Thursday
6:30am came too quickly Thursday morning. The girls camp schedule of late nights and early mornings is not my kind of schedule. But there is so much to fit into 3 days that sleep gets put on the back burner. I wasn't even one of those who stayed up late doing KNARPs (Pranks backwards=nice, harmless pranks). But 6:30am came and it was time for fitness.
I led a mini-yoga class out in the field for fitness. I was tired and groggy, but after a few sun salutations with a group of girls and leaders, I was feeling much better.
Our schedule for the day looked like this . . . busy!
On the first day, each of the girls was given a lanyard with a name tag, schedule booklet, and song book.
As they went to their various activities, they received stickers to put on the back of their name tag. There were stickers for skit night, ropes course, polar dip, fitness, service, etc. They also received a sticker from their level leaders to place on the front of their name tags.
When I remembered to, I grabbed a few of the stickers as I did activities and got the first year's level sticker when I joined those sweet girls and awesome leaders for their certification meal. Ok, and I also just stole the Polar dip sticker because it was cool. I decided I was entitled to claim leftover stickers because I helped plan the whole camp. ;)
We had our night hike that night. And Night hike was actually a hike this year--about 3 miles! in the dark. It's not usually that intense, but we had to make some last minute changes to our plan and route because another stake had to switch to Ensign just a few days before camp. It was a long trek late at night, but I think it drove home the point. We can do hard things. With God, we can do all things. Our night hike experience was based off of this. The girls were given "burdens" (rocks) along the way that they had to carry in their arms and on their backs. Each rock represented a different real life burden (your mom gets cancer, you get in a fight with a friend, etc.). There were leaders sharing messages along the way. At the end, the girls turned their burdens over to the Lord and their loads were lifted.
I loved sitting in the amphitheater at the end waiting for the last group to finish the night hike before the stake president spoke. Beautiful music was playing. Everyone was quiet. Seeing a picture of our Savior up on the stage next to the Mission: Possible banner really hit it home. We go through lots of trials and hard things in life--some because of our own choices, some because of the choices of others, and some just because that's how life goes. But when we turn to our Savior--the one who has atoned for all of our sins and who understands all that we go through--our burdens are lightened and we receive enough strength to keep going.
Bonus: They got to keep the bags they carried the rocks in.
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