Road Trip Back to Utah

After EFY was over, my roommates Sara and Julie came and picked me up in Hiram and we started on back to Utah. But we had lots of fun on the way.

Saturday
We went to the John Johnson Farm and got a tour. I loved being able to visit again. I also ran into two of my girls from my group that week. We also went to Historic Kirtland, but we only had time for a tour of the Newel K. Whitney Store. We then went to a musical that the Kirtland Stake put on, called "This is Kirtland!" Four of my girls also were there, so we got a picture outside of the church afterwards. (Aren't we cute?)

We also made a stop at the Kirtland temple and watched the video and looked around the grounds.

We then headed to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My tiredness definitely hit me halfway through. But it was cool. Then we hit Wal-mart to buy some groceries and hung out in our hotel the rest of the night.

Sunday
Woke up, had the free continental breakfast at the hotel (we made sure we only stayed in hotels that had free wi-fi and free breakfasts), then left and headed to Cleveland to go to a YSA branch we had found. It was in the smallest church building I've ever seen. The chapel was half-sized. There were no pews on the side, and it wasn't super deep, either. And apparently, they even have Sunday School just in the chapel because there aren't a lot of available rooms. It was just super tiny. And there was a security camera monitoring the building and lot. (It was in a kind of sketchy part of town.) Partway through the meeting, I came to the realization that it was the branch I would've attended if I had ended up going to Case Western for grad school. But I heard back from BYU before I ever finished my application there. Weird. After church, we drove to our next hotel and hung out for the rest of the day.

Monday
Day one of Cedar Point. It was definitely draining, since it did get pretty hot and humid, and I'm just not used to humidity. We went on lots of rides and also saw two different shows. One show had extreme sports- roller skaters, scooters, bikers, and gymnasts. It was crazy. A couple of the athletes had even won medals in the X Games. And then we saw an ice skating show with Snoopy and Friends. It was so nice to get in some air conditioning for that!

After the park, we took a quick dip in the pool to cool off. The pool was FREEZING, though. And then we hung out in our room. Cuz we're cool like that.

Tuesday
Day two of Cedar Point. We made sure we hit the rest of the roller coasters that we hadn't hit yet, including Top Thrill Dragster. That was an amazing ride. Two hours of waiting for 17 seconds of amazingness. You basically go straight up and straight down 420 feet at 120 mph... with nothing holding you in but a seat belt and lap bar. I totally would've waited in the line to go again, but the ride was having difficulties and kept stopping and mechanics had to keep looking at it. We felt lucky to have gotten on it, because pretty soon after we got off, it seemed to shut down for at least an hour.

It was actually the day of breaking-down rides. Several rides shut down for a while due to some sort of issues. But we were able to go to every roller coaster in the park, plus some other rides. We left the park a bit early since we were drained (it was supposedly cooler than Monday, but it felt so much worse... I even got slightly sunburned) and because we couldn't get on the rides we wanted to anymore.

Wednesday
Left the hotel and traveled to Nauvoo. I read two books on the way and started a third.

We got to Nauvoo, and most of the places to tour were closing, but Julie and I managed to see the Cultural Hall and the Scovil Bakery. We then just wandered around Nauvoo a bit and ended up at the Visitor's Center, which was still open. We met up with Sara there, who had been having dinner with a family friend.

All three of us then bought some custard at Annie's Custard and wandered around the Nauvoo temple, before heading down to the Nauvoo Pageant. It was amazing. I'm so grateful I was able to see it. I also got to meet up with my friend Melanie, who is performing in the pageant this summer, briefly afterward.

We then collapsed at our hotel.

Thursday
Continued our journeys. We made a stop at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, which was cool. I wish we had more time to explore other parts of the city, but maybe some other time.

We also stopped at Sara's brother's house for dinner and that was nice. I also got nominated to drive through Kansas, since I didn't have to sit through Nebraska on the way out like they did (thank you, airplanes). We stopped in the middle of Kansas (Hays, to be exact) for the night.

Friday
Drove 12 hours. I started off the day, driving through the not-so-pretty part of Kansas. Once we traded off, I napped some of the rest of the way. And read. And tried to talk on the phone to a friend.

So... states visited (or at least driven through) on this trip: Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. Definitely quite the adventure. And many different license plates were seen (I probably would've seen even more if I hadn't been reading so much.) :-)

And now I'm home. And I leave again tomorrow for another week of EFY, and then a family reunion and possibly a family vacation after that. I've never been gone so much from my home base as I have this summer. I've loving these adventures, but it will also be nice to settle back down. Which means I also need to figure out my life and what I need to do once EFY and vacations are over. Yikes. Wish me luck!

EFY- Kirtland

What an incredible week of EFY. Really, it was just what I needed.

I'll admit it. I was kind of nervous going in to the week. I had grown so used to the team I had worked with for my other four weeks and was a little scared to lose them. I knew that the Midwest team had all been working together and with all the traveling they do from place to place, I figured they'd be pretty close. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make friends and I only knew one of the other counselors. But there was no reason for me to be worried. I arrived to Kirtland late, because we had to wait extra long for the shuttle, and so I arrived about 15 minutes into the fireside and just slipped in. I waved to my friend, but sat quietly by myself. But after the fireside, when they announced BC groups, my BC (Codi) immediately gave me a huge hug, and Ellie (one of the coordinators) couldn't stop waving at me. I immediately felt so welcome and so at home, even though I was the only counselor who had never worked with them before.

Another good sign of the week, was once I met my co (Ben), we were almost instantly on the same page and unified. He's such a solid guy. Though I also feel bad that I wasn't able to spend as much time with him during the week as I wanted, since we were on the kind of crazy special edition schedule and I was on musical program during free time.

Anyways, I had the 16-18 year olds this week and I adored them. We were On the Right Hand (from Acts 7:55-56). We had 10 girls and 12 boys (super bizarre to have more guys than girls, but it was fun for me to be escorted sometimes and get to know some of the guys better that way).

We were able to tour some historical sites in Kirtland and the surrounding areas on Tuesday and Wednesday and it was amazing. Our session directors (the Woodwards) also were so informative about all the historically significant things that happened in Kirtland. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize how much happened there until this week. I had heard most of the stories, but didn't put two and two together that they happened there. But Kirtland was the church headquarters for the longest of anywhere besides Salt Lake City, so a lot happened there. I got to be in the room where D&C 76 was seen in vision by Joseph (and then I was able to studying that section on the lawn of the farm where it was revealed). To look at the exact place where Christ revealed himself in the temple to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, and where Moses, Elias, and Elijah came to restore keys (and read D&C 110 on the temple grounds). To stand on the step of the John Johnson farm that Joseph Smith both preached from and was dragged from before he was tarred and feathered. To sit near the site where the first high priests of the dispensation were ordained. It was all so incredible and I feel so blessed to have been able to do it. Granted, it was bit crazy... I was doing a million and a half headcounts to constantly make sure I didn't lose any kids, and the schedule was a bit nuts (including getting less sleep on the touring days). But the busing and touring also provided some extra bonding time as a group. And nothing pulls people together more than spiritual experiences and discussions (one reason why EFY is so awesome). :-)

Company picture in front of the Newel K. Whitney store.

I also had the great opportunity to help with musical program this week. It was definitely a little crazy because we only had four practices instead of the normal six (we lost two lunch practices since we were touring), but it definitely brought the Spirit and helped to set the tone for me to receive some personal revelation that night. And the counselors I got to work with for that were wonderful.

Late night chats with some other counselors were also great... though the lack of sleep due to them wasn't. Oops. I know I still need to figure lots of stuff out with my life and I feel like this week gave me more questions instead of answers. But I am so happy I had the opportunity to be in Kirtland with a great team. And I'm also so grateful that I just got hired on for one more week of EFY, this time in Cedar City. It's going to be awesome.

EFY- Salt Lake City 3

This week of EFY was really interesting for me. I was SO excited to go back to EFY all week during my week off. I was even thinking to myself a lot, "If I were at EFY, I'd be doing *this* right now." But then Saturday night hit and I suddenly didn't want to go back. I'm not entirely sure why. I was kind of stressed because I had been trying to look for a real job for after EFY, but I couldn't find anything. I was worried about having a hard week and the necessary energy to be a counselor. I was overwhelmed and just not sure if I could do another week. It was also hard because it started to become a bit monotonous. During EFY training, someone mentioned how important it is to give each week your all because even though you may work multiple weeks in a summer, it's the only shot these kids have. I just thought, "Duh. Why wouldn't I give each week my all?" I was so excited to be an EFY counselor and didn't understand how it could be difficult when you have personal stuff going on and when you're exhausted and spent in every way possible. I was just kind of burned out. It was compounded by the fact that not only was it my fourth week, but it was my third week with the exact same campus, exact same schedule, exact same dorm building, and exact same food. It really became a bit monotonous. And all of these things going on added up to me not really wanting to be there, even once I got up to Salt Lake and was at the fireside. It was interesting that at the fireside for counselors, our session director (Brother Bacon) talked about desires. And a lot of the counselors talked about desiring to help their kids in various ways. I felt pretty inadequate when I realized that my desire was just to have the desire to be at EFY so that I could be a good possible.

Luckily, that desire did come (though it didn't starting coming until Monday evening and didn't really come until Tuesday) and I ended up having a great week. I was with the 14-15 year olds again. This week, I had 12 girls in my group, and there were 34 kids overall in our company. Our company was Glory of the Sun (from 1 Corinthians 15:40-42). Things weren't perfect with our company, but my girls were sweethearts. That was such a blessing, considering how much I was struggling at the beginning of the week. I felt bad that I wasn't able to spend as much time with them as I wanted, since I was on lunch and free time duty a lot, but they were pretty understanding.

I learned a lot personally this week. It was definitely hard in a lot of ways with the different personal things me and my co's were going through, as well as dealing with some difficult things within the company, but it was so good. And there was such a good payoff. As hard as it is, I wish I could be an EFY counselor forever.

The co's... Ryan, Kylie, and me.

Glory of the Sun!

But as for now, I need to finish packing and get to bed. I leave in less than 8 hours to head out to Kirtland for my last week of EFY. I'm sad EFY is almost over for me, but I am so excited to go to Kirtland. It should be a blast!

Testimony

For my 101 list, I wanted to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting. I don't even remember the last time I did that. I'm not sure that I've done it since high school. But I did it last Sunday. And despite constantly testifying to my kids at EFY, it was still a bit scary to get up in front of the congregation to bear my testimony. But it was a good experience.

It's also interesting for me to note how much there is to my testimony. There are so many aspects and so many things I know and believe. At EFY, my testimony is different each time I bear it, based on the kids or the activity or what we are talking about. It was different once again when I bore it in sacrament meeting.

But every time, my testimony comes down to a few basic beliefs. I know the Jesus is the Christ. I know that He came down to earth and atoned for my sins and suffered all sorts of pain and afflictions so that He can comfort me in my times of sorrow and so that I can return to live with my Father in Heaven again. I truly am a daughter of God. I know that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore His church on the earth today and that he translated the Book of Mormon, which truly is another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that there is a living prophet on the earth today who receives revelation from God to help guide and direct the church. I am grateful for the ability to receive my own personal revelation, as well. I am also grateful for temples and for the opportunity they give me to become closer to God, as well as the opportunity I have to spend eternity with my family because of the power that is there.

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. I may not understand everything yet, but my testimony is my sure foundation. I encourage you to find out for yourself if it is true, as well.