Young Women Camp

I had the amazing opportunity to be with my young women for the week and it was incredible! I love this group of girls and they are so much fun to be with.

We started our camp week off with a super fun high adventure activity at High Trek Adventure in Everett. We did a ropes course that has zip lines, a climbing wall, laser tag, axe throwing, and mini golf. We had so much fun and I loved seeing these girls do hard things, work together, encourage and cheer each other on, help each other overcome fears, and be each other's biggest support.

The ropes course was first and I loved it so much. I loved seeing these girls do hard things. They pushed themselves to go higher. There were different paths they could take that would either challenge them more or give them a rest. They had to trust their equipment and each other. There were a couple of girls that were unsure about the zip lines because of the height, but we helped each other and encouraged each other and talked each other through each step and I'm happy to say that everyone did the zip line! I was pretty excited about that because I love it when you see people you love try new things and test their limits. You never know what your strengths are until you push it a litttle. (Lots of gospel application there that we talked about when we were all done!)

What an awesome group of ladies that I get to be with every week!

Next was the climbing wall. Some girls zoomed up it and some struggled. We realized at the end that there are some people that have strengths that you don't have and that is okay. We can gain from each other's strengths and it makes the group stronger when you work with people's strengths. There were different paths that you could try and if you didn't do it the first time, you can always try again. (The topic of trying again or repentance was also brought up a lot when we were talking about how all of these things relate to the gospel.)

Next up was laser tag. This was a lot of fun and some of these girls are amazing shots. We again saw people that were better than others. We worked together on teams. There were barriers we could stand behind to protect us. (The commandments are there to keep you safe!) And the last funny thing that Paige said when we were talking about how you apply laser tag to the gospel was "Thou shalt not kill." She's got a quick sense of humor like her dad. :)

Then it was axe throwing and it was amazing to see the excitement when one of them would hit the target. One of the young women was incredible at this and she struggled in some of the other areas so it was amazing to see her strength come through. We talked about aiming for the right place or having a goal and that you can always keep trying.

And last up was mini golf. There were lots of different paths to take, lots of opportunities to try again and again, and it was all about cheering each other on. We were all pretty tired by this time so it was a good way to end the day.

We had a wonderful discussion while we ate lunch and then the girls had fun on the playground before heading home. Then we had a day to prepare and get ready for camp that started on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning was the start of an incredible week! It was my first time going the entire time as a leader and Paige's first time ever. I loved being up there with her so much! I loved seeing her love camp: the songs, the sisterhood, the free time options, really any activity we were doing, I loved watching her smile and be all in. 

We met together as wards on Wednesday bright and early and made it to camp and worked on getting unpacked and set up. The girls are divided by levels and each group has 2 to 3 YCLS in charge of that group. They even sleep with them and really take ownership so that by the end of the week, they have such a sweet relationship with their level and are often referred to as "their" girls. You can see the campers being a little unsure on that first day and it truly is a beautiful thing to watch these YCLs come out of their shells and be incredible examples to the younger girls. There is so much love, encouragement, supporting, and sisterhood at camp that you don't find anywhere else.

We had our opening ceremony to kick off camp after getting set up and had our lunches.

The overall theme was "Care to Strive for Everlasting Life" and was all Care Bears. Our amazing stake young women president even had a Care Bear suit and she was amazing and did so much along with her presidency and the YCLs to make this week a success.

Each day the girls got 2 hours of free time. There was swimming at the lake which included paddle boards, kayaks, and a slip & slide that went right into the water, there was a climbing wall, axe throwing, archery, mini golf, and crafts. Then after the 2 hours, there was an hour of self care time which is when the girls could shower, take a nap, do crafts (the craft area stayed open during this time while all the other free time options were not available during this time), or just visit. The adults were stationed at different areas during this time and had a rotation so I didn't get to see a lot of the free time things and I had a lot of down time which was weird for me but that means everything was going smoothly. On Wednesday during the second hour of free time, I was stationed at the lake so I got a few pictures of some of my girls that were still there and I got to try out the slip & slide and go out paddle boarding for a few minutes.

Then the girls did a "Meet the Brethren" game before dinner. They were with their cabins and had each of the names of the brethren that were there for the week and different things were read about them and they would have to run up with a name to see if they were right. There was a point system and you could switch chairs that had points on it if someone brought up the wrong name and you had the right name. It was fun to see their competition but also incredible to see the amounts of cheering each other on and working together to get the right answer. I loved seeing Paige being super involved and seeing her huge smile as she helped her team.

Then we had an amazing dinner (we were fed well the entire time by an incredible cooking crew!) and then it was time for skits. Each cabin got a huge bag of props and all of the props in the bag had to be used. Each cabin got the same phrase that they had to use. It was fun to see what everyone came up with. They were all goofy and you can tell the older cabins have more experience with this and really bring the fun. I loved seeing all of my young women have fun and let loose.

Our cabin had a fire and smores every night and Paige and Lizzy always came over to join us for a bit. It was fun because it led to good conversations and one of the other cabin moms brought her guitar and ukelele and we enjoyed singing around the fire. Also every night, I read my cabin a bedtime story that I brought from home and my girls really enjoyed that and it was a sweet way for me to connect with my cabin girls every night before they went to bed.

How I saw Jesus today: 

• The amount of love, encouraging, cheering on, lifting, and caring that I saw today (and really the rest of the week) was remarkable and immeasurable.
• There was some fear, unknowns, and uncertainty in some of the young women as they started this week and to see how the older young women, leaders, and the YCLs met them where they were at and be their with reassurance and love was amazing and very Christlike.
• Seeing the YCLs share their testimonies in their evening devotional, watching them come alive on stage and be an example and how they brought everyone together in unity and sisterhood was the sweetest thing to witness. This is just the start but as I watched them and the campers this week, I know this has been a time where testimonies have grown and the gospel of Jesus Christ is starting to take root in their hearts.

This morning and tomorrow moring they had early morning Yoga and a polar bear plunge. I was just going to take pictures of the plunge this morning, but Paige really wanted me to do it with her so I quickly changed and we jumped in the lake together. It is a great way to wake you up! 

After breakfast and chores, the young women had two hours to do a service project. The main project was cutting and tying 60 blankets for foster children in Bellevue. It is amazing how quickly things get done when you have a big group working together. The group was divided in half and so for the other half they each were given a square that had a paint by number. They wouldn't find out what they were painting until the next day but they enjoyed the project and it kept them busy.

After the service project, they had lunch and then their free time and self care time. I was stationed places today where I didn't get to see a lot except for the self care time, I was in the craft area so I got a few pictures there. There were so many options and girls really enjoyed it. I loved seeing this big group of young women be creative together and just enjoy time together.

All my younger young women sat together at dinner which was a bonus for me so I could have some quality time with my girls.

After dinner we did spiritual rotations with the Stake YW leaders. This was incredible! The messages they shared could be applied to each of my young women and their situations. We were divided into three groups and for the group I was in our first stop was talking about things we can do to stay on the covenant path and so of course we talked about those "Sunday School" answers but had some really sweet conversations from the older girls about patriarchal blessings and seminary. Our second stop was the importance of having an end goal in mind and how the people that are close to you influence you the most. So we need to surround ourselves with people that help us get to that end goal and help keep us on the covenant path. And our last rotation was really about grace and how as a disciples of Jesus Christ we can meet people where they are. Our little group sang the song "I'm a Disciple of Christ" and tears were flowing for me because of how much the words of our amazing stake YW leaders touched me. I felt the Spirit and I was thinking about each of my individual young women and how the things that were taught could apply to them and help them in their lives and on their own covenant path. I hope they take the things they were taught this evening and really apply it to their lives and make intentional choices that lead them closer to Christ.

Every year, I've always heard that Hoopla is one of the best things about young women camp. I found out being in young women all of these years that it is pretty much a big dance party, but I had never experienced it until now. I know why the girls love it so much. It was so much fun! There was dancing, people just having fun and being themselves, and the cooking crew had some incredible snacks for the girls to enjoy. It was such a fun way to end the evening!

We had a morning and evening devotional with our cabins and it was a sweet way to connect with the girls in your cabin. I read another bedtime story and the funny thing about this evening is that we got all the girls to bed and the cabin moms in my tent were up late visiting and one of our YCLs had to come and tell us to go to bed because we were keeping our cabin awake and they wanted to go to sleep. :)

How I saw Jesus today:

• "When you are in the service of your fellow being, you are in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17). These young women got to serve and will help make so many children smile and feel comfort during a hard time in their lives. What they did today, will give others a little glimpse of Jesus.
• During self care, as I watched the girls braid each other's hair, do each other's nails, and create together, it was a beautiful thing to witness as they helped each other with their self worth.
• Of course I saw Jesus today during those spiritual rotations and how much I felt love and admiration for each of my young women and such a strong desire for them to see Jesus in their own lives and in each other.
• The joy of being together, building friendships, and encouraging others to just be themselves while on the dance floor and while busting a move is such a fun way to live.

Friday I was able to get a few pictures of the polar bear plunge since I didn't jump in this morning. It is fun to watch!

Then after breakfast, we had a 2 hour activity of Amazing Race. The amount of hours one of the leaders spent putting this together was incredible and it turned out so good. The girls were divided into random teams and each group had different route cards that were color coordinated so that mutliple teams weren't waiting for each other at each of the challenges. The challenges were based on Lehi's Dream of the Tree of Life and then each challenge had different categories such as the whole team had to do the challenge, the team would pick one person to do the challenge and you could only use that person once, there were passing and non passing challenges so if there was already a team there you either had to wait until they were done or you could try and pass them up if it was a passing challenge, and there were also detours meaning there were two options at the challenge and you had to pick whick one you wanted to do. At each challenge there was a scripture to read from Lehi's dream and the name of the challenge was based off something in the dream. All the leaders helped run the challenges. One example was mine which was the "Mists of Darkness" and the team had to take turns and put a blindfold on and go into a dark tent and try and find a coin. When they found a coin they would bring it out and we would look at the date and the date had to be one of the years that one of the girls on their team was born. Another fun example was the "Rod of Iron". The team had to get to one point to another by holding onto the rope and they are blindfolded. The rule is that you cannot let go of the rope and if you do then you have to start over. The trick is that the leaders were squirting them with water guns and tickling them with feathers and cat toys so you had to really focus on the rope and hold onto it in order to cross to the other side. There were so many challenges that I really don't know what they all were since I was focused on running my challenge, but it was so fun to watch and I know the girls loved it. It was something hard to accomplish, they had to work together and not leave anyone behind, and they got to feel accomplished when the finished the whole race.

This was such a sweet moment. A lot of the teams ended pretty close together, but the last team took a bit longer. They were probably 10-15 minutes behind the team ahead of them. When they finished, everyone was cheering and yelling for them. They got all sorts of high fives and it was truly so sweet to watch and I teared up a bit watching it because it gave me a small glimps into heaven of being welcomed and not wanting anyone left behind. "Well done thou good and faithful servant!"

Then the whole group had solo time. This is a time to reflect and journal and each young women got a letter from their parents to read. They got to eat their lunch and for about an hour be quiet with their thoughts and reflect on this experience and be filled with gratitude for the beautiful world we live on.

Then they had a time that they call "Share Out". In the past they have had times where at testimony meeting silly stories from camp or other things that aren't gospel related are brought up so they came up with this idea of the share out. This is an hour where girls can go up as many times as they want and share funny or amazing experiences they have had at camp, gratitiude for leaders, YCLs, and each other and just to share those things in this setting and leave the gospel related things for testimony meeting.

Then they had their free time and self care time. I stayed behind a little before heading to my assigned area to get a few pictures of Paige at the rock climbing wall.

Then we had ward time which I loved because I love these girls so much. Each of the Bishops from the wards are there and so we have dinner as a ward and with our Bishop and then the Bishops bring dessert and he shares a message and we just enjoy each other's company at a ward level since it doens't happen that much during the rest of camp. Our Bishop talked about those that influence us and who we truly trust. We talked about being a disciple of Christ and who you let influence you has a big impact on this. Once Bishop was done, I shared some thoughts from a talk that kept popping into my head the day before. It is from President Steven. J. Lund and I shared this quote and some other parts of his talk and of course I balled. It just touched me so much because I was witnessing it first hand and had also witnessed the impact of camp on my testimony as a youth. He said, "When you drop off those Wednesday morning girls, they will leave behind the distractions of lesser things and spend a week together learning and growing and trusting in the Lord (and each other). We will pray together and sing and serve together and share testimonies together and do the things that allow us to feel Heavenly Father's Spirit all week long, until it soaks all the way into our bones."

At each evening flag ceremony there were annoucements, songs, and minute to win it games. This evening the Bishops joined in. 

Another thing that happnes is there is always lost and found and you have to do the squirrel dance to get your things back. Each ward stole something from their Bishops so all the Bishops were up there which was so fun for the girls. My girls kept on trying to steal my stuff so I ended up telling them that the only way I was getting up there is if all my young women were up there so of course a few of them had things already in the lost and found but a few put things in there so all of them were up there so I had to join in the fun too. :)

Then remember the paint by number the young women worked on during the service project? Well here was all their pieces of artwork put together! It's incredible and the gasp from them all was pretty amazing. It was the perfect setting for our testimony meeting.

A member of the stake presidency shared a few thoughts on testimonies to start it off and then the rest of the time it was the young women testifying of gospel truths. It was so sweet and I loved being able to witness and listen to this rising generation of young women bear truth and share what Jesus and the gospel has done for them. I wasn't sure if Paige would get up because she usually shys away from this type of setting where she is the center of attention but she was so brave and bore the simplest, sweetest, truest testimony that I could tell was so true in her heart and she even got a little emotional towards the end. My mama heart was beaming and filled with so much love for her and for this experience that she has been able to have. I found out later that she was waiting for one of her YCLs to get up who happens to also be named Paige. My Paige had decided in her mind that when her YCL Paige got up that it would give her the courage to get up herself. I'm so grateful for her YCLs and the example they are setting for her and the other younger girls. 

Some other highlights from testimony meeting that stuck out to me were:

"I don't know all of you, but I know you're all on my side." (Isn't that the gospel in it truest sense!)

"Christ loves each of us perfectly."

"We get out of the gospel, the work we put in it."

"It may be messy, but it's a start." (This young women was referring to her testimony but it was so beatuiful and can be related to life in general and repentance and so many things in the gospel.)

"When you look at the trees and leaves and see how beautiful they are, remember God made you that way too." (There were so many amazing testimonies on divine and self worth and that you are enough!)

"You are purposedly made and made exactly how you are supposed to be."

"I see His glow in each of you."

"I just love Jesus!"

The girls lingered around for a bit afterwards and signed the bottom of the picture of Christ. I think it was a little bittersweet for those YCLs that it is their last year of camp. (Two of them are mine and they are incredible and they will be missed next year!)

I truly saw Jesus today in so many ways that I already expressed. You can do hard things and to do hard things you can rely on each other and on Christ. I saw Him for sure during our ward time and felt his Spirit strongly while we were talking about the gospel in our lives and how I was overcome with love and emotions for these girls. And yes oh yes I saw Jesus during our testimony meeting!

Saturday was pack up and go home. It was truly an incredible experience that I will never forget. I loved watching these girls come together and build their testimonies together. It was truly a beautiful week! Even if this is my one and only time I go as a leader, I will always cherish this experience and I am grateful I got to experience it with Paige.