I had 1 week to prepare for what would be the craziest hardest week of me life but one of the best ones too. I was called to be the Young Womens camp director. It was a stake camp year so I thought my job would be pretty easy. NOPE!! This was the first year our stake has camped as years and not wards so I chose to be over the 3rd years and I was so glad they were my group!
The weather was great and there was never much down time. Always a song, skit, or something to do was going on. Here are my LITES doing some fun gathering songs. THESE GIRLS ARE AWESOME! They planned so many fun things and were great to the girls they were over.
I had heard about "the hill" but wasn't ever too worried about it because I consider myself in fairly good shape. WOW! I made it up half way to our camp and my buns and legs were burning! But somehow it got easier each time. I'm sure angles were carrying me because I was CONSTANTLY moving. In each day at camp I was registering well over 30,000 steps a day. Never have I worked so hard, carried so much and also received so many blessings and help. I was always SO grateful whenever someone pitched in to help.
Destiny was one of those who often helped me a ton and I was glad when I got to help her through a tough spot at camp. She's a good kid and one of my favorites.
Here's some of the 3rd year girls who were incredible! There were 60 people in our 3rd year camp that I was entirely over. NOT ONCE did anyone bicker, complain, fight, or cry. NOT ONCE!
Including the first night when we had some major tent catastrophes (that was not my fault at all but it was my responsibility to fix!) that left ME in tears on the very first night. But thanks to our awesome priesthood we were able to tie up a tent to make it functionable.
Our girls worked hard on our flag and I thought it turned out beautifully! Our theme was Hold on to HOPE and we had a gem theme where each tent was a gem and we talked about the value and characteristics of each gem and their worth. We based it on the proverbs scripture that says "She is more precious than rubies." It was a fun theme.
Getting settled in camp and roasting some mallows.
On Friday we had ward day and the ward leaders came up and did an activity with the girls. We decorated pillow cases for each girl,
played lots of board games and played THE SKITTLE GAME! UGH! It took me a while to want to eat skittles ever again! Here's Destiny and Aunika with their cheeks full!
In some down time the priesthood were gracious enough to let the girls give them manicures. And they wore it all week!
The stake camp directors hubby is a general in the army and he did a formal flag retiring for us. It was surprisingly emotional and then he called those out of the audience who had veteran family members and gave them a flag to burn. Such a need experience!
My LITES <3 14="" and="" aubrey="" be="" care="" carried="" chanda="" created="" emily="" emma="" forever="" from="" fun="" girls="" great="" hearts.="" helped="" ill="" in="" kat="" l-r:="" maddy="" many="" me="" megan="" moms="" much.="" my="" of="" off="" olds="" out="" p="" quickly="" really="" so="" somewhere="" such="" taylor="" tent="" them="" these="" they="" things.="" to="" took="" unity="" was="" were="" will="" year="">
As each girl stood to bear testimony on Friday night, and as I wondered if all my hard work had been in vain, EACH girl said they were SO glad that they camped as years and that they met so many new people and new friends. EVERY SINGLE ONE! That was my payday as a camp director. Phrases like "best camp ever" and"I'm so glad I came" kept flying around and when it was time to go I knew these girls would still keep in touch. It was an incredible camp!
But the best part was returning home to my littles, Chad, a clean house, and a shower! Nothing felt better than that!
I know I was carried through this experience. I know I was helped and blessed beyond measure. It was incredible to see the miracles that fell into place and the peace I felt with being away from my family for the first time ever. Things I know I wouldn't have been able to do on my own I was able to do quickly and efficiently. And I was always inspired to know what to say or do or how to carry something out. I learned that prayers are answered and that any calling I hold I can pray as hard as a I did for camp and I will always be helped. I learned so many things but that was the biggest thing I learned. I'm so grateful for tender mercies and a successful camp!
