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!