Things I learned at Girl's Camp

Picture of the leaders and participants of our 2013 Girl's Camp.

I participated every year from age 12 to 17 in girl's camp; put on by LDS congregations all over the world for the teen girls in their areas each summer.  However, this was my first year as a leader at girl's camp.  It was definitely more stressful than being a teen participant, but it turned out great.  Anyway, here are a few gems from last week that I learned or was reminded of...

• I know all creatures both big and small were created by Heavenly Father, but I'm seriously convinced that horse flies are influenced by the devil.  They are horrible and their bites are the worst. thing. ever.  (Well, losing a limb is probably worse, but horse fly bites are pretty bad.)

• When sitting around a campfire with a bunch of 14-15 year old girls and you aren't sure how to start a conversation, Justin Bieber is a good topic to bring up.  They all have opinions about him, both good and bad.  

• Miracles do happen!  Like any of my past roommates and my husband know, I don't handle lack of sleep very well.  (I become little miss cranky pants.)  I probably got about 4 hours of sleep each night and I was some how able to function and still joke with the girls.  I don't think I lost my temper once.  I was stern a few times, but I didn't lose it, which I was relieved by.  However, I'm still trying to recover this week from that much lack of sleep.  (I know at this point one of you really wants to make a comment about "try having a newborn baby" but I just made it for you, so now you don't have to.)

• We didn't have any cell phone reception and it was such a blessing.  It was so nice not to be bogged down by constant social media notices, emails, texts and the negativity of the news and media.  I'm one who likes to be informed, but it was a relief to have a break.  I think we all need to turn off our phones more and hang out in the mountains.  It does wonders to your mood.  (However, I really did miss talking to Danny.  I did drive an hour to get reception one day, so I could call him for like 5 minutes. True Story.)

• Which brings me to my next point, I missed Danny so much!  One day when I was lamenting that I missed Danny. Our sweet camp cook gently chided me, saying that it was good to have these experiences of being away from family for a few days to remind us how much we love and appreciate them.  Danny, I sure love and appreciate you!

• These young women want to talk about spiritual things.  I think with camp and youth activities it is easy to focus on trying to entertain instead of teach.  The theme of our camp was Dr. Suess's book "Oh the Places You Will Go".  Each day we focused on different places the gospel can lead you in your life:  Education, Career, Temple, Marriage, Motherhood, Mission, Divine Potential, etc.  We planned many activities and crafts around these themes, meaning we had spiritual discussions throughout each day.  I was curious how the girls would respond and was actually surprised.  They were interested, listened and had good comments.  One evening after having a long talk about standards, a group of girls stayed behind and gathered around another leader and myself to discuss modesty.  They wanted to talk about modesty. We had a mission activity where I assigned the girls into missions and companionships.  In my group, I had them answer real questions that people asked me on my mission about the church.  They did fabulous in explaining their beliefs.  I was really impressed.  True, they don't want to be preached to or talked down to, but they want to understand and they want to know.

• I was reminded not to judge.  A young woman showed up and gave off the vibe that she was too cool for any activity.  It didn't help that I had heard about her attitude from a few different leaders as well.  I realized that she was assigned to help me with an activity I was over and I was a little nervous to ask for her help, because of my preconceived notions. However, I nonchalantly mentioned to her that she was assigned to help with this certain activity.  Her response: "Cool, what do you need me to do?"  She did so great in helping and did really well in a leadership role.  By the end of camp, I feel we had built a friendship, which wouldn't have happened if I had listened to some of the other leaders opinions.

• I learned that I think I'm going to be a strict parent.  I was the representative of the Stake Young Women's Presidency up at camp and some how it fell on me and our stake camp leader, Amy, to make a lot of decisions.  I was grateful the girls actually came and asked us permission to do different things.  It was a bit hilarious that I tended to lean more to saying no, while Amy was more likely to saying yes.  We often had to tell the girls we needed to discuss first and we would get back to them.  However, this worked really well. We would discuss concerns with each other and come up with a good plan for whatever the girls wanted to do.  I think it was good practice for parenthood, especially since I think Danny will likely be the nice parent.

• Prayers are answered!  As expected when you are up in the mountains, rainstorms are pretty much inevitable.  We had a lot of leaders coming and going and when the new ones came up, we were getting more and more daunting weather reports for our last two days.  I noticed the rain clouds gathering right before the mission activity I had planned.  I was planning to send the groups of girls to different areas of our camp.  I said a silent prayer that the storm would hold off until we were done.  The clouds cooled down the camp, which was nice, but the rain didn't come until we were all back under the pavilion and I was giving my closing remarks.  This scenario happened multiple times.  It rained and poured the next day during craft time.  We prayed that it would stop, so we could have testimony that night.  The clouds shifted and we had a clear, beautiful night.  It was suppose to rain the morning we were to pack up and head out.  Packing up wet tents is just a pain and messy.  We prayed again and had a clear morning and were able to clean up camp.  Yes, very simple examples, but great reminders that Heavenly Father cares about even the simple things in our lives.

My home away from home.

Me and one of the girls participating in a "minute to win it" game.  We
were supposed to get the cookie from our foreheads to our mouths without
using our hands.  I didn't succeed, but it was hilarious.

While the girls were away enjoying some free time, us 
leaders were able to actually play.  There was this swing and
slack line up at camp, which were both very entertaining.

Megan's turn on the slack line.

My first time on a slack line, getting a little help from Megan.
They were teasing me later, because I kept putting my feet in
ballet positions.  I guess that was the time in my life I learned balance.

Laura's turn!  She had the cutest hat collection.

What would girls camp be without pranks?  The girls
"yarned" our tent, by wrapping yarn all around the trees
at our camp site.  I think they got the idea from "The
Parent Trap."  Another group of girls took it down for us.

The Stake Camp Leaders!  Laura, Megan, Me and Amy.  I love these ladies!
They put in so much hard work and planning into this week and it was a
success!  It was such a pleasure to get to know them and work with them.
PS  We are holding our awards given to us by the Youth Camp Leaders.