Summer completed her week of Especially for Youth on Friday.
She LOVED it.
She is technically not 14.
However, the Church has set the cut-off at if the Youth turns 14 by the end of September, allowing the poor, unfortunate youth with summer birthdays to attend with the kids in their same grade.
We started asking around back in January if any of the young people in our neighborhood who are the same age as Summer if they wanted to attend the (newish)
Stay-At-Home EFY.
Summer attended with Porter, Jared, and Tanner from our ward, as well as Katie, from school and some other friends from the area...Shelby, Braxton, and Alex.
I am happy to say it was a huge success.
The theme this year was "Believe. Hope. Endure."
I anticipated that most of the attendees would be local and that Summer would surely find people from Orem that she had gone to school with up there.
That was wrong.
There were kids from ALL over the place.
Most came to stay with family or friends to attend this session of EFY at UVU.
Summer even met 2 girls from the Grand Blanc, Michigan Stake where we lived years ago.
I think stay at home option is great for a few reasons...
way cheaper than regular efy--especially if you have more than 1 child attending,
it's nice for the younger crowd to be able to go back home (or to a grandparents home) each night,
and I don't have to pack ONE MORE BAG for an out of town event!
The purpose of EFY is to help the young people of the Church to "Come Unto Christ"
After listening to the comments from Summer and the others this week, I can say that I believe it was successful on that account.
Regular EFY began in 1976 with 172 youth.
The next year attendance was 863.
By 2005, the total number of EFY participants was 409,484.
Sadly, I never knew what EFY was until it was too late for me to participate.
The stay-at-home program is new, beginning in 2009.
EFY programs have been held in over 27 different countries.
Another EFY option is the EFY Express which involves a 1-day program and because of that, they can be held throughout the year.
WARNING...as soon as Sierra turns 14, and Summer is 17...I think we will be looking into the EFY session at BYU--Hawaii. (it's the most expensive of all the sessions, but I'm going to start saving NOW)
2 comments:
That is a super cute picture. I am glad she had so much fun. I like the stay at home idea. Hawaii is not an option for Hunter, so don't tell her about it.
I LOVED going when I was a youth. We went as a ward youth group first, and then my parents somehow wrangled the money for a couple of more times. I have to say they were some of the most spiritual experiences I remember as a young woman.
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