Big Sis at Europe International FSY

Hi. I'm big sis and boy what a full week I just had. I had the opportunity to got to the European FSY for my first time, just 1 day after we got back from Girls Camp. But I must warn you, if you read this, be prepared to be reading for a while because I've got lots of good things to tell you about.

Day 1:
All of the youth from all of the wards meet up at our church and so we could all get onto the buses together. I am so glad that Girls Camp came first because I got the chance to already know half of the youth that were going. It was so much fun seeing all the people I recognized. Addy is one of my friends from girls camp and she was riding in the same bus as me and so it was nice to have friends to sit next to on the ride up.

The bus ride was about 4 hours long and everyone was pretty much just sleeping since it was so early in the morning. When we finally get to the campus, there are already people dancing and welcoming us. We were in an area that was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but it was still very beautiful.
We had to check in and then we got to meet our councilors who were going to be with us the entire week. Our councilors showed us to our rooms, and I got even more excited when I saw who was sharing a room with me. I had Corynn, Katie, Addison, Tessa, Maddison, Alana, and then there were 4 other girls that I didn't know, Sofia, Tina, Maleyna, and Aseneth. Me, Alana, Maddie, Addie, Aseneth, Maleyna, and Tessa are sharing a room and the 4 other girls had a separate room.

We all get together and play get to know you games with our councilor, Elena.

Then after while, we meet up with our guy half of the group. There councilor's name is David. Every company had 10 boys and 10 girls and the group was called a company. we played more fun get to know you games. After learning everyones names and having a little free time, we go to our very first devotional.

We are introduced to our FSY head leaders, and all of the councilors.

Afterwards, there is a sign up for a variety show. I brought my violin with me, and so I decided to sign up. I already had butterflies in my stomach as I was signing up. I did a little bit of exploring around the huge campus and I found this big map that you can put pins as to where you gave been or lived before. It was really neat to see how many places so much people have been.

The cafeteria is sort of set up as a circus tent, same design and everything, and that was where we have all of our meals. They are always serving really good things to eat. After dinner, everyone gathers and we have a FHE lesson. Then our individual companies have a FHE. We learn some really important principals in these lesson that they give us. After the lesson, our company plots up and we got to our individual dorms. We stay up and talk with our councilor some more and then finally get tired enough to sleep. Such a full day.

Day 2:
There are 2 girls in my room that wanted to get up super early to go running. They set an alarm on one of there watches for 5 am. The only person that it woke up was me, not them. It was so hot in our room, and we couldn't open our window, so the room was like a sauna. After 5 minutes of that alarm going off they finally woke up and left. Everyone else gets up eventually and we have our room morning devotional and then we got to breakfast. It was a very good breakfast in my opinion. We have a company scripture study session. It was really nice because they allowed us to do it outside which made it super peaceful.

We have a morning side devotional next were they introduce our lesson teachers for that day. Me and Addie go to the lessons together. We could only attend 3.5 of the 4 lessons. We had to leave early because we had to try-out for the variety show. I think we did really good. At dinnertime, it was so hot in the tent that almost everyone was eating outside. It felt really nice outside, the hot sun with a cool breeze. After dinner, we had the casual dance. It was out in the tiny courtyard and so it was super crowded. The dance was from 5:45 to 8:45 which is a little too long, but still so much fun.

After the dance, all to boys where shewed away to their dorms so the girls could have girls night. There was a really funny lip singing preformed by some of the boy councilors, which made it even more funny.

We danced for a little longer and then went to our dorms. I was so tired that the other girls said that I was the first one asleep. Haha. Anyways, it was such a fun day and I learned a lot of really important things.

Day 3:
I was super tired this morning because we went to bed late and woke up early. Also my feet are a little sore from the dance. I got to do our morning devotional in our room, and then we got down to breakfast. It was the same thing as yesterday, but it was still good. We have another morning side devotional, and then we have the chance to go to different classes again. We have a great lesson about Christ and the Word of Wisdom, then we have a lesson about how to teach like a missionary. It was an interesting way of looking at the Preach My Gospel book.

We have lunch and lots of free time after the lessons. I got the sudden thought to go and do family history, and so I went to the main hall, and did indexing. It was so much fun to do. I did indexing for about an hour and then we have dinner.  Afterwards, we gather as a company again and we use a scripture verse to give our company a name, "The Righteous Ones". We make up a cheer and create a banner.

 After we are done, we present it in front of everybody. We get 3rd place overall for the best banner and cheer. Super cool.

After everyone had finished presenting their banner and cheers, us girls are the ones that are shewed out of the room this time. We go to our dorms and have a little midnight snack. We talked about girly things and had fun joking around. After we finished talking, we went to our dorms. Our room had fun playing around some more. Tomorrow I know if I get into the show or not.

Day 4:
We had our normal morning routine, devotional, breakfast and stuff like that, but today was a little different, we had to wear Sunday wear all day today. So us girls got ourselves all pretty and things like that. Before we go into the morning lesson, I got told that I did get into the Variety Show, and that we are preforming this afternoon. Yay!!! We have a great lesson about Christ-like attributes and then all of the people that were chosen go to the great hall to do dress rehearsals.

We do rehearsal and then it is time for the real show. Everyone comes in and then we start. I was third to preform. the first person goes, then the second, then before I know it, I'm the one on the stage. I was so nervous I actually started playing another song, but I was able to transition back to my actual song. Then people started to clap to the beat which threw me off a little. Finally, my song was finished. The rest of the show went on. I asked my friends afterwards if I sounded ok, they said that I was so awesome and that they didn't even realize that I changed songs in the middle. I was so relieved.

Then everybody goes outside to do our tradition FSY group picture. It took about 20 minutes to get everybody just right, but then they took the picture and we go back inside.
(1st one)

(Better one)

Dinner was a German dumpling. I thought it was dessert because a German dumpling is a bread roll with jelly in the middle and vanilla pudding and cinnamon on the top. Can you see how I thought that it was dessert? Anyways, it was my most favorite dinner by far, and then we listen to the FSY choir. I twisted my foot in my heels on the way to listen to them. Note to all those who wear heels, don't put them on halfway and then walk, it will not feel very good in the end. My bad. The choir did so good and then we have our company testimony meeting. It was super spiritual. All of us girls go back to our dorms and go to bed. It was a very long day and I felt really good that I got to share my talent with 400 other people. It made me very happy.

Day 5:
For the first time this entire week, it was actually cold at night. It felt so good at the time, that was until we had to go outside. We have the usually morning routine. We eat breakfast as a company for once, then have a morning side devotional again. Afterwards, we got to 4 separate classes. Me and Addie and Tessa go to our classes together. It was fun learning about so many great things. I went to the classes about Family, Service, repentance, agency, accountability, honesty, integrity, dating, and friends. Most of the lesson doubled. No way I could learn all of these things one by one. After these lesson, we have the FSY service project. The project this year was that we got to hand decorate shirts for orphanages in Georgia (not the Georgia in the USA). They asked us to create and draw  something super unique and different for each individual kid. I  decorated my shirt to be hundreds of tiny hearts shaped as 1 big heart with the words "We love you" in the Georgian language. It felt really good while I did this. After I finished, our company played some games together. I learned some games that our councilor grew up knowing in Switzerland. Yeah she is from Switzerland. I definitely will teach them to M&M and Little A. When everybody was done, they announced that we had over 600 shirts to donate to the orphanages. We were all so proud of everyone. We have some free time afterwards. Us girls used that time to get ready for the formal dance. We go as a company to the dance and then the fun begins.

The dance wasn't one of those boring ones, when everybody just sits and does nothing, every single person was up and having fun. I had so much fun dancing with my friends and company. We took some fun company pictures.

Me and a couple of my friends also had fun at the Photo Booth. 

One of our company goals was for all of the guys to ask a girls to dance. I, at least, danced with 7 out of the 10 boys in our group. It was so much fun. After the dance was over, they showed a slideshow of all the pictures they have of the entire week. It was so much fun seeing all the funny moments we had together. It really was a great week. After the slideshow finished, we have our very last company devotional, then our last goodbyes. There was lots of crying and tears. It was a really dumb idea to wear mascara, but then again, all the girls were wearing some too. We have our last laughs and goodbyes, then we got back to our rooms. It rained and some of our stuff got wet, and so we stayed up extra late trying to dry everything with the hair dryer. Poor Addy had to get a new mattress put in because the other one was completely wet, but everything was dried and packed up after an extremely long time. We got to bed at around 12:10. I was so tired. Tomorrow we go back home.
Day 6:
We brought down all of our things and put them down in the great hall. We have our last breakfast together, and then we get onto the buses. Everyone was crying when we had to say good bye to our councilors. Even I was crying. We said our last good-byes and set of on the drive back home.

All of us were so excited to get home that we were almost tracking the church to see how far away we were. When we hit the 30 minute away mark, the bus all of the sudden jolted to a super slow pace. It was because a police car came and stopped us. Of course we all were a bit naughty and so nobody was wearing their seatbelt, or sitting in there chairs, and so when we stopped, everyone was yelling, "Quick, sit down and put on your seat belts!" Lol. We get escorted to a bus maintenance shop and we sit there for about 30 minutes. Then we drive to another shop and sit there. Everyone is confused and our only legal guardians were three 18 year olds that didn't know any German and didn't know what's going on. After a really long time, we finally are told that the bus was leaning to one side which means that the bus was no longer safe to drive. I personally think that it was because there was hundreds of luggages that was only put on one side of the bus, but I don't actually know.

We finally are allowed to get off the bus and get fresh air. We sit at that dealership for 3 more hours and then we finally get told that the second bus that was driving to the same place as us in coming to get all of us who were stuck in the broken bus.

After 30 more minutes of waiting, we see the bus and we all get on it. We finally get to the church parking lot. I felt really bad for some of the other kids because some had their luggage put into our bus even though they were riding in the other bus. Anyways, I finally see my family for the first time in almost 2 weeks and we drive home. I had such an amazing experience and I absolutely can't wait to go to my next FSY here in Germany. And now, to this day, I still see almost all of my friends from my company weekly at either swim practice, at school, at church, or at stake dances. We still have monthly get togethers to play games and hangout. We are great friends and I am so grateful that I have FSY friends close by.