EFwhat?

A couple weeks ago was one of the most tiring I've had in a long time. And I don't regret it for an instant.

Earlier this year, I had an interview for a job to be a counselor for this summer program put on by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called Especially For Youth (heretofore referred to as EFY). It was something that I went to for multiple years as a participant and loved every time that I did. Now, having grown a bit in years, I have the opportunity to give the youth who attend the same experiences that I had. Seriously, I absolutely loved it, and from what I was able to see from even just following people around that week, I know that it's going to go incredibly well throughout the rest of the summer.

Here's a basic rundown of how each day goes every week:

MONDAY
- Kids check in around the middle of the day, coming from all over the place. Participants in Provo often come from out of state, just because here is where some of the biggest sessions happen. All participants receive a journal to take notes in throughout the week and a t-shirt specific to that year's theme. This year the theme is "Anxiously Engaged", taken from Doctrine & Covenants 58:27.
- Participants meet their counselors, boys with guy counselors and girls with girl counselors, and then they all come together in groups of 20-30 (trying to keep an even ratio of guys to girls) and form "companies." These companies are all assigned a scripture to focus on throughout the week and choose a name for themselves to be called by everyone else. As an example, the scripture that our company was assigned was Doctrine & Covenants 10:5, so we named ourselves the Conquerers.
- Everyone heads to a meeting with the Session Director, someone who is already married and has a fairly decent amount of wisdom to share with the youth. Some popular directors have been Brad Wilcox, John Bytheway, and others.
- The companies separate and have their own Family Home Evening, with a lesson and games.

TUESDAY
- All participants go to a devotional with the session director, then have a class about how to recognize the Holy Ghost in their lives. Then there's a chance for them to choose some classes to go to, often with some popular Mormon motivational speakers or professors.
- In the evening, everyone meets up and gets ready for a dance. Proper dance etiquette is taught to the guys and girls, so that all are able to have a fun, clean time. The dance goes for a couple hours and depending on where it is and what week of the summer it is, it could have as many as a thousand people there at once. (Sometimes, especially in Provo, there are multiple sessions happening, so for the sake of the dance they combine the sessions together at that time.)

Unfortunately, but understandably, they discourage breakdancing.

WEDNESDAY
- More classes than Tuesday, with some more options of teachers and topics.
- A panel discussion with some of the teachers and the session director is held. Early on in the week the youth have a chance to submit questions about the Gospel that they'd like answered, and while many of the questions are answered the biggest point they try to emphasize is how to find the answers to questions on their own.
- Companies meet up together again to create a company cheer and design a banner relating to the company name they came up with, all in preparation for Games Night.
- Games Night is an opportunity for all the companies in the session to have friendly competition with each other, playing large group games and showing off their cheer for the judges (the session director, his wife, and the head counselors).
- For sessions where the participants stay overnight, the opportunity comes up to have a Pizza Night, where all in the company contribute a bit to buy pizza for themselves and just socialize/bond some more.

THURSDAY
Probably the most important day of the week.
- The young men and young women each have their own devotionals and group activities. I know for the young men, it's often related to how mission life is like. Many of the teachings that they've been learning throughout the week are reinforced at this time, helping the youth to understand that the Gospel is influential in every aspect of their lives.
- A game show is held to help break up the tone of the day, with all the participants of the session together. The one that we did this last week was in the style of Jeopardy!, with five categories and team members chosen from each side of the room (only two teams for simplicity's sake). Some of the categories are Church trivia questions, others are physical "feats" (one that I saw was to attach pedometer to one's head and get the number as high as possible within a minute), others are just completely random.
- A musical program, which youth are encouraged to participate in if they feel comfortable singing, is held later in the day to bring the Spirit back. The themes shared are related back to the theme of EFY for that year.
- A fireside is given by the session director, and then all the companies are taken to separate rooms so they can hold their own testimony meetings. It's quite common for everyone to get up and share their testimonies at this time, but no one is forced to, and if there is a break in people getting up then they just let the silence be an opportunity for the Spirit to sink in. This is one of the things I remember most about going to EFY every summer. It's hard to go to one of these testimony meetings and not feel the Spirit. There's also a section in every journal to write down your own testimony, should you choose.

FRIDAY
- Last full day for participants. There's a short devotional in the morning with the counselors to help the youth understand how to best benefit from the week – not just by remembering what they learned, but applying the teachings in their regular lives and sharing with their friends and family.
- An activity based on the LDS missionary manual Preach My Gospel is used to help participants become more familiar with its teachings. In particular, this year they're focusing on how the Book of Mormon helps to answer questions of the soul (about halfway down the page for this link).
- A variety show, which any participant can audition for, is held for about an hour and a half. And by variety show, it can really include anything; the one I got to watch this first week included a few singing acts, a duet on pianos, stand-up comedy, dancing, impressions and movie quotes, juggling… And that was just at one of the shows going on! At Provo there are often multiple sessions happening at once, so there was another variety show happening at the same time as the one I saw.
- A time is given to take pictures with your company and exchange contact information. It's much easier to do so now than when I was a participant; Facebook wasn't a thing, yet, but these days people can add each other and tag photos in seconds. Which is often quite helpful to maintain the friendships past the one week they all get to know each other.
- A final dance is held, followed by a slideshow of pictures taken throughout the whole session. Participants and counselors can contribute to this slideshow, though most of the pictures are taken by counselors whose job it is mostly to focus on that.
- A reminder of how to "take it home" is given with the company. Some companies have their own second testimony meeting, which is helpful if not everyone had the chance earlier that week to share.

SATURDAY
- Participants check out fairly early, which is why time is given on Friday for the contact exchange.

It's important to note that every day there are meals provided for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and times in the morning to have personal Gospel study, some free time every afternoon, and times every night to review things they learned or felt during the day. Lights out every night for participants is 10:30 PM, which is heavily emphasized so that they can actually sleep and enjoy the activities throughout the week. There are also "stay-at-home" sessions, where the participants come only during the day and go back home every night. Most everything still happens, but it's condensed a bit due to the lesser amount of time they have, and they're completely done by Friday night.


So are the things you learn at EFY really that important? All that life-changing?

My company, the last year that I went as a participant.

And these are the journals I had from each year that I was a participant, starting in 2004, and I don't plan on getting rid of them any time soon. So you tell me if they're all that important or life-changing.



Small update: this is the group of kids I have for my first week as an official counselor. I couldn't ask for a better start to this summer.