I've wanted to go to EFY since my cousin Andrew came home and told everyone about it back in 2001 when I was 5. I'm not sure how or if I understood what it was but I knew right then that I would go when I was old enough. Unfortunately, the last two summers didn't work out but I was determined I would go so I saved up the money and made it happen and finally this year it did. That $455 was totally and completely worth my money. I won't be able to really explain what its like. I, of course, had heard from other people that had gone other years that it was pretty much the most amazing thing that they'd ever been to, but I doubted and thought "Really? Best thing EVER? Sure...".
I quickly found out that they weren't joking. It really was the best thing of the summer. In fact it was right up there on my list of best things in my life along with the new temple and celebration. Now now, I said with it, not above it. When I got home I tried to convince my brother, who will be old enough to go next year, how awesome it was. He didn't buy it. "You're at church for a week?" he asked, giving me the skeptical look of no return.
"Well, no, not really."
"So what is it then?"
"Ummmm..."
Alright, I guess, basically you have to have been there to fully understand. No it's not church but, yeah, it's about church pretty much the whole time. So I'm not going to try to convince you of its superness because it's a lost cause. You'll just have to see for yourself when you go and if you don't, that's your own fault. If you're too old now, I'm sorry. I'm sure there's something even better for adults, right?
July 30th didn't come fast enough for me. The long, hot summer seemed to drag out. But finally it came and went. This year it was on the KU campus in Lawrence, KS., just an hour away.
I signed in and got my handbook, backpack, room key, meal card etc. and
headed up to my room. Well, first I had to find it. It took me a few
tries before I went down the right hall. When, at last, I found my room,
the door was already open.
A girl, presumably my roommate, was already in there, sitting on
her bed. It hadn't occurred to me until then that I would be sharing my room with a total stranger for a week and here she was. The tall girl looked up, smiled and, as if reading my mind said "Hey, I'm Laura! I guess we'll be spending the week together so we may as well get to know each other." I introduced myself as I started to make my bed. We still had an hour or so before we had to do anything so we just lazed on our beds for awhile and talked.
When the hour was up, we walked down the hall to the designated meeting place. There we met our counselor, Lexie, and the other girls in our company.
We then went outside and met the boys in our company, including our other counselor, Mitchell. We had an hour to get to know each other, make company goals and found out our company name: Not Ashamed. Now it was time for the trek over to the Lied Center which is where all the companies met for orientation and later met for morningside, classes and other activities. After orientation was dinner at Mrs. E's cafeteria where we would eat all our meals. Time to use the meal card! Maybe I'm the only one, but the power of this card made me really happy.
Again, maybe I'm a weirdo, but the food wasn't half bad. I had a lot of fun while eating throughout the week. There were a lot of napkins used to make roses while Alex, one of the
boys in my group, did the disappearing salt shaker trick, also involving a
lot of napkins. Many people quickly found out that the Orange-Mango-Passionfruit juice was the best and you always got an ice cream cone after every meal on your way out of the dinning hall. After dinner was FHE, because it was Monday of course. Our session directer, brother Boyle, gave the lesson and then each group went outside and played some games.
It was now time to get ready for bed, which ultimately meant all the girls going to each others rooms and hanging out for an hour. But when we did decide to take a shower and brush our teeth we quickly found the the bathroom was usually a men's room. A little awkward but I just found it funny. Right before lights out, each counselor gave a devotional to their group. Lexie's devotionals were always wonderful no matter how tired we were.
In the morning Lexie gave another devotional to us girls after which we had gospel study with our entire company where we had another spiritual thought from one of our counselors and then did a little personal study by ourselves. After breakfast and yet another devotional from brother Boyle it was time for classes. The classes I chose were Friendship-Its About Time, Suit Up for the Savior, Hard Times Don't Get Easier and Finishers Wanted. I won't going into details about them but you can probably guess what they were about. After the first two classes was lunch which I had to hurry through because I decided I wanted to be in the musical program that would be on Thursday and the practice was as soon as you were finished with lunch. The perk of that was that I was aloud to cut to the front of the line! Unfortunately I'm the slowest eater in the world so, even rushing, I still got to the practice really late. After the two other classes was free time but there was another music practice for me instead. We were mostly just singing hymns and Arise which many of us had learned from the temple celebration so I felt like I didn't really need to practice this much but I still went. It was fun in it's own way even if I was tired and just wanted to take a nap during free time.
After dinner was a dance which we had to be bussed to because the building with the ballroom was pretty far away, but still on campus. It was a bit crowded and too short in my opinion. When it was over we rode back and did the usual bed time routine.
After waking up, we went to the same 3 morning devotionals, breakfast and then the Preach My Gospel
activity. The day was mainly focused on missionary work so we learned
how to use Preach My Gospel, give a missionary discussion etc. I spent some more time at music rehearsals during lunch and free time. When dinner was over, each company worked on their cheer and banner. It was soon determined that it was too hot outside and therefore we would not be able to do the regularly scheduled game night. Instead, we would be extending our cheers into skits. That was fine by me. I love doing skits! We didn't have much time to plan so our banner didn't turn out great. Our skit on the other hand placed in the top 3 when they were judged. There were also contests as to who had the best British accent, pickup lines etc. Here is our skit and the contests.
After all that it was only time for more excitement! Pizza night anyone? After chilling in the hall with boxes of pizza for an hour or so it was time for bed.
Thursday was the "Sunday dress" day. Probably the day I was looking forward to the least but it turned out to be my favorite day. After the normal morning drill we split up into girl/boy groups, first by company, then by everyone. In our company group we discussed The Living Christ statement. That's when the tears started flowing. For the rest of the day most everyone's eyes were a least moist if not gushing. In the larger group, brother Boyle talked about the role of women. After lunch we had a short music rehearsal and then went into the auditorium for the variety show.
Music rehearsal was right after that, some time to eat dinner, and one last music dress rehearsal. My voice was getting a bit scratchy by now. The choir sat down for a few minutes as everyone else came in reverently and was seated. When everyone was settled we, the choir, went and found our place on the stage and sang the program after which another devotional was given by brother Boyle. Each company was then assigned a place to meet where we had a testimony meeting together. I cried then and just when I thought I was out of tears, I cried during counselor devotional that night too. Between crying and singing all day I was pretty tired.
Friday was more of a lighthearted day. It just so happened that it was Mitchell's birthday! His name for the day was Papa Bear Mitchell Birthday Cat, and he made it known to everyone that it was his day. During morning gospel study our company got donuts. All day, every time he walked by, everyone in the area would start singing happy birthday. All. Day. Even he got tired of it after awhile. Being carried down the stairs was probably one of the scarier perks of the day...
The activity of the morning was FSOY or For the Strength of Youth. We spent 2 hours going to 15 minute classes
of our choosing about each of the standards addressed in the FSOY
pamphlet. After lunch was the service project which was basically just
getting instruction on the missionary handouts (pass along cards, Books
of Mormon etc) that we were given. During free time, which I finally got
to enjoy, most of our company and Shea (one of the BCs) went to the little cafe
in our area that served smoothies. They were pretty good but I didn't
eat much at dinner because I was so full. We had a few minutes to take pictures with our company before we headed over to the buses for the dance.
As we got ready, Mitchell thanked everyone for being so considerate as to attending to his birthday dance party. At the end of the dance, which was definitely too short, we watched a slideshow of pictures from the last few days and this video (below) that many of us helped with. Our company is in the first shot. Some closing remarks were given by brother Boyle and we all bussed back to the dorms where each company had their last devotional together and said official goodbyes since we might not see some people the next morning.
In the morning I mournfully packed up, said goodbye to everyone I saw and went home. But I surprisingly kept a good attitude and, for at least a few days, I was completely happy and nothing could wipe the smile off my face.
First up, girls camp. It was that week that the temperatures really started rising. Although it was only mid June, the 18-22nd, it was already hitting the high 90s. Basically, we were very, very warm all week. The YCLs, youth camp leaders (16 & 17 year olds), got to camp late Monday morning. We were there to help set up camp, but the girls in my ward didn't do a whole lot for a few hours because our tents and boxes weren't getting there until later that evening. By mid afternoon everyone was just trying to survive the heat so we all ended up mingling in the air-conditioned dinning hall for a few hours and helping with small jobs that we could do inside. A few of us ended up taking naps too. Our camping gear was finally brought up so us KC1 girls set up camp.
We
had pizza for dinner and then went back outside to set up the first
activity that we would be presenting when the rest of the girls got
there later that night. This activity was about spreading your light. As the girls arrived, about 9pm, a set of YCLs would take a group through a small part of the forest, leading them with only a flashlight while it got progressively lighter as they walked. They reached a pathway lined with nightlights, then tiki torches and finally the opening with light everywhere.
In the morning, the YCLs needed to go get the girls in their group. For our 4th years (I was a 4th year leader) we dressed up as limo drivers and called them out of the dinning hall after bearkfast. It was time to get right on the big project of the, now famous, glowstick dance. Guess what song we did it to this year. Yes the one and only: What Makes You Beautiful. Sorry 1D fans, but I got sick of the song pretty fast.
With the exception of eating, this task of course took up most of the day. Every year this performance gets bigger & better and we weren't about to disappoint. Somewhere in there we were also able to work on our skit which was preformed after dinner.
After rehearsing a few more times, we began to tape the glow sticks onto everyones dark sweatsuits. As I mentioned before, it was unbearably warm in the first place. Wearing these outfits were completely and utterly uncomfortable even though the sun had set awhile before. It was still worth it.
The third day of camp was all about celebrating 100 years of YW camp.
The big activity of the day was the walkabout. The 4th years were in charge of leading the 1st years on this fun hike. First we gathered everybody to get their faces painted like aboriginal people. Well that was the idea.
Each 1st year was given a walking stick that they were going to decorate along the way. Every few minutes we would stop at a check point and find decorative
objects like ribbons, beads and stickers that had been placed along the path to put on the sticks. Each
object was a symbol of some gospel topic or principle.
After lunch we had a culture activity where we listened to some speakers and learned about three different countries. Brazil, Korea and the islands.
During free time we had a photoshoot. Here are the YCLs.
4 Years and the YCLs!
And some friend who were willing to take more pictures with me.
Now it was time to get ready for the birthday party! Yes, we threw a party for YW camp. Our families were even invited. My mom and siblings came (dad had to work). Almost all the YW participated. The story of the first camp was told, there was singing and a whole lot of dancing. The Polynesian girls did a few of their dances, the 4th years did the golwstick dance again, but without the glowsticks this time (lame, I know), the YCLs did an interpretative dance to Call Me Maybe (another song I am sick of, sorry guys!).
The 2nd Years also did an interpretative dance to our theme hymn: You Can Make the Pathway Bright.
Thursday we were in charge of our own lunch by level. We started on that soon after breakfast. The 4th years went all out and prepared a multicultural meal in dutch ovens. Rice, beans, veggies, meat and dessert all prepared from recipes from different countries.
During free time we got a visit from a water slide like last year. After mustering up the energy to walk through the sweltering heat across the field to where it was set up, it was worth it to cool down. I also made an ice candle which was one of the crafts.
Our ward was also privileged to watch this comedy provided by KC3 leaders:
It was ward night now. The bishopric and other ward leaders came and ate dinner with us. Each ward had been assigned a country and was supposed to make a dish from that country to contribute to the dinner. We were Norway so we provided Norwegian "reindeer" stew and apple strudel. This is a picture of the lemonade booth. There were different flavors to choose from that you squirted into the lemonade.
After dinner we had our entertainment of the night. A dance off between the FP & KC3 leaders. It was one of my top favorite parts of camp this year.
I passed off the theme hymn and signed my name on the sheet.
Now it was time for the spiritual part. Bishop gave us a little devotional about shining our light after which was testimony meeting. All the wards set up their chairs in the big field and watched a little skit about Joseph Smith and the 3rd Years sung their song "Testimony" that they had written. Although I didn't get a video of them right then, here is a recording someone else took earlier that day.
I was just getting semi used to the heat when the next morning we packed up and left after breakfast. Hello air conditioning!
And then there was Youth Conference. It was only one day this year, which made me sad. But after the temple celebration, the leaders were plumb tuckered out so they didn't have as much time to work on it.
The day began with games with the longest lasting one being jump rope. We were then split into groups and put onto school bus. Each group was sent to a different rest home where we talked and listened to the people who lived there. At the very end we went to the dinning room and sang a few songs. When we got back to the stake center, we ate lunch and then went to a few classes. I chose to go to a dating panel, a life decisions panel and career choices. The last class that everyone went to was about the temple. Then it was dinner time, which went faster than expected so there was some much needed down time to rest.
Marta, our Spanish foreign exchange student, along with two other Spanish students who were there, quickly made friends with some other girls who speak Spanish.
While waiting for the dance to to start, a long game of limbo was played. The dance was really fun with two other stakes, Warrensburg and Olathe.
