I am so relieved that Young Women camp is finally done for the year! It was a lot of work, as usual. We have been planning it for 6 months now, and it is time to move on to new things. A lot of great things happened, but a lot of hard things too. In fact, of the 6 years I have been to camp, this was one of the hardest. It was mostly a Stake Camp where the Stake leaders and YCL's planned everything, but we camped as wards and were able to do a few little activities with our ward girls.
The big drama this year though was that the Stake decided not to go back to Camp Mia Shalom, which we have gone to forever. There were some strong emotions, especially from the girls, who were sad to miss out on our traditions, but it was also exciting to have new adventures. The Stake also shortened camp by one day, which I was thrilled about! 3 full days and 3 nights seemed perfect. The biggest obstacle for the new camp, Aspen Lakes, was that it was TENT CAMPING. We have always enjoyed our cabins at Mia Shalom, and little did we know that our tents would end up being a major trial of this camp. To make up for the tents though, we did have a huge nice kitchen with refrigeration and power.
The main theme for our Stake was just the Youth theme for the year "Walk with Him". Our ward theme was "Camp Rocks!" We talked all about the duality of rocks with the catch phrase “Transforming Burdens to Blessings." We discussed how rocks can be symbols for burdens (carrying heavy, hard things), but they are also symbols for sturdy, steady, firm foundations. We talked about lots of stories from the scriptures with rocks in them and how they relate to gospel principles: Jacob’s ladder (covenants), Joshua and the stones from the Jordan (Remembrance), David and Goliath (Courage), the Brother of Jared (Faith), Peter as the Rock (Revelation), and the stone being rolled away at Jesus' resurrection. For our big ward activity, we did a relay race with a box of heavy rocks. The girls had to carry a 30 pound bucket of rocks around a course. Some of them were fast, some were slow, and some couldn’t do it without help. We talked about how our burdens are heavy weights, and they drag us down. Sometimes we can’t carry them alone and need our friends and family to help us. We then dumped out the rocks at Jesus’ feet and talked about how sometimes we just need to give our burdens to Him so that He can make them light. We then built a cairn with the gospel principles that help us turn hard things into blessings. Emily made some awesome fake rocks that we stacked up to make the cairn. It was so good! I didn’t explain it very well here, but it made a lot of sense as we did it. The activity was very powerful for the girls.
During the week, we also threw axes, shot bow and arrows, went swimming and canoeing, did an obstacle course, and went fishing. Those were all fun, good experiences that the leaders and girls loved!
The highlight of the week for many was the Heber Valley Faith Walk. The 1.3-mile walk was divided into nine checkpoints and started with all the girls receiving noise-canceling headphones. We left in groups of 20 to 30 to hike a lighted trail while listening to recorded audio with dialogue, Church leaders’ quotes, and inspirational music. Along the path, there were large images and television screens depicting scenes from the Savior’s life. According to the creators, "The messages, music and images are designed to help individuals navigate life’s trials and have sacred, personal experiences with Jesus Christ." I felt like they succeeded in their goals because even though there were thousands of people that night, it felt like a very personal, very private experience with Jesus.
I had three favorite parts of the Faith Walk. First, before you begin the walk, you get your picture taken. We didn't know what it was for, but we soon found out. A few minutes into the walk, we came to a spot where everyone sat down on tree stumps in front of a bunch of screens. Pictures of all of us started to pop up on the screens with dialogue about how we are each beloved children of Heavenly Father, followed by songs from the youth album. As I watched each of my Young Women pop up on the screen, I realized how much I loved them all. I was overcome with thoughts and feelings of how much Heavenly Father and Jesus loved them too.
Second, we were asked to write down a burden that we were facing at the time. We wrote it on a paper in invisible ink and turned it in to the missionaries that were staffing the Faith Walk. About halfway through our hike, we came to a tunnel of black lights that were illuminating all the papers with burdens. They were all anonymous, but it was humbling to see all the things that others were struggling with. I figured that these were a previous groups papers, but then I looked up and saw my paper. That was powerful to see my struggle hanging there alongside so many others.
Third, Toward the end of the walk, we came to pictures of Jesus on the path. During this checkpoint, they were playing the song "Reaching Out," which just happened to be our ward camp song. That made it particularly powerful. The audio asked us to look at the picture of Christ and listen for the words that Jesus would say to you to help you with your burden. Imagining what Jesus would say was a great change in perspective and made everything very personal. We were then asked to write that message on another paper. A similar tunnel of messages displayed these messages from Jesus. It was really beautiful and poignant.
We also had a bunch of hard things that were extra challenging. We had a leader and girls get lost on the way to the Faith Walk and finally arrived 45 minutes late (limited reception made this particularly stressful), a tent’s zipper broke so we had to set up a new one at 12:30 am, 2 girls that aren’t in our ward that came with us caused some drama and threw many temper tantrums that stretched the patience of the leaders, and a tent completely flooded in a freak rainstorm. After the whole tent and everything in it was soaked, we made the decision to go home early (Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning). I felt really bad about leaving early, but it would have been miserable and not worth it. I will forever remember the leaders and girls packing up in the pouring rain and hiking up and down the hill to put the bear minimum that they would need to take home that night. Us leaders were dripping wet as we unloaded at the church and waited for parents to arrive. We just had to laugh at the situation because it was so crazy. It was actually a super great bonding moment for the leaders.
The leaders went up the next morning early to help take down camp and load up the rest of the supplies. We considered taking the girls too, but it was easier to just do it ourselves and save the effort of getting everyone together again. It took some work, but our awesome Stake YCL's helped us, and we were able to finish it all in about an hour. The tents and gear were covered in mud, and cleaning them out that afternoon was an act of sheer grit, but we got it done. We were all so tired and dirty and just wanted a long nap, but I realized how much I love and appreciate these awesome women that I get to work with!
After all was said and done, I hope these hard things helped the girls really understand the ideas we were trying to teach that week of "Transforming Burdens to Blessings." Throughout all of our struggles, we tried to point out the good that came out of the problems. We had a bunch of girls give talks in Sacrament meeting afterward, and they all bore powerful testimonies and talked about how great camp was, so I guess they learned the lesson well. This was likely my last year at camp as YW president (I’m approaching 3 years in this calling and had 3 previous years in the Stake), and I will be happy for a little break. {Knock on Wood} Every year has had its own challenges and high points, and I feel blessed to have had all these amazing opportunities with my incredible girls.
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