The first year Hannah was able to attend EFY in Provo at BYU. We were able to combine it with a visit with Chad and Elizbeth. There were thousands of LDS youth on campus involved in several sessions that were going on simultaneously. It was fun to be close enough to meet her during free time and have her share all she was learning and experiencing. It felt good to walk around campus and feel the spirit and excitement of so many happy youth. Hannah was able to attend the same session as several friends from Pennsylvania and also made many more.
Last year when it came time to register we discovered that there was an EFY session here in Pennsylvania. Lock Haven is only about 90 mlles away. It seemed right and fortuitous that Hannah was able to go to EFY so close to home. She invited her friend Whitney to go with her and after we registered the countdown began. Hannah had such a great experience in Provo we wanted to make sure she was open to new experiences in a new place. Sometimes in life we lose out not fully experiencing a current event because we are comparing it to past events. We cautioned Hannah about falling into that trap and encouraged her to live in the moment and expect wonderful things to happen. She did and they did.
Lock Haven was a much different setting than Provo. It was a small college campus, in a small town. There were a few hundred LDS kids instead of a few thousand. Most of the kids were from the East or Canada where they grew up in "the mission field" instead of Utah, Arizona and California. (Not that there's anything wrong with being from Utah or California. It's just that Hannah had more in common with most of the youth in Lock Haven.) Everyone stayed in the same dorm, boys and girls on separate floors of course, instead of spread over several buildings.
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Just like EFY in Provo, Hannah had amazing counselors, session leaders, and presenters. She made more friends and had her testimony strengthened even more. Again she had a wonderful week and again we were grateful she was able to attend.
EFY is quite popular and each year it seems to get more challenging to get into. In the fall we're able to sign up for a priority registration number. Around January 15th registration begins and we are randomly assigned a date we can begin registering. This year we were assigned a date close to the end of priority registration and just before open registration began. Hannah had been wondering if she should take a break from EFY this year. Matt and I have been impressed by her EFY experiences in the past and wanted her to go again.
Our initial registration day came and went with a little discussion about what we were going to do about EFY. Hannah wasn't able to find a friend who could go with her. I also began to wonder if this year was going to work out or not. They weren't offering a Pennsylvania session this year and after giving our options a little thought I didn't give it much more thought, but two weeks ago Matt brought up the topic and wondered why we hadn't already registered.
Matt suggested we at least consider our options before the open registration began in a few days. So on a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, we began our "Process of Elimination which led to Illumination." We wrote down all that Hannah wanted to participate in this coming summer and when it would take place. Summer can fill up pretty fast. There's girl's camp, youth conference, a trip to Florida to get her license, family vacation time, a 5 Seconds of Summer concert and the list goes on.
We discussed where Hannah would want to attend and how we would make it work. We began going down the list of each EFY offered. Provo was about full except for weeks where Hannah was still in school and although Chad and Elizabeth no longer live there we have friends we could possibly try to help us out. Arizona was a possibility since Chad and Elizabeth now live there, but the sessions offered were before Hannah got out of school or during girl's camp. Hannah had shown interest in going to BYU-Idaho. It would be a bit more challenging, but not impossible to work out. After crossing Arizona and BYU Provo off the list we continued on. We looked at locations in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia and New York discussing the pros, cons and timing of each. Hannah really only has a few years to participate in EFY and while we are in a position to, we really want her to take advantage of the opportunity when possible. Session by session and week by week we began to narrow the list down to a few possibilities.
We considered the special session offered in Nauvoo and thought about combining it with a vacation to visit family with Nebraska. Nauvoo would be amazing. EFY in itself can be overwhelming and Hannah had a hard time thinking of enjoying a vacation to Florida or Nebraska combined with EFY. It's nice to have time before EFY to prepare and time after EFY to slowly enter the real world.
We began to look at the locations that were a bit closer to home and what would be involved in making them work out. Hannah was most comfortable with Southern Virginia University and Matt and I began to have leanings toward the special session in Palmyra, New York. It's a smaller session and we began to think of the different opportunities it might offer.
We went from a list of about 50 possibilities to two possibilities, SVU and Palmyra. The discussion continued with pros and cons pretty evenly split, Hannah leaning towards SVU and Matt and I leaning towards Palmyra. We prayed as a family and after further discussion we all had the same feelings as before, Hannah choosing SVU and we felt strongly about Palmyra.
I still get choked up when I remember the feelings I had when considering Palmyra. I knew that SVU would be great, but I felt like Palmyra could be a special experience that could bring unique blessings into Hannah's life. Matt had similar feelings and also felt that those who chose Palmyra over another destination might be those willing to forgo the possibility of an additional social experience for other more lasting experiences.
Matt and I wanted to honor Hannah's desire to go to SVU, but we both felt like we should encourage her to go to Palmyra. She always has a good attitude and although she wanted to choose SVU she did agree to us signing her up for Palmyra. We hope that she will be blessed and have an experience of a lifetime.
It was a process and took us awhile to work through the whys and why nots, but I'm grateful that we have the spirit to guide us and that "the process of elimination led us to illumination." I look forward to EFY this summer and having Hannah once again share her amazing experiences with us after it's over.
This year's theme is "Here I am." - 1 Samuel 3:4. It's going to be another great EFY!
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