EFY in the Southeast

Wow. I can't believe three whole weeks of EFY have already gone by. Each week just flies by, but at the same time, St. Petersburg feels like a lifetime ago. I meant to update this blog more frequently about my EFY adventures, but everything has been so hectic for the past few weeks. So here's a recap of the Southeast sessions.

St. Petersburg, Florida: The Power Thereof

Ok, this session was the perfect start to my EFY summer. I was in a trio of counselors, which I had never experienced before, but Josué and Christine helped make this week fantastic. Our co-counselorship (I don't know if that's a word) strengthened my testimony that the pairs and trios that are put together are definitely inspired, particularly in the case of Christine. Our girls were all in the same building, so it was basically like having a big group of 19 girls with 2 counselors. While my girls were mine and her girls were hers, we were both there to strengthen all the girls and there were times where some of the girls needed something that the other counselor could provide. It really was an amazing week and my girls had such sweet, simple testimonies. I loved hearing their thoughts during devotionals. Like most groups I work with, they gave me such hope for the youth of the Church. Just looking at this picture of them makes me miss them so much.
Oh, and we won the banner and cheer competitions.

Gainesville, GA 01: Glory of the Sun

To start off, I LOVE Georgia's EFY sessions. I went there for 4 years as a participant and it was the first place I was ever a counselor. Gainesville GA is my EFY and I think everything about it is perfect. So I was pretty excited to get to this session. And it didn't disappoint! My co-counselor was Thomas, who was experiencing EFY for the very first time. He was an amazing example to our kids and I'm so thankful that I got to work with him. My girls were great, as usual. Usually, I feel like I get to know my youth as a group, but this week, I felt like I knew them more on an individual basis. Because of that, there were some who I didn't get to know as well, but there were others who I was able to form close bonds with. I just hope that that's what they needed. I learned a lot from this week about being an instrument in the Lord's hands and about following the guidance of the Spirit. I understand better what it means to "mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort."
Oh, and did I mention that we won banner?!

Gainesville, GA 02: Perilous Times

 This had the potential to be my worst week, because I was sick the whole time. When my girls met me Monday afternoon, I could barely talk to them because I was losing my voice. Tuesday morning, I woke up with my voice back, but I had a terrible cold. The entire week, I was exhausted and just feeling crappy. But my youth were so wonderful that it was all ok! Seriously, those girls were so good to me and I just want to send out a big thank you to them for making the week great. And a shout out to my co-co, Jonathan, who dealt with a sick co-counselor (who might have gotten him sick too) all week. I loved watching these youth grow spiritually and socially throughout the week. This was one of those companies that you could tell were meant to be together so getting them to bond took no work on the counselors' part, which is good since they had two sick counselors by the end of the week. They completely lived up to my expectations for the GA 02 session (which has always been my favorite).
And while our banner didn't win this week, it should have. I'm gonna arise and shine in perilous times!

So, that's my first three sessions and it completes the Southeast area! Today, we start EFY in Buena Vista, Virginia and I'm excited to experience EFY in a new place. Of course, no matter what happens here, Florida and Georgia are always going to hold special places in my heart. I love my southern youth! Keep arising and shining and don't forget all the things you learned at EFY!

Best. Smores. Ever. Guaranteed.

Summer, watermelon, campfires, and smores are all inseparably connected for me. I don't even like marshmallows, but I love smores in the summertime. So I was pretty excited when I went to a church activity the other weekend and there was watermelon AND smores. Then, to top it all off, my bishop's wife taught a couple of us the key to the best smores ever. I'm telling you, this will change your life. And it's so simple that I don't know how I never thought of it. Go build a campfire and try this. Right now.

Best Smores Ever


1. Push your rectangle of chocolate into the center of the marshmallow. Make sure it goes all the way in.

2. Put your marshmallow on a 2-prong roasting stick. The chocolate fits right in the middle of the prongs.

3. Roast your marshmallow as usual.

4. Voila! Perfect marshmallow. The chocolate gets all melted inside and it's just...heavenly. There's no picture of a finished smore because we were way too excited to eat them, but you all know what a smore looks like.

Now go enjoy the best smore of your life! And have a great summer!

P.S. I start EFY in a week. Weird. When did this suddenly sneak up on me? All I know is that I'm so stinkin excited!

A bowl of cheesy goodness

Is there anyone who doesn't love a good bowl of homemade mac and cheese? If you don't, I'm worried about you. This is definitely one of my favorite comfort foods, particularly if it's my mom's recipe.

If you know me at all, you know that I think my mom is the greatest cook/recipe creator in the world. If you've ever had her food, you know that I'm right. She's basically amazing and so is her macaroni and cheese. So, in the interest of bettering humankind and possibly bringing about world peace, I'm going to share this recipe. It's easy and fast, and you probably have all the ingredients in your kitchen already. Whenever I go grocery shopping, I make sure to grab some macaroni noodles so I can make this as soon as I have the craving.

You can make it with any kind of cheese you desire. I'm a strictly cheddar kind of girl, but I have made it with a combination of colby jack and pepper jack, which is pretty tasty if you want something different. A little Gruyere is also a great choice if you're not a poor college student like me. Basically, it's amazing no matter what. So, cook, bake, and enjoy!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients:
1 lb box pasta
3 cups water and 1 boullion cube (or 1 3/4 cups chicken stock and 1 1/4 cups water)
½ cup milk
4 Tbs flour (not real Tbs, but the big spoon that you eat soup with – not too rounded) - This is SO important. If you use real Tbs, the cheese sauce won't get thick enough
4 Tbs softened (nearly melted) butter
Salt, pepper to taste
1 to 1 ½ cups cheese

Cook and drain pasta.
Bring water to boil with boullion cube (or bring stock to boil).
Mash flour and softened butter together.

 It should look a bit like this.
If it isn't this thick, add more flour.









Add butter/flour to water and whisk. Bring back to boil, whisking continuously for a minute.
Add milk. Let milk heat up but not boil. 
Turn off burner, remove from heat, add cheese and stir until melted. Add salt as needed and other seasonings (My mom puts a pinch of nutmeg, I personally like parsley).

Mix with pasta and put in baking dish.

Sprinkle on top in order (use any or all of these--just enough to lightly cover casserole):

Parmesan cheese
Parsley flakes
Shredded cheese

It even looks amazing before you bake it!







Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so…until hot and bubbly.


Look at this! Luckily, I made some the other day so I still have leftovers. I think I'll go have some now.

We thank thee O God for a prophet

Can I just say that I LOVE General Conference? I wish it was every four months instead of every six months. The music, the inspired messages, the new temple announcements, the general holiday spirit in Utah; I love it all! Not gonna lie, I didn't appreciate Conference like I should have when I was younger. In high school, it was a weekend of wearing PJs and napping on the couch. I missed a lot of sessions for marching band competitions and school trips. I always knew how important the weekend was, but it just didn't quite click with me until college. Then, my first semester at BYU, I was able to attend a session in person. Wow. Just wow. Everyone should attend a session at least once in their life. Since then, particularly as I've grown spiritually and gained a stronger testimony of the Gospel, General Conference has taken on a much more important meaning in my life. Living here, Conference weekend feels like a holiday, as visitors from all over come to listen to prophets and apostles speak to the world. I particularly love going to Salt Lake City and Temple Square and seeing all the families marveling in the Spirit there.

I'm so glad I got to spend this last weekend in Salt Lake with friends. Friday, I was able to spend a few hours at Temple Square. It was so peaceful, which is something I needed right before starting finals. And the flowering trees are beautiful! I haven't been to Temple Square when it was warm since 2010, so this was a great experience. I love going to see the Christmas lights, but we all know how much I hate cold weather, so this time I was able to appreciate the beauty of the grounds much more.











Can I just brag about how great this picture is? Oh iPhone camera, you never fail me. I actually took a lot of pictures of the trees and the temple, but I won't bore you with all of those. Oh, and coolest part of my time at Temple Square? Walking into the room with the Christus and hearing the recording in French! I guess there were some Francophone people visiting for Conference who requested it. It was super cool!








Saturday afternoon, I was able to attend a session of Conference in the Conference Center, which I haven't had an opportunity to do since freshman year. It was an amazing feeling, being in that room, sustaining the prophet and apostles with hundreds of other Latter-day Saints, and knowing that there were millions around the world doing the same thing. Also, being at the Saturday afternoon session meant that I heard Elder Holland's talk in person, and that was definitely one of my favorite talks this year. I love the quote: "Why should you be jealous because I choose to be kind?" Elder Holland's talk was definitely something that I needed to hear. I know that I need to stop comparing my blessings with others', because "We are not in a race against each other to see who is the wealthiest or the most talented or the most beautiful or even the most blessed. The race we are really in is the race against sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those." He really knows how to make it personal, doesn't he? Second favorite talk? Elder Andersen, with his "What thinks Christ of me?" That was definitely a talk destined to provoke some soul-searching, at least in me.

Other highlights from my Conference weekend (other than the GORGEOUS weather Friday and Saturday):
Seeing Hermana Natalie Newton!

And, on a secular side-note, a little shopping at City Creek Mall. New favorite mall, easily. Any mall with an H&M wins major points. The above outfit is from there, and even though that's not a very good picture of me, I assure you, the outfit is cute. Here's a better picture, except I bought the skirt in pink:

Ok, I'm done showing off my clothes...

Also, a big shout out to Ali and Mariah, whose parents let me stay at their houses during the weekend. You ladies are great!

Mes Colocataires!

(That's French for "My roommates," in case you're wondering.)

I'm pretty sure that I have lived with the most amazing girls in existence. Seriously, I don't know how I would have made it through the last three years of college without my wonderful roommates. So this blog post is completely devoted to all the beautiful, amazing ladies that I have lived with so far.

We'll start with the freshman roommates:

First and foremost is Meghan.

This girl and I have done everything together since we were 6 years old. We only lived in the same city for two years as kids, but, thanks to great parents who recognized how good of a friendship we had and who refused to let it die, we stayed in touch for the next 10 years. She is and always will be one of my closest friends. We've never fought and she's always been there for me when I've needed her most. I'm sad to be losing her as a roommate at the end of this semester, but I am so excited for her and Jared. I couldn't have picked anyone more perfect for her.

Then, of course, there's Ali.

How do I even begin? Ali and I have been roommates for three years, but we didn't become best friends until our second year living together. And I'm so thankful we did become such good friends. Ali is always up for a trip to Café Rio (which is an essential quality in a best friend), she reads all the same sappy, romantic, young adult novels as me, and she's just amazing overall. Also, she has a pretty awesome family that has taken me in for the last three Thanksgivings. And, possibly most importantly, in April, she and I will be the only ones left from our freshman apartment. I don't know how I would have made it through the past couple years without Ali and I'm so very glad we're going to be roommates for our final year of college.

Rebecca, oh how I love Rebecca.

Rebecca is probably the smartest person I've ever lived with. She speaks Arabic, she's a wonderful cook, she plays the viola quite well, and, well, she's just great. She even spent a semester in Amman, Jordan! If you don't know her, it's your own loss. She was the first of our roommates to get married and for good reason. Carl is one lucky man! Basically, I miss her a ton, but I sure am glad we were roommates for two years and that I got to be a part of her wedding. My very favorite memory with Reb is represented by this picture of us. We (and Meghan) packed up one 3-day weekend freshman year and road-tripped all the way to Rexburg, stopping at all the temples along the way. It was an amazing experience and there are no two people I would have rather shared it with!

And the lovely Brooke.

Even through Brooke left us after freshman year, we still love her! She's probably the reason I survived freshman year. We had so many great moments and experiences together that year, from General Conference weekends at her house, to walks in the canyon, to dressing as old and young Bellatrix for Halloween. Brooke loves all the right things, like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Oh, and music! Brooke is the best when you need some good music suggestions. I still listen to the mixed CD she made me freshman year.

Nat, nat, not fat!

Natalie is so stinkin' fantastic! She folk dances all the time and she's the best clogger I know. She lived with us for two years before leaving last December to serve the people of Argentina on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The people she serves are going to be so lucky, because she has an amazing testimony and has always wanted to serve a mission. She was always a wonderful person to just sit and talk to. Which reminds me, I need to write her soon. We sure do miss Natalie, but we're so proud of her for living her dream and serving the Lord!

Which concludes the freshies. Then there were the sophomore roommates, a pretty dynamic group of people:

(Note: the girl between Natalie and Ali is actually Rebecca's sister, but the rest of us were roommates). This year was our first in off-campus housing and it ended with our first apartment wedding - Rebecca and Carl! Overall, it was a wonderful year where we all became even closer.

Jenna was the new roommate.

Jenna, the Alaskan! Poor Jenna moved into an apartment with 5 girls who had lived together for a year and were already best friends, but she adapted quite well! We were so glad to get such a great new roommate. Jenna makes delicious baked goods, such as elephant cakes and cinnamon rolls. She understands the value of a bar of chocolate (or any form of chocolate that you can find) on a bad day. And she really knows her Disney. Basically, Jenna rocks, even if she did leave us last semester for the love of her life.

Summatime! Rebecca got married right after sophomore year and Natalie left for folk dance/London study abroad/mission. Madison moved in and we had a pretty chill summer.

Madison's the creepy stone angel and I'm the lumberjack:

Madison spends her time digging in the dirt and studying dead people. She's practically Indiana Jones, or even better, Daniel Jackson (if you don't know Stargate SG-1, I pity you). She drives a scooter, which I could never do. She's also the oldest of NINE kids, with a cute baby brother who was born last December (I still want to meet him, by the way). Basically, I can never be as cool as Madison, but I've come to terms with this.

Fall semester, junior year, which ended with wedding #2

Sophie! Sophocles!


What can I say about my lovely New Yorker roommate? Now, some people would say that a Southern girl and a Yankee couldn't be friends, but I love this girl. Sophie is always up for an adventure - be that a hike, midnight Twilight premiers, 8-minute abs, or a late-night Denny's run. She has so much energy and always keeps our apartment exciting. One of the things I love the most about Sophie is that she isn't like everyone else out here and she's okay with that. She doesn't mind being a little bit louder and more irreverent than other people. Oh, and she's a great aerobics instructor. Soph-aerobics!

Winter semester (a.k.a. the here and now).

Hey Shaunz

Shaunzi moved into Jenna's spot after she got married and we couldn't have asked for a better new roommate. She's crazy and fun and bold. She's confident! And she has really good taste in clothes. Most importantly, I feel like I've learned a lot from Shaunzi in the short time we have lived together. First, she's taught me that it's ok to be more open about my life. Secondly, she's been through some things that I could never imagine going through. The way she has come back from her trials and the testimony she has of the power of the Atonement amaze me.

And that's it! Goodness, this took me weeks to do but these girls are all do great and have all shaped my life in profound ways. I love y'all!

My favorite things

So, I stole this idea from my fabulous roommate, Shaunzi, but I'm making a list of 50 things I love/50 things that make me happy. Because who doesn't need a reminder of the blessings in their life? Here we go:

1. Late night Dennys/Waffle House/IHOP runs
2. Finding a new favorite song
3. Listening to a native French speaker
4. Staying up late talking to friends
5. The movie trailers before your movie starts
6. Sun-warmed peaches picked right off the tree
7. Pecan orchards
8. A bowl of soup on a cold day
9. Harry Potter World fish and chips
10. Butterbeer
11. Movie soundtracks
12. Driving with the windows down on a summer day, blaring country music on the radio
13. The smell of salt water in a coastal town
14. That moment when you blend your sound perfectly with everyone in the band or orchestra
15. Christmas lights
16. Midnight movie premiers
17. Long hugs
18. The anticipation at the beginning of a rollercoaster
19. Summer thunderstorms with a book
20. Cooking for a big group of people
21. EFY line dances
22. Teaching the Gospel to the youth and seeing the Spirit touch their hearts and change their lives
23. A good text message at the start of the day
24. Mexican food
25. A perfect chocolate chip cookie
26. Finding the perfect Mormon Message for what you need
27. Road trips
28. The sense of adventure with an airplane take-off
29. Starting the Harry Potter books from the beginning again. Each time is as good as the one before
30. The music at the beginning of a movie
31. Baseball games in the late spring, with a hotdog, a Coke, and lots of sunshine
32. Disney movies in French
33. Seeing the Lord's hand in my life
34. Big wrap-around porches on old Southern homes
35. The sound of waves breaking on the beach
36. The old man walking his dog who waves as you drive by
37. Talking for hours with a friend and realizing how much you have in common
38. Reading a whole book in one day because you just can't stop
39. Getting mail, even if it's just a bill
40. Kneaders' turkey bacon avocado sandwich on foccacia
41. Watching Swamp People with my dad
42. Discussing books with my mom
43. Christmas shopping
44. Singing along with *NSYNC
45. Rediscovering an old favorite song
46. Reading on the beach
47. Remembering an old inside joke with a friend
48. Trying a new recipe and having it turn out perfect
49. Listening to someone talk about something they are passionate about
50. The idea of being a mom one day

The best experience of my life

I'm going to EFY again this summer!! And this time, it's for EIGHT weeks. For anyone who doesn't know, Especially for Youth (EFY) is a summer program for teenagers that my church does. Each session is a week long and they have sessions all over the country (and in a few other countries). The youth (who are all 14-18) go to classes on different spiritual topics, have game nights, show off their talents, go to dances, and a ton of other stuff. It's a big opportunity for them to meet other LDS (Mormon) youth and strengthen their testimonies. I went for four years as a teen and last summer I went back as a counselor for three weeks. Each counselor is responsible for a group of 10ish teens of their same gender and then we're paired with a counselor of the opposite gender and our kids make up a company. We teach them devotionals and just take care of any of their needs during the week. It's an exhausting job and you hardly sleep, but it was definitely the best experience of my life. I learned so much from the youth and made some amazing friends out of my fellow counselors. So I applied again this year, and I got the job! However, I'm working way more sessions this year, including a special edition session in Palmyra, New York. So I'll get to visit a lot of Church historical sites, like the Sacred Grove, where God and Jesus Christ visited Joseph Smith, and visit the Palmyra temple! It's going to be the best summer of my life.

Here's some pictures from last year's experience:

 My very first group of girls. They're covered in ice cream in this first picture. Ice cream mountain/Ice cream fight - it's a tradition. I'm not quite sure why the youth enjoy being covered in ice cream so much.

 Same girls, much cleaner. This is before the Friday dance. My co-counselor, Michael, got roses for all of the girls.

Working on their service project.

This is the whole company from that first week - Direct Thy Path

 My girls from the second week. They were the sweetest and I adored them.

 My co-counselor, Mike, with the pyramid of DVDs that we built for check-in.

And the whole company from week 2 - Heaven's Highest

 I loved week 2, because my best friend/roommate Meghan was there as a counselor too! We were EFY roommates when we were teenagers so it was a dream come true for us to come back as counselors.

These ladies, Chelsea and Stefanie, lived in the same building as me in Georgia. We were crazy and had so much fun.

 After Georgia, we were off to Florida, where the campus is GORGEOUS.

 My girls made an amazing banner. The footprints were all done by finger painting. That is not what my finger painting looks like.

 Two of my favorite people in the world - Fabiola and Michael. We went on several adventures to Walmart together during the week. I miss them tons.

 My last company - Divine Mysteries. They might have been the craziest kids I had all summer. Every day with them was an adventure.

The EFY counselors from last summer. I miss them all so much!

Basically, I can't wait to go back.