Thursday, June 30, 2011

Girls Camp!

Girls camp this year was very rewarding and I loved it :D It was my 6th and last year. I can go one more year, and I am going to, but not everyone does. So the make a big deal about the 6th years and you get to answer questions and the stake young woman's leader writes them on a poster and people have to guess who you are. Its a lot of fun and I had looked forward to that since I was a 1st year camper.

Our theme this year was "Your Happily Ever After". It came for President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk which you can read here (it is the most amazing talk, I recommend you read it!)We all had kingdom names for our wards and such and acted like princess the whole week. Our testimony meeting at the end was heart warming. Our ward is the biggest ward with about 21 young women who went to the camp, and almost every girl but about 2 or so bore their testimony and it was amazing to hear what those girls know and believe at such a young age (12 years old is the youngest you can be in young womens :) In those four days I was there, I came to truly understand my Divine Nature and that I am a beloved daughter of my Heavenly Father who loves me. He has a plan for me, my own happily ever after, all I need to to do is turn to him. I am thankful to my leaders and the stake leaders that took SO much time and put in so much effort to make this an amazing experience.

Here are some pics :D
Here is the raging river we camped by. The Forest Service came up and put police tape so that we could go by it.

The river again

Here is what our camp ground looked like

This is a blury pic of my and the other JCs (junior councilors: 5th, 6th and 7th years) up singing songs on JC night. We all leave a day earlier than the other little girls :D

JCs, blury again. :) our young womens president didn't know how to work the camera

Here is Morgan, Rachel, me, and Ashley at dinner on JC night. All but Ashley are in the same ward :D

hehe this is Rachel, Me and Morgan (who is taking the pic) on the bridge by the river... this is before the tape went up ;D

Here is my young womens leader, one of our young campers tied up, another girl from our ward, and in the back is another one of my leaders. lol oh the joys of girls camp ;)

These ladies are our stake leaders doing their skit :D it was hilarious!

Trek 2011

:D holy cow has my summer been busy!!! I have been to Wyoming and back and girls camp and back in just these few weeks :) I have had the most amazing experience in the one month to last me for forever!

Trek:
I had the opportunity to go on the trek in Wyoming with my stake. If you don't know what a trek is, it is where young men and young women are put in families with a ma and pa, uncle and aunt and siblings, and they reenact the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies treks in Wyoming. We don't do the whole thing, but we go to important spots along the trails they forged. We pulled handcarts with all of our belongings (besides our bedding and tents and such, those were in a trailer that met us at each campsite) I was put in a family that made my experience all the more special. I loved them so much and I still look to my ma and pa for things :) I love my "brothers" and "sisters" too and I will forever look at them that way.
We had trouble from the very beginning of our trip which started at 3:00 am June 8th. Instead of getting nice tour buses, we rented charter buses that were regular old school buses. They were horrible! Our stake is big, and the buses we so uncomfortable even though we had 3 of them. We took the long way, which now as I look back, I see it as a blessing. One of the buses broke down because it over heated. They put more fluid in it, but it burst the radiator tube thing and got stranded in Colorado. Our bus got a flat tire in Baggs, Wyoming. We had to wait for 2 hours for it to get fixed, and it was a VERY HOT day. We had to wear our pioneer clothes and we were soo hot. I see it as a blessing because if we had gone through the Flaming Gorge way we would have had no way to get help for the 2 broken down buses. God's hand was surely there to protect us and watch out for us. We were behind schedule 4 hours when we finally got to Independence Rock.
The weather was extremely bad some days too. The first day was waaaaay windy. We got to our camp ground which had some 4,000 other youth from other stakes and states, and tents we blown over and poles were snapping all over the place. Luckily the our girls tent was an old spring bar tent and it stayed up really well. In fact, our tent was used as a wind block for our Ma and Pa's tent and our Uncle and Aunt's tent :D The second day started out good, but was a little cold and rainy. It quickly heated up and was a pretty nice day until the sun started to go down. It got sooo cold, and that night was the only night I froze. When we woke up in the morning, there was ice on the water we were going to cross that day (in part of the trek you cross the Sweetwater River like the pioneers did, but the run off was so bad, meaning the water was 15 ft deep,that we had to cross smaller parts of the Sweetwater). The deepest it got was up to my waist, but I am short 5'0 tall, so it wasn't that bad on everyone. This was also the day where we had the woman's pull. This is where the men are called out like they are leaving for the Mormon Battalion and the women are left to pull. The hill we pulled up was very very hard. It was steep and the climb with a full handcart was not easy. Our cart had 3 of us girls (our other sister got a really bad bloody noes and had to ride in a truck for awhile) and our ma and aunt, but other carts only had 3 girls at the most. Those of us who finished first ran back to help the other who were struggling more. There were times where I KNEW we were not the only ones on the cart. We had divine help from those brave pioneer women. I could feel their spirits helping us onward. It was amazing.
The last day was our testimony meeting. I rained, no let me rephrase that, it POURED rain and the wind howled. It was the coldest I had been in a very long time. I was soaked even through my rain jacket, but the spirit I felt there will never leave me. It was the best feeling I've ever had. I got up and bore my testimony and the spirit touched me and told that this was true, these people went through so much so that we can have what we have today. I am so thankful for my ancestors and the other pioneers that risked their lives to follow a Prophet of God and come to Utah. This experience was amazing for me. I love every moment of it and I am sad that I will be too old to go in another 4 years. They hold the trek every four years and I will be out of young womens by then :P oh well, maybe I will be called as a ma or an aunt and get to go :D

Here are a few pics from the trek

Here are my sisters and I posing for the camera with our skirts pulled up to they didn't get soaked

Here is Independence Rock

Here is a picture of my trek family that I edited :)

We (my siblings and I) had just finished with our visit to Martins Cove and we were ready to move on.

We had to duct tape my flip flops on so that I could cross the river, and this what they looked like! My ma taped them really well :D

This was the trail that had been flooded. Now remember how I said there was a thin layer of ice on the water? Yeah it was sooo cold

Getting ready to cross :D lol you could hear the screams of the other kids as they hit the water lol

Here we are after the woman's pull. It was the most amazing feeling to walk through the men and know that although they couldn't help, we were receiving divine help. We recited the Young Womans theme and you could feel as you named each of the values, it helped strengthen you.

Here I am taking a rest. I was too lazy to take off my backpack, plus it popped my back and made me feel better lol :D

Here is my real brother and I after we had got home :D on Saturday June 11th. I missed it already, I really could have gone on and done it for a couple more days.

I loved my experience with the Trek and I would never trade what I felt there for ANYTHING!

Love your big sister