My Third Week at EFY 2010!

My third week of EFY (July 5th through July 10th)  was different in many ways then my first two weeks.  To start out with, when I showed up to the Sunday night fireside that starts the week, I found out that my name wasn't on the counselor list even though I had definitely been offered a contract for the week and accepted it back in April.  I was getting a little scared when I found this out.  Luckily, it was just a mess-up in the BYU computer system and I still got to work this week, and I am so glad I did.  It was a week of growth for me personally, but before I talk about that, let me introduce the boys I worked with this week.  

Because there were problems with my contract they had not put together a group of boys for me to work with.  So, they took another guy counselor's group of 12 boys and split it in two giving us both 6 boys.  This means that all the boys in the above picture were in my company but not in my own personal group.  Their names are as follows with asterisks next to the boys that were mine.  Top row from left to right: Bryan, Trey, Cameron, Mitchell, Anders*, Chandler*, Dalton*, and Josh Matt*.  Bottom row from left to right: Max, Tanner, Josh Hall*, and Grayson.*  In this picture, they definitely seem like reserved, peaceful angels, but . . . 

I feel this picture is more representative of their personalities.  My boys were great, but were rowdy and loved to mess with me and I definitely lost patience a few times, but don't worry.  By the end of the week, was ready to adopt them and take them home like all the other weeks.

Here is a photo of my co-counselor Shawn Fielding with the boys.  He was a stud and a half and was great to work with.  His knowledge of the gospel and patience with the boys was a great example to me and I learned a lot from it.

Here were the girls of my company with their wonderful counselor, Alyssa Kingston.  Alyssa happened to be the sister of one of my Zone Leaders on my mission, Chad Kingston.  She was wonderful to work with.

Our company name this week was "Marvelous Power" and for the first time in my 9 weeks at EFY so far, we made it in to the finalists for the Cheer-Off.  The youth in my company were quite theatrical, which is why their cheer was so great.

NOW . . .. for a couple stories from the week . . . .

The blonde guy in the picture above is one of my boys named Josh.  On Wednesday night when I was going to brush my teeth in the bathroom at Helaman Halls I saw Josh in their washing his face with his shirt off.  Josh is a muscular guy and took pride in his muscles and liked to let all the rest of the guys on the floor be aware of it.  As I was brushing my teeth he turned to me and said, "Jared, look what I can do."  He then proceeded to move his pecs back and forth.  Giving him a rather awkward look of thanks, I finished my teeth cleansing and went to bed.  The next day, at the Young Men's Activity (a fireside for just the young men), the session director, Brother Woodward, talked about what it takes to be a real man.  He started out asking, "How does the world characterize a real man?"   The young men raised their hands and gave some answers.  Then, Brother Woodward said, "One of the things the world sees a real man as is a man who is muscular and can move his pecs back and forth."  Josh turns to me with a rather embarrassed look and I just couldn't help but laugh.  I think Josh was reminded that there was more to life then having a muscular chest.

My second and last story is about this girl up above named Jessica Sommerfeld.  On Monday, as I was helping check in all the youth a parent came up to us group of counselors and informed us that he had brought a non-member girl from Germany.  When I heard this I was excited to say that I had served my mission in Germany and would make sure to talk to her.  Later in the week, I met Jessica from Germany.  She had impeccable English and was very friendly to everyone around her.  In speaking with her I found out that she had been a foreign exchange student with a Mormon host family in Utah the year before and that she was visiting them again and had decided to come to EFY.  I asked her how she felt about the gospel.  She said that she had felt the spirit at EFY, and knew a lot of it was true, but she was avoiding reading the Book of Mormon and developing a testimony of Joseph Smith.  I asked her why this was the case.  Well, the reason was because she was afraid to be a member of the church in Germany.  When she's in Utah, she feels she could do it, but in Germany it would be very difficult.  I told her that I understood, because I saw how hard it was for members to stand strong in Germany on my mission.  But . . .I asked her, "Why did you come to EFY?"  She said that she came because she's searching for the true church and that she was wondering if the Lord had sent her to Utah on a foreign exchange program for a reason.  I then said to her, "Well, you can't go searching forever.  If you want to find the truth, you have to act.  If you don't read the Book of Mormon and pray about it you will never know if it's true and whether this church is the true church.  I know it's true, but you have to find out for yourself.  Then, you'll know."  The next day, I went to the BYU Bookstore and bought here a German Book of Mormon and wrote my testimony in German.  When I gave it to her, she was so happy and said she was excited to read it.  I even received a message from her on facebook saying she had started reading and was strengthened by the example of Nephi's courage in the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  She said it gave her confidence and hope.  

This experience was life-changing for me.  I know the Lord placed me in this EFY session for at least the reason that I needed to meet Jessica and support her in her quest for the truth.  I've never been a great missionary, but my testimony of missionary work has been strengthened.

I LOVE EFY!!!!!