B.O.O.T. Camp 2008!

We had a fabulous week Building Our Own Testimonies! These pictures are of the four young women who served as the Head YCL's (Youth Camp Leaders) - they were 100% awesome!
Hannah, Allison, Christina and Sara = powerful leadership!
Sara and I. There is no make-up allowed at camp. Also, no cell phones, i-pods, radios...we leave the 'world' behind for a week on the mountain. On Monday night the stake staff and all 30 ycl's go to camp to get it set up for the rest of the campers to arrive early Tuesday morning. We had all the ycl's decorate a small banner in their year color. This way the campers could learn more about their ycl. The girls did a good job showing their interests on their banner. They were all very creative.
Sister McBride (she's in our ward and also the stake yw presidency member over camp) with Marissa, Molly and Natalia.

The girls loved the camp songs! Here they are 'peeling the banana...peel, peel the banana!"
Molly and I! It rained pretty much every day at camp but it would break enough for us to still do all of our planned activities. Some we had to do inside but it all worked out.

Girls from our ward and the ward we broke off since the split goofing around!
A entire camp picture! Lots of fun!

The entire camp participates in a secret sister program. We receive a name at the beginning of camp and secretly give three gifts to that person. Adults exchange with other adults. The above picture is at the 'reveal' where we find out who had our name. Susan Kramer, our ward camp director had my name - I had no idea she had my name. She is also my visiting teacher.
Here is one thing I did for my secret sister - a place mat and some some fun things at her place to eat lunch. I think she really enjoyed it.
Lindsey (YCL assistant), Mia (stake camp assistant) and me before the leader skit - fun times!
For our high adventure at camp we had an obstacle course and a zip line. Here I am getting harnessed in so I could ride the zip line - very fun!
James is the high counselor over the stake young women and he was invited to be a speaker at camp also. He did a terrific job! He brought lots of pictures for the girls to see and even brought everyone chocolate.

The week was amazing. The stake staff did a compass activity Tuesday night were the girls had to use a compass to find different stations. At each station there was a speaker who talked about one of the different young women values. All of the girls got to attend each of the seven stations. There were inspiring words shared.

The entire camp did a service project of making cards and writing letters for our military. We will send them to soldiers who do not receive mail. I think the girls really enjoyed this activity.

Another night we had an organized fair of sorts. Each ward planned a different activity and the girls could go around to the activities of their choice. Our ward did finger painting which was a big hit. Other things were hillbilly golf, volleyball, donuts on a string, fishing pond, fruit basket...

The girls all loved singing trees again this year. Our ward sang Arise and Shine Forth with the Valencia ward.

Bishop Boerup came for bishops night and gave the girls a wonderful talk for bishop's hour. He and his wife also came for testimony meeting. It is great to have his support - he truly loves the young women.

All of our girls shared their testimony at testimony meeting - it was a very special time! The spirit was so strong.

I really enjoyed my first year as the YCL Leader. I stayed very busy at camp which I like. I especially loved the relationships that I was able to make with the ycl's. There were 30 of them but I learned a little about each and every one and by the end of the week each had blessed my life in some way. I am thankful for them.

On a sadder note: I received a message on Friday night just before testimony meeting that James would not be coming. (He had planned on coming Friday for testimony meeting and stay the night so he could help break camp on Saturday). The message did not tell me why - I thought it was odd that he wasn't coming but just figured he thought he should be home with the boys so didn't think much of it. Well, it turns out he was in the ER with kidney stones. I didn't find out until I called him when I was almost home. He has never had kidney stones before but this hit him fast and hard. He didn't want to tell me because he wanted me to be able to attend testimony meeting - can you believe that! He is so very supportive of me and my calling. I told him if it was me in that much pain I would have wanted him by my side. Of course, yes, it would depend upon where he was and what his responsibilities were but I admit I would feel more comfortable having him near me. He is doing much better now, but can tell if he goes too long between pain pills. I am thankful he is o.k. I know he is excited to attend a week of camp next year. I am especially grateful to a good man in our ward, Bart Peterson, who drove James to the ER and stayed with him for six hours. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it. I had to call Bart personally to thank him for taking such good care of James. I know James had to have been hurting if he was at the point of calling someone for help. Good friends are precious.

Sorry this has been such a long post, lots of great memories (and sad ones too regarding the ER visit)!

Today the little boys started school and my sister comes tomorrow so there is lots happening.

Let me know if you stopped by with a comment - I've left the world behind for a week and would love to hear from you and know you stopped by the blog. Love ya' - Have a good Monday.