lesson on the gospel and then we went next door.  There was a young lady and she was really new to the religion and so we just went over the introduction of the Book of Mormon. Then we  met up with Adam and Josh and so we headed to get on tuk tuk.
Then we remembered Troy gave us four Book of Mormon's to give out.  So before we left we had to give them out.  So we stopped these two guy and we told them what we were doing and what our religion is about and they were not interested. So we had to try again.  I saw another guy across the street looking at us.  I walked to this guy and  I told him about our religion and the Book of Mormon and he asked, "is this true?"   I looked straight into his eyes and said "yes, this is 100 percent true" and I said "I want you to read this book and pray about it and if you fill something inside of you will know this book is true."
Then after that every one gave out there books and we started for the tuk tuk's.  When we got there we waited for 10 min for Adam and Elder Kakarie.  Then we met the rest of the family at a beach restaurant.  It was a awesome day. 

MY COUSINS CAME TO KENYA

By Alta Fairbourne

I was so pleased when I figured out some of my cousins were coming to Kenya, including some of my friends. I missed them so much that it made me so exited and happy when I saw them pull in to one of  my favorite restaurants, Makuti Grill. They came in a big white van.  We then celebrated by eating chapati, beans, rice, cabbage, fish, chicken, and lots of soda and juice. They seemed so tired but really excited to there with us. Later that day (after we had a big lunch) everyone was so tired we tried to wake them up by going swimming. They said that they loved it so far they said it was like Hawaii, but then I told them about Kenya's government and what its like to be poor. Then they really got the taste of what really Kenya's like. The next morning we had a big breakfast with me not tired because I didn't have to wake up at 6:00 to ride a hour long bus ride to school. That day we went to the beach. It was everyone's first time (except my brothers and I).The beach was beautiful but it was super windy and the sand whipped our skin hurting a lot but it was all worth it. We headed down to the ocean and one of my cousins Adam fell into a hole in the wet sand and realized it was some sort of spring it went really deep down and it looked as if we had no legs. When we went home everyone seemed to really enjoy the beach and they wanted to come back.  On Thursday my brother,  Johnny--my friend, Josh--my friend, and Adam--my cousin all got to go with the Kenyan missionaries to teach the gospel.  I was so jealous even though I knew would not end up having fun anyway. It was a long day until we went to lunch at Yules. The next day they left for the village I was kind of sad I didn't get to go but they came back on Saturday saying, "I didn't like it but I didn't hate it" or "it was a great experience for me" and "it was very hot and I didn't like the food, but the kids were super cute they sung a ton but could be very annoying like when they wouldn't stop holding my hand or when they jumped on me and pulled my hair." The next day was church and they had brought a notes from someone in America for some of the kids in my primary.  They were so excited that they got a note.  For the rest of the lesson they were writing a note back to them. Some of the notes said things like; God bless your soul, I love you, you are my best friend now, etc. The next morning we had to say goodbye again.  I hate goodbyes.  I wish that everyone I love could come live in Kenya with us.