Well, they called me! The application process took several months longer than I thought it would but, about six weeks ago, I finally opened that special packet. Colorado Denver South mission it was. My reaction was basically, "Oh. Yeah that make's sense." Six weeks was a fairly quick turn around but I've been wanting to go for months now so it was the perfect time. Not too soon, not too late.
Preparing has been exciting and occasionally stressful. My farewell talk was well attended but it was right up until the morning of that I finished writing it. I didn't love how it turned out but it was pretty good I guess. You can read ithere.
I have had to learn how to use makeup. Up until about two weeks ago, I had never applied it to any face, including mine. The few times that I've worn makeup was for special occasions and someone else always put it on. It's a work in progress but I've had some great friends who have helped me to get it started. Here's a video of me putting mascara on for the very first time. Like I said, work in progress.
My open house was a lot more fancy than I intended. Me, my mom and another friend just couldn't stop coming up with ideas. I wrote a more detailed post on my food blog. It was basically pinterest perfect. In fact, I put it on pinterest. And that's saying something since I've only been on pinterest maybe 5 times because I don't really like it. Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm telling you that. But yeah, it turned out super cute and I loved it.
It's all been so surreal. This is an event that I've been looking forward to my whole life and now it's here. There's so much hype behind going on a mission but now that I'm here, it just feels normal and right. So yeah, this is my last post for the next 18 months. I plan on emailing weekly updates so if you would like to be on that list, just ask my family for my email. I'm not sure how I'm going to update this blog after a year and a half but I plan on it. See ya soon!
Originally, I was planning on going to EFY at MU. But, with the way my summer schedule turned out, I had to choose a different location. The next closest location was in Nauvoo, Illinois which was a special edition (aka $100 more expensive).
But, backing up a few weeks before, I had commented on a picture on Instagram about which session I was going to. Another girl replied to my comment and said she was going to the second session of Nauvoo too.
Flash forward to when me and roommates were sitting in our room during some free time. I decided to go back and look to see if I had seen or met the girl from Instagram. I found that I had not only met her, but that she was sitting right across the room from me. She was my roommate!
Instead of staying on a college campus like most EFY session do, we stayed in the Nauvoo Family Inn. I shared a hotel room with 6 other girls. We ate breakfast (waffle supreme as seen above) in the hotel dinning room and our other meals down the street in the nearby stake center about a half a mile away. Many of our other activities were held at the stake center so we did a lot of walking. Yes, we walked everywhere except for the day that we did some touring and used tour buses.
I drove to Nauvoo and back with our family friend Kim. I put a lot of hours on my driving permit that way. We got there a little early so we ate lunch at a sandwich shop. Then I headed back over to the hotel to check in. Many of the counselors were there greeting everyone. As I stood in line, one counselor was making an effort to say hello to as many people as possible. He seemed very familiar. In fact, I knew I had met him before. But where? When he got to me, I asked him if he had been a counselor at the KU EFY that I had went to the previous summer. No, that's not where I knew him from. After a few minutes, we finally figured out that he had severed part of his mission in my ward two years before!
I met one of my roommates while I was signing in so we walked to our room together. We met our other roommates and settled in. Then we met our counselors and the other kids in our group. Turns out Jake, the counselor that I'd met before, was going to be one of my counselors.
Here are pictures of the majority of the people in my company. Counselors above, roommates and company friends below.
So, basically what "special edition" means is: we go with the flow because we don't actually really know what todays schedule looks like. Because we weren't on a college campus like most sessions, there had to be changes to the usual schedule due to the special opportunities we had in Nauvoo. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail on this entire event, mostly because I can't remember the day to day schedule, which might be refreshing compared to some of my looong posts. If you want to read a more detailed post about EFY, this is my post from last year.
During the opening orientation, they showed us a video clip of Jimmer Fredette, who they met in the airport.
On the second day, we did a little touring of the town. We walked
through a grove of trees, went to the family living center, the Browning
home & gun shop, and blacksmith shop.
That night we had game night which we played in the field in front of the temple. One of the games was stick pull. All four of my counselors observed Tuck in Tuesday.
Each company came up with their cheers and performed them for the judges. The first one here is my company's and the other video is the top four finalists.
We had pizza night before bed.
The third day was spiritual day (which is usually on Thursday). The main activity was going to the temple for baptisms.
The fourth day was spent touring some more but we had tour buses this time. We went to an old cemetery, Carthage Jail and a few more sites in town.
We also spent some time on the Mississippi River.
The last day was a little more relaxed.
The variety show is always a favorite event. This session had some pretty fun talents.
One of my roommates convinced our entire company to do something. We didn't tell the boys what we were doing until auditions and just told them to follow along to add to the comedy. One of the boys does ballet so his flexibility ended up being pretty useful.
Sorry that there was basically no detail in this post. I guess a simple recap every once in awhile is OK. To finish, here is a compilation of random videos I took of my company and counselors. It'll give you a taste of what it was like to hang out with this cool group of people.
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.
On May 6th, we went to the first of 3 sessions of the temple dedication at the stake center where it was being broadcasted. Nana (my moms mom), who was visiting from Utah, came with our family too. My two youngest siblings were disappointed that they were too young to go. When we got there, there was a video slideshow was going with pictures of many different temples. The cornerstone ceremony was probably my favorite part because president Monson is such a funny person. Every time he asked someone to come up and put some mortar in, he would make a humorous comment. During the dedicatory prayer, the thunderstorm, which had started at about the time that the session had started, caused some problems so that the connection became so bad that the audio and video completely cut out. We miss a good portion of the prayer completely. Thankfully there is a written version of it: ldschurchtemples.com/kansascity/prayer I am simply happy that we have a dedicated temple in this area finally!
I found out that the KC 3rd ward girls were going on an overnight trip to Nauvoo
only a few days before the trip. But I still really wanted to go. So I
called and asked. The answer was yes except for one thing. There weren't
any seats left in any of the cars. So I was put on the waiting list
just in case someone decided that they couldn't go. It wasn't until the
night before that I got a call saying I could go.
So next morning I was in the church parking lot at 6. I was put in the car (er truck) with only 3 seats in the back. So I got to sit with my friends Meagan and Laura all the way there. Brother Stephens (the driver) became everybody's best friend when he let us use his iPads. (Sample in the video below...um way below)
When we got to Nauvoo (about 5 hours away) we stopped at the
Pioneer Pastimes park for lunch and tried walking on stilts, stick pull
(I found out I wasn't too good at it), and bear puppet races or whatever
they are called.
Then we headed over to the visitor center. Everyone signed up for a wagon tour of the town. We all went up and petted the pretty horses before we went on the ride. It was so slow and peaceful I could have fallen asleep.
After the ride the bishop and his family, Laura and I want to the show "High Hopes and River Boats" inside the visitor center. Everyone else went site seeing. The show was pretty funny and I wondered why more people hadn't stayed to watch it. When the show show was over the bishops family disappeared. Laura and I couldn't find anyone. So we sat in the lobby area for a while waiting for everyone to come back. We had no idea where they could be and when the meet up time was so I didn't feel like we should leave. Bad idea. I didn't see any of the sites apart from what I saw from the wagon ride. It wasn't that big of a deal because I've already seen a few of them before but I was still a little bummed. Well anyway, while sitting there the actors from the show came out and sang a couple songs a-capella and we enjoyed it because we weren't doing much else.
Finally a few people we knew came into view. After regrouping everyone headed over to a park for dinner. This whole hoard of carzy teen-aged girls took over the playground. Sometimes its fun to play like kids again.
All any of us really wanted to do was go swimming and take a shower because it was so hot and humid. But with some persuasion the leaders got all of us to one last show called "Sunset on the Mississippi" which is more like a variety show than anything.
Turns out it was fun. When we got there the band was playing and we got up and danced and sang and made fools of ourselves because we were so hyper by then.
This act caught our eye before it had even started. Some of those mustaches were pretty funny looking!
It was a very informal show. Like I said we were pretty crazy. We would make comments on each performance out loud (all nice ones of course). In the below picture the cast was waving so I waved back.
Here is a little overview of what the day looked like. From the car ride to the last show. It kind of skips dinner because I didn't get any footage of that but I guess that's OK.
So finally we got to our hotel and dragged all our stuff in. Then everyone quickly got on their swimsuits. Unfortunately I had no idea that we'd be swimming so I just had to go in clothes. I was so grateful that I had brought extras. When we got back there was the excitement of figuring out where everyone was sleeping. Fitting 14 girls in a 3 bedroom suit is tricky but not impossible. Somehow everyone got a bed to sleep on. And even more amazing I didn't have to share a bed. And the whole time I had been worried that I would have to sleep on the floor.
The next morning I got up early hoping that I might be able to go see something to make up for the previous day of not seeing anything. Unfortunately for me I couldn't find anyone to go with in time before we had to start getting ready to go to the temple.
And one thing I'm grateful for is that at least I got to go to the temple since that is the greatest site of them all. Its such a beautiful place. And even though its only been rebuilt for a few years you can still feel the history inside it. If the pioneers would have built castles this is what they would have looked like. In fact they did build some. And yes. This is what one of them looked like.
After that amazing experience was lunch which we ate at yet another park across the street. During lunch I got my traveling buddies to help me with this skit. Its short and kinda weird but it was all I could come up with.
Yeah anyway I really wish I had come up with more than that...but what ever.
Alright after lunch was load up time. Long story short my friend Emily got left behind by her group. I had traded cars earlier and was now in a suburban with the bishops family so it was a little bigger which meant that we got to squish her into in with us. Yup I had great traveling buddies! Not only 3 of my firends but also these cute little kiddos.
The little guy (well I should probably call him a big guy or else he will be after me for life) didn't really like me for reasons unknown to me and I gave him a hard time about it all the way home. But the little girl is my new best friend. She is so adorable!
