I got to go with the Young Women to Girls Camp this year! First time as a leader and I was so excited! I got called to be a laurel advisor in January and since then have been the most excited about camp.
We went to Wasatch Recreation Camp in Morgan County and it was gorgeous. Super wooded, secluded and perfect. With flushing toilets.
We had 22 girls there with us (only 3 were laurels) and 11 of the funnest leaders!
We did crafts, activities, devotionals and learned camp skills every single day. The first day we got our EM 7th ward girls camp shirts and everyone decorated a walking stick to hang the beads on, that they earned for learning their camp skills.
That night we had a talent show at the amphitheater, which included the leaders doing a choreographed dance to "You don't know you're beautiful".
The next day we went on a nature walk to a Pioneer Youth Monument to honor the heroic youth among the companies of Mormon pioneers that passed near that spot.
I loved hearing Sister Russell's testimony of how learning about our ancestors can strengthen our own faith because even though are trials are not the same we can know that because they did hard things that we can do hard things too.
"Let us never forget the cost of our faith."
Farther up the trail was a gorgeous field of yellow and purple flowers. We handed each young woman a letter from her parents to go read by herself and to be alone with her thoughts, in the mountains, disconnected from the world. Best medicine ever. The perfect way to reconnect spiritually.
We all named our tents and since the theme of camp was "If ye love me, keep my commandments" we called our tent the Love Bugs. Also because Becca loves bugs. But not really. She was terrified of ticks. So the new camp rule became "No tic toc time around Becca."
Don't worry cause the next morning I took a drink of my water bottle and sucked a spider out of my straw and INTO my mouth! Spit it out and watched it crawl away. EWWWW Took me right back to my mission.
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| Amy White, Allaree Stubbs, Becca Eason, Me |
The chorus of gas that our tent produced brought us much closer together! All 3 of these ladies live right across the street from me and are the best.
Before camp we had some preparation activities that included making Journals and Song Books for camp. Some of the songs in them we did not know. So one evening Amy is looking through it and sees a song called "I Wish" and thinks she knows how it goes. Confident as ever she starts full on rapping, "I wish I was a little sugar bun! Sugar bun!" and we all started losing it! Because that song is to the tune of "I wish I were a little bar of soap" Haha
She got called DJ Blanca the rest of the week and ended up writing a rap for all of the leaders to perform for the girls on our last night there!
We made a nail art arrow, candles, did yoga, meditated, painted, played minute to win it games, and made coupons to do service for people in the ward. We tried to do singing trees on night, cause it's my FAVORITE! But it did not work at all because it was still light. I was kinda bummed.
We also made these lanterns that we used on our Woman's Faith Walk the last night at camp.
The priesthood taught us lots of great camp skills like orienteering, knot tying, water purification, preserving the environment, fire making, etc. Even though the girls don't actually have to certify those things anymore.
The last day we were there Bishop Hale did an activity where the girls each had a turn smashing an egg on his or Brother Becar's head, not knowing if it was hard boiled or raw.
I liked his message afterwards of letting the young women know that he is there to help them and that he would do anything for them, even let them smash eggs on his head.
That night, before our testimony meeting, the leaders had prepared a Women's Faith Walk for the young women. We each were representing a strong, inspirational woman either from the scriptures or church history and wanted to let them know how great their potential as women is.
There were 8 stops along the trail and each of us had a different message for the girls based on the story we told through the eyes of that person.
I decided to be one of the wise virgins from the Bible.
The message of being prepared for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ really stood out to me and the fact that we each need to prepare by gaining our own testimony. As much as we want to help those that we love, we cannot provide a testimony of Jesus Christ to anyone else except ourselves.
Just like maintaining an oil lamp, maintaining our testimony will take great effort. Drop by drop. But if we do, His Spirit will light our way in the darkness.
"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
Matthew 25:13
"Awake and arise and go forth to meet the Bridegroom; behold and lo, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Prepare yourselves for the great day of the Lord."
I wish I could have heard the other women along the trail, but I was the second to last stop so I only got to hear Jen Candland, who was representing herself. She gave an incredible message of faith to the young women. She has been through some HARD things and still her testimony is powerful. She lost her mom to cancer when she was 19, was later diagnosed with cancer herself, fought it twice, then her husband was treated for cancer and then their IVF treatments failed and they have never been able to have children.
Ultimately I think those things are meant to humble us and bring us closer to our Savior. Through those things we better understand His sacrifice, His love and how much we NEED Him. How much He really is there.
Of course I LOVED testimony meeting that night. I bore testimony of Journals and how important it is to write down our spiritual experiences. Because someday the lies that maybe God doesn't exist, or doubting His love for you, or thinking that you have never even felt His Spirit before, will come into your head and when they do there needs to be proof that those things are not true.
I am so grateful for the spiritual rejuvenation I received at young women's camp and all the feel good moments I had that give me the hope that I need.
Love, Peace and Hope.
The last morning we revealed our secret sisters and told something we learned about them.
I had Amy and Jen had me! Making friends and building relationships is so great and the only way to do it through sharing experiences together.
Today I spoke in Sacrament meeting about how we were able to feel closer to the Savior and feel His love at camp. Mostly I talked about how sometimes we need to just force ourselves to be still and slow down by spending time in places where our cell phone service and our wifi can't reach us. Practicing disconnecting, unplugging and leaving distractions is an essential skill for tuning into the Spirit. Especially in a world where our technology has become an unhealthy addiction.
Probably another reason I love going to the temple so much. No phones allowed.
I think too many people get to caught up in being able to instantly know what they want to know in the world that they don't know how to spiritually put the effort in to facilitate their own spiritual experiences, recognize answers to their prayers or receive personal revelation. They just chalk it up to God abandoning them. How can He speak to me in His still, small voice if I never turn all the noise off long enough to hear Him? God hasn't abandoned me at all.
When I reach for my phone before I pray or turn on Neltflix before I read my scriptures I am abandoning Him.
But when I put in the work to seek Him out, I always find Him.
