Arise and Shine at EFY

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.

If you want to see the rest of the skits here is the playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL459C32CFA4D6FE38&feature=view_all

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.