especially for youth: week one.

Awesome week.

This summer I get to be an EFY Counselor which is church camp for the teenagers of the LDS church. It's an awesome opportunity to workwith the youth and help build their testimonies in Christ and witness their growth in the gospel. The theme for EFY this year is Courage To Stand Strong. The theme scripture is Joshua 1:9 -

Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid; neither be thou dismayed. For the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.

On Monday, ten teenage boys showed up at BYU Campus and were put into my group. I grew to love and respect these young men in only five days as we spent time: praying, reading the scriptures, meeting girls, participating in service projects, attending classes, talking about missions, singing, playing frisbee, going to dances, playing many many many games, and much more (i.e. "the elf"...maybe someday I'll tell you...)

It was miraculous to witness the growth of these boys from Monday to Friday with their strength in gospel knowledge and their testimonies strengthened of the Savior and His role in their lives. I saw many miracles and small acts of service take place when they thought nobody was looking. The best was when they discovered answers for themselves laid out in the scriptures and receiving that "AHA!" moment of self discovery. It's triumphant alone that these teenagers who come to EFY are willing to give an entire week of their summer vacation to go to church camp. But at the end they're entirely thankful that they did.

I had a great co-counselor named Hayley and she was over the ten girls in our group. She has her mission call to the Philippines and she leaves in July. We became great friends and had a blast teaching these youth about the gospel and sharing our testimonies of the Savior with them. It was a fantastic time to be had. The girls in our group were amazing young women. I'm grateful to have gotten to know them well too.

And might I add that EFY is upliftingly exhausting. Every night it was an event to even take a shoe off. Haha. Ok slight exaggeration. But close. These are 18 hour days of pure walking and dancing and goofing around and teaching while standing moments that excitedly never end. It feels good to get into bed at night with your feet sore from doing good things all day.

I have seven more weeks of this during the summer but I've been told the first week of being an EFY Counselor is the one you'll always remember the most. I think that just might be true.

Brandon, Justan, Zach G., Gunnar, Dallen, Me, Marshall, Jake, Brian, and Henry (missing in this picture: Zach J.)

The boys escorting the lucky ladies to the dance.

Our whole group after scripture study.

Service project: making blankets for unfortunate children in shelters and hospitals.

Thumbs up before the final devotional on the theme: Courage to Stand Strong.

All the kids in our group.

They will all do amazing things in the future.