Oh goodness, I don't even know where to begin. There just aren't words to adequately describe how amazing, fantastic, and wonderful this year's Young Women's/Girls Camp was. (K, maybe there's at least 3 words) Bear with me as this post might just be the longest one yet. I have so many thoughts that I want to write down and TRY to organize ;) READ TIL THE VERY END! I'm wanting to write about the significant parts of each day and then wrap it up with my testimony and what I learned and everything at the end. (Although, every little part of every day was significant!) Monday- The bus ride up to Heber Valley was just so great. We talked about a little bit of everything from the best movies and chick flicks to screaming disney songs at the top of our lungs. Once we and everyone got there, we unloaded all of our stuff into our cabins and rushed in to find ourselves the perfect bunk. Now this is where the laughing-so-hard-we-cried part of the week starts in... I go to open my sleeping bag and all I see is brown fabric. I'm thinking "What the heck, my sleeping bag is blue..." I ripped open the black garbage bag that it was in and it turns out to be a FLIPPIN' DOG BED. A. DOG. BED. (Hold up for a sec, I don't even have a dog currently... It was one of the boxer's bed that we had just stored away in my garage.) Let's just say I never lived that down that whole week and probably for the rest of my life. MORAL OF THE STORY: Check your dang sleeping bag and make sure it's actually a sleeping bag! ;) One of my very favorite parts of camp was the devotionals each night at the amphitheater and the speakers that came. Monday night's speaker was Sister Callie Reeve (I think that's how her name is spelled) She spoke a lot about staying true to who you are, especially in the gospel where we need to be examples to others especially as women in the church. We can be an influence for good. At the end of her talk she sang "Come unto Christ, Come unto him" The spirit was so strong, and of course I cried. I wish there was a video of her singing it on YouTube or something but sadly there isn't... Tuesday- LAKE DAY! Woo! This is always one of my favorite parts about camp. We could choose between a canoe or paddle boat. We chose the paddle boat to switch it up a bit. I got to sit in the middle and tan most of the time while my fellow paddle boaters AKA friends who I love dearly got to go hard at work toning their legs ;) alright alright, we switched places halfway through so that I could feel the pain too haha! After everyone is out on Legacy Lake we all stop what we're doing and have 2 minutes of silence to just look around at the scenery around us. The trees, glistening water, the bright blue sky full of fluffy clouds, etc. I couldn't help but think during this time of how incredibly blessed we are to have this beautiful world that our loving Heavenly Father has created. It's breathtaking. After the 2 minutes of silence, we all sang "I feel my Savior's love" together. It was great. That night, we had another devotional by Carmen Rasmusen Herbert. When she was 17 she auditioned for Season 2 of American Idol. She got cut from the top 200 but was later chosen to be on the "Wild card" show. She made it all the way to the final 6 before being eliminated. She spoke about putting faith and family above fame and fortune. Putting God first will allow everything else to fall into place in your life. Always! At the end she sang one of my very favorite hymns "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing". It was so so beautiful. That night around 9:30-ish all the wards went back up to the amphitheater for "Singing in the trees", which is where each ward goes into their own spot in the trees and sings the song that they've been practicing for months. It's completely dark except the stars and moon shining on us and their flashlights of course. Once each ward finishes, they turn their flashlights off and the next ward begins to sing. We were second to last. We sang "Glorious" By David Archuleta. After that, together as a Stake we sang "Stay" by Jenny Phillips. Here is the link to the song. You won't regret listening. CLICK HERE! Wednesday- CHALLENGE COURSE DAY! Another thing I look forward to for camp! The big course that we had this year was the zipline! Like any other zipline, it was a blast. Along with this, we have mini challenge courses that we do after as a group of about 10 girls. The mini course that has always stuck out to me is called "Lifeline". We start out sitting on a log blindfolded. We can't see anything whatsoever. One by one we are taken by one of our leaders to the starting point which is a tree. All we have to hold onto are wires attached to the trees. As we walk along, we hold one arm up that isn't holding onto the wire, to protect us from running into branches/trees or anything else. Along the way, I would sometimes get stuck. I would take a wrong turn or grab onto a wrong wire (pretty much going in circles). At one point I had a leader tell me that I needed to turn around. Slowly but surely... I got to the end! When I finished, my Young Women President took me by the arm and shoulders and told me "Congratulations, You made it home." I couldn't help but think of how our loving Heavenly Father will tell us the exact same thing when we return home to Him after this journey we call life. This mini challenge course is very similar to life: We are sometimes blindfolded by our trials. We get stuck. We take wrong turns. During these moments of hardship in our lives we think, "How in the world am I going to get through this? This is so hard." But you know what? We DO get through it. How? Because of our Savior Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven. They love us. They want us to return home. They are reaching out their hands just waiting for us to take them. <3 Later on that day, me and a few other girls in my ward did a service project! We loaded and unloaded ginormous logs to different camp sites. Our legs burned from hiking up different hills to get to various campsites, our arms ached from carrying heavy logs, we were "attacked" by flying ants and nasty other spiders that don't need to exist ;) , etc. But in the end it was totally worth it. After each group finished their service project, we all met up at the cute little old missionaries trailer's. One of the many things that stood out to me that was said by one of the sister missionaries (I forgot her name :( was, "He knows the color of your eyes. After all, He (Heavenly Father) created you." Doesn't that just give you the chills? He knows us each by name. He knows our struggles. He knows our pain. And most of all, He loves us so so much more than we can even imagine! Later that night we had another devotional by Ashley Smith. She too, is a singer! She spoke a lot about self worth. She sang "Try" by Colbie Caillat. In one part of the song it says "When you're all alone by yourself, do you like you?" That alone in itself is so powerful. Especially nowadays there is SO much pressure on us girls to be PERFECT. Society expects us to be done up all the time. Our hair done, our makeup perfect and exactly how everyone else is doing it, etc. But the great news is, is that we don't have to give into that. You be you. You do you. You be your OWN person. We are all different because we are meant to be. You are beautiful EXACTLY how you are right now. Do not ever let anyone tell you any different. Thursday - Our last full day and our (almost) 5 mile hike! The hike was breathtaking and absolutely stunning. At the midpoint we took a group picture overlooking the whole Heber Valley camp. You literally felt on top of the world. Our last and final devotional was by our Stake President, President Edwards! Such a great man. He said that we all started with our own "Once upon a time" (our birth). In the pre-mortal life, each and every one of us raised our hands and agreed to come to this earth. We were excited! Can you believe that? Excited! At times we may think, "Why in the world was I excited when I knew all of the hard things I would have to face?" It is because we will eventually get our "Happily ever after." (Returning home to our Savior and Heavenly Father). God's plan is perfect. It is the plan of happiness. With His help and our Savior's, we can make it! And then came testimony night (once we all got back to our campsites). We all gathered around the fire with our camp chairs, hoodies, and blankets. It may have been super cold, but the spirit was oh so warm! You can bet your bottom dollar that we had tonssss of tissues ready! Testimony night is always a highlight for me. The spirit was so strong. And to top off the night, we had dutch oven peach cobbler! Good stuff.
Friday - Basically just cleaned our cabins, pavilion, bathrooms, and showers all morning! The bus ride home was bittersweet. We missed our own beds and we all were exhausted, but we honestly didn't want to leave. If we could have stayed another week, we would have. For sure. If you're still reading, props to you and I love you! I hope you've enjoyed reading about my week as much as I truly enjoyed it. Before I end with a few more pics, I just want to share a little bit of my testimony with you all... Girls camp will always always have my heart. It was so nice to be able to be up in the mountains for a week and enjoy what God has created without the distractions of our phones, social media, TV, etc. It's nice to rough it out (even though we did have cabins and such ;). This earth that we get to live in is absolutely stunning. We are so lucky! If there is one thing that you take away from this post, I want you to know that you are never alone. Never ever ever. Seen and unseen there are angels around you bearing you up, along with our Heavenly Father and elder brother Jesus Christ. They love you with an infinite love. Each and every one of you, no matter who you are. No matter what you have done or what you have been through, They are always there. Let them in, grab their hands. Remember to always STAY IN TUNE with the spirit. Stay close to your Heavenly Father. Pray often. K, now I'm done. Phew! Thank you for reading. I appreciate it so so much. <3 Happy Sunday!
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Ponderize Of The Week:
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." - James 1:5-6 Quote Of The Week:
"Give it to God and go to sleep." - Unknown |