The Best Thing I did this Summer

Last spring I was called to be the secretary in our Young Women organization.  I was ecstatic!  And I have to admit my first thought was Girls Camp!!

Early in August our ward went to Lava Hot Springs.  It was So Much Fun!  Almost as soon as we set up camp a huge storm (like, hurricane-force winds!) came through and nearly sent a leader and the tent she was trying to rescue into the river.  We were under enormous trees and branches were flying everywhere.  The situation, luckily, ended up being humorous.

Of course, being in Lava Hot Springs, we spent a lot of time in the water.  I convinced some of the other leaders to go on the speed slides with me.  They didn't love them (and I realized that I'm 33--not 23) but I still had fun.  We rafted down a river in a rainstorm.  We soaked in the hot springs.  Like I said, so much fun!

One of the best parts of the trip was going up to a little pioneer settlement called Chesterfield.  We learned about the early saints that settled the area and then did our service project, which was helping to restore this old building.  We had to fill the slats with cement, and it was not as easy as it looked.  I was so mad later because this was only 1 of 2 pictures that I took the whole time.  We had a camp photographer so I got lazy.

The best part, as always, was the campfires.  I got to know so many of the leaders and girls better this way.  We ended up missing our testimony meeting because, unfortunately, we got rained out the last night and ended up leaving camp at about 8 pm (and getting home at 1 am.)  I drove the 3 hours in almost complete silence in the rain (the beehives I drove fell asleep about 20 minutes after we hit the road) but it was kind of a cool experience at the same time.

The next morning we met to collect our soggy things.  I didn't realize how quickly, and how closely, I'd grown to these girls until I felt their absence the next few days after camp.  I gained a huge testimony on this trip just how important these camps are for the Young Women, and their leaders.