What a week!
Back in January of 2012 we were called by Elder Vinson of the area authority to be the session directing couple for Especially for Youth Sydney. Yay! So exciting...overwhelming...{mainly me feeling overwhelmed} Jared was involved with EFY quite a bit in the states so he knew what he was doing...um me..not so much. So for a full year we had lots of meetings We were blessed with an amazing logistics team who took care of so much. We called and trained all of our counselors and building counselors and had a great time getting to know them. So many people helped us out with watching our kids while we attended meetings and held the training meetings. It's not easy asking people to help. I had to organize a week of people watching the kids. I had some of the young women and lots of friends help out. They were so great to help, truly life savers and we were incredibly grateful. EFY was an amazing experience. It was such a great learning experience.
We had a great website where all the youth could get their information and register. Here are some pictures from the week. We had 375 youth ages 14-15. They were incredible. We were blown away with their love. They were so good to us. Some of the stories and experiences they shared during devotionals and testimony meeting were amazing. Every morning Jared & I had the chance to give a 50 minute morning devotional. We also taught several classes and firesides We got to know the youth and came to really love them. Jared was awesome...he was totally in his element. The youth loved him. Here are some pics...
This was our home for a week. We stayed at St. Joseph's College. It is a beautiful campus.
Sam attended EFY in my belly. He loved it. My ankles didn't love the hot, hot days, especially the one that got up to 110 degrees. My cankles were pretty fierce. I wasn't supposed to wear flip flops but I had to when I took my shoes off one day and couldn't fit my chubby feet back in.
Fun dances...sweaty, sweaty, sweaty...but fun. I need to upload the video of Jared dancing that I sent to the kids.
Holy pizza! On Wednesday night we had pizza night after the banner & cheers. We had 300 pizzas. Kids were stuffing their faces...I mean why not...there was plenty.
Elder & Sister Watson were able to attend 2 days with us. Elder Watson was the personal secretary for 7 of the prophets of the Church. His stories were amazing. We learned so much from them and were able to spend some one on one time with them as they gave us encouragement and advice. Truly great people.
I was able to speak to all the Young Women. Great girls!
Being away from the kids for 6 days was hard. One of the women in our ward, Sister La'ulu was so nice and brought the kids out for the afternoon on Wednesday. It was so wonderful to see them and kiss their faces. All of the youth loved them too.
This is what we looked out over every day. What a great sight.
http://www.efysydney.com/efywelcome/Photos1.html
We came home to this awesome sign made by the kiddos. The kids were still with friends when we got home and the first thing we did when we walked into the house was sleep for 2 hours.
Left over shirts make good pajamas. :)
Here are some videos for your viewing pleasure...
Love this group. So fun!
The kids think they have the coolest dad ever.
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright...HEY!
