On the first official day of camp, we had Elder Lansing, an area authority, and his wife come and speak to us. We were sharing the camp with 4 other stakes, and so all 600+ of us squished together in the ginormous dining hall and heard them speak.
I never took any notes, resulting in me forgetting most of what they spoke about, but I remember Sister Lansing talking about the image on the right. She spoke with the artist about what he was trying to portray, and there's actually a lot of symbolism in it. The girls in from are supposed to be Laurel's, those in the back are Beehives, and everyone in the middle, Mia Maids. They're standing on the mountain of the Lord, and they're wearing the armor of God.
I would've gone to talk to them afterwards, but there were several hundred people, and I'd already met them several times before, and I was super tired from only getting about 2 hours of sleep the night before.
Perk Ups
We were supposed to have nightly "tuck-ins" from the Stake Young Women Presidency, but those didn't work out because they didn't get back from their nightly meetings until after we were in bed. So they started doing what I called "perk-ups" every morning before we went to breakfast. They would read a bedtime story (at 6:45AM) and then share how they went along with different young women values.
First was the Princess and the Kiss, which was a really cute and super Christian book, which was all about purity & virtue. It had an important message without be horribly preachy. And we all got Hershey's Kisses! Next, we had If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, told by the best cookie-baker in the world. She tied it into Choice & Accountability, since even the smallest choices can have crazy consequences. And on the last day, we had You Are Special, which was one of my favorite books growing up. We even got to put stickers on each other!
Skit Night
Skit Night was kind of chaotic. Beforehand we had a Nephite and Lamanite capture the Golden Plates battle, and so we were all tired and covered in water from our water guns.
And then we did our skits. The first years skit was adorable. They basically did 8 different commercials, promoting the different values, including M&M, Hefty, Jimmy Dean, and other well recognized commercials. The second years was okay. It was a "movie premiere" with each of the different values showing up as movie stars. The rest of the girls stood in the background, not doing anything. Then it was our turn.
My friends and I didn't really like the idea of the skit, so we got the easy part of it. The idea behind it was that we were watching YouTube, and then the rest of the girl's would pop out and sing a Mormonized version of a popular song (I'd never heard any of them). I had the most interesting line of the whole skit, which was "Let's build a/n [random transportation device] to the moon!"
After that embarrassment was over, the fourth years went. Theirs was really funny. It was "Mormon Family" with very campy (pun intended) commercials. It included State Farm, Old Spice, and a few others.
And finally, it was the Stake's turn. They win "Best Skit" award. Different leaders would come into a clinic, and they'd be diagnosed by the 2 Stake YCL's, and then cured with an extra dose of whichever Young Women value they were lacking. It was especially amusing when it was the Priesthood leaders receiving extra doses of Integrity and Divine Nature (yelling "I am a daughter of Heavenly Father!")
On the last night was testimony meeting. I knew I should've brought tissues, but of course I didn't. Everyone was bawling at one point or another. There were so many meaningful testimonies shared, and I only wish I had shared mine as well.
Every year I'm slightly hesitant to go to camp. I have some anxiety issues, and so whenever I have to leave my family for any amount of time, I get nervous. All throughout the week everything went wrong, and a lot of times I just wanted to go home, but then it was testimony meeting, and I knew that it had all been worth it.
Bonding With Friends
The absolute best part of camp was being with friends. I'm just a very quiet person by nature. I hardly talked at all the first day or two, even though I was with friends all day. By the third day, I think I went through some strange transformation, because I was just magically a lot more open and talkative. I was still quiet by comparison, but a lot louder than I'd normally be around other people.
Just while talking about my life it was decided by my friends that I'm funny, when in fact I'm incredibly dull, I just have a tragically hilarious life and a weird way of telling it. I even got a bunch of theme songs and a weird rumor about a hot date to homeschool prom that reached the Stake Young Women's President (although she is my friends mom, so I'm not surprised). One of these days I'll have to write a novel about it, but for now I'm happy with just a blog!
I grew so much closer to my friends in so many ways. At camp you can talk about anything at all without feeling awkward. I learned more about them, and they probably learned more about me than they ever wanted to, since when I do talk, it's in complete paragraphs.
There is no doubt in my mind that this was the best year at camp ever!
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