As we have looked back over the past year's activities, the big activity that really drew the girls and leaders closer together and helped unite us all was our Girls' Camp. We went to Camp Timpooneke last summer and had a truly awesome experience! Our theme for camp was taken from Pres. Uchtdorf's conference talk, "You Are My Hands". We changed it to "We Are His Hands" to apply it to us in a more personal way. To prepare for camp, we challenged and encouraged both girls and leaders to memorize "The Living Christ". Our camp song was "Created in His Image" which describes having Christlike attributes such as having eyes like His to see others as He does; a voice like His to speak as He speaks, with love & kindness; a heart like His to love as He loves; and of course, hands like His to serve and help each other, as He would have us do. To start off our camping experience, we stopped at the Jordan River Temple and performed baptisms for the dead. It was neat because a few parents joined us for that and were able to participate with their daughters.
Each day we focused on serving one another at camp in big and small ways. We had a tree which we called our "Giving Tree", and we had little paper hands where we wrote acts of service that we noticed each other doing throughout the day. We read them aloud at the end of each day and celebrated the joy we felt at the love shown by each girl and leader. The hands were hung all over the tree, and by the end of camp, it was a truly remarkable sight! We didn't fill our days with too many activities and just enjoyed being out in nature and the beautiful world our Heavenly Father created for us. The girls had many opportunities to visit and get to know each other better, even on a killer nine-mile hike! And they did it cheerfully :)! It wasn't supposed to be that long, but they pushed through to the end. We were so proud of them! We also took time to divide into year groups and read scriptures together and discuss the gospel with one another. That was one of my best memories! Our testimony meeting began with our reciting "The Living Christ" together. Individual girls and leaders had prepared memorized sections to recite in the order of that document. Each one stood in turn and said their part until the entire piece had been given. What a moving experience to bear witness of the reality of our Lord and Savior! Testimony meeting was even better because of the love we had already shared and felt together.
As we prepared to go home the next day, every girl did not want to go! They kept begging us to stay just one or two more days! We were so blessed to take home the wonderful spirit we felt there and share it with our families and with each other. That spirit has continued on in our other activities and experiences since then. We felt strongly that our theme was one we should continue to focus on, and so we used it again for our Young Women in Excellence night. Many, many times throughout the year we have remembered and discussed the things we learned at Girls' Camp and the way our testimonies of Jesus Christhave grown and developed.
May we all remember that "We are His Hands" here upon the earth and love and serve each other as He would want us to! Our Savior truly does live, and He knows and loves each one of us! May that knowledge and peace always be with you!
Grantsville 11th Ward Young Women
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