EFY Blue #6- Go Get'em Girls!

I love my kids, they are just fantastic! I started out being way nervous, I always am before meet you counselor. Who were my girls, what are they like, will they like me? I walked into the room and there they all were, staring at me.... Okay, here goes nothing.

I started to be normal Jenna, you know, talks non-stop, makes weird jokes. And apparently they love me! We spent the entire hour laughing! One, my girls thought I was hilarious so they endeared themselves to me :) and Two, my girls were hilarious. Very quickly were the walls of shyness broken and we left that room as best friends. I generally like to hit modesty hard so no problems arise during the week, but I really didn't get a chance. So that was one thing that I was a bit nervous about, modesty. Other than that, I could tell the week was going to be awesome!

As it turns out, I had no reason to fear modesty. Not once did I have to ask anyone to change, not once did they question modesty. They just did it! First ever! Even on Thursday when most of the modesty problems arise in their dresses and skirts, they were perfect. Angels, all of them!

And last week was probably the best devotionals I've ever had. The Spirit was so strong and it was more of pure testimony. It didn't feel like these girls were being taught, but being converted. Monday night devotional was my favorite. I looked around into the faces of my girls and saw that they wanted to change. They hungered. One of my girls really left an impression. She didn't look at me, she was staring away. But as I watched her it was like it was all really hitting her for the first time. Being able to talk with her later she mentioned how there were so many questions she's had for months. And it felt like they were finally getting answered. Over the course of the week, all of them were answered.

I love the changes! One of the many changes I saw this week were in how the girls and boys became friends. Tuesday night I had complaints from all the girls about how our brothers were not talking to them or making an effort to get to know them. We had a really shy group of guys, it's true, but there I had to be a way to crack them!

I assigned each of my girls to a boy. Their job was to become the best friend of that boy, no matter what it took. If they needed to stalk them to do it, so be it! Being 24 and still single *ahem* I have long since learned that guys don't always take the initiative and us girls have to step it up. Yes, there was some complaining at first about how the boys were supposed to.... blah blah blah. But my girls committed to it ("It shall be done!") and they became a total inspiration to me.

Really, some of my girls totally stalked these boys, didn't let them out of sight, and were always there. And by the end of the week, there were some really awesome friendships made. We didn't win all boys 100%, but my girls made a difference and I was proud. I think I'm going to try to pursue friendships just as zealously from now on.

Another cool fact about our company last week: we totally had President Monson's grandson! Yeah, that's right. One of my boys calls the prophet grandpa. It was such a cute kid, it was great. I think he was 14? And totally girl crazy. I'm pretty sure he dropped the being grandson of the prophet just so he could get girls. And it worked! Surrounded always by a big group of girls who thought he was awesome. But one of the sweetest moments of the week was when he bore his testimony.

He actually bore his testimony twice. The first time was about how strong the Spirit was at EFY, and then sat back down. At the end of testimony meeting we'd had all of our kids go up and there were a few remaining moments. That's when Paul popped back up there. But this time he had tears. He talked about how hard it was when his grandpa was called to be prophet, it was his grandpa. Everyone just assumed that he had it easy in gaining a testimony. But talked about his struggle, and how that week at EFY had helped him a lot in knowing President Monson is indeed the one who speaks for the Lord.

My kids were/are amazing. I love them so much. Oh, and how could I forget the rockin'est co ever! Charlie is fantastic, funny, and just awesome. I want to be like him when I grow up!

Now I've got one more EFY week waiting for me in August and then I'm done. Truly have to go back to the real world and learn how to take EFY home with me.