The mountains around Kolob were filled with laughter the week of July 7th – 11th as approximately 300 girls and leaders attended the Mesquite Nevada Stake Girls Camp. The theme this year was “Decisions Determine Destiny” and there were many great guest speakers who helped the girls think about the decisions they are making now, how they can affect the rest of their lives and how to make wise decisions. The camp also focused on the Olympics and especially some of the decisions made by LDS Olympian athletes that helped them get to the level of accomplishment that they did. Each ward focused on a different Olympic event and used it to teach something about decisions. Guest speakers included Yori Ludvigson, Stake president, David Anderson, Kyna Toone and Nikki Owsley who competed in the Olympic trials in 2004 after a stellar career at Virgin Valley and BYU. Also speaking were several girls who had just graduated from Virgin Valley who focused on some of the decisions they were making as they prepared to leave to college or missions. It was a week of friendship and fun as the girls participated in learning and certifying in many different camping skills, including (but not limited to) being able to navigate with the sun and stars, building a fire without matches, building emergency shelters and reviewing first aid skills learned earlier in the spring. A challenge was held after these skills were taught to see which ward was the fastest at some of these camping skills with bronze, silver and gold medals handed out. Some of these skills would come in handy as the group had to deal with rain showers several times during the week. Unfortunately this meant the annual snipe hunt was rained out! Also included in the weeks activities were 3 and 5 mile hikes, an overnight hike for the 15 yr. old, stargazing, a water slide,a shooting range with .22 rifles, an archery range and a cope course with a trust fall. These activities were all led by well qualified instructors and the girls learned many new skills as well as uncovered some new talents they may not have known about. Each girl that certified in the camping skills received a certificate and the girls that had certified for at least 4 years also received a small engraved wooden jewelry box for their hard work. The YW stake presidency and the stake camp directors would like to send out a big thank you to all the leaders and instructors who helped to make this camp such a huge success.
