My last three blogs have been all about the trips I’ve been on, but not much else on Cumorah-specific things. It occurred to me that you all might be wondering how the internship itself is going, not just all the trips I’ve been going on. 🙂 So, I’ll write a blog on that.

Last weekend we went to the Terezin concentration camp in the Czech Republic. It was so hard to be there. To hear about all the horrible things that happened, and see the building with my own eyes. You read books on World War 2 and see the movies, and of course, it’s painful and horrific, but it hit differently physically being there. It was more real.

I want to write that blog post. It’s gonna be sad, but important.

I think it deserves its own blog post, so I am going to mainly focus on Cumorah in this blog and next time write about Terezin.

This post will be a bit all over the place. Hopefully, it makes sense. Let’s jump in.

Marketing

Before we get into marketing stuff, you should watch this House Cup video here or inserted below. (It is important to the story later, and besides it was one of my marketing creations. I’m sure Cumorah would love it if you liked the video too… just for the algorithm, ya know? Anyway, if you could watch the video, it will come into play later in the blog, so it’d be nice.)

Marketing has been great. I’ve fallen into a routine and it has been good. Camila is a great friend and photographer and we work well together. We’ve been working on a bunch of videos and marketing projects. It’s been awesome.

One of the main projects we working on was the aforementioned House Cup video. I will talk more about that one soon.

We also made a journal video since I completed my first journal here. (I’ve actually completed another journal since that video came out, so be on the lookout for Journal video #2 coming out soon!)

I am learning a lot in this internship, marketing-wise.

So, SLI … stuff

(I’m trying to be vague with that heading, haha.)

What is an SLI? Good question! Let’s get into that first because nothing else will make any sense if you don’t understand that.

An SLI is short for Student Leadership Intern. SLIs are people who were students last semester and wanted to come back to Cumorah a second time. Cumorah is only a one-semester thing but they have an option to come back as an SLI.

At Cumorah, there are 5 groups or “houses” that students are all sorted into. There is Moroni, Ruth, Isaiah, Nephi, and Esther. Students do a lot of things with their house- there’s team building twice a week where the group leader* has fun games for the group to play and get to know each other better, weekly family home evening Monday night, and more activities as well. You’ll do outreach projects with your group (I’ll get to what that means,) conduct devotionals with your group, and work with your group. They become your mini family while you are here at Cumorah.

*There is the SLI, but every week someone in the group becomes that week’s group leader and leads the group in the weekly activities.

Now, you might be wondering it, so yes, just like in Harry Potter, the houses compete for the house cup. It’s a silver cup trophy that will go to the winning team at the end of the semester, and when it gets given to the winning team it will be filled to the brim with candy.

I have written an article for Cumorah about what an SLI is and who the SLI’s this semester are. It will come into play later in the story as well. Click here to read it. (Technically I’ve written another article about it as well, but I think it’s gonna be posted later in the summer. So, follow Cumorah and stay tuned!)

Interns vs SLIs

SLI’s are technically interns- I mean “intern” is in the name, but the two groups often feel a bit separated. There’s the intern group and we are all from America (well, Camila is from Mexico, but she was going to Ensign with me,) and the SLI’s are all from Europe and hang out together.

(At the beginning of the semester, there was a bit of a disconnect between the two groups, but we are good friends now!)

Change in the SLIs!

Okay. There is SO much with this section! Before I can say anything that recently happened we have to go back in time a little bit. Remember the week we went to Rome? Yeah, that is how far back we are going. This blog post is gonna be a bit all over the place. Sorry!

The week after the Rome trip two of the SLI’s (the leader of Moroni and Isaiah) decided they were leaving Cumorah. There was a lot of drama with it. I don’t even know all the reasons, nor do I want to get into them in this blog. I didn’t know those SLIs very well anyway but don’t want to say something false to my readers when I don’t know the whole story myself. All I can say is that they chose to leave.

They loved their first semester as students, (and Cumorah is AMAZING, so whatever their reasons I don’t understand them,) but they felt like they needed to go home. So, they did.

The SLIs left???

Yep. And their groups were left without an SLI for a few days. It was very dramatic. Their groups might have felt abandoned. (I mean, allegedly, I don’t know for sure…)

It was kind of dramatic on my end too. The week the two SLIs left, I was doing a whole week of marketing about the SLIs this semester. I was writing that blog article linked above. (You’ll notice it only talks about 3 SLIs in the blog,) making the House Cup video, (also linked above- you’ll notice in that one I interview three “SLIs of your group,” and Moroni and Isaiah are “people in the group,” and making a couple social media posts featuring them.

It was a little hard because I went up and asked them if I could use them for a blog, Instagram post, and House Cup video, and that is when they said, “We’re leaving campus and won’t be in any marketing stuff.”

Oh.

We had a couple of staff meetings knowing what to do for the groups since at the time we still had 5 weeks left in the semester and those groups needed an SLI. Ultimately, it was decided that the remaining SLIs would work with Polina (a staff member at Cumorah who leads the SLIs) to come up with the solution.

Then the next day I was asked to have a private meeting with the campus directors and Polina. And there Polina asked me if I would be willing to be Isaiah’s newest SLI.

Meet Isaiah’s newest SLI

One potential problem with me being an SLI for Isaiah was that my marketing internship would go to the back burner. We assured the marketing team that that wouldn’t happen. I was hired as the content creator and that would of course be my first priority.

To help me balance both jobs even better Polina also asked Faith (the wellness intern, and one of my favorite people here at Cumorah!) to tag team Isaiah’s SLI. So, now we can split up responsibilities and meetings, etc. (Which is good, because I can focus on marketing, Faith can focus on wellness, and together we can help Isaiah get closer and have a successful, fun last month of the semester.)

I was happy to say yes to Polina’s question.

Becoming an SLI

Okay. I have to pause here for a second. A few weeks into the internship my mom asked me if I was struggling with anything or would change anything about Cumorah. The one thing I thought of to say was, “I wish interns had a group.” All the students were sorted into a groups since day one. They’ve done all the teambuilding and home evenings together.

The interns weren’t given a group, and I have spent a few home evenings and team buildings sitting alone in my room. Or talking to Paige, who is an English intern and also doesn’t have a group. Marketing sometimes pulls me away during team-building times, but I would’ve liked to have the group as an option if I were free to join. Also obviously, I could just go join a group, but I didn’t think I was allowed to, and then a couple of weeks had already gone by and I thought it would be weird, and then I just got comfortable missing them and lost all my courage. Then all of a sudden we were halfway through the semester.

When I told my mom the news of becoming an SLI she said, “You’re getting exactly what you want! You wanted a group, and now you have one, and you love Faith so working with her is great!”

Yep. Pretty much. 🙂

The Sorting Hat

A couple of days after they asked me to be Isaiah’s newest SLI we had a Sorting Hat Ceremony right after Leadership class with everyone. Polina put the sorting hat on me. She had made a recording for the sorting hat saying some really kind things about me, and “That is why this person will be in… Isaiah!” Complete with the sorting hat GIF playing in the background. Then Faith was sorted too.

It was really neat. Polina said some nice things.

(Oh! And, if you were wondering, Moroni’s new SLI is Polina!)

Thursday’s Team Building

Okay. We are jumping around again. Sorry!

The Sorting Hat was on Friday. However, I was asked to be an SLI on Wednesday, and team building is on Thursday. Polina asked if I could go to team building but not tell anyone yet, since she would announce it on Friday. So, I texted the group leader of Isaiah that week and asked if I could join in that day, and then I attended my first-ever team-building activity here.

Team building was a scavenger hunt. It was so much fun. The people in the Isaiah group are SO NICE and Faith and I were welcomed in with open arms! (And this is before they knew I was the SLI!)

We split into groups for the scavenger hunt and my group asked me to come up with the group name. I suggested “Patrick’s favorite” and one group member (Who shall remain unnamed for the blog…) said not jokingly, “Who’s Patrick?” It was so funny! (Patrick is Cumorah’s CEO and owner.)

The scavenger hunt was fun. Isaiah is awesome. I liked hanging out with everyone. Team building is an hour long, but we finished the scavenger hunt and still had thirty minutes left. We ended up just eating the scavenger hunt prize and talking. Somewhere in there, the conversation turned to things that remind us about Jesus Christ. I said, “This is going to sound weird, but-“

WAIT!

OH! I just remembered something! We have to go back in time a bit! Don’t you love a good cliffhanger? Me too!

On Thursday morning I went to the pond and was praying about this new assignment of being the SLI. I wasn’t 100% sure if I did want to be the SLI, and I started to feel some doubts. “What if nobody in the Isaiah group likes me?” I haven’t been as present with the students as other interns have been able to because I have been busy with marketing. Faith, while I love her, is one of the interns who has had the privilege of being present with students. What if everybody likes her and not me? What if we don’t work together great?

It was a little weird. I knew a lot of these doubts I was feeling were irrational (and petty sounding when I type them out) but I was feeling them suddenly. So I went to sit by the pond, journal, and pray. I felt so much peace. And, the logical side came out too. Of course, Faith has been more present with the students- her job is the students’ wellbeing. It doesn’t matter if the Isaish group members don’t like me. I’m not there to be liked. I was put in the Isaiah group to show them love and support. And I can do that!

Praying at the pond was a great experience. I went to team building feeling a whole lot better and ready to be an SLI.

Okay, back in!

Team building was fun. Isaiah is awesome. I liked hanging out with everyone. Team building is an hour long, but we finished the scavenger hunt and still had thirty minutes left. We ended up just eating the scavenger hunt prize and talking. Somewhere in there, the conversation turned to things that remind us about Jesus Christ. I said, “This is going to sound weird, but, mosquitos remind me of Jesus Christ.”

Of course, that comment resulted in a “What??” from the group and I had to explain. They asked questions and I explained some more. We talked about mosquitos and symbolism – one of my favorite topics! People liked it! They were commenting and asked me for some links to scriptures afterward! And, I realized that even though I’m not here to be liked… maybe I still will be. 🙂

(I’m not going to tell you why mosquitos remind me of Jesus Christ just yet, maybe that can be a future blog post!)

So, how’s being an SLI going?

It is SO good! I’m glad you asked! The group has gotten closer. I feel grateful to be a part of a group.

SLI’s have SO many meetings. On top of my marketing meetings and general staff meetings, I feel like I am constantly in meetings. The marketing team has two a week, SLIs have five meetings per week, and there are two weekly general staff meetings as well. Plus I have a weekly meeting with the Campus director couple, and I interview the mentors and have a one-on-one meeting with them each week. It’s A LOT of meetings!

But, it is good. I feel like I am seeing different sides of Cumorah, it’s made the final weeks different, which is nice, and I am getting closer to the other SLIs, the students, and Faith.

I have no complaints. 🙂 Life is good. The internship is good.

OOH! And, a little bragging moment- Isaiah is currently winning the House Cup! Woot! Woot! (Pray for us to stay in the lead, I want the trophy and the candy!)

Outreach projects

June has been full of outreach projects. Outreach projects are service projects in the community around Cumorah. Cumorah wants to connect more with the community, and one of the ways they do that is through outreach projects.

At the beginning of the semester, each house chose an outreach project and helped set it up. Half of the teambuilding times during April and May were dedicated to planning and preparing them. As the marketing interns Camila and I went to all of the outreach projects to take pictures, and videos, and get material to write a blog post about them. It’s been fun!

Isaiah’s group did service at a library. I would have spent time reading the books, but most of them were all in Czech. We helped move boxes up and down stairs and we sorted shelves of books and moved them so there would be room on other shelves. It was a library in Benosov, Czech Republic. It was super great.

I’ve also gone to a high school in Vlasim with the Moroni group where they taught an English class to the students and a foodbank with the Ruth group. The Esther group cleaned up a zoo, and Nephi had an English conversation class in Nacederec. Those last two I didn’t go to because I had a job interview and they didn’t have enough seats.

Figuring out what to do with my life after Cumorah

Speaking of job interviews, I am trying to figure out what to do with my life when I get back home. I am publishing this blog on July 6th, and I come home in ONE WEEK! Ah! I am so excited! The internship has been so much fun and a wonderful learning experience, but I am so excited to go back home.

I just graduated from Ensign College before coming to Cumorah (literally two days before coming to Cumorah,) with a degree in Communications and digital marketing. Now I am a little unsure of my next step. Though, excited to find out what it is. If you know of any marketing or copywriting jobs let me know!

I also have been a bit confused about what to do with my blog. I want to keep writing. Blogging brings me joy. However, I created this website for a business competition in my college. “Write Side Up” with the idea that I would provide writing services to small businesses. While I still could do that, I feel like here at Cumorah my focus on that has drifted away and I don’t totally want that anymore.

Writing for topics I’m not interested in doesn’t bring me as much joy as writing for myself. Plus, I’m not a business major. I’m not sure I am the most credible person if I am writing to a small business owner. There are plenty more blogs they can get better advice from.

I would love to still write consistently. Eventually, I hope to monetize my blog with affiliate links, etc, but I might be moving away from the small business ideas. While I would be thrilled to have a travel blog, like the Czech Republic posts have been, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

I was thinking maybe a website/blog all about writing. It is called “Write Side Up” after all. And, then I could blog about poetry, bullet journaling, pen paling, therapeutic journaling, and how writing can help your upside-down life become write-side up. 🙂 I don’t really know yet… But, I do LOVE writing so I would feel passionate about that topic.

Preparing for graduation!

This next week will be a bit crazy. The marketing director is flying in. We have one week to put together some final videos, blogs, and content. Then we have graduation and everyone is flying home. It’s exciting and fast. I’m going to pray that all my souvenirs fit fine in the weight limit of my suitcase.

I’m going to try and publish two more blog posts before I leave. One about Terezin, and one about the impact Cumorah had on me. The blog post about graduation and any final week stuff will be posted after I get home. So, until next time!

Mack