Nearly 300 local girls aged 12-18 years old attended the Mesquite Nevada Stake Girls Camp of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They spent the week of July 7th on Kolob Mountain in Utah where they participated in activities represented by the theme “Decisions Determine Destiny”. Guest speakers like Yori Ludvigson, Stake President David Anderson, Kena Toone, and Nikki Owsley helped the girls understand how decisions they are making now will affect the rest of their lives. They also showed the girls how to carefully make wise decisions and set worthy goals.
The camp also emphasized Latter Day Saint Olympic athletes and the hard work and preparation they had to do to compete and excel. Each ward focused on a different Olympic event and used it to teach something about decisions. Presenter Owsley shared her experiences at the Olympic trials in 2004 after she had been a highly successful athlete at Virgin Valley High School and Brigham Young University.
It was a week of friendship and fun as the campers learned and certified in skills such as navigating by stars, starting fires without matches, building emergency shelters, and utilizing first aid skills. The girls competed in some of these areas winning bronze, silver or gold medals.
Although it rained several times on the mountain the girls still participated in 3 and 5 mile hikes, an overnight hike for the 15 year old, stargazing, a water-slide, archery, and a .22 rifle shooting range. Girls that had certified for at least 4 years of camping were recognized with a small, engraved wooden jewelry box.
The Stake Young Women's presidency led by President Amy Marshall expressed their gratitude, “We would like to send a big thank you to all the leaders and instructors who helped to make this year’s camp such a huge success”.
