June 23, 2012





 I am pretty much the luckiest girl in the world to spend part of my summer being an EFY counselor. SO. MUCH. FUN. Like 10 times funner than going as a participant, and those were pretty fun times.

The first week me and Nathan were co's....And we rocked it. First week ever for both of us, so our motto was 'fake it til ya make it'...Our kids thought we were the coolest ever. (Did we ever get in trouble?....lets just say I didn't keep track of how many things we even did wrong day 1 haha..)Nothing to build up your confidence like hanging out with 14 year olds:)

I had a fantastic group of girls, and loved the boys too. One of the things I realized very first is how much love and concern you can feel for a group of people you hardly even know. I feel like a mom being with them all week!

Some things from the life of EFY....
Monday check in (you can always tell who wants to be there and what 15 year old boy is being dragged along by their mom...huge contrast from when they will leave on Saturday), meet your group (both weeks so far all my girls have come alone which I love), meet the company (with the usual segregation and awkward looks at each other that hopefully goes away by day 2 or 3), orientation (I really think all the kids are kinda freaked out how crazy some of the counselors dance and when they realize what they are getting in to), waking up way too early (well at least that's supposed to happen, unless the I just happened to sleep through all my alarms and miss part of a meeting...oops), morning participant devotionals (it's awesome the girls get an opportunity to teach each other), starting out the day at the lovely Morris Center (who decided it's ok to serve donuts at every meal and fermented tasting pineapple...like school lunch all over), morningside devotionals (the first week Brother Anderson was the session director, he is INCREDIBLE! That guy tells stories and talks like no one I have ever met. Lucky for me he is in my stake presidency too:), classes, lunch duty (guess someones got to be the one to guard the potties and make sure no children wander off), a dance! (whether it's being on passion patrol, making boys actually ask girls to dance, or doing the ever-so-famous pb&j dance it's a fantastic night), sharing the gospel activity (they learn to teach little lessons from preach my gospel. I was initially skeptical about a room full of 15 year olds doing this, but it is incredible to see when they take it seriously and power that is there as they share their testimonies and basic truths of what we believe. At testimony meeting people often share experiences and what they felt as they taught, so I know it is soo beneficial), game night (it wouldn't be game night and cheer off without a remember-the-titans type cheer, in a circle, and the haka. And ever group thinks they are so original in coming up with it...:), pizza night! (yummm. First week Dominos was late to deliver, so we waited. And waited. And an hour and half later they showed up. But our order wasn't there. So we waited some more. And then they gave us some random pizza. Not how pizza night is supposed to go), young women/young men activity (this year we talking about The Living Christ), variety show (I got to be a judge and do auditions one week...so much fun!), musical program (love. this. part.), testimony meeting (it's incredible to see how much people grow and change in just a few days.), more dancing (all pride goes out the window during these....), taking pictures (one week I layed down the rule....we were not going to use 20 different cameras when everyone can just get it off FB. Not my favorite part of the week...), friday night lockdown (sit in the hallway until the wee hours of the night, waiting for everyone to shut up and go to sleep. But let's be honest....they don't sleep.  Knowing they aren't going to run away, I usually just go to bed eventually. I know, bad counselor.)

3 comments:

  1. Okay random question. What is Nathan's last name because I swear I know him from somewhere and I seriously cannot remember where. Thanks!

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