EFY = my favorite thing.

efy

Hello Everyone! So I figured I should put up some pictures of EFY and for those of you who have never been to EFY, give a run down of what all happens there. It is so so great and I wish I could do it all year long! Here is how the schedule goes:

Monday:
11-1:30 Registration & Check In
1:30-3:30 Meet with your counselor [about 10 of the same gender] & then company [a mix of boys & girls]
3:30-5 Orientation
5-6 Dinner
6:30-9 FHE Lesson & Games
9-10:30 Counselor Devotional, Scripture Study, & get ready for bed

Tuesday:
7-8:30 Breakfast
8:30-9:30 Scripture lesson with company & personal study
9:30-10:30 Morningside with the session director
10:30-12:30 Classes
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:40-3:30 Classes
3:30-4:30 Free Time
5-6 Dinner
6:30-9:30 Dance
9:45-11 Counselor Devotional & Journal Time

Wednesday:
Day time the same as Tuesday but once we get to 6 it is...
Cheer & Banner preparation for your company!
7-9 Games Night & Cheer Off
9-10:15 Pizza Night
10:15-11 Counselor Devotional & Journal Time

Thursday:
morning is the same, but after gospel study they split up the boys and girls
girls go to their own morningside and then an activity
boys do the same but flipped
after lunch is the Variety Show!!
then after dinner is the Musical Program!
which then goes directly into the Fireside and lastly Testimony Meeting

Friday:
full of activities including:
For Strength of Youth Activity, "Dating" Morningside, Service Activity
There is a special banquet with yummy food and all the kiddos get dressed up
and last is a dance! woot!
After that we have a little "Taking It Home" message and we sing some songs, all cry, hug, cry some more, hug some more, and send them on their way to have company devotional.

Saturday:

say goodbye :[

It is a full week, but it is so great! Some of those terms might not make sense, so if you have any questions how this wonderful program works you let me know! EFY is truly an inspired program though! It shows the youth that being good in this day in age is still so much fun and not "uncool." It has the perfect amount mix of spiritual and fun so that they understand you can still be a cool person, but be grounded and religious. I love seeing some kids come in that are just punks and by Wednesday they are smiling and having a great time! I've seen this program change lives over and over again, and I'm so grateful that I can be a part in that process! EFY is my life and I will be forever thankful that it has brought such joy to me. I can't wait for next summer! :]

The Life of Me

Ok...so my life is pretty funny. I just seem to be blessed with an in sane amount of unfortunate, yet hilarious, moments. My latest have happened while I've been here at EFY. More importantly, in a matter of 72 hours. Lots happened, but I shall highlight the most memorable.

1 - It's Friday night of session 2 in Georgia. Stephanie, my fellow BC and friend, love lights out time! We didn't like it so much as counselors, but being a BC has its definite perks for things like lights out. You want to know why? Because the kiddies are scared of us! They will be our best friends during the day, but they will run like the wind when we storm through the hallways. Seriously, on Thursday night Steph and I were goin through and we saw a light under the door. Steph yells, "I see a light," and it was out in literally 2 seconds! It was awesome! Anywho, let's go back to Friday night. We were going back to our dorms after checking lights out and I was bounding around cause I was very hyper. I opened up the door to one of the dorms, called Bailey Hall. I was wearing my flip flops that are straight from Brazil, courtesy of Andre Abamonte. I opened it with such gusto that my foot did not have time to clear the blow. My 3rd toe on my right foot got rocked! It immediately started gushing blood. I laughed/cried. I hobbled over to my house and called Cami, the health counselor. Thankfully she lived next door and saved my toe. It hurt like a mother. She wrapped it up like crazy to prevent bleeding so it seriously looked like I had broken my toe. Oh good times.


2 - We drove down to St. Petersburg, FL from Gainesville as a BC/Coordinator team and got there at about 7 in the evening. We got changed and decided to go downtown for dinner and hopefully catch some fireworks, considering it was the 4th of July. We went to dinner at this seafood joint and then decided to go to a movie. Rachel gave us some gum and I love making gum wrapper rockets! [if you don't know how, ask me. they're great.] I shot mine at Jake and it hit him right in the chin. He wasn't mad or anything, but I still went over and gave him a hug. He decided to spit his gum on my hat, but instead it rolled off the rim and fell down my shirt! I thought it was the wrapper so I go down to fish for it and instead of finding a wrapper I find a newly chewed up, wet piece of gum! Jake about doubled over! It was so funny. Gross...but funny! Oh my luck.

3 - Ok...this one is the best of all! So shortly after my gum incident we get back in the van and the boys are gonna drop off the girls at "My Sister's Keeper." [not as good as I was hoping it was going to be.] So all the seats in the van are taken. Driver, passenger, two in the middle, and 3 in the back. Two boys in the front and 5 girls in the back. Traffic is crazy cause it's the 4th. We're at a red light and the theater is up ahead so Jake says we should probably just get out now and walk the rest of the way instead of trying to stop in front of the theater. So Rachel opens the left door and Meghan opens the right. Meghan thought that those of us in the back would go out the left side. She was mistaken. I definitely am right behind her with intentions to exit through the right door. Meghan is still oblivious, grabs the handle, and tries to slam the sliding door behind her. One problem. My head is preventing the door from closing. Yep...sure enough my head got slammed in the door! I am stunned that this has happened and because of this shock I don't know what to do next so I literally sit there with my head in the door for about 5 seconds and finally muster out, "ow...my head." It finally registers that I should push the door away and Stephanie helps me. I stumble out into moving traffic from there. Thankfully people saw me and didn't run me over. From here I am running to the sidewalk, still slightly unaware of what has just happened to me. I catch up to Meghan and Rachel and Stephanie is behind me. We all double over dying of laughter!! We're trying to run to catch the movie, but Stephanie and I still have to stop every 10 feet or we'll pee our pants from laughter. [which we almost did another time, which I will save for another blog. another awesome story!] All Steph could keep doing was putting her hands up to her head [pretending it was the door] and saying, "ow...my head." Oh mercy it was hilarious! The next 4 hours were spent randomly laughing about it cause I could reinact it in my mind. I had quite the headache and where the door slammed into my head it caused the back of my earring to slice my skin behind my ear. I also have a bump on my jaw. All worth the amazingness of the story, however! It was one of the funniest moments of my life! We're going to take a reinactment picture sometime soon, so look back in a few days for it! So next time something happens to your cranium just say, "ow...my head," and think of me.