Friday, July 2, 2010

Young Women's Camp




I spent June 21-25 at Kent Stake park for Young Women's Camp. I was the camp director for the Waterloo Ward, and had a really good time. I was nervous about being in charge and having everything work out...but of course it did.
The Faith Hike was the most amazing thing. We had been told that we would walk through the trail and come to eight stations, one for each YW value. We were also warned to pay attention and not to 'miss' anything as the presenters may not actually be done speaking when we thought they were.
Some of my favorite value presentations were Good Works, Integrity and Virtue. At Good Works President Bailey of the Stake Presidency had memorized and recited to us Pres. Uchtdorf's talk "You are His Hands" about a statue of Christ in Germany that had been destroyed and all but the hands could be restored. He reminded us not to 'miss' our chance to do good works.
Integrity talked about having integrity in the media. Texting, facebook and online identities that are true to who we really are and not saying things because we can be anonymous.
Virtue had a sister in her Temple dress along with a drawing of the Manti Temple where I assume she was married. She talked about wanting to be virtuous and finding a kind and virtuous man to marry. I was surprised when her husband came walking down the path, he had a chair behind a tree so we didn't see him beforehand. He spoke about his great love for his wife. I didn't listen the best to what he was saying, because all I could do what see the great love and adoration that was in his wife's eyes as she looked at him. I missed Morgan so much in that instant.
Knowing that we were done and had stopped at the eight stations we made our way out of the woods back to where our seats would be. I was surprised to see that we were not done. At the top of the hill, just outside the 'dark' forest were people waiting for us. There were two brethren and a sister, plus three children. All were in Temple White and the sun was shining so brightly on them. The children had been sitting on a blanket and when they saw us coming the stood up and waited for us.
I could not stop the tears from coming into my eyes. I remember thinking how I felt bad for everyone behind me (I was leading the group) because I was certain they could not see this the way I could. But I just thought of how it would be to enter the celestial kingdom. I am going through my path on this earth and when the time comes I will be able to see people waiting for me, dressed in white, shining, and Waiting for me. That was the most incredible part for me. Is that I knew in my heart they were waiting for me. I didn't know any of them, but they were there. I realized that when I get to the next life I will know people there, but many others I won't know, but they will still be waiting... for me. The love I felt was indescribable.
Later that night at the testimony meeting one of the girls from our campsite told how when she was coming up out of the trees and saw the people she had to ask the girl next to her if she saw the people too, so certain she was that they must be angels. I would not have been too surprised if there had been angels there.

1 comment:

Melinda said...

Wow, sounds like a great experience! I had similar experiences when I went to camp and the memories of those have stuck with me all these years. I'm glad camp went well for you, that's a big responsibility.