Going to the Temple and We're Going to Get Married

We did it!

On the 20th of July Brett and I were sealed for time and ETERNITY in the beautiful Manti temple. It was a bit of a drive but well worth it. We were also blessed that so many loved ones were able to make it.

Here are some pictures celebrating the day. They were taken by the talented Mindy Kidd.

Monday at EFY

All this summer I have been being an EFY counselor. It has been a fantastic experience. I have learned so much. I loved going to EFY as a participant. I started looking forward to next year the day that is ended. Being an EFY counselor has been 1000 times better. I grew spiritual and learned valuable lesson. Those lessons came not only from my fellow counselors, BCs, coordinators, teacher, directors and their spouses but also from the youth themselves. I was also better able to learn from the spirit.

So what do we do at EFY an why do we do it? Here are some photos, thoughts and explanations. Some of my explanations are the reasons that made sense to me others are what they told us. There are also random thoughts I thought I would throw in. Lets start with Monday.

MONDAY
Check-In
This is when the youth say "I'm here. Um, now what do I do" It is intersting to see how nervous some are. Thats ok though becasue we give them things for braving it. The things are a handbook (this thing is actually cool. It doubles as a journal, hymn book, agenda and study guide), a lanyard, nametag, cd, dvd and shirt.

Meet Your Counselor
After they spend sometime practicing patients we divide them into groups. Normally each councelor has about 10 youth. Here we do a get to know you game (Mine involved starbursts), out line the rules, set personal goals and I gather up the information I need. In my case this came to involve taking pictures so I could write down there names and study who they are. These are some of the pictures I took for that reason. Aren't my girls lovely.

Meet Your Company
This is when my girls meet the other counselor groups in our company. There is always at least one boy counselor and one girl counselor. Here we do more get to know you games, make a short cheer, tell the kids what our company name is and from what scripture it was taken.
Orientation
Here we gather as an entire EFY session. It is when the youth first meet the session director and are told about things like the BIG FIVE. The BIG FIVE are the rules that when broken the youth will be sent home with out question. This is also when the counselors perform the legendary EFY dances.
Dinner
If you want to eat first on Monday you had better hope your counselor can dance because that is how they decided who gets to go next. This dance competition is held in front of the entire youth so hopefully your not to self conscience. If you're a counselor you probably aren't.
Session Director Lesson
This is basically the spiritual part of family night. The lesson is taught by the session director to the entire session
FHE Games
I like these games allot. These are played in a company. One of my favorite games was Anteater. In this game 3 or 4 youth are pulled from the company. They are the "Anteaters". Their job it to tag the other youth or the "ants". The other youth start at one end of the field and try to get to their "ant hill" at the other end of the field. Once the game starts the only safe side of the field is the ant hill. If the ants are tagged as they try to get to the ant hill they must lay on their backs with their feet in the air.

Then the other ants try to rescue them. It take 4 ants to rescue a fallen ant. The 4 rescue ants must carry them back. While an ant is attached to a fallen ant they are safe unless their are more then 4 ants attached. In order to win all the ants must make it back to the hill. It is a fun game.

After they play the game for awhile we sit down and ask them what they have learned. They come out with all sorts of things. Then we have them find examples of what they learned in the scriptures. As counselors it is our job to direct them. One question I would ask is it was more fun to sit in the ant hill and watch or was it more fun to go save the ant. They always say it is more fun to save the ants. When they do I turn them to D&C 18:15-16
"15. And if it so be that you should labor all your days in
crying repentance unto this people and bring save it be
one soul unto me how great shall be your joy with him
in the kingdom of my Father!
16. And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that
you have brought unto me into the kingdom of Father,
how great will be your joy if you should bring many
souls unto me!"
After that I asked them how they could apply it in their lives. So I will ask you too.
How can you apply that lesson in your life?
After they think about we move onto the next game and do the same for it.
Goal Setting
Goals are important things to have. They help you get the most out of life. Because we want our youth to get the most out of EFY we have them set personal goals. We also set company goals. That we do during this time. There are four areas the the youth set goals in. They are physical, mental, social and spiritual. We as counselors are not to set the goals. We collect there thoughts and compile them into to one goal that seems to cover what they hope to achieve. Then the youth agree with it or not. Through out the week we review these goals.
Counselor Devotional
After we do goal setting we break off into counselor groups. Mondays devotional is on recognizing the promptings of the spirit. I think this one is important to have on Monday because the youth will have many opportunities to feel the spirt and be prompted by it. We want them to realize where those feeling and promptings come from so we teach them.
Personal Scripture Study/Journal Time
It is rather selfexplainitory. We have it though so the youth can learn the good habbit. Why is writting in your journal important. It helps you remember the feelings you have and put them into words. Then later when you read them again you can feel the same feelings you had. This is important becasue we want the youth to take home what they have learned and felt at EFY.

Prayer Meeting

This is with the session. It is when a few of the youth share something they liked about the day and then we have our clossing prayer. Then the youth go home

So...What do we do when the children go home?

EFC!!!

This is when we share some of the things we liked about our day, ask questions and get insturciton. It is also where we are aloud to give hugs.

Pebbles In My Pocket

This is the scrapbook store of scrapbook stores to me. I can remember going here before I reached my first set of double digits. They have all sorts of fun things. They also have stuff designed specifically for LDS people. I could spend hours in there store looking at all there cool ideas and merchandise. It will be hard to stay away while I live in Provo. For those of you who didn't know They have a blog. The blog tells about them but it also has some cute ideas.
Anyone know of other fun scrapbook stores in the Provo area?

Comfort Food

These are some of my comfort foods
Gingersnaps
Ice cream
Hot chocolate
Moms spaghetti that she makes with the curly noodles
Chocolate banana milk shakes
French fries
Frosties
Grandpa L's favorite cereal
Oranges
Grape fruit
Peaches
Anything that reminds me of Australia
Brown sugar

What are some of your comfort foods

TV

I had planned on posting tonight but E, S and my Dad are having a sleepover. They are using the computer as a tv because our tv has decided to go to electronic heaven. I suppose if there was an electronic heaven that our tv would go there because only clean things are shown on it. This is due to my parents teaching us high standards about what we watch. Thanks parents.

Bootsie Barker Bites

This is another book I liked when I was a kid. In first grade I tried to read this in front of my class but I got nervous and couldn't do it. Oh well, it is still a funny little book.

Possum Magic

I think almost everyone has a few books they remember being read to them when they were younger. This is one of mine. The illustrations in it are beautiful. I need to remember to ask for it for Christmas or a birthday. Hopefully I will come across this post around that time so it can remind me.