Girls Camp....

Girls camp was quite the emotional and spiritual adventure that I never quite realized it could be. Let's just say by the end of the week it was decided that I had "the cabin" of the year, which was not necessarily a good thing. I had drama with my girls from the moment they arrived to the moment they left. I had 1 girl leader (YCL1) and a camper from my cabin sent home and President Crocket, our stake president, pulled my whole cabin aside to talk to them Friday evening. There were good times, but mostly hard times. The majority of the girls had fun and I had 6 or 7 bear their testimonies on Friday night.

Monday night my girls doing their skit on the stage.

On our hike Tuesday afternoon.

Just a beautiful view from our hike.

My girls at Flag Thursday morning.

My good friend and head cook Tami C.
Thanks for all your help this week!

For me, girls camp was an experience that I needed. I realized that I could not control or know what to do with these girls on my own. I spent much time on my knees and in thought thinking about how I could do things different. I felt very much alone trying to deal with this for most of the week. My co-counselor, although doing her absolute best, found out she has Fibromialgia last week and couldn't walk around camp well. This sort of left me to do the majority of the chasing. I had been in contact with the Camp Directors and they were keeping an eye on things too when they could. By Thursday I was so emotionally and physically exhausted I broke down as they were telling me my camper was going home. I was then given a priesthood blessing and felt immediately at peace, knowing that I had and would continue to do my best and that my Heavenly Father was aware of my circumstances and was there with me. This pushed me through the rest of the week. I guess the most difficult thing was going back and forth between enthusiasm for camp (with all of my girls who were behaving), to having to lay down the law in a pro-quo way to those who weren't. I came home though with a stronger testimony that I am never alone and that I do love the gospel. I so enjoyed those 15 minutes every morning to study the scriptures, knowing that that was all I had to do. Would I do it again? Go back to be a counselor? Yes. I'll go back and I'll continue to learn about myself and about how I can improve. That's what life is all about right?