For Behold, Efy was AwEsOmE!!!!!

I just went to EFY last week. I can't express how I feel right now.

I'd heard what other people had to say about it, but I really had to experience it for myself. I actually was really stressed because I wouldn't know anybody there except Tashi. But everything turned out perfectly. All my prayers were answered.

We were the last session at BYU Provo. I think that it had to be the best. Of course my digital camera broke 2 days before EFY...aaarrrrggggghhhh! so I can't share any with you right now. But I just thought I'd share my experience in words. Our counselors, Petey and Sarah were so spiritual and fun at the same time that I can't even begin to explain them. Petey made us greet the other counselors as we passed by them. Sarah gave us squishy love hugs all day. We had 12 girls and 10 boys in our company. And we were called "For Behold".

I felt kind of different from all the other kids in my group because I was the oldest. I had a girl named Arielle that was exactly 24 hours younger than me though. Isn't that so cool?! I could have been in the older group (16-18), but my parents wanted me to be with Tashi and at first I wished I was in the older, but when it was done I was glad I stayed in the younger (14-15) group. The FHE on Monday, the classes by special teachers, the casual dance on Tuesday night, Eden and Noah coming to visit us during free time on Tuesday, the zoo animal stampede to David Bowman's "Boy Meets Girl" class on Wednesday, the Games Night, the Cheer-off, and Pizza Night...Oh, and mattress dominoes in the dorm halls after lights out...Thursday was the "spiritual day" and we had to wear church clothes all day. We had separate YW/YM activities, the variety show, the efy medley, and the fireside. But the testimony meeting beats all. We had it with one other company, so we had about 40 people, and only 2 guys didn't cry. In fact, the guys were almost crying harder than the girls. There were so many sad stories like a girl in our company, Emily's family isn't sealed in the temple. Or Lara, another girl in her company had died exactly 1 month ago to that day. Then the was a girl from the other company who was a convert. This girl's friend had invited her to church. But after this girl converted, her friend left the church. But this convert has stayed strong. Those stories make me want to try harder. Friday we had our Strength of Youth activities. In the Physical Doctrine class, Andrew challenged to teacher to a push-up contest and Andrew won with 60 push-ups. Woo-hoo! Then we had the service activity where we got to color. And the banquet. Oh, and the last dance, the last dance. This was formal (the banquet too). I dare you to dance the cotton eyed joe in heels!!! I'm so mad that my camera is broken!!! I got to dance with the hot 17 year old named Sal on the girl's choice. He danced the Thriller at the variety show. Aha (like the king lemur on Madagascar).

Only 2 other people in our group from Utah. Like half of the group was from Eagle, Idaho, a quarter of them were from Washington or the west coast. Our session director was Brother Buckner. He was so awesome, that we had to put him in our cheer. Maybe that's we won 2nd place aha. And our banner won 4th place. At the end of the dance we watched a slide show of videos and movies we had taken, and sang the efy medley again. Oh and I have to add that the girls and boys in our company swapped their "who likes who" list on Thursday. You call this your cow (crush of the week). And I am a 5-cow girl aha. But only one of the boys was brave enough to tell me it to my face. Yes there was definitely some romance going on in our company. Oh and I got to talk to the hot guys from Wales in the bookstore. Awesomness.

But this was my first time to EFY, and I really wish I had gone the 2 years before. It was so strengthening to be with youth my age, and they might come from hard backgrounds and situations, but you couldn't tell. I love and miss my company so much. When we were all singing together the last night, hand in hand, you really could almost feel like we were doing this exact same thing in the life before this. I love it when I find somebody that I know that I knew "before". And that doesn't happen very often. When Sam came home talking about EFY withdrawals...now I know what he's talking about. It really is a little piece of heaven there. It's worth more than the money you pay.

Inside jokes:

• When Marcee found out that it was our cousin, Stephen, that was in the EFY video, she said, "That's your cousin? Hot-T!" If you knew her, it would be way funnier
• Our cheer for the cheer off: 1. For behold, there was modesty (do the modest dance: "modest is hottest") 2. For behold, there was a southern drawl (say "hey ya'll" and wink - Sarah was from Louisiana and taught us to speak "southern") 3. For behold, there were bustin' moves ("nah-nah-nah-nah jump on it! jump on it!) 4. For behold there was a stampede to class (run crazy then sit down while we fall asleep to Sean and Jordan, the teachers - Jordan: "I remember a time when I lived in northern Idaho. We had a cow. Sean: "The air was cool, the water was warm, and in the words of today's youth, it was 'awesome'") Okay, I know we're kind of making fun of a general authority's talk right there, but those 2 boys were from Eagle, Idaho. 5. For behold, there was Brother Buckner! (Mikey imitates his "dolphin cry") 6. For behold we are the champions! Hoddelally! Bye ya'll!
• Our cheers: "You're either with Petey, or against America! Hoorah!", "For behold, we will protect this House! Hoorah!" "Hoodelally" and millions of other random things we shouted to the other counselors. We won the "Hoodelally, golly what a week award"
• Song of Solomon became really popular. Those aren't compliments - no way. Mikey says he guesses that someone said, "I'll pay you 20 bucks if you put this in the scriptures". Jessica bought candy for the guys who actually used a compliment from there to a girl they were dancing with. (the "clean" compliments of course) like, "Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep", "thy hair is as a flock of goats", "I am black, but comely" etc...

Even when I graduate, I am so going to be a counselor!!!!! It's hard to come back to the real world of temptations.