EFY

I grew up in a really great stake in Turlock, California. We were blessed as youth to have fantastic leaders, and an amazing seminary program.

One year, some of the kids were going to go to EFY (Especially For Youth) at BYU in Provo, UT. Somehow it turned in to a giant youth activity. Not a formal one, because EFY was $250 per student, and it was two states away. But they organized it so that anyone in the two wards in our town who wanted to go could sign up for the same session, and then all go together. There were a couple of adults driving. I ended up in the Wheeler’s RV with a whole ton of other kids. We drove and drove and drove, and we stayed at a KOA camp the night before registration at BYU.

In the morning, we all piled in to the RV and were dropped off. One of those funny little snatches of memory I have from that morning was that the guy who was registering me looked at my information, and said, in a very normal way, “Oh, you’re from California.” And then he said, in a very “surfer” way, “totally tubular, dude!” Like he was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle or something.  I just mentally rolled my eyes—as if all people from California talked that way. Ha! He must have never heard of the Central Valley part of California. The part with all the cows and orchards and stuff. Oh well.

We stayed in the dorms, and I shared a room with Melanie Reed. I remember my counselor—I can see what she looks like as clear as day in my mind, but I can’t remember her name. Kathy?  Her last name was Bowen. And she was great!



Here is our group. Melanie Reed is on the far left in the front row, and I am in the blue flowery skirt in the front row.

Our group was paired with two other groups, and together we were a “kingdom.” We had to come up with a name for our kingdom, and I don’t remember whose idea it was (it could have even been my idea, for all I know), but we named ourselves the FUNGI kingdom. Oh my, does that sound awful! FUNGI?  It was funny though, and we had a great time with it. When it came time for our group to do a skit that we would perform in front of the entire EFY, we did a series of  “Green Fungi” commercials, patterned after the “Grey Poupon” mustard commercials from TV. Looking back on it—oh my. But we were creative, and a lot of people liked what we did, so it was actually cool.

I remember that Donny Osmond’s nephew was in my kingdom. Don’t ask me what his name is. Maybe if I blow the dust off my old journals it’s written in there.  I also remember there was some kid named Richie, with blonde hair and blue eyes, that hung out with me and was super nice. We ended up being great friends at EFY. And then of course, never talked to each other again after that week. I’m sure I had a strange crush on him. It was a good time.

I remember listening to Troy Dunn, Brad Wilcox, Art Berg, of course John Bytheway, and a whole lot of other really great speakers. I remember there was a talent show—I dreamed of singing an amazing solo in front of all of EFY, but I totally didn’t do it. I could sing ok, but it was nothing I was known for. But I sang in the shower all the time, and I thought I was pretty good. wink wink.

I remember the dances. I remember the field games we played outside—huge fields filled with massive amounts of youth. It was just crazy awesome. I remember the closing banquet, and the fancy dance at the end.

One of the best parts was that they had a poetry contest, where you had to write a poem based on the theme of EFY, which was “Walk With Me.” That one deserves its own post.

EFY was truly one of the coolest experiences of my entire growing up. It was fun. I learned and grew a lot there. I’m grateful to my parents for figuring out how to get the money to send me, and to the other youth and the parents who made it possible for so many of us from Turlock to go.

These pictures are all I have from the second year. The second year I got to share a dorm room with Celeste. This is me at the banquet in a picture with Mondo, who was one of the boys' counselors.

And this is me with my counselor for that year. I think her name was Angela, but I really don't remember.