Celestial Navigators

I was called about a year ago to be the Young Women Camp Leader in our ward. I was not too excited about this calling because I knew it meant I'd have to leave behind Bradley and my little one-year-old Jamison. But, as the camp drew nearer and nearer, the preparations got more and more intense, and I started to be more excited to go.

We went to The Rose's Cabin in Mammoth Creek, Utah. Cindy Rose was an excellent host and also served as our camp cook. The food was wonderful all week long! It was great to be in a cabin and not in tents. It doesn't mean we didn't get dirty, but we were definitely not "roughing it." Cindy even washed the jeans of the girls who got really dirty! That's something you can't do at Camp Kolob!

Our camp theme was based off a talk that President Thomas S. Monson gave almost 10 years ago called Your Celestial Journey. We were the "Celestial Navigators." The girls loved the theme and it was really pretty cool. Here's a list of the main things we did each day.

Monday - "Gaze Upward" - to fit with the daily theme we went down to the SUU Ashcroft Observatory. It was SO cool. We looked at Saturn and Jupiter through a huge telescope. We also saw a globular cluster. That looked really cool. We saw other stars and constellations. The girls did a really good job "gazing upward" to navigate the skies.

Tuesday - "Look Inward" - to fit with the daily theme we went horseback riding and spelunking. The girls LOVED every minute of it. The caves were so cool. You started walking, then crouching, then on your knees, then to get out you had to army crawl over huge boulders. It was really neat and the girls had to really "look inward" to make it through the caves and the horse riding. Wednesday - "Reach Outward" - to fit with the daily theme we did a service project of clearing the land around the cabin to help it to be less of a fire hazard. We shaved trees, made TONS of firewood and cleared over 10,000 pine cones. We only worked for about 2 hours. But, 21 of us at 2 hours each meant we got 42 hours worth of work done. I'm sure the Roses' were glad we "reached outward." We were rewarded with a wonderful tour on ATVs! Thanks Cindy and Ken Cox for providing the ATVs! I have found a new favorite hobby!Thursday - "Press Forward" - to fit with the daily theme we went hiking and hiking and hiking. It was a lot of fun . . . the hikes weren't that bad, but we did just keep on going! We "pressed forward" literally.
All of these themes worked together to help the girls understand a little better how to navigate their lives to return to live with our Heavenly Father. My favorite theme was "Press Forward" cause that's the theme we have to carry through for the rest of our lives. We can't be at Girls Camp forever. We have to come back down and live in the world. And, we can do it by pressing forward and enduring to the end.

All in all girls camp was a tremendous success. The girls were all wonderful. It was nice to get away from the heat, relax, get dirty and have fun. I took a TON of pictures. I've posted some of them on my Picasa page. Feel free to check them out.