EFY: Santa Barbara, CA 01

This was probably the hardest week of my life- okay okay lets go with summer instead. I'd like to think I've survived worst things than a bad week of EFY.

First off I had to work really hard to even get to EFY in Santa Barbara. I was originally suppose to do EFY in Thatcher, like a past blog shows, but I switched with someone who was from Arizona. My reasoning was two fold. One, this allowed me to go home and visit my family, which was something I wasn't gonna turn down. And second of all teaching the youth of California was the reason I even applied to be an EFY councilor in the first place. I wanted to teach the kids that were like me when I was younger. I was once in there shoes and EFY had a great effect on my life. I wanted to part of the greatness that is EFY. So when I saw the opportunity to go to California I took it.

The week started off pretty good. My group this week was actually a group of two girl councilors and one boy. So that meant there were 2X as many girls for each guy.

The kids were also 14-15 year olds. I was really excited about this at first because I thought, oh it'll be like teach my little sister who is also 14. Uhh, it was and that was one of the reasons it was so hard. 14-15 year olds are very different. They have much more energy and are really just all over the place. I had a hard time controlling my group. Many of my girls were super chatty. It was so hard to get them quite to talk about spiritual stuff. On top of that one of girls had special needs. She was super independent and did great, but I was always worried about her and how she was getting along. I also had a girl that was not a member in my group. She would always ask random simple questions about the gospel during lessons. I worried about her and didn't quite know how to handle her questions. She needed them answered but the rest of the girls really were just annoyed and had different needs. Eventually I got to talk with her, and I learned that she has a very hard family life as well. I really didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to relate at all. I hope I helped her in some way.

During this hard week it also hit me that I might not suppose to be there. I was suppose to be in Thatcher until I switched. That was also hard to handle. It is such a boost to know your suppose to be there with the particular kids (they always tell you that when they give you the list of who is in your group. They remind you that you have been picked for a specific reason)... but I didn't have that, and I second guessed everything. Giving my all was harder after that. ((Which made me think about my mission... If I go, I have to KNOW without a doubt that I'm suppose to be where ever I go; or I will falter I think.))

The week wasn't all bad though. I learned a lot about my self. I learned how to be a better councilor. I learned that I need more than 5 hours of sleep a day and crying when you normally wouldn't can happen when you have lack of sleep.

I still loved my group. Even though sometimes they made me crazy I still loved them and enjoyed being their councilor.

There was the triples in group, who were really shy at first but eventually opened up and great. There was Lori, my favorite girl. She was so strong and confident in herself, yet not in puffed up way, but in a way that brought other people up. I wish I would have been as strong as her as a 14 year old. And there was David. My favorite boy.

He just always made us laugh. He had a good sense of humor but he could get down to the gospel stuff when the time came too. There was also Justin, who like to hit as many girls as he could, and then a couple of them fell for him, which of course freaked him out and he avoided them like the plague. Then there was my girl who found a boy who liked her back. But that plan was frustrated because he lived two hours away and they were only 14. (I silently laugh to myself when ever I think of the two of them). I also got to know a lot of the councilors this week when we had extra duties to do. The california team was pretty awesome... minus one... but we won't go in to that.

The week was still awesome, with the ever-so-creative EFY games, banner making, lanyard escorting, eating in the DLG (which was the best cafiteria yet and is actually in a Jack Johnson song: Bubbly Toes), and overall fun!