Monday, August 30, 2010

Bishop's Fireside

Sunday night we had a Bishop's Fireside over at Brother Libberton's house. We had a great turnout of youth. Brother Libberton started with a discussion based on Elder David A. Bednar's talk, Things as They Really Are. We searched the scriptures and talked about our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness, the tactics that satan uses to attack and distract us, and then our responsibility to be strong and obedient in these troubled times. It was a great discussion. Follow the link to the talk to study it more.

Then Brother Williams gave a lesson on the importance of our testimony and we finished with a question and answer session with the Bishop. We had filled out cards at church and he answered all of them . . . including his ethnicity (he's part Hispanic), where he works (downtown selling insurance), is he having a good day (yes), and what is his birthday (July 31st). Bishop Campos also shared his favorite scripture, which he said was the first one he memorized . . . Psalm 119:11. . . and his favorite quote right now, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to stop it". We had a lot of fun learning more about our Bishop and appreciate him sharing and spending time with the youth.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Baptisms!


Today we had the privilege of doing baptisms for the dead at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It is always an awesome experience to do these as we think about those who have gone before us that have been waiting for this work to be done. We were able to do family names for Brother West and the Christensen's as well as some close family of Pearl's that she and her mother had worked hard to do the family history research on. It was a great day! Here we are at the church before we left. At the temple we also met up with the Pivonka crew. Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate.


Girls Camp - Day 1 Continued



As part of our first day activities, the Stake provided journals for us to write in each day and record the events at Camp. We worked on decorating these with parts of pinecones and other things from nature. They turned out really cute. Our other craft project that we worked on were individual mirrors for our bunks. Sister Black had found some awesome 8x10 framed mirrors that we were able to personalize with paint, stickers and decorations. We hung them in our bunks and it was a fun way to identify and personalize our space for the week. After we were done decorating the frames and journals, the girls had fun decorating each other.

Here's our cat . . . Miss Juliana

Caitlyn

Kierstin and Paytene

Jessica

Each day, the Stake YW leaders led a "Get a Grip" challenge/workshop. We had our first one with Sister Angeline Oler and really enjoyed it. We talked about the iron rod and living by the word of God. We then talked about things that could improve on or were going to try and give up and then buried those things in the ground. We were looking forward to having the rest of the workshops.

For dinner we had tinfoil dinners with hamburger and potatoes with baked apples for dessert. As part of certification for girls in their 4th year, they get to go on an overnight hike. We had five girls this year that went together - Pearl, Maddy, Allison, Alaynah and Kynz. The 4th year hikers took their dinners, packed up and got on their way for the night. The rest of us stayed and, thanks to Brother Christensen, had an awesome dinner.


Why is it that food tastes so much better cooked outside over a campfire? Here are our campers on their way:

Here's Maddy. . .


. . . Kynz, Alaynah and Pearl

. . . and Allie

Secret Sisters also started on the first day. We had filled out surveys ahead of time about ourselves and then randomly drew names for each other. We gave the information to the secret sister who would be giving a small gift each day to their new friend. This is a great way to think about each other. We also had a secret ward that we got to do special things for. We checked the schedule to see when they would be gone from camp and then made our first delivery.

After dinner, Sister McGregor gave an opening fireside at the Amphitheater and talked about the theme of "Get a Grip" and displayed a statue of two hands around the iron rod that was displayed all week. This got us ready for our evening devotional that we had around the fire. Jayden gave a great talk about friendship and distributed a friendship bracelet to each girl. Sister Bird continued the theme. We talked about what is the iron rod and how it can be hard sometimes to hold onto it. We shared experiences when we noticed a positive difference in our lives when we were holding to the rod and living by the word of God as opposed to when we are not. We likened it to being like the eagles who are soaring above everything . . . don't let things distract you from what you are born to do. Each girl was given a little iron rod with the words, "Hold to the Rod" on it as a visual reminder of our goals and what we started learning today. We had an awesome day!

Get a Grip!

Check out this MormonAd from the September, 2010 New Era:

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Girls Camp 2010 - Preview and Day 1


Amy, Keeley, Jannelle, Jayden, Caitlyn, Natalie and Sam hanging on for dear life to the Iron Rod.

Here is a preview of some pictures from Girls Camp 2010. We were so lucky to get to go to Heber Valley Girls Camp this year and had been preparing for months. One of the ways we prepared was by reading the Book of Mormon and several of us even finished the entire thing. Our camp theme was "Get a Grip" from Sister Ann Dibb's October 2009 Conference Address, Hold On based on Lehi's Dream in the Book of Mormon.

We started out on Monday, August 9th at 7:00 am in the morning! We met at the church with all of our gear, loaded onto the buses and were off for our weeklong adventure. We have to say thanks right here to Brother Christensen for hauling up all of our gear and driving the truck up . . . thank you!!! After arriving, we got settled into our cabins. We were sharing a campsite with the Fox Hollow Ward in the stake. Our Beehives and Mia Maids fit into one cabin and the Laurels shared a cabin with the Fox Hollow Ward Laurels. Caitlyn and Maddy had worked hard preparing all sorts of decorations for the cabin - from streamers and bee decorations for the "Bee-hive", including wings and a headband - it was great and really got us into the spirit of camp. We were in Camp Rebekah, Campsite #3 and loved it. We had flushing toilets and hot showers and a fridge! Some priesthood called it "The Hilton". They quickly learned that this is not Scout camp . . . and boy, are we glad.

Once we were settled, we headed down to the Amphitheater for a re-enactment of Lehi's dream by our stake leaders and led by President Edwards that really got us into the theme of camp. We took pictures on Day 1 (with our hair still looking good) of the young women by the Tree of Life that is pictured on the cover of the August 2010 Ensign. Can you spot the fruit in each picture?


Kaycee


Sister Bird

Amy and Keeley

Natalie

Amy

Jannelle

Alaynah

Sam

Jayden

Caitlyn

Juliana

Paytene

Maddy

Keeley

Kynz

Allison

Pearl

Jessica

Kierstin

Next up . . . the 4th Year Hike and more of Day 1