LONDON!

So, after much diliberation and a lot of planning, Mom, DeAnna and I stepped onto a plane in Salt Lake City that took us to Chicago, got on another plane that took us to Philedelphia and finally, we boarded a plane that brought us to LONDON! AH! I still can't believe that we are here, even though we've been here for since Tuesday!

Yesterday, we went into London to meet up with some friends of mine. We went to so many things! We met them in front of Buckigham Palace, at the Victoria Memorial Statue.

(Buckingham! Note the crowds!)

(Victorian Memorial)

I told them 10:30am, although we didn't get there till around 11. Never, ever, ever ever have someon meet you by the Victoria Memorial between the hours of 10am and 12 noon!! The reason for this is because the Changing of the Guard occurs at 11am, and there are HUNDREDS of people EVERYWHERE! Luckily, our friends, Em and Cath are very tall, so we could see them easily. We waited and saw the changing of the guard, because we were already there, and because we couldn't really get out! The bobbies (police) were directing traffic, but mostly holding it as the band and the new set of guards came down the street.

Eventually we got out, and made our way up the Mall past St. James' Park. It was a pretty walk and I had to pinch myself a couple times because I still couldn't believe we were in London

(View of Big Ben through the lawn chairs)

(DeAnna and I in a telephone booth)

(In front of the Trafalgar Square Statue)

We walked to Trafalgar Square and went inside the National Gallery, an art gallery that holds art from some of the most famous painters alive! We saw paintings by Renoir, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Monet! When we waked in to the room with the Monet paintings, I was floored to see his painting of the bridge over his lily pond! I love that painting! I seriously sat and stared at it for 5 minutes! This is the real deal! We also saw Van Gogh's painting of sunflowers!

(Right outside the doors of the gallery)

After the National Gallery we decided to grab some lunch...we went across the square to Tesco's and bought some sandwhiches. Then we hopped on a double decker bus that took us right past Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell inside of the clock tower) and the Houses of Parliament. We hopped off by Westminster Abbey and then walked over to the tube (subway) station right under Big Ben. Along our walk we got to stand in the shadow of Big Ben! We got off the tube at Victoria Embankment and ate our lunch in the park.

After we finished lunch we hopped on the tube again to go to Covent Garden.

It is an open air market under the shelter or what appears to be an old train station. There are shops inside and out, and performers everywhere! There are human statues and acrobats, as well as musicians! I bought a scarf there!

We hopped back on the tube to go to the Natural History Museum, where Cath and Em (along with their friend Katie) showed us the giant whale and the giant baby! It was an experience I won't forget!

(The giant whale...and us!)

Too jet lagged today to go out. I'll have another update tomorrow!

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!!