Kendra Posts About YWs Camp!

Another guest post, this time by Kendra:

    Girls camp is always an interesting experience. I mean what do you think will happen if you throw a bunch of emotionally unstable teenagers in the woods and take away their phones, there is bound to be some drama... less than last year but still some. Before I go on a whole rant about how awful teenage girls can be to each other let me talk about some of the better parts... 

    1.  My YCA (youth camp advisor) was amazing! She was super kind and funny and the whole group loved her. 

    2.  This year camp was a lot more focused on the spirit. One experience that was amazing was called the faith walk.  Essentially they partnered up the girls then gave them a sack. Then we would walk around to all of these adults who would share a burden that they or their family or anyone else had gone through.  Then they would hand us a rock that we would put in our sack. By the end we all had about 20-30 rocks all of which weighed about a pound.  Then we had to walk up a hill.  It was not a steep hill but walking up it was the hardest thing we had to do at camp. Then, when we got to the top of the hill there was a picture of Jesus and we were told that we got set down our sacks at his feet. I believe all of us felt such relief that we could set down these burdens.  Finally, we were given a bit of time to think over the experience and reflect on what it meant to us.  One thing that was evident to me was that we are the most tempted when we are about to have a spiritual experience.  Me and my partner had just come over the hill and seen the photo when our bag fell and the rocks went everywhere.  It was such a crushing moment, but it is also a good metaphor when it comes to life: when we are on a spiritual high the adversary will do his very best to knock us down.

    3.  The girls' camp was a lot better than the boys'. We had flushable toilets, showers close by, and a mess hall with some amazing chefs.  The boys had none of this. 

    4.  I am president of our Young Women's class, and this year we had three 11-year-olds going to camp for the first time.  One of them was reluctant to go, but it was so amazing to watch all three of them come out of their shells and make great friends.  I am so proud of them and I hope they all had a good camp experience. 

    5.  Part of the day was called solo time, we were given half an hour to study the scriptures.  It is crazy to me what half an hour can do.  One memorable solo time was when I felt like I was not going to get anything out of it.  Immediately after having thought this I could her my mom saying in the back of my head "Not with that attitude you won't." This is not something I have ever heard my mom say but it felt like something she would say so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I rejected my "this won't happen" attitude and found something in the next verse.  Something my mom has taught me is that attitude matters.  This was a good demonstration of such. 

    6.  I love camp activities!!! Shooting rifles and canoeing is all super fun to me and I love doing it with my friends.

    7.  Not having my phone. While I hate to admit it, I spend a lot of time on that thing.  Taking a week-long break from it felt refreshing and is something I should remember to do in the coming up school year when I feel stressed.  

    Now on to the less positive stuff... 

    1.  I got a really bad blister on the bottom of my foot.  It hurt to walk and the nurse did not have any blister bandaids so it just kept on getting bigger.  By the fourth day of camp it was HUGE and looked like it was about to burst.  Then completely out of the blue some girl came up to the nurse and said "I have blister bandaids, do you want some?"  That girl saved me from a lot of potential pain and what felt like a curse turned into a blessing, as I was able to see God's hand in my life. (Also imagine doing the faith walk with a huge blister on your foot, yep that happened.)  

    2.  As hinted at in the beginning, teenage girls are mean. For reasons unknown to me one girl in my group did not like me and would not hang out with me. Normally I wouldn't care but all the other girls wanted to hang out with her...   At first it was fine because I had my two friends with me but one had to leave early and the other decided that she needed to be friends with the girl who did not like me. This left me alone. Then she (the girl who is my friend) would come to me and complain about how hard it was to be friends with the girl that dislikes me and how I was her only real friend.  That sucked.  I was so tempted to say many things, none of which were spoken out loud.  I greatly look forward to the day when we can all get along.  Hopefully it comes around soon. 

        I fell like this has been a pretty short post but it is all I have to say about girls camp. I believe that the positives of it far outweigh the negatives. While it was not perfect I had a good time, and it could have been a lot worse. Unfortunately I did not get a lot of photos (no phone) but here is one my dad took when he came to visit.  Said photo features me and the most of the girls in my ward!  

L - R we have me, McKinley (11), Violet (11), Marianne (11), Ella (15), Madeline (17), and Dad (*47)  

        Fin             

*Note from Alanna-- Craig is actually 41.  But we like to tease him by making him older, so Kendra got in on the game!