Wordless Wednesday

Favorite picture from camp

The following is my favorite picture from camp. Thanks to Everyone's Favorite Cheerleader and Camera-tottin' Mama.

Okay, in all seriousness, here is my real favorite picture. Love these women. They are doing amazing things.

Ella Mae sings Elvis

I was away at Young Women Camp all of last week. I'm still organizing pictures from it and doing laundry. It was a wonderful experience. The girls were amazing (no drama -- except for the intentional acting games), and everyone had a great time. I'll post more once I've caught up on my sleep.

In the meantime, enjoy this hilarious video from YouTube.

Stand in Holy Places

New Beginnings

Disclaimer: This post contains a whole lot of terms and phrases unique to the LDS culture. I'm apologizing in advance to any readers unfamiliar with this language.

For those who don't know, New Beginnings is an LDS program for the young women to introduce the girls coming into the program to Personal Progress. Completing the Personal Progress program is like earning your Eagle award in the Boys Scouts. This was my first every New Beginnings. (I don't remember going to one when I was in YW 30-some-odd-years ago.) All of my presidency and the girls did a wonderful job coming up with ideas and running with the them in a way I couldn't begin to hope for. Huge, huge props go to my Beehive Adviser and Camp Director, Most Happy Girl's Doppelganger. She did an amazing job with the small object lessons and activities. And Grandma To 2! made beautiful invitations that everyone commented on.

Our theme was Standing On Higher Ground. The church-wide 2013 theme for the youth is D&C 87:8 "Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen." It has been shortened to Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved. Because we believe that mountains tops are holy, we decided that Standing On Higher Ground had a good tie-in to the main theme.

I was charged with putting the program together (and printing it), introductions and handing out awards (two girls and one former leader earned their medallions -- whoot whoot!). Considering that I had just been diagnosed with bronchitis, it was a good thing I didn't have to talk too much. I kept coughing and had no voice by the end of my 2 minute introduction talk. I have to admit, I really liked my intro talk. (Is that bad?) Here it is:

"Hello fellow adventurers, and welcome to Climbing 101. We are excited to see so many interested climbers, specially those who are new this year, and also to welcome their base camp teams. We hope you are as excited about the grand adventure ahead as we are as we tackle this challenge together. We are also very excited for those heading off to Advanced Climbing 850, and hope that they will always remember the importance of a well-equipped backpack and having plenty of drinking water."

I know, aren't I clever? But seriously, Mr. Perfect helped me with it. I also found this amazing quote from Pres. Harold B. Lee:

"You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is. You must be sure, if you would rescue the man, that you yourself are setting the example of what you would have him be. You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own soul."

After the activities, Another Wisconsin Lover spoke to the girls about her life experiences. She did a wonderful job, and the girls loved her talk. After it was over, PhotoMom's wonderful dirt trifles were eagerly gobbled down, and a lot of picture taking commenced.

Here are some fun pictures from the evening. Mr. Perfect was my official photographer for the event.

And my favorite (though we're really not sure how Mr. Perfect got this one):

The kind of guys all girls should date

Thanks, Sweet Cecily!

Wordless Wednesday

The best tent buddies a girl could ask for

Random rainbows at Young Women's Camp

I spent last week at Young Women's Camp with many of the girls and their leaders from the stake. Preparing for camp really stressed me out. As I mentioned before, I've never been in the YW organization before this calling. When I was in high school, I never went to rough-out camp (tents and digging your own latrine stuff) because of other things.

Once we were there, it was wonderful. The girls had a blast. We even went to Crystal Hot Springs for a few hours one of the days. It was in place of the 3- to 5- mile hikes. I actually enjoy hiking, but the girls seemed to prefer sitting in the water, playing around. Who knew?

The last night, the stake president, one of his counselors, and the stake patriarch came for dinner and a Q&A session. It started raining during dinner, and we saw this amazing double rainbow while the men where answering a lot of questions. The bottom bow was full, and the top one was about a half.

Next year, it will just be the girls from our ward at camp. That will be a lot more stressful, but at least I have this year's camp under my belt to use as a reference. Though we probably won't have access to hot showers and a full kitchen. I guess you can't have everything.

I also missed Mr. Perfect while I was gone. Maybe next year, he can come and be one of the required priesthood holders present at camp. That would more than make up for no hot showers...but maybe not the lack of a full kitchen.