Let's go to Girl's Camp!!!!

I was called 3 months ago or so to be the Ward Camp Director for the Clermont Ward. I was so excited, because I remember how amazing of an experience girls camp was for me, and how I had such amazing leaders, like Peggy Glem. Now something I learned was that camping in Florida is VERY different than in the Northwest. First, IT'S REALLY HOT!!!! Like they weren't lying. It was hot every second of EVERY DAY!!! It was 108* the whole week. At night it was 89*. Second, you drink and drink and drink and DRINK water SO MUCH! Third, showers do nothing for you... You get in you smell and are sticky; you get out, you immediately start to sweat and are sticky and soon enough are back to being smelly. Fourth, THEY HAVE ALLIGATORS IN THE LAKE!!! They named him Gus, and one night Sister Webber and I canoed across the lake and back and he was following us; we could tell because we could hear him growling a few yards away the whole time! Needless to say I did not go swimming because I like my limbs where they are thank you very much. Fifth, their bugs down here are meaner and leave nastier bites. I came home with 61. NOT FUN!!! Sixth, they have BEARS! And snakes, and armadillos and raccoons. Seventh, they have freak thundershowers that come in a split second and last from 10-60 min. And I mean they come from nowhere. So many times I sent my girls running for the lodge because all of a sudden there was thunder and lightning right over our heads.

                          

   

And lastly, they don't really have dirt. They have sandy dirt, which is worse cuz it gets EVERYWHERE!!!We had some issues with tent mates before, but I got a handle on it. We were the first up at camp on Monday morning, and had our campsite fully put together before any other wards arrived. We came up with 17 girls. By Tuesday almost around dinner time, we had 10. So many just didn't want to be there, didn't see the point in staying, weren't having fun no matter what I did. So needless to say I went to the bathroom, locked the door and cried, asking God why he even called me here, and what purpose I had, because I felt like a failure. I cried and asked Peggy what I was doing wrong, and if she could send some of her divine wisdom down to help me. We ended up being able to convince one of the girls to stay. By the end of the week, I finally knew why I was called to this calling. I was here to teach the girls that they can do hard things. I feel like I really got to know and be friends with these girls, and that maybe I was like a Peggy to them. They opened up to me, they wanted me around, and even now they still want me to be around them. At the end of Camp, they sang a song from the movie "Once I was a Beehive", and I love the lyrics because they were just like our camp experience this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELcebWoEx5k  if you want to listen to it... otherwise, here are the lyrics.
"Drove for miles up this dusty road, I felt so lost and on my own with you, with you.
Life has had me up a creek, but I've been up here this entire week with you, with you.
And I'm feeling a little better. and I think it comes down to a few small letters.
T-O-G- to the E, to the T, and then you add on her and  that's together.
T-O-G- to the E, to the T, and then you add on her and we're together.
Together keeps the bears far away off in there lairs, together we are dry in the rain.
Together, here we are underneath the skies of stars. Together we share joy and pain.
T-O-G- to the E, to the T, and then you add on her and that's together.
T-O-G- to the E, to the T, and then you add on her and we're together."

Several of the girls told me that if I wasn't coming up with them next year that they wouldn't be going. By the time I got home, I was smelly, exhausted (I left for almost 2 days- you try splitting yourself and time and love between 11 girls and tell me you're not exhausted), but I am ready for next year. I now know what I'm going to do differently, what I'm not going to do, and what I am going to continue to do.

Tuesday night I had to hold a devotional, and I decided that we were going to do something we did when I went to girls camp-- it's called the Liahona. As we know the Liahona is a compass from the Book of Mormon, and all compasses have 8 different points that they can lead you (N, NE, NW, S, SE, SW, W, and E). I tried to find the original, but of course only Peggy had it, so I had to improvise and make up my own. I thought at first the girls didn't like or weren't going to appreciate it, because you have a list of elements with descriptions, and you have to pick a girl(s) for which one you think they best fit. But at the end of the night, after the awards were all handed out, each girl said that they loved it and would love to do it again next year. Success! They learned what others saw in them, which most of the time were things they didn't notice about themselves.