EFY 2009 Begins!!!!

Oh! I have spent the last two weeks glorisously working at efy! It has been a huge blessing, and also a ton of fun! But it has seemed more like 2 months than 2 weeks! Each week is beautiful...

It seems like I have never left efy. On my first week back it seemed like i had just had a wonderful week off and came right back to it! Except that I have grown A LOT since last summer!

Madeline (one of my co-cos from last year, and a BC this year) and I were talking about that tonight. This summer is a lot different because of who I am now.

Okay, so recap for week one....
I was assigned to amazing co-counselors, Spencer, Ryan and Stephanie! I was so hyped to be with them! Then, about 11pm on sunday night I got

a phone call saying that I was being moved to a different building, that I would have a new co and that I had all new girls!!! Two girl counselors had been unable to make it to work the week, so I ended up getting their girls! I had 16 total, all to myself!

It was insanity, but at the same time I worked really hard to know

each of

them and to spend time with them. They are amazing young women! Each is fighting her

own battle, and, hopefully winning it! I had a girl who gained a testimony of prayer and the love

that her Heavenly Father has f

or her. It was a wonderful, touching moment. There were some difficult moments as well through the week, but thanks to the Lord and Jessica and Aaron's wonderfu

l team, I was able to make it thr

ough in one piece!

Our session director, Brother Searle, was also incredible! He and his wife were so focused on working with the youth!

Week 2......

I was so excited to only have 10 girls this week! I rem

ember last year that I thought that was a lot of girls! No longer..... :D The apartments we stayed in for the week made a world of difference in our devotionals and in how much time I was able to spend with my girls. Devotionals were 100 times better in the living room of the apartments than in the dorm halls!!! I felt that focus was a lot better than it has been. So that is a plus to the apartments! They do have some negative aspects, but for the most part they do just fine :D My girls were wonderful this week!! I was very impressed on monday night when we got back the apartment and they started talking about modesty...having a real discussion on it! I felt like I was going to pass out! They were amazing! Brother Rob

ley was our session director and was he amazing! I felt that he really worked hard to be with the youth and reach out to them. But he also reached out to the counselors as well! One other highlight

, I got to sing a song from the efy cd to 800 people! I wa

s grateful to have the opportunity to bear my testimony through song! The song is titled "I Will".

Melissa, Colby and I!

Brother Robley!

Week 3...

Begins in 2o hours!!!!

Where Heaven Meets the Earth.

After about 6 months of battleing cancer, my dear daddy passed away this saturday, at 8am. He was admitted to the hospital on friday afternoon after passing out at home. He regained consciousness and my mom called the paramedics. The doctors said that he had thrown a blod clot, so they took him into emergency surgery to place a screen in the main artery that came from his legs, to stop the blood clots from entering his lungs. I was in Provo taking finals at the time, so I rushed up to Logan to see him and the family. I was able to be there before they took him in for surgery, and our little family had a prayer together. He made it out of surgery just fine, and then they placed him in a room. We stayed for a little while, but when it looked like he was stable, I decided to head back down to take my next final in the morning. I hugged him good-bye and walked out the door. I felt bad for leaving, but I wanted to get that last final out of the way so that I could just spend time with my family. On my way down in the morning, I called my brother to see how dad was doing...and got to tell my dad that I loved him. He was in a lot of pain. 15 minutes later, he passed away. I feel so blessed to have been able to talk to him before he passed, and even though I found out about his passing sitting alone in an Institute parking lot, I was still comforted. 

   A lot of thoughts are running through my head right now. I feel sad because he will never be here to see me leave on my mission, see my wedding, or my children, or to give me a father's blessing. I will miss him so much. Yet, I am reminded of the beautiful, eternal covenants that my parents made when they were married for all eternity in the temple. My father kept those covenants, and I can be a peace concerning our reuniting. He will be my daddy forever. Nothing will ever be able to take that away, as long as I live my life the best that I can. I'm thankful for Heavenly Father's gracious plan of....happiness :D. It truly is. 

  I feel a lot of peace. There are moments where I am struck with the realization that he won't be here. The morning after I woke up and thought "Who will squich all of the spiders?". I don't like spiders crawling in my room and I always called daddy to come squish them for me. Or, "Who is going to eat that strawberry ice cream? Because none of us girls will touch it". It's the funny, small things that remind me of him. Today it was my FAFSA. Daddy always took care of that stuff, and he did all of it but the last little bit....and it was so frustrating. I missed him.

  But, one of the rare blessings, is that I get to take my dad one my mission with me. How many people get to do THAT?

Efy Counselor Thoughts

Alright, so it's about time that I posted about efy.....

To start out with, I was an efy counselor last year. Efy (or Especially For Youth) is a program that helps teenagers come together to be with friends of their own age, standards and religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or the Mormons). They come for a week and get to experience a fun, spiritual week!

As a counselor, it was my job to teach and love each of these precious youth. I think that doing efy was the best thing that I have ever done in my life. These youth.....they are so good, so wonderful, and so amazing. They have many challenges to face, and I know that they face them with faith. I had such a beautiful summer teaching...though I think I learned more than I ever taught! It was 8 weeks of beautiful bliss and blisters!!

I reapplied to be a counselor this year, and 6 weeks after my interview I was given contracts!!! So far I have 4, which I am very grateful for! I cannot wait. Seriously, I can't!! I'm so excited for it! To be in the presence of such wonderful youth and to be able to teach....I love teaching. There truly is no greater call than to teach. But more than teaching, I love to watch the youth discover the principles that I am teaching. I try to ask questions of them, make them search deep inside for the answers, so that they are comfortable in searching, comfortable in sharing, and comfortable in doing.

One of the greatest things about efy is the (almost) immediate love that I feel for each of the girls entrusted to my care. For some, it came the moment I met them. For others, I learned to love them. I felt God's love for His daughters. I was so grateful for that blessing. It was so easy to love them!

EFY is amazing. I'm so glad that I have been able to be a counselor and that I will be a counselor again this summer!!!

6 weeks and counting!!

What I Have Learned...March 2008-March 2009

My friend challenged me to make this list! Now, make one of your own!

What I Have Learned, March 2008-March 2009

• I have learned that stressing gets you nowhere...except towards a bigger headache.
• Life is always better when you have a Jamba in your hand.
• Never use a plastic utensil in hot grease.
• Family is more important than anything else you have going on. Always.
• a^2 + b^2 =c^2 Thank you Pythagoras.
• If you aren't feeling happy, go serve someone. It's a natural anti-depressant.
• Never let your passions over rule your head. Never let your head over rule your passions. Balance them!
• Don't make the Spirit tell you more than once to do anything
• Miracles can happen
• Being an EFY Counselor is hard work, harder than anything I've ever done...but the experience was worth more to me than the what I put into it and sacrificed.
• Be nice. Everyone is fighting a hard battle.
• Wear good shoes. And don't wear the same pair every day.
• Running, jumping and chasing teenagers will cause shin splints.
• Sprinklers are heavenly in the middle of August.
• Never take more than 16 credits a semester
• Never take a class before 8 o'clock am.
• Don't take any kind of flack from people. Stand your ground.
• Remember to smile, even when no one is looking. It will make you feel better.
• Every problem on the earth could be solved if people weren't obese (courtesy of Health Professor)
• Listen to music before falling asleep at night.
• Don't let your best friend leave on his mission without calling him and telling him good-bye
• Focus more on others than on yourself
• Don't unload on people. Usually their load is bigger than yours.
• Try to be as helpful as you can, at home, in class, at work.
• If someone is asking you for money, it's because they need it. Don't turn them away!
• Eat an apple instead of candy
• EFY Polos do not look good on anyone.
• Quitting a job is okay.
• God is really good at His job, so, let Him do it!
• Don't be so worried about things. Everything works out in the end
• When you get anxious about homework being due, or having a test, relax. Usually the professor doesn't show up on that day.
• Don't tell everyone your life story.
• Try not to drive the same way to work and school every day. It will make you crazy.
• Skip class just for the sake of skipping class. But don't do it too often.
• Stand up for what you believe in, even if it's under attack and you are the only one who will fight back. (Courtesy Ethics and Values class)
• Only take classes from professors who give 30%+ of their class A's (courtesy pickaprof.com)
• Being in a wheelchair is rough business. Don't do it unless you really have to. And then, love every moment and try and find the good in it.
• Always respect everyone, able or disabled, kind or unkind, different or the same.
• Always follow a prompting.
• Let everyone know how much you care about them.
• Never leave a question unanswered.
• Listen to what people are saying, don't just brush them off
• Dream big.
• Sing like no one is listening.
• Be curious!
• Learn enthusiastically
• Thank the bus drivers :D
• Live with no regrets...if you have regrets, fix them!

love, Anne