i'm ready to go.... for it!

So here it is. I am finally posting my week as an EFY counselor. I have gotten many reminders that i need to post about it, but i've been so caught up with getting back into the swing of things i have not had time to! But i can't even began to explain how much i loved efy as a counselor... one word. AMAZING. Seriously it was the most incredible experience i have ever had. It was just fun being on the other side and seeing kids come to efy mad and not really there and then BAM they leave not wanting to leave and such a happier person. I know that so many lives changed that week and it was fun to be there to witness it happen. I could write a very long detailed blog about each day but i will just give the highlights from the week:

me and all my girls!

Tuesday: dance day!
every morning we have a participant devotional which i assign two girls to teach to the group, after that we meet as a company (another group of girls, and a group of boys) and do scripture study. Then we meet with everyone for the Morningside taught by our amazing session directors. Next were some sweet classes. Later that night was the dance! Ha ha i think i had more fun at that dance then the kids. During the dance they had a "dance off" for the kids. But first they decided to do the counselor dance off... um ya. All counselors had to participate and if you got tapped on the shoulder you got to move onto the next round. Well i just decided i didn't care and i was going to have fun with it, and i did. I made it the next round and had to go out and show what i can do, alone. I don't even remember what i did but after my girls were like... teach me how to do that! Ha it was funny. And after that was the nightly counselor devotionals taught by me, scripture study/journal time, and a prayer meeting. It was such a crazy long first day but so much fun!

doing the conselor dances!

cute little door tags i made for my girls

Wednesday: game day!
There were more good classes and after dinner we had time to meet with our company and prepare our banner and cheer for the games and cheer off! Our group is called no temptations so they came up with a fun cheer to the tune of a bunch of different songs. It was cute. We played some of the funnest games and then after was time for the cheer off and ice cream! It started raining but everyone was having too much fun to let the rain bring us down.

kahili, lindsey, and kenna

mel, keapo, and bronte

Thursday: testimony day!
We split off into young men and young women for a lesson. Our lesson was taught by natalie norton and it was about the living christ. It was so good! We then had a lesson taught by her husband richie, again way good! After was lunch and then the variety show. The variety show, otherwise known as a talent show, was amazing. I knew it would be because there is so much talent in hawaii. There were some amazing voices, dances, funny songs, this crazy dance with hoops(video to come), one of my girls drew a picture on a chalkboard with both of her hands, and of course they did the haka!!! After was the musical program, everyone sounded amazing and it really brought the spirit in. We then had dinner and then was the fireside where we sung the medley. Those of you know know this medley will know its so pretty and you can always feel the spirit so strong. I of course cried. I always do. Then it was time for testimony meeting. I always loved testimony meetings at efy because the spirit is so strong, well not this time. We had some obnoxious boys in ours that kept giving high fives and making little remarks. My girls were very frustrated that they said they had i hard time feeling the spirit. I felt horrible so i cut my devotional short that night and had a devotional with my own group. It was a lot better than earlier and i got time to tell them my testimony and how much my girls have strengthened me that week.

kelsey, me, syb

have you ever seen a bigger apple?
Everyone tried to make me eat the whole thing, i couldn't do it, it made me so full
so i passed it around the table.

Friday: banquet day!
the session director taught a great lesson about dating and after we had a for strength of youth activity. We paired up as counselors and taught some fun lessons on the subjects in the for strength of youth pamphlet. Me and tyson taught sabbath day observance. It went really well! After that was a taking it home lesson teaching the youth how to apply what they have learned here at efy into their daily lives. After was the service activity where we made beanies for those in need in cold countries. Next was the banquet and pictures slash address exchange. And then... another dance! This dance was not nearly as fun as the first one but still lots of fun. Since it was the last day me and a bunch of counselors had a big pizza party with our girls!

kenna, mel, melanie, and me at the banquet.

Saturday: little goodbyes :(
i hate saying goodbyes. This morning was so hard. I grew to become best friends with my girls and its sad knowing that you might not see eachother anymore. We had the best week ever and we will never forget it!

saying goodbye to kahili :(

me, kahili, haley, lindsey, and jake.

After everyone checked out we had a meeting with the counselors and we went around telling some experiences that happened in our groups this week. It was so fun hearing what an impact everyone had on the youth. Then we blasted the efy cd! It was sad saying goodbye to them too. But most of us weren't leaving yet so we went to the beach! And then we all drove up to honolulu and ate at the cheesecake factory for dinner yum! All of the counselors are so much fun. We were all so comfortable with eachother so we were joking around and had a blast!! Sherrie who worked behind the scenes at EFY but did soooo much told us that she has been to so many efy's and not once has she seen counselors bond like we did. We will all be best buds for life. And a lot will be in provo this fall for school so im so excited to get to see everyone again!! I had such an amazing time in hawaii and i will never forget what an impact it made on my life!!! Shaka with a flare! EFY for life!! haha

counselors in yellow.
Session directors, coordinators, and BC's in blue.

counselors at the beach. Yep we did the EFY cheer.

the gang at cheesecake! Yep we did the EFY cheer here too.