The funny things/memories of EFY

Here are some funny things, or inside jokes I want to remember about EFY, specifically San Antonio 3:

Tony. So much funniness comes with just the thought of him..haha

silly bands

"Want to play 'silly bands'?"

"That is SO FRESH"

"That is so crisp"

Heather's imitation of Tony

My girls' imitation of Heather's imitation of Tony ("So fresh")

the participant and her tail...still not sure

Michelle catching me with the whole loaf of banana bread up to my mouth, and feeling like a little kid caught with their hand in the candy jar.

Our banana bread parties after the kidlans were in bed

Staying up late with Michelle as she told me about her boy (that she has been dating for over a year and STILL hasn't kissed! I was amazed. I also told her she should kiss him...:)

Me and Jane Ann and our immediate intimate friendship :)

Doug actually introducing me and my girls as "The Chiccas" in morningside when we were going to sing, after I said that as a joke and said "Jk, don't say that." It was hilarious.

Singing "Walking in Sunlight" with Michelle and Christina in morningside

Singing "Because I Have Been Given Much" with my girls on the last day in morningside

Back to reality...and God's hand in my life.

I went to work tonight at Courtyard for the first time in like 6 weeks, and I was dreading going, but it turned out to be pretty great actually. I worked with some of my favorite people (Rebekah, Holly, Mallory), and this really nice new girl who is an RM, and I got one of the easiest halls (bottom of 3rd). I felt Heavenly Father answered my prayer to have an enjoyable first shift back, because I was dreading it so much--y'know, going back to reality, back to my real job. But it was a great shift and went by pretty fast.

But I was talking to Willie this afternoon (a resident, such a sweet, funny old man:), and he was telling me how amazing his wife was, and how she had everything (i.e. not just beautiful eyes), and how she was a scriptorian and had taught every class in the Church and was an amazing gospel scholar. He said that people would call to ask her questions all the time about the gospel, that she seemed to always be on the phone with people. He said she taught Gospel Doctrine for years and years and years, and seemed to always get that calling in any ward they moved into.

I was so inspired by this, because I want to know the Gospel and the scriptures so well. Yesterday in church someone gave a talk either on knowledge, or they mentioned knowledge or something, and at the time I had the thought, and desire, to study "knowledge" in my gospel study that afternoon (at and since EFY I've really had the goal to have effective gospel study every day, including topic study often, if not daily). So yesterday and today I studied "knowledge" and loved my study of it. I learned, among other things, that the more knowledge we have, the more light we gain, and the more like God we can become.

I want to be very knowledgeable and very studious of the Gospel and the scriptures. After Willie talked to me all about his wife and this characteristic of her, I had to wonder if it wasn't a coincidence that I felt the desire to, and then studied knowledge yesterday and today, and then had that conversation with Willie this afternoon. I feel like Heavenly Father is possibly motivating or inspiring, or prompting me to really study the scriptures and the Gospel, and to really want to have that kind of knowledge.

I feel motivated, like how I get really motivated to work out after watching "Biggest Loser" or "Losing it with Jillian." It's pretty much the same idea. :)

But anyhow, I'm grateful for it all, even if it were coincidence, which I think it's not. Heavenly Father is too much a part of my life, His hand is too much in my life, and I notice this more and more all the time, for which I am also grateful. I feel like few things are just coincidence. There is a God, and He is our Father, and is VERY aware of His children. Of me. All the time. It's absolutely amazing. I just always know I can trust Him, fully, completely. Everything will always work out when I'm doing what I'm supposed to be, and just believe and trust in Him. It's amazing.

EFY was AMAZING!!!!!

I am sitting in the Denver, CO airport on my layover home to SLC. EFY ended a couple days ago, and I was so sad to see it end. San Antonio 3 session was soo much fun! My co was Tony, and he was great, hilarious, our kids loved him, especially my girls. But my girls were such a blast, they were so awesome!! And I totally miss them, I wish they were coming to BYU this year! I just got to be so close to some of them, and this week was the most spiritual for me. I felt like I was more focused on having the Spirit, and really trying to study for and prepare devotionals and things, and be in tune to know what my girls needed to hear, what I needed to teach them, instead of just teaching on the spot, not having really prayed and prepared. The BC's really emphasized to do that this week, to really prepare spiritually to teach our specific participants, and I'm so glad that they did, because it was so neat to see results. I really felt like I was guided to say things and talk about things that my girls needed, and I'm so grateful for the Spirit, and for a Father in Heaven who knows the lives of all His children, and what they need.

The neatest experience of the week was Thursday night. During testimony meeting, thoughts would come to my mind while different participants were bearing their testimonies, about things I should talk to my girls about that night in devotional. So I would write those things down, and by the end I had a list of about 5 things.

So during devotional, I started with a scripture, my favorite one (D&C 68:6), and then told them that there were a few things I felt like I needed to talk to them about. So then I just went through the list and talked about each one, and on the one specifically for those girls who stand more alone in the gospel in their families, and to be strong and know they are not alone, I became emotional, and the Spirit was so strong, and I knew that is what I needed to be saying and that Heavenly Father wanted those girls to know that He is so proud of them and is very aware of them, and that He needed them to keep being strong. I was specifically talking to Savannah and also Celeste, the two who had mentioned their family situation being such that they are more or less alone in living the gospel. They were both emotional as well, and it seemed like others were too. But it was just so neat, such a blessing to feel so guided and so prompted to know what to say. I just felt so much love for these girls, and am so so impressed with them for how strong they are. I don't know if I could do that, be that strong by myself like that, which may be why Heavenly Father didn't give me that trial, and I told them that. I just want to be there for them all so bad, and help them through these hard times. I so wish they could see in the future how worth it it will be to stay strong.

But it was just so neat to feel such an amazing love for these girls, who I hadn't known even five days yet, and the Spirit so strong that night. After we ended and prayed, I went to Savannah, who was on my right, and while we were still on our knees, I just hugged her, and we just hugged and cried together. It was such a tender moment, and I felt so blessed to be there for her. She just cried and cried, and hugged me like she never wanted to let go. Eventually I asked her if she wanted to talk after, and she said yes, so we got some tissues, and then practiced our song with the group that we would sing the next day in morningside, and then the others all left and she stayed behind. We sat up in my room and talked for over an hour, and she told me about her family and what was hard, and the situation. It was so neat to be able to do that, because I felt like she was the reason, at least part of, if not all, why I needed to do that session. She also felt like she was supposed to be in my group. She is very mature for her age, she will be a senior this year, and wants to come to BYU after she graduates. She also may try out for Juliard, she is brilliantly talented in piano and voice. I told her she should try out. :)

But from the time we had "Meet your Counselor" at the beginning of the week, she stuck out to me. Perhaps just as the most mature one, but I felt like we would be friends, similar to Haylee, in San Antonio 2 session.

But the week was so much fun. Pizza night (aka "silly band party!":) was such a blast, and that is when my girls and I really cliqued. Half of them named Tony (my co) as their COW, or one of their COWs, and from them on it was hilarious to talk about him. A lot of the girls said that Tony and myself were the best counselors they had ever had, which was so fun to hear. Aubrey said that multiple times at the end of the week, which made me so happy, because at the beginning of the week, she didn't want to be there, and was faking having fun, and I so wanted her to love the week. By the end she really did, and I am so grateful for that. She was so much fun to be around, she and Morgan and Natalie brought out the crazy side in me, and we were all crazy together, it was so much fun! I felt like they were like my roommates! :D I really miss them, I wish this last session especially, could have lasted like another week (minus the sleep deprivation part...).

But alas, life must go on. It was so fun to spend a good chunk of my summer in San Antonio, Texas, and though I was a little worried that I'd be sick of being in Texas by the end, I'm totally not. I would have loved to stay longer, either to do more EFY or hang out with Sally and Joe and Peter and Lindsay and the kids more, or both. It was an amazing 5 1/2 weeks, and I would love to do it again next summer.

If I am not married by next summer, I definitely plan on doing EFY again, and doing at least some sessions in Texas, because that's where it's at! :)

Signing out, Melissa

Week Off, Tending Gurr kids, EFY Week 3!!

So much has happened since the last time I wrote on here! After Week 2 of EFY, which was such a blast, with Weston as a co, and such great girls, and guys, I had a week off and just hung out with family. I stayed mostly at Joe and Sally's, a couple nights at Peter and Lindsay's, Mom and Grandma Froerer were at Joe and Sally's for a few more days while I was off, to help Sally with the new baby. We went to the Alamo, hung out in Sally's nice air conditioned house, watched movies, etc.

That week I also went with Lindsay and the kids to Sea World, which was really fun! I felt like a kid! We just went for a few hours in the morning, to the water park, then home for naptime, then that night we went back, with Peter there, to a couple of the shows--the dolphin show, and Shamu show. They were both seriously amazing! I loved them! I could have watched them for hours! Peter, Joey, and I also went on the "Journey to Atlantis" ride, which was a lot of fun, we got drenched!

Then last week Peter and Lindsay went on a cruise to the Bahamas and around there, and I got to tend their kids while they were gone. Ha. It was quite the experience. I definitely did not realize what I was agreeing to do when they asked me. I still love the boys, but I do not want to be a mother anytime soon, to say the least. They just fight a lot, and you're constantly disciplining, and pulling them off each other, and putting them in time out on the stairs. That was tiring. I just got really tired of disciplining. That was the hardest part of the week. And the kids, Joey and Kimball, are each really pretty good on their own, but together, they can't go more than like 5 min without taking each other's toys or hitting the other, or yelling at the other, or spitting, or doing something to irritate the other into fighting. Ahh! But it really was a good experience, and we did have some fun times, including going to the pool, going to the gym, feeding the ducks at the park with Sally, Caleb, and baby Ella; we played with toys, watched cartoons, made banana bread, played Dora bingo, hung out with Sally and the kids, played outside in the water and with bubbles... it was quite the week. One I thought would never end, but alas, I survived!! :)

Now I am back at EFY, San Antonio 3, and it is so fun! The week started out fine, not as amazing as my last one, but it's gotten so good! Tonight (Wed) was games night, then pizza night, and it has been such a blast! I love my girls. Tonight they were cracking me up, and we were all laughing so hard together, it was so fun! At games night we tied for winner at the cheer-off, which was so exciting! We all wanted to win so much, Tony and I had given in to praying for it...:), and the kids wanted it so bad. So that was way awesome, totally made my night. And then our pizza party also included grapes, ice cream sandwhiches, peanut butter m&m's, and silly bands! Silly bands are these rubber band bracelets that come in all sorts of shapes of different things. They are totally the thing right now, it's pretty funny. But I like 'em. So I got a bunch at WalMart today for the girls, and they were so excited. The funniest thing about our pizza party was how in love with Tony like half the girls are. I was dying listening to them talk about him. I wish I could have filmed the whole night.

One of the highlights of this week has been that Weston is here again. He's so great, I still really like him, or he's still my COW, I should say. :) He asked me to dance last night, and it was so fun. I love talking to him, and he always twirls me at the end of the song, which really does something for me, it's so attractive to me, I don't know why, but I love it. :)

Anyway, I have to go to bed, but I am so blessed. EFY is an amazing experience, spiritually, and not just for the kids. I know I get as much, if not more, out of it, as the kids do. I am so grateful to be here and have the amazing opportunity to be a part of this program. My testimony has grown and I feel like I will definitely go home a better person with better habits. It is so fun to teach the Gospel again and bear testimony so often. I love EFY!