Today was the very last day of our young women's camp for church and it was AMAZING!!
The very first day was on Saturday and we al had to gather up in one chapel to mark our names off. As soon as the jerking was finished, off we went to our camping spot. It was quite far from our chapel, but lucky me I didn't have enough sleep so I slept in the car.
Once we got there I was really a cited but nervous as well because we had to go into seperate groups with other young women's from other wards. As we were waiting for the whole steak to get there, we all gathered around the camp fire. The whole steak then got there, the the leader then announced the teams. My nervousness was just starting to build even more but it's just how it works.
As soon as I heard my name get called out into the blue team, there I was, shaking with nervousness and excitement. All of the teams had to gather into there little colour groups so they can make a group name and chant for there teams, but as my team went in, I all judged them before even talking to them. Like a saying "Never judge a book by its cover" but what did I do, I judged them before getting to know them.
I thought they were all the quiet ones and that they would leave me out of activities, but the whole point the the camp was to meet new people and bond with them. And also to learn new things about the gospel and how our activities were a relation to the gospel.
Later on that very day which was Saturday, my blue team started to talk a bit more which meant we were contributing in our activities, and our very first one was archery. And in relation to that and the gospel is how one of us help eachother because our team have never done it before and that was the fire time. But what the gospel does is help us as well, it helps us choose the right path.
Once archery was all done, we done some fore activities like under and over with water but the whole point of that one was to work together as a team, and that was also one of the purposes of going to camp. And in relation from that activity to be gospel was that the gospel is like a team that is helping you do stuff.
The day was over and it became dark so off we were to eat dinner. It was the first night so our ward was to serve dinner and we made, meatballs, vegetable salad and patato salad. We made that because it healthy and the meatballs was just a little special one.
Dinner was served and we were happy to see all the happy faces that the young women's had on there faces when they were eating the dinner our ward made. They were happy about the type of food we made. Yes I had doubts about it but once I tasted it, it was just delicious!
Our very first day of camp was over and off we were into the shed to watch a movie which was 'Brave'. To me the whole moral of the movie was to be proud of what you do but to always respect your parents at the same time. The fifth commandment is "To always obey thy father and thy mother". So you should respect them and also the commandment.
Brave was finished and we had to remain seated. Why? Because we had to listen to the president of the steak. He said that we had to go into our colour groups that we were put in so we can do devotional. Devotional is when you gather and do a prayer and then read a scripture and talk about what it means, and you also have to say what you enjoyed and what you learnt.
Colour group devotional was finished so then we had to go and do a ward devotional in our tents.
was a pretty long devotional but I enjoyed because I was funny and also emotional because we played a little game of confessions, yet we aren't allowed to tell anyone, because we swore we wouldn't.
Saturday passed by and it was sabbath day which is Sunday. We got changed into our church clothes and we had to walk because it was an outside chapel. As soon as we got there, church started and all the other wards bishops were talking and all the stories they were talking about was on point. But the one I liked the most was our wards bishop.
Our bishop was talking about friends. Which friend we should choose and which ones we shouldn't. He was talking about because friends can sometimes be a very bad influence on you and can also be a temptation, as in -
- Drinking
- Smoking
- Taking other drugs
- doing stupid dares
And all of those temptations can affect your body which is like a temple and that you should treat it like one.
Church was finished and back we went to our camping side. We only had a ten minute break and the. We were back to do workshop which is part of Sunday and also on that very day we were fasting. We were fasting for a very special cause and it was for the missionaries that are doing there mission and also to feel what others feel like when they are hungry.
When our first few workshops were done, we got a hour break so our team decided to gather and talk about what we've learnt so far. We all said things like choosing the right things, how to bond with your team and how you can make friends easily.
That hour passed by and off we were for more workshops and they were somethin to teach us as well. One was about social media and how that is temptation as well, another was about integrity and what it means, the third one was how to help other people when they feel down, the second to last one was about virtue and how it is the highest value. Last but not least, it was about your choices and responsibilities.
That very day our workshops were over and so was the fast. We decided to eat lunch which was a little meal to congratulate us for managing to complete the fast. Lunch was over so we had a fire side which is a gathering/meeting.
Fire side was for one and a half hour and yes, some people sang. They all had amazing talents and also had amazing testimonies that has touched my heart. As they were talking, some of them cried which meant that they really love the camp so far and that they learnt so much.
As our gathering was slowly ending we were getting ready to sleep but as soon as it finished everyone ran to there tents and set up there beds. The night was slowly going by and I was great full for that because so far I was enjoying every little bit we had.
It was very early when we woke up because we had to do a team devotional because we didn't do it at night. This time our devotional was to bare a testimony which I didn't know how to do till I heard a lot of people from our ward do it. It was fun and I enjoyed doing it for the first time.
On that day which was Monday, we got told that we were going to get muddy so I put on my shorts and other dirty clothes. This was the very day that our colour team really bonded as sisters and we kgot to know eachother way better than the first day. Why? Because it was obstacle day and getting muddy day as well.
Why did we have to get muddy? Well because it a relation to the gospel. It's about sticking together and doing it as a team. If one gets muddy then the rest gets muddy, if one gets wet then the rest get wet, why? Because we are all sisters and daughters of our Heavenly Father.
Our whole blue team got muddy because I went in and I really wanted to take the risk of getting muddy because we had to do it as a team. As soon as getting wet and muddy was other, we had to climb walls, crawl the dirt, balance on wood and work as a team to complete it as a team.
As soon as getting smelly on that day everyone was complaining because they wanted a shower but we were still patient. They said when we finish showering we eat lunch and then practice the chant and dance or act for the talent show. But I did not want to eat so I just had a little rest before practice.
At practice our team was participating really well because we had to come up with ideas for talent show and BOOM, there it was, a dance to Beyonces song 'Move your body'. It's a pretty good song for exsercising so we all agreed to do it.
"Half an hour before talent show" said the leader and we kept practicing real hard and we were to dance like no one is watching, so we did and we tried our hardest. Time went by and it began. All the other colours went first and apparently orange copied us but it was fine because I think they are the reason why we made ours better.
We only had 2 minutes to come up with a better idea than the patia thing so we put in the pukana. It looked really AMAZING! Well at least I thought it looked good. Once the whole talent show was over we decided to do our last devotional for young women's camp. We were to say what we really enjoyed overall about the camp and we had to do our testimony.
When devotional started and we all had to say something about camp on girl cried because she already missed camp, so then I cried because I'm an easy cryer. I also cried because I really miss it already as well and I miss our team. But after sharing our testimony I decided to go hang out with one of my team members which is Resaline and she was probably the very best team member ever.
As I was crying she cried as well because I was crying but when we hugged we cried even more so we decided to go introduce our selves to each of our wards. Later on that night it was very early in the morning like past 1 am and we were still awake because Resaline and I did not want to cry ourselves to sleep.
Resalina is a year nine and she is full Tongan. We were just staying with eachother the whole night because we were to sobby to sleep. So we just hung for the whole night till we were tired enough to go to sleep.
The night was over and light came out again which obviously meant it was morning time.mwe had to wake up early because it was the day to pack our stuff in to the van and that day was today. Firstly we had to wake up at six so we can have a testimony meeting but I didn't have anything warm, so Resaline came and sat I front of me and gave me her jacket because she saw me shivering in cold.
Testimony meeting was about to end but Resaline went to do her testimony but she did a shout out for be. It was quite sad because we got really close in those past few days of camp. Yes it was really easy to say "hello" but it's extremely hard to say "goodbye". So I decided not to say goodbye, I said "see you later".
So camp had a really amazing purpose, it was to meet new people, bond with new people, relating the activities to the gospel and having fun. I enjoyed it because I got to meet new people and I and going to see them sooner or later, I also enjoyed it because I learnt a lot more about the Mormon church and how it rolls.
