Hands down, the highlight of my teenage years was going to EFY. EFY stands for Especially For Youth and it’s a week-long summer camp thing held for Mormon teens. There are dances and wacky games and cheers, but my favorite was the workshops. Teachers would come from all around the country and put on lectures on topics like Reading the Scriptures, Prayer, and of course, Dating.
I really cannot seem to find the descriptive power to relate the cheesy goodness of EFY. There are many out there who think they are too cool for school and laugh at all the occasionally clumsy efforts of people trying to help teenagers navigate through to adulthood while retaining the teachings of the gospel. But I have never been too cool for anything, so I revel in it. I have my bowls of naked macaroni noodles at the ready for the cheesy goodness to rain down.
Usually people who are as in love with EFY as I was go on to be counselors once they’re in college. But because my life seemed to take a sharp veer off the beaten path, I never had that opportunity. I did manage to work in the religion department at BYU, which is where many of the lecturers came from, and for a season I planned on becoming a Religious Educator. But then, of course, my life took another veer off course, this time crossing back over the beaten path and into a whole other territory altogether.
I have been content, though, because in every ward in every stake I’ve ever been in as an adult, I have ended up working with the youth. That is one of my callings in life. One I’ve been lucky enough to know about as I stagger around blindly fumbling for the others.
That’s what led me to the myspace fireside I put on last week. I’ve been in this current incarnation of Youth Leader for nearly two years now, and the YW President I serve with and I make a great team. I’m technically the Secretary, and some Presidents would want me to remember my place, but Tami has no ego whatsoever and lets me run free.
Apparently the church leadership in Salt Lake is very concerned about myspace, so they sent the word down the chain of command to make sure that we all addressed this issue. My stake president, who also happens to be the local chief of police, has been talking about it for months and months, which means my bishop has been talking about it for months, which means Tami just finally got sick of hearing the talk and said, “That’s it. We’re doing it on August 12th!” and then she asked me to get to work.
So I planned the whole thing. I met with a member of the bishopric, he told me he wanted soandso to speak, and then we wanted the Stake President to speak. As soon as we left the meeting I literally ran into the Stake President in the hallway and pounced to get it lined up. But once I got home I just didn’t feel right about the agenda. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was scheduled to speak to the girls, the bishopric was going to speak to the boys, and soandso was going to speak to the parents. I kept feeling like I should speak to the parents. And this concerned me. Because while I love getting down to work and using my talents to build up the kingdom, I also have an ambitious streak in me that I absolutely detest. I can not stand the people who cosy up to the local leadership, hoping to get some big fancy calling. Or the people who never know when to keep their mouths shut and let someone else have a turn. I can’t stand them because I know I am one of them. And I hate myself for it.
The feeling prevailed though, and I hadn’t gotten a hold of soandso, so I sacked up and took her place.
I really think it was revelation I was listening to this time and not my own brassy ego, because it just worked.
I put together a powerpoint presentation to show the parents what their kids were up to on myspace, how it worked, why the kids liked it, and how to keep them safe. People were taking notes, they were tossing questions out, they were asking me to come to their homes and help them install software. We had such a huge turnout that we had to switch rooms and set up in the gym.
The Stake President came up to me afterward to thank me and said how surprised he was by the presentation. I have never been to a meeting with him where he outlined what he wanted, but apparently the presentation I gave was exactly what he had in mind. He said that the fireside must have really been directed by the Holy Spirit.
And then he said the words that struck fear in my heart and simultaneously inflated my ego: “I think we’re going to have to take this show on the road.”
So I will now be a public speaker/Religious educator. I will be visiting different wards in our stake, and possibly others, giving this same presentation. I am both thrilled and horrified. Thrilled because I think that public speaking is a lot of fun and I really enjoy teaching. Horrified because this is only going to fuel this dang ambitious side that just won’t shut up.