Lessons learned from Girls Camp:
At Girls Camp, we had planned to have personal study time and I invited the girls as they went to their solo spot, to write a question down in their journal to ask God during camp. Carly Bevans bore her testimony and said that she wrote down her question of how will I accomplish my great work (A great work is the youth theme for the year and the theme for our camp). She said that two thoughts came to her - courage and the Spirit, and then she explained how these things were what she needed to accomplish what God has for her to do.
We had finished our skits and were transitioning into testimony meeting. We had Esther Sala play her guitar as we sang, "I Am a Child of God" and it worked to bring the Spirit. Then Bishop Leishman shared a few thoughts, I shared my testimony and then many of the girls shared their testimonies. The Holy Ghost was in the camp kitchen in our circle of camp chairs. We were getting closer to being finished as a majority of the girls who wanted to share their thoughts out loud had done so. There was a pause in between testimonies, and then Jane Eaton said, there is a fox out by those trees you have to see, it is so cute. The Spirit of the meeting was gone, but it was okay because I think it was a good stopping point.
Another life lesson I learned was that picturing the finish line or the goal of the camp helped me to stay calm and focused when something seemed frustrating or something didn't go smoothly. I knew at the end of the camp I would drive away with a feeling of love/unity/gratitude/excitement because I have felt it before at the end of camp.
Day 1 - Met at church. Drove to Beauvais Lake Campground. Set up tents by age group. Dinner. Played mantracker between our camp and the lake. The leaders had to tag the girls. There were a few scraped legs from crawling through brush and trees. Then we did a speed friendship game where we sat in a circle with an inner row and outer row and had a list of questions to ask each other and then switch every minute. The girls didn't really think sleep was too necessary the first night. The older girls were laughing and giggling until 5 am. Then just when we thought it was getting quiet, the younger girls that it was going to rain because there were a few raindrops so they were up at 5:30 putting their rainfly over their tent. They didn't go back to sleep.
Day 2 - The younger girls were in charge of breakfast and since they were up so early, they were all ready for the day, including matching braided hair with Peyton Pilling as the braider. They were right on top of things cooking our bacon and pancakes. Then we had solo study time. It was actually so quiet and you could feel the Spirit in our camp for those few minutes.
Then we had 3 stations that we rotated through. Nikki taught them to tie a rope ladder. Sarra and Amber taught the girls to weave bracelets. My group did team building activities. Then we went and tried out the rope ladders in the trees. Next was lunch and then we went to the lake. It was windy and not super hot and the lake has lots of seaweed, but we did do some canoeing.
Zinnia Verdon cooked a gourmet dinner for us. Then we had skits and testimony meeting. The skits wee hilarious. I love them all. Then we had a glowstick dance party. The girls were asleep much earlier the second night.
Day 3 - We had breakfast and went on a hike. Then we cleaned up camp and headed home.
I did have the amazing thankful for camp feeling as we drove away. Cherlyn Bevans did an amazing job as the camp director. We loved the group campsite - it was perfect. The wind never stopped, but it meant we didn't have any mosquitoes. We didn't get to have a campfire because it was too windy, but it meant we didn't stink like smoke and we could all fit in the camp kitchen for our meals and activities. The girls interacted better than we could ever have imagined. We laughed, cried and learned together. I am so thankful for all of the young women leaders in my presidency. They are so awesome and love the girls.
For our leaders skit, we did a beauty pageant. We all brought old prom dresses to wear, had an interview question and a talent. When we were outside of the camp kitchen putting on our dresses, Sarra said to me, "Kaylynn I hope you know that I am only doing this because I love you." Eve Verdon was the winner of our pageant.
A couple other miracles of camp: Peyton Murray wasn't going to stay at camp so she just came up the first night for dinner with her mom, but Emma Proffitt convinced her to stay. She didn't bring anything with her, but the girls rounded up extra pillows, blankets, a short sleeve shirt, etc. It was so fun to have her stay.
When we were part way up the hill of our hike, Dayna Sommerfeldt sat down on the bench and said something like how tired she was. Katie Sommerfeldt said something to her, because when we started walking again, Dayna said, "See Katie, I am not a quitter."
We conquered Girls Camp!
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