I am struggling with how to encapsulate the incredible experience of camp. It was such a pinnacle experience... the culmination of months of prayer and planning playing out in a beautiful mountain place that felt sacred in itself. The young women in our ward are choice and beautiful (there was no drama all week!), and I loved every moment of being with them, learning about them, and bonding on a deeper level. I love how just leaving the "world" and going to camp allows boundaries and comfort zones to fall away and you can really see into each others hearts. There were also eight leaders and many visitors that were wonderful and did so much to make it an awesome week!
I'm also overwhelmed by the 500 photos I took, but I've tried to choose the best of the best to share. Maybe they'll help me tell the story...
My living room Saturday night... camp started Monday morning and we wanted to avoid loading on the Sabbath. There was a huge windstorm that night so all the gear ended up in my house so it wouldn't get blown away!
The Relief Society fed us a yummy breakfast at the church and then we were on our way to Heber Valley Camp! I love the entrance to camp with the value flags and friendly senior missionaries. From the moment you get there you can feel a special spirit.
We settled into Camp Sariah and staked out our cabins. We shared two cabins that slept twelve girls and four leaders each. I tactfully chose the cabin with the least number of "bouncing beehives" as I like to call them.
We passed out the camp sweatshirts (Rock Solid logos) and lanyards and headed over to camp orientation. I love how the sweatshirts made us look so united!
Our camp hosts (senior missionaries) were so cute! They checked on us multiple times a day and answered any questions we had. Of course they also enforced the rules and cleaning checks, but they were so sweet about it. We shared Sariah with the Garland Stake, who had most of the campground, and a couple of Ogden wards, who we shared our pavilion with.
While we were at orientation Jamie (my right hand lady) decorated camp for us! She was the driving force behind all our graphics... she works for the UVU dean's office and has sweatshirt and printing connections, plus a niece that does graphic design. I would just tell Jamie what I had in mind, and voila...magic!
Another leader is learning photography and I utilized her talents to take "Rockstar" photos of each girl before camp to decorate our Rock Solid Cafe. I absolutely love them! They show such personality and made our camp feel unique.
The first organized activity we did was the Challenge Course, which is built into the Heber Valley experience. I loved this quote posted at the beginning... it
was very fun and we did laugh a lot!
This is our awesome YW Prez and one of the cute missionaries who worked at the challenge course.
There were about ten different stations where the girls had to learn various lessons about working together. The missionaries had trained some of us leaders to man the stations, and taught us how to make each station into a spiritual object lesson.
I had one called Traffic Jam where the girls had to figure out how to get their teams to switch sides while only crossing one person at a time, without going backwards. It was easy to get in a traffic jam! Then we likened it to life, and how we can't go backwards to fix our mistakes, but we have Jesus Christ who will pay the price if we let him, and make it possible to get where we are going.
Our Bishop was in charge of Tarzan & Jane. I didn't get to watch it but it looked fun!
The very best part was the huge swing at the end!!!
Here's some cute girls getting harnessed up.
Amber (a leader) was terrified, but she was brave and did it!
These girls pulled us up to the top of the tree, then you release the rope and go flying!!
There were lots of screams and laughs.
Even Bishop did it! He didn't scream like a girl but I loved his fist pump and whoop!
One thing our older girls really know how to do is play games! This is called Samurai and involves lots of funny sounds ninja hollers. It made me laugh so hard my face hurt.
I didn't get a good photo of our camp flag! It was so cool! Every morning and evening we would raise/lower the flag and have a scripture and prayer. It was a good opportunity to hear from some of our younger campers.
Let me pause here and explain a bit more about our Rock theme. There are
so many references to rocks in the scriptures and so many talks by
church leaders that could tie in that I felt a need to unify them
somehow. One day I realized that there were topics that would
relate very well with each of the Young Women values, so we developed a
"curriculum" with an activity or spiritual lesson for each value. Then we
made pins to give to the girls after completing each one, sort of like
merit badges. We also made pins for completing the challenge course, the
lake, the hike, and certification. I thought the pins turned out really cute, but I didn't realize how much the girls would LOVE them! If someone didn't get one or lost one, they begged me for more.
The first night one of our 6th year YCL's (youth camp leaders) did the fireside on
Faith: Christ is the Rock. She presented the scripture that was the basis for our theme, Helamen 5:12: "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ;
that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts
in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty
shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down
to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye
are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build
they cannot fall."
She told some touching personal stories and bore a strong testimony. Our youth leaders were awesome-- many of them eagerly
volunteered for difficult assignments and carried them off better than I
could have hoped. I feel strongly that the older girls should have opportunities to lead, because if we do everything for them it does them no service when they get out in the real world. Our girls definitely rose to the challenge.
The Secret Sister mailbox was so fun! The girls love this tradition of secretly spoiling and getting spoiled.
We saw many deer in and around camp, but the hit was this tiny baby fawn. Its mama camouflaged it in the brush behind one of our cabins and went off to forage for food. We all got pretty close to it but it never moved until mama came back.
We had three crafts for the week. The first was painting prayer rocks to go with the pillowcases we made before camp. The second (above) was making journals for quiet time after each Golden Hour. We just used small legal notebooks and put a scrapbook paper cover and embellishments on the front. It was a hit with the girls and they all turned out so cute and unique!
Tuesday was our turn at the lake. I had heard it was a beautiful "walk" down, but it was more like a steep hike. The way there was all downhill and yet we had quite a few girls peter out... if I had any complaint about the whole week at camp it's that girls these days are kinda wimpy. :) The problem with going down was that they knew going back was all uphill!
I think it was worth it when when we got there... it was beautiful! The girls canoed and the leaders went on paddle boats for an hour. They don't allow swimming because of some bacteria in the water (ewww!).
This group cracked us up... it was the teeniest little beehives in front and the most anti-outdoors girl in the back. Needless to say they had a hard time getting anywhere and were the last ones back to shore.
Tuesday afternoon's Golden Hour was
Choice & Accountability: Musical Standards (playing off the rock theme, we talked about choosing good music). That night we had "Rock Star" skits!
We divided into four groups and gave them each a black bag full of costumes and props. I wish I had taken more photos of this because they were all hilarious! The girls are so creative and funny. It made for an entertaining evening.
Rock n' Roll group
Stone Age group
A subject we always came around to at the campfire was "cupcake hands" from TLC's show Toddlers and Tiaras (a few among us were obsessed).
Speaking of campfires, of course we had to have s'mores! The cook kept is simple and used fudge cookies. (Did I mention the ex-YW prez came back to cook for us?? She and another leader planned and did all the food, and kicked me out of the kitchen!)
After Rock Star skits, it was only fitting to have a karaoke night!!!
I borrowed an old school karaoke machine and we sang the night away with High School Musical and Disney.
Loved the karaoke go-go dancers on the tables.
I couldn't let the girls have all the fun... at the end I did some Shania Twain. I'm such a nerd....... but it was fun. That night the girls were wired (can't imagine why?) and not very many leaders got enough sleep!
The next day was
Wacky Wednesday! Everyone took this very seriously... these photos speak for themselves.
Later that morning our camp hosts gave us an opportunity for service. We wheelbarrowed a load of gravel around the cabins for keep the dirt down. It was the least we could do for that awesome campground!
Wednesday afternoon was hikes! As I mentioned some of the girls were wimpy and kept asking if the 3 mile lake trip could count as their hike. I finally gave in a little and shortened the hikes: the 1st and 4th years just did a 1 mile loop, and the 2nd and 3rd years did about 3 miles. I love hiking (especially when devoid of complaining!) so I led the longer hike and we had a blast!
These girls were so energetic and fun! We sang songs and laughed along the way.
I think they all felt such a sense of accomplishment making it to the lookout at the top! It was so beautiful up there... I hope it's something they will remember for a long time.
Our YCL's did two more spiritual presentations on Wednesday. Golden Hour was presented about
Divine Nature, on the subject of Joseph Smith and how he called himself a 'rough stone rolling.'
President Hinckley once said, "I
am profoundly grateful not only for Joseph Smith as the prophet who
served as an instrument in the hands of the Almighty in restoring this
work, but also for all of those who have followed him. A study of their
lives will reveal the manner in which the Lord has chosen them, has
refined them, and has molded them to His eternal purposes. Joseph
Smith declared on one occasion: “I am like a huge, rough stone rolling
down from a high mountain; … knocking off a corner here and a corner
there. Thus I will become a smooth and polished shaft in the quiver of
the Almighty." We talked and wrote about divine attributes we want to acquire and how we can be refined by the trials we go through in life.
The evening devotional was taught about
Integrity: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man. This talented YCL brought a small handmade wood house and demonstrated what happens when built upon sand versus rock when water washes over it. She also shared a beautiful quote from C.S. Lewis that was so profound: "Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After
all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against
it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to
walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation
after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an
hour later." (from
Mere Christianity)
Thursday morning we got up a little early and had a spiritual hike. This idea had special significance to me, because before I was called to be camp director, I read about a beautiful experience a close friend of mine had at Girls' Camp, and I was so touched by it I saved it on my computer, thinking I might someday have a chance to do something similar with youth. Not more than two weeks later I was called to direct camp and knew that the
Lord had directed
me.
I called it our Rock Hike because we loaded the girls up with rocks. At the beginning they were given an empty bag and told to start down a pathway alone. They came upon difficulties along the path and were loaded with burdens. These were challenges they may really face, such as low self esteem, broken families, temptations in the form of media and peer pressure, and even disease and death of loved ones. They were real burdens, and they were heavy.
Near the end, when their bags were full and breaking, there were a few helpers on the path. They came across "Dad" who could help carry their burdens for a few steps, but had to give them back. At the end the path turned down a steep slope and the "Bishop" was there to give support and lead the girls to the Savior. They came upon an image of Christ in Gethsemane, and were able to lay their burdens at His feet.
Come unto me,
all ye that are heavy
laden, and I will
give you rest.
Matthew 11:28-29
At this point, each girl was given a testimony letter written by one of her parents and read it quietly. A few eyes were wet and many hearts were touched. It was a powerful visual of the healing and enabling power of the Atonement.
Another special activity we did was crack geodes, relating it to
Individual Worth. Geodes just look like ugly rocks on the outside, but when you open them you "discover the beauty within!"
Now I just have to mention the part of camp that nobody really loves...
certification. Luckily I had some awesome helpers and we made it really fun! A leader and a YCL teamed up and took a year (1st, 2nd, etc.) and came up with activities and lessons that would make it interesting.
The 3rd years learned about different types of shelters, as displayed in miniature.
The 1st years went on a nature hike to look and listen in the woods.
The 2nd years did a service actvity and heart attacked everyone.
The 1st years learned to tie knots with licorice ropes.
At the end of the week, our oldest and wisest YCL wrote a script for a mock disaster and the leaders and YCL's acted it out! All the other girls were sent up a trail to assess the carnage and figure out how to get everyone to the top! This leader above was hit on the head by falling rocks.
This one was attacked by a bear.
This one fell from a tree and broke her leg.
I had heatstroke and fainted. One was in shock, another had hypothermia, and others had bee stings and snakebites.
There was lots of blood and screaming, but everyone was given the treatment they needed and made it back safely!
Our last craft related to a Golden Hour on
Good Works: Let Your Light Shine. We talked about the Brother of Jared who asked the Lord to touch stones to give him and his family light when they crossed the ocean in dark barges. We were taught about two guiding lights in our lives: loving the Lord, and loving our fellow men. (This
article is wonderful.)
We made lanterns with clear stones in them to remind us to let the light of Christ shine through us and to serve and love others.
The whole camp experience culminated on Thursday night with songs around the campfire and a special fireside by our good bishop. He spoke to the girls about the crowning value of the young women theme,
Virtue, and about the crowning ordinances of the gospel in the temple. He related the building of the Salt Lake temple foundation with thick granite stones to building a virtuous life that can allow each young woman to be worthy to enter the temple.
This year is the 100th year of Girls' Camp, so we commemorated it by shining 100 lights (including our lanterns) from a high place out into the world to represent our desire to stand for truth and right and let the light of the Savior shine in our lives. It was a beautiful visual depiction of the way these girls are united in goodness and faith. Every young women and many of the leaders shared sweet testimonies... even the little Beehives who had never done it before and were so scared. They encouraged and strengthened each other and everyone was very touched. My heart was so full of love for them and for the gospel that it felt like it would burst!
What better way to end camp than with cobbler and ice cream?
At camp, you discover that the Lord is great. You don't really need much to be happy, and you can do hard things. In nature the Spirit is closer where it is quiet, and you can experience what it feels like to
"Be still, and know that I am God."
I feel so privileged to have served the young women. I love Girls' Camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
