In December I was asked if I would serve in the Young Woman's organization in our church. Specifically, I was asked to be an adviser to the Beehive age girls (ages 12-13). So for the last 6 months I've been getting to know the girls and working with the other leaders to plan weekly activities and take turns teaching the lesson on Sundays to my age group. At first when I was called, I was super nervous. I haven't been involved in Young Women's since I, myself, was a young woman. But I have LOVED it! I love getting to know the girls and I love the other leaders. We all have so much fun together.
One of the big activities each year for the girls is girl's camp. Sometimes camp includes all of the other wards in our area and their leaders (called stake girl's camp) but this year camp was just the girls in our ward, so it was a lot smaller. Our Young Women's President got permission to do a different kind of "camp" experience. Instead of tents in the woods, we were able to spend 3 days in Salt Lake City doing some tours around temple square. We were able to stay in a home near SLC for those days, so no tents required! It was like a big sleep over!
Day 1:
We met at the church at 7am and loaded into cars. We drove to Olympic Park in Park City. There, we surprised the girls by going "extreme tubing" Olympic aerial skiers have a practice jump at the park. In the summertime, people can ride down the steep slope in an innertube. In the course description it says riders can go as fast as 50 mph down the slopes. Sounds fun, right?
A lot of the girls were totally freaking out. To be honest, I was pretty scared myself. But I forced myself to put on a brave face and tell the girls how fun it would be. Even though this experience was meant as a fun surprise for the girls, many of the girls told us what a powerful exercise it was for them in being courageous, having faith, and doing hard things.
After tubing, we went on a hike where one of the leaders had us think about nature and ponder what God wanted us to learn from nature. Some of my favorite responses given were:
- We are like the rocks in the river...unmovable even though the current is trying to push them. They have been smoothed by the currents
- tree stumps help get you higher...a leg up (or help) to where you need to go
- the rushing water drowns out other sounds, helps us feel peace and focus
- even though many of the plants in the forest are green, they are all different, unique, and serve their own purpose.
- trees...roots that dig deep and keep them unmovable in the wind...branches reaching toward the heavens and still growing
Then we were invited to write a letter to our Heavenly Father. This was such a great exercise for me. So many times I don't take the opportunity to just sit and think and invite the spirit into my heart. There are so many distractions and so much noise in the world. I loved sitting in the quiet and letting my mind ponder on some things.
This is the poem that came to my mind while I was thinking about how I need to be more vulnerable towards my Heavenly Father. A lot of the time I have a "everything's fine" attitude. It's seems kind of silly to pretend like that around our Father in Heaven because he obviously knows that everything isn't fine. But He can't bless my life until I am open with him and share my heart.
"All He wants is for me to just ask
So why do I often feel not up to the task?
Am I afraid of rejection
or so lost in my own perception
of who I am and what the world tells me to be,
that I fail to connect with my own spirituality?
I need to quiet those whispers, silence those doubts
And remember a life I forgot all about...
One of great beauty where I was surrounded with love
By Heavenly Parents and friends up above.
He's always there waiting for me to pour out my heart.
Heavenly Father rains blessings for me to take part"
After the hike we went to the home we were staying at, unpacked, and did a service project around the house as a thank you for letting all 40 of us stay there! That night we were able to go swimming at the rec center so we could cool off from the service project and also take a shower (40 people using 2 showers at the house wasn't going to cut it!)
Day 2:
We toured several places on Temple Square today. We toured the church history museum, the conference center, and welfare square.
My favorite story from our Conference Center tour was: Two architects met and brainstormed ideas for the conference center. One of the men wasn't a member of the church. This man felt strongly there needed to be an alpine forest on top of the conference center. This idea was then presented to the first presidency. It was approved because according to a journal from Brigham Young, when he entered the Salt Lake valley with the early pioneers of the church, he had a vision of SLC in the latter days. In the vision he saw the SLC temple and a large white building near it with trees and flowers on top of it.
The other story I loved was that President Gordon B. Hinkley planted a walnut seed and it grew into a tree on their property for over 30 years. The tree died and the wood was made to use the pulpit in the conference center.
One of the missionaries at Welfare Square was from Alaska and knew my sister who lives there! She used to babysit my niece and even went to Junior Prom with my nephew! It was such a fun connection to make!
A side note story here: I called home this night to talk to Blake and the kids. Brooke had her first Activity Day Girl's Camp (for 8-9 year old girls at our church) and I asked how it went. She said it was awesome. Then I asked what she learned. She said, in her most excited voice, "Mom! I learned that I am GLORIOUS!" She was so thrilled to tell me that and her enthusiasm about this knowledge brought tears to my eyes. After my experience the day before writing in the woods, it was a message that I needed to be reminded of. Brooke is so pure and innocent and her knowledge of who she is and where she comes from hasn't been tainted by the world. I want to preserve that for her for as long as possible. And when the world does creep in, I want to keep reminding her that she is glorious and will always be so. I know that's something I too often forget about myself. Thank you Brooke for sharing that with me!
Day 3
We packed up our cars to head home. We made a stop at UVU to tour their "Roots of Knowledge" stained glass art exhibit. I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but it was AMAZING! The girls loved it too.
After the tour, we stopped at the Provo Temple grounds to have lunch.
Then it was a three hour drive home! I was so exhausted by the time I got home, but I absolutely loved my first year of girl's camp as a leader. These are amazing young people who are wise beyond their years and have strong testimonies of the gospel. I learned a lot from them their examples.
