I have been blessed with opportunities to serve in many of the organizations in our church, each one with their own sets of challenges and rewards.
I have to say that one of my very favorite callings (a term we crazy Mormons use for our personal assignment in the church...where we are asked to give our service) is with the Young Women at Girls Camp. Each summer the Young Women (girls age 12-18) in our Stake (a geographical area of members) heads up to the mountains for a week to get our spiritual cups filled to the brim and overflowing...we also manage to squeak in a little bit of fun as well. :)
This was my 6th year working on the Stake Committee and it seriously is one of the greatest callings...ever. I would do it forever too if I could. I love it.
For the past 2 years of this calling, I have had the privilege of working closely with our Youth Camp Leaders, or the girls who are in their 6th year of camp. These lovely ladies are either gearing up for their Senior year of high school or have just graduated and they...are...amazing.
Each year I say it, but I think I hit the real jackpot this year. These gals were heaven sent. Eager and ready to help with whatever needed to be done. They gave all of the talks at our devotionals and conducted them as well. My heart strings were tugged on more than one occasion as I sat in awe and listened to the words of wisdom coming from these young ladies. When I grow up, I want to be like them.
As I mentioned before, this was my 6th year as a camp committee member. In those 6 glorious years, I have had a lot of spiritual moments in this beautiful piece of God's world. I have seen hearts touched and testimonies strengthened. But I have never had an experience like the one we had this year.
Miracles happened at this camp.
Hearts were strengthened and healed.
Seeds were planted and more than one girl was touched with the knowledge that they are
Daughters of God and He loves them very, very much.
I feel blessed to have been there and witnessed it.
It was beautiful and really indescribable. There aren't enough of the right words to accurately portray what happened. What I can tell you is this....
God loves his daughters and there is a special strength and unity that comes when daughters of God unite in righteousness.
Our theme for the camp was Come Unto Christ. It was beautiful and it was perfect.
At every devotional, we sang our camp song which was entitled
"Come Unto Christ"
Here is the link for the video that is on LDS.org. I dare you to watch it without crying.
Now here is a clip of our girls singing it.
Tears. Every time.
Along with all of the spiritual goodness, we had a ton of fun as well. Which just goes to show that you can have fun AND serve Christ at the same time.
(I won't say that I was actually aiming for the other target. That will be our little secret. Shhh!)
Emma was old enough to attend this year and it was so fun to share this experience with her.
Part of our first aid review included a Mock Disaster. Man, did our YCL's have a blast with this. They spent an hour and a half creating "injuries" and I was impressed. Give these girls some fake blood and look out. We only had a few girls gag...but no throw up. I call that a success!
I was even lucky enough to have the Love of my Life come and spent an evening with us. The Bishops and their counselors are invited to come up and have dinner and a testimony meeting with their wards. We have a beautiful group of young ladies in our ward and Mark and I are so thankful for the time that we get to spend with them while he serves in this calling.
Whew! I'll bet you thought this post would never end!
Well, I will leave you with just one more thing.
This crazy group of ladies I serve with obliged me with an idea for a skit I found on YouTube.
It...was...epic.
Please enjoy.
(Sorry ladies. It was too good not to share.)
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