Especially for Me Too

What an experience that words cannot even express. I was expecting to give so much to these girls, to my youth, and didn't realize that they'd be giving so much to me in return. How very strengthening it is to be given that leadership role, to have to opportunity to bear testimony at any moment, to really share with these girls what I know is true, and how I've come to know it for myself. It surely is in the bearing of testimonies that ours are strengthened immensely. I knew that I was supposed to be at EFY this summer, for reason that each of the 20 different things I auditioned for and applied for all fell through or didn't accept me or didn't work out. Clearly, I was supposed to be there for someone, or they were supposed to be there for me.

In Indiana, I saw myself in so many of these girls. I was in fact, in their very place exactly 6 years ago, at the Bloomington session! I remember being so enthralled with the gathering of hundreds of zealous LDS youth, unlike anything I'd ever experienced before, and just feeling the power of so many of us in one place was the reason I longed for it every summer. So in being their counselor, I got to take a step back and let these youth teach other, to bask in the light they all have and brought with them. They were all so eager to talk with eachother and share what they know and bouy eachother up. They are so weathered and so strong because of it. The youth of the Midwest are doing great things for the Church.

And then Nauvoo was just a week of pure peace and wholeness. Just to be walking in the city brought such happiness, and then to be teaching and testifying on the temple grounds, Joseph's city, I couldn't have asked for a more perfect summer experience. My favorite part of the week was being able to share my love for Nauvoo, my home! For the first time in my life, I was the educated tour guide that knew the city like the back of my hand! I could share every story and detail and memory everywhere we went. Isn't that how life works, though? You enjoy something so much for yourself first, and then you go back and you lead others along, as their parent or their teacher, paving a little way for them, but still gaining so very much out of the experience for yourself while you're at it. Shaking the hands of President Uchtdorf while I was there only put the icing on the already sweet and delicious cake! Goodness, so much of me is in Nauvoo. What a connection I have and will always have with that sacred little town.

And so I'm hooked. I would absolutely love to devote my entire next summer to Especially for Youth. There's just something about draining yourself physically, spiritually, and emotionally, week after week for these little sponges, and I can't quite put a finger on it. Perhaps its because it makes me feel a little more like the Savior, who was the greatest teacher of all, who loved the children with all His heart, and who showed by His example how to come unto Christ.