Girls Camp

Growing up I loved Girls Camp. I was able to attend every year and it was the highlight of my summer. I had an abundance of experiences there that changed my life. It was there that my own testimony began to take root. I received a witness that my Heavenly Father loved me and he indeed created this beautiful earth for us where we could learn and grow. It was a special place where the Spirit could be felt daily and you could ponder what was really important in life. I made new friends there in an atmosphere that was not available anywhere else, and grew to love all the other girls attending no matter what their personality or circumstances were. I truly believe that this is why we have girls camp. There has never been I time that I have gone and not felt enriched with the Spirit.
I was called to serve as the Young Woman's Girl's Camp Director this year back around May. I accepted of course because of my own positive background. As a leader, I had the very same experience as in years past. Girls Camp never disappoints me.
Our theme was " Lay Up Your Treasures In Heaven" from Helaman 5:8. So it kinda went on the lines of a pirate theme. Our value was Integrity so our color was purple. Every ward got a "Ship" so ours was Sportsmanship.
Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of work and at sometimes stressful. There is a lot of planning involved and there were plenty of times that I felt inadequacy for this calling. After all it was only 6 or 7 years ago that I myself was "one of the girls". I kinda felt like I had a handicap because I had never done anything like this before. This stake does their camp totally different than the way mine did growing up and I felt like everyone knew what to expect except me.
But I knew one thing: I wanted them to experience the same Spirit and good times that I had. I really had to have faith that the Lord would help me provide the atmosphere for that to happen. The Stake YW Camp Director said it perfect the first day when she said, "Nothing here has been perfect but we can still have the spirit here." That's what is important, and that is what changes life's is the Spirit.
Girls Camp actually turned out pretty good. There were a few things that hit me unexpectedly and times where I felt like I wanted to tear myself in half so I could be in two places at once, but I was lucky to have some great leaders that came up who helped me tremendously. And especially the Priesthood... I have so much more respect for them and their good attitudes.
The first night we were there the 1st Counselor in the General YW Presidency, Sister Cook, came up to our camp. She brought her granddaughter with her and a camera crew! One of the ladies in our ward is really good friends with her so she had dinner in our camp. She brought her ukulele with her and taught some of the girls how to play.
We had a little program that night that turned out really cool. There was a big field area where there was a station for each YW value. At each station there was a speaker who spoke for about 5 minutes about that particular value then gave us a bead of that value color, then each ward (we were broken up in wards at each station) would move onto the next value. When we finished with all the values we headed up the stairs to the lodge were Sis. Cook was and gave a nice talk about the new value virtue. She brought the flag they waved on Ensign Peak, and talked about three things we should do daily that will make us stronger. #1 Pray Daily. #2 Read your scriptures daily for at least 5 minutes. #3 Smile daily. I felt the Spirit there and I know that it was the message that our Heavenly Father wanted us to hear.
Wednesday, was hike day. I was able to hike with three of our girls (and our Bishop who was leading the hike) up the Tetons to Spaulding Falls. It was hard but so worth it.

There were many beautiful views
We saw quite a few waterfalls! This is one of my favorites.We had to go through a huge boulder field!
We even saw a little snow. See that big straight line on the mountain? They call it a dike and our final destination was right below it!
It took us about 4 or 5 hours but we made it to Spaulding Falls.
We were right next to the grand but it was so foggy you couldn't see it.
All the girls in our group made it!

Here are all the stats. Thanks Bishop!One of our girls got a sprained ankle on the way down. But she was a trouper and had a great attitude.

Camp was great! Bishop's night was Thursday night. The Spirit was there as usual. Like I said before, camp never disappoints me. I am so glad I was able to learn and grow from this experience. The girls are awesome and we had so much fun!

When I got home, I unloaded my car. Can you believe all of this, plus 4 girls, fit in my car?