Interruption

Okay so I am interrupting my regularly scheduled scripture study time for this blog post, but I found something I needed to share. I'm actually working on Personal Progress. Probably the best part of my calling as the Laurel Advisor is that I get to work on Personal Progress with my girls and what an amazing blessing it is in my life! I've been working on Divine Nature experiences and one of them has you read 2 conference talks on womanhood. I found one by Sister Margaret D. Nadauld, a past General Young Women President. The talk was given in the October 2000 conference. She says, " Woman of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."
She then closes her message with this, "Sisters, regardless of your age, please understand all that you are and must be, all that you were prepared to be in royal courts on high by God Himself."
Doesn't it just make you so grateful to be a woman!! To all the women in my life who are tender, kind, refined, faithful, good, virtuous, and pure, thank you for being who you are and for recognizing the glory of God that is innate in you. For the rest of us... let's be grateful there is still hope in the Savior and try a little harder to be Women of God.

Camp Post 5: The Hike

Many of you remember my complaints last year about the hike. It was really hard and I was really slow and it nearly killed me. This year I was desperate to not let that happen again. One of the things I learned last year was that the back pack with a sweatshirt, lunch, extra water bottles, first aid kit and such was not needed and resulted in unnecessary weight which didn't help me move any faster or feel any better. Also last year, I learned that one extremely out of shape leader in bad shoes and a rocky mountain are not a good combination. This year I was determined to be in shape for the hike and thanks to the purchase of Wii Fit, I am in much better shape. I wore strong supportive tennis shoes and took a fanny pack (thanks to Holly) and only took my camera and a water bottle. I decided I'd eat lunch when I was done so I didn't have to pack it. This year we did the same hike as last year with an extra leg added on to the beginning. Last year we parked in the parking lot at the top of Big Mountain and hiked down. This year we parked a few miles past the parking lot at the top of Big Mountain and hiked to it then down. The first part was up hill at first and then lots of long switch backs led us higher and higher. Holly asked me at the parking lot if I wanted to blaze or bring up the rear. Remembering last year and how slow I was I chose blaze, with the idea that if the rule was no one could go in front of me, they'd all have to hike slowly for my benefit. Abby and I took the front, with Holly and Roseann and our Priesthood leader, Brother Armatage, taking the rear. Each of us had a two way radio that we could communicate with and we set off. About 100 yards into the first hill, I was breathing hard and was sure I had made a mistake even attempting to come on this hike. At the top of the first hill, I demanded a break and I'm sure the girls thought I was crazy to stop so soon into it. As soon as I caught my breath, we continued on and the trail, although it went high quickly, became easier as the switchbacks made it easy for us to climb. Soon we were in two definite groups. Abby and I had five girls up front with us and Holly and Roseann had five back with them. As we climbed we sang Star Wars songs (of course) and later Holly said it was so awesome to hear us singing ahead. It gave them strength to keep going. A few minutes into the hike, I found this... It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but it's bushes covered in snow. It was pretty shady, and you could tell the higher elevations hadn't figured out yet, that it was summer. As we got closer to the top, and got above the tree line, you can see a bit of what the pioneers saw as they conquered this last leg of their journey. If you look way out on that far mountain, you can see Kennecott Copper Mine. As we neared the top, we could see people in the big parking lot and knew the first part was over. We waited in the cold and wind at the top for the rest of our group, and when they finally came around the last bend, we greeted them with the victorious humming of Raiders March. After a potty stop for a few of the girls and a picture, we headed down the trail leading to the end of our hike.
The group of us blazing went at a steady pace, reminding the girls to stay hydrated and let us know if they needed to stop. They didn't so we just continued on enjoying the beauty around us. It was awesome! I didn't feel tired until well into the fourth mile, and aside from the trail being much wetter than last year, and having to find the trail under the stream at times, we made it to the bottom! At the bottom you are supposed come out of the brush and find a bridge leading across a very full river. This time we found a swamp blocking the trail completely so a group of brethren were showing us the other way out. It involved climbing up the mountain a bit, to a place where there was a rock you could step on to get across. One of the men was standing on the edge holding a large walking stick in the water to anchor himself as he helped us across the rock (that was buried under 3 inches of water) and safely to the muddy other side. We got out mostly unscathed... a few muddy footprints and made our way to the bridge where the stake Young Women's Presidency was giving high fives. My calves were sore for a few days after but nothing like the torture I experienced last year!! Yay for being in shape and finding a smarter way to hike!

Camp Post 4: The Skit

As you can imagine with a theme like STAR WARS the skit possibilities are endless. Holly wrote an awesome beginning that we put on a scroll like at the beginning of Star Wars movies. It started with the Star Wars logo then below that it says Episode 2010 THE LAST DAYS:

As the battle continues between good and evil, the enemy has improved his strategy to lure warriors to the dark side in a final attempt to weaken the forces of good and destroy the light forever. But the knights of Truth and Righteousness have reserved some of their most valiant warriors for these last days and now send them forth with their swords of the Spirit to uncover the evil plot and overcome the darkness.

We had Lucy Starwarrior, Obewise Canibe, Master No Duh, Princess Hope, a few wookies and a storm trooper! The girls wanted to do some puns using Star Wars characters, so Lucy found herself at the "Darth mall" fighting against evil. There were some seriously funny moments, like when someone was trying to get Lucy go with them to "Pizza the Hut" and Lucy responds with "No, I brought a ham sandwich and I'm going to eat my Ham Solo..." It was fun for the girls to write and fun for the stake to watch and at the end of the week, we got the award for the skit! It was a lot of fun.

While I'm on the subject, let me just tell you about our ward cheers. Most mornings and evenings at devotionals each ward had to do a cheer. We started most cheers with the girls doing a wookie call as we ran to the front. The first day the cheer was "May the Spirit be with you" with the girls flashing their light sabers as they said it. The next day we did "Stand for Truth and Righteousness, DO or DO NOT there is no try." The third day we went silently and straight faced to the front of the room and then just made random droid sounds. That one was funny! The people that were sitting in the back are probably still trying to figure out why we didn't have a cheer! The last day we walked down singing the Darth Vader theme, then Holly interrupted us with "NO not Darth Vader"... then we all shouted "We are Dark Evaders!!" I thought the girls were quite imaginative coming up with cheers! It was a lot of fun to represent Star Wars!

Camp Post 3: The Sword of the Spirit

As I mentioned before, when the girls picked the Star Wars theme I immediately went looking for light sabers. Holly (the Young Women's President ) and I decided we needed to make them have some meaning besides just being weapons. Holly had the idea of comparing it to the sword of the spirit talked about with the Armor of God in Ephesians 6. We talked about ways that we could relate the camp theme to fighting the war against Satan, and how we could help the girls realize that these light sabers were special. We discussed comparing each of the pieces of the armor to the Young Women Values. We started linking values and then Holly made this little scavenger hunt, where they had to find different clues that would lead them to the next part of the armor. We started at our camp and the clues led them to the lodge, the flag pole, the bathroom, the amphitheatre, the Bowery, and finally to a bridge above camp. At each stop Holly talked about the different pieces of armor, why they are vital to the safety of the soldier, and then compared it to the values we had linked them with. It was by far my favorite part of camp. Here are the links:
Loins girt with truth = Knowledge and Virtue.
Breastplate of Righteousness= Integrity and Individual Worth
Feet shod with the Gospel of peace= Choice and Accountability and Good Works
Shield of Faith= Faith
Helmet of Salvation= Divine Nature
Sword of the Spirit= Personal Revelation
Holly talked about how each piece of the armor of God is for defense except the sword, and how important it is that we all have something offensive to fight the battle.

At each stop after talking about the different pieces and comparing them to the values, the girls received a value colored bead which we put on washer necklaces. At the end after they got their light sabers, we did steel stamping on the washer. This is my necklace: (the stamping says Star Wars)
I hope the girls felt the Spirit of this activity as much as I did. It's awesome to me how the values fit together in our fight against Satan and I hope they realize their amazing ability to fight back. I know they all had fun playing with their light sabers all week!

Camp Post 2: S.T.A.R. W.A.R.S.

I decided I'll never get enough time for one long blog post so I'll do it in spurts!! This is our camp flag. Our theme like I said before was Star Wars and we made it stand for Stand for Truth And Righteousness, We Are Righteous Sisters. The back of the flag is exactly like the front, only in galactic alphabet. I think it was the best one in the stake, but I may be a bit biased! We had a lot of fun with the theme! More later!

Camp Post 1

A lot has happened in the last few weeks that I could blog about, and possibly will... Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary party... but this week my whole focus has been on girls camp. Remember last year when I got this calling and freaked out a bit? Who'd have thought that that girl would volunteer to do another year? The closer we get to camp (2 days and counting) the more I question my sanity. The stake chose STARs as our theme. It stands for Stand for Truth And Righteousness. They asked each ward to come up with a star theme that their ward would be known by and our girls chose STAR WARS. The first thing I did was go online and look for light sabers. It will be an awesome week, and I'll try not to be too busy when I get back, so you can hear all about it. Now all you faithful blog readers... pray the rain away!!! I'd rather camp in the sun, so combine your faith and pray that this spring weather stops for 5 days! See ya when I get back!!