Taylorsville EFY

The week I was in Taylorsville I had a brand new team to work with. It was super intimidating starting off not knowing anyone, but I grew to love them so much. My kids were blow your mind amazing. I was an assistant in the variety show, and it turned out so fun.
Place: Taylorsville, Utah
Age: 16-18
Co- Counselor: Ryan
Session Director: Brother Knowlton
Company: I Command Thee

 Our whole stinking cute company

 John Bytheway, one of our teachers. Ya, no big deal!!!

 Some of the sweetest girls I know

 My co Ryan and I

 Our banner, note the facebook likes at the bottom

 My girls

 Robert, the oragami/piano master. This kids was incredible and I feel honored to have known him. He told us all that he was usually the nerd that didn't talk to anybody, but at EFY, he wanted to be as outgoing as possible. He was absolutely incredible and our group just adored him.

Haydn and Hannah, two of my best friends this week. Haydn found out I was only 20 and freaked out a little. He is 18 and starting USU in the Fall!!! Ha ha ha! Thats crazy! And Hannah is just stunning and looks like the girl on Tangled. Dynamite testimony and grew so much this week. They were the best :)

 

Working with this girl was the most spiritual experiences ever. She has a thyroid disease that just came a few months ago. She is now in a wheel chair and can't get up much. She was only able to come a couple hours a day, but those hours were always amazing. Our group loved her so much. She was always the first asked to be escorted by our boys and the first to give me a big smile. One night she felt really sick and had to lay down. We all went and sat around her on the couch while I gave my devotional. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I couldn't stop crying from the compassion, love, and strength shown by this amazing girl. I am so blessed to have known her and know Heavenly Father does not give us any trial we cannot handle... that tells you how strong this girl is. Its an honor to know her.

Ogden EFY

The next week was in Ogden. This was a lot bigger session and a little tougher, but ended up being very rewarding and I learned to love, LOVE these kids! I clicked a lot with the 17 year old boys and loved hearing about them and their mission plans.They were awesome boys! My girls were beautiful and so smart. I loved teaching them and learning from them.
Age: 16-18
Place: Ogden, Utah
Company: Widows of Heaven
Session Director: Brother Tanner
Co-Counselors:  Trent and Heather

 Huge Company this time with two girl counselor groups and one boy group

 My beautiful girls, they were incredible

 Preparing with Andrew to hand out the books and dvds. I was in charge of helping with musical program so I wore a bright pink sheet that said to ask me about the musical program :)

Playing Ninja Destruction with my cute boys. I have to say, I am pitiful at this game. But the boys sure find it entertaining to play with me.

Two of my darling girls that just melt my heart.

Before a dance with the most beauitful girls at all of EFY :)

My homie G's of ogden... if you couldn't tell we are gangsta

Just the cutest boys ever...

We loved laying in the grass and talking about our lives, jokes, or spontaneous beat busting with rapping, you know how we do.

Their killer awesome cheer they came up with all on their own :)

Partying with allergies at games night :)

One of the most amazing girls I ever met, Cecily. She is moving to Alaska soon and taught me so much more than I think she will ever know.

 

I love these boys!!!!!

Mont P EFY

My first week of EFY was the most amazing week of my life. The session was at a little small town in Idaho called Montpelier. The session only had about 150 kids and was a stay at home session. The kids were incredible and there was a very special spirit there. I felt so blessed and became so close with my kids, my team, and my amazing co-counselor Bobby.
Age: 14-15
Place: Montpelier, Idaho
Session Director: Brother Kuntz
Co-counselor: Bobby
Company: Depart from Evil

 One of the most amazing kids on the earth, Josh. He picked me a flower out of the church garden (probably not the best, hahaha) and gave it to me to wear in my hair during the dance :) Sweetest little guy :)

 Our banner and company for Depart from Evil

 Bobby and I with our plethora of letters from our children :)

 Walking around during the service activity, where they wrote letters to people who had changed their life :)

 Our flipping cute company :)

 Not sure why, but the whole session was convinced Bobby and I were madly in love :) I didn't mind the multiple dance dedications, multiple love notes to us asking about our wedding date, and random people asking to have a picture with the two "lovers", and making heart signs and pointing to us :)

 One of the greatest girls of my life, Mckenna. We got to stay together and prepare with each other. She meant the world to me this week.

Some of the greatest counselors around, chilling in our blue polos waiting for the masses of children to come.

Depart from Evil!!!!

I'm getting paid to do this????

Let's just say I'm the luckiest person alive... I never thought being an EFY counselor could change my life this much. I am SOOOOOOOOOOO blessed.

SLC for Memorial Day

This weekend I drove down to see my dad who was visiting SLC to drop my step brother off at the MTC for his mission to Fiji. We did so many fun things including Thanksgiving Point, playing Monopoly Deal, purchasing at a 2 story Walmart, a crazy eat meat on a stick restaurant (Rio something), temple square, and laughing together. 

In front of the largest man-made waterfall in the world :)

 My dad not only found a snake, but picked it up to show us all his mad catching skills

 Jail with Pops

 Secret Garden

 I love my dad

Sick 2 story walmart with a exclusive escalator for shopping carts. I was thoroughly entertained.

Waterfall with the Steps :)

 Spencer. I'll miss this cute kid!

Oh, but he is so ready to be a missionary. He will be so great!

Uhhhhh... no comment.

Temple Square (no duh Lauren)

Deep Canyon Adventure

Last Saturday for the ward activity we went on the wildest hike I've ever been on up the Wellsville Mountains. It was raining slightly when we met at 6:45 in the morning. I almost bailed, but the bishop told me the rain never stopped him in Portland, Oregon. I'm so glad I went forth. Here is the dead carcass we arrived upon at the beginning!!!

The first part of the hike was steep and freaking hot!!! I continually stripped down my snow layers, but continued to sweat. I ended up going ahead with a little group that was going faster than the others. They were pretty fast, but seemed to know what they were doing.

So then the hike turned into something that looked a little like this and lets just say I was wearing delightful little tennis shoes that not only slid like popsickles on hot cement, but also soak up water like a sponge.

It was weird to still be sweating hot, but in the middle of a winter wonderland. On one of the up slopes we paused for a picture. I was informed that the Wellsville Mountains are considered the steepest mountains in North America!!! Are you flipping kidding me???

I was continually told by the leader of our small group that he knew exactly where he was going. I began to doubt this as we climbed a hill so steep I had to use my hands and the men had to come back down to make better foot holds for me to not slide down the whole mountain. I continually shouted, "Foot holes Men!!!" On one of my slides down the mountain (for real, it felt like 2 steps forward, one foot back) I noticed some curious movement way WAY below us....

And there it was... the bishop and the others heading up the complete opposite side of the mountain!!! Are you kidding me??? We yelled down to him to get his attention and he yelled back "What are you guys doing???? You're going the complete wrong way!!!" So, what do we have to do??? Yes, we have to slide down the entire steepy steep steep hill that we just climbed to meet back up with our company. I gave that boy who claimed to be a leader some shady looks. We didn't have tarps, so the men started going down squatting on their feet. I have no idea how they did that because when I started to go down, I went straight to my bottom. Yes, I slid down 75 feet on my bottom in snow. Lovely. Here is the hill I slid down. You can see our bottom marks... :)

After an additional crazy amount of additional hiking up pure snow, we finally made it to the top :)

 

It was super pretty up there, but even better than that was the next part; sliding down the entire mountain on a piece of tarp. The bishop had carried tarp in his pack for all of us and we began our lovely slide down. My crazy group leader, you know, the one that got us lost, went up an extra cliff to begin his slide. Yep, dislocated his shoulder... crazy man!!!

And then we were done, at approximately 1:15 pm. Erik headed to the ER room and I headed home to take a warm, WARM BATH, take off my soaking wet pants (with holes in the bottom from you know what), and rest from the most amazing hike of my life!!! I am so blessed!!!