EFY, had me a BLAST!!

Steady and Sure was the theme for this years EFY program and that is exactly what my girls were!! For those of you who don't know what EFY is, it stands for Especially For Youth!! It's a week long church camp for youth ages 14 to 18. They get to got to talks by amazing teachers (Brad Wilcox was one of them this year), do service projects, have dances, go to banquets, play games, have a talent show (which was called the variety show), make up a cheer, do a banner for their company and so much more!! I was a counselor, which means I was in charge or 12 girls and making sure that they participated, were safe, and having a BLAST!! My age group was 16 to 18 year olds!! We were in a company with one other group of 10 girls and 2 groups of boys (6 in one and 10 in the other)!! We had the BEST group!! They were all so into it and so accepting of each other and just having a good time!! I was soo proud of them because for a few days we had a 13 year old in our group (his brother was originally in our group so they threw him in with us) and our company took it in stride and totally accepted him and made him feel welcome. When they told him he was being moved to a younger group he was kind of sad because he loved our group soo much!! My co-counselors were AWESOME as well!! My girls thought that one of them (Spencer) and I should get married so he fake "proposed" to me and then we took fake "engagement" pictures!! Our company loved it!! I actually lost my voice that week which NEVER has happened to me before!! And it happened on the second day!!! I wore a pair of pink pants I owned the second day and everyone loved them soo much I actually wore them all week (don't worry. I washed them). I was affectionately know as "pink pants" or "the pink panster"!! Crazy kids!! I learned soo much from theses kids and love them with all my heart!! I miss them soo much!! I also grew soo much closer to my Savior and loved the chance that I had to intensely study his gospel and teach others what I learned!!! It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done and the closest to being on a mission that I have come to thus far after serving one!! My girls had such strong testimonies and truly taught me what it means to be saved for the latter days because they truly are!!! I get to leave in 3 days for my second session in Rexburg ID and then in the middle and end of July and beginning of August I get to do 3 more!!! I can't wait!! Yes it involves a lot of sacrifice (no steady job for the summer for sure) and travel, but soo well worth it!! I never understood why everyone made a big fuss over it and tells everyone else they need to go, but now I think I understand!! It is an experience for these kids that they will never forget and one that will help strengthen them for the rest of their lives!!!
(Pictures in order but not in order of when they happened: Spencer's and my fake "engagement"photos, the sexy boys in our group, the last dance on Friday night, fun with face masks on the last night, the banquet, our whole company sitting pretty, me and my girls, some of my girls and me and class, the crazy co-counselors, our whole company at game night, our company name and banner "Not of this Fold", some of us being crazy at game night (see the pink pants?!), service project of looming hats, game night, pizza night (that was a story in and of itself. The boys wanted to buy our girls their pizza, but Spencer forgot to order them, so they spent the night rounding up extra pizzas for us!! OOOPS!!), the first dance, and one more picture of game night)