SHINE in the World Girls Camp Theme {LDS Girls Camp}

Every two years I get to help with our LDS Stake Girls Camp in our area. Ally McQuivey is the Stake Camp Director, and I’m her assistant. We had roughly 250 girls and in 2016, and our theme was “Have Hope, Be Bold, and Shine.”

When the LDS church came out with their “Light the World” campaign in December, I was stoked because it was spot on to what our girls camp theme was about. It was a perfect reminder to what our camp was all about in July. 

Thomas S. Monson said, “Opportunities to shine surround us each day, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. As we follow the example of the Savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light in the lives of others.” 

We wanted the girls to know that what they do, how they treat others and how they treat themselves is an important part of life. It impacts the world! We wanted them to know that they help LIGHT the world and make it shine. Our Heavenly Father sent each of us to this world with our own divine talents and attributes for a reason. We came to Earth in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and types. And sometimes it’s easy to wish that we were given a different body, given a different talent, or given a different life than we have. But our Heavenly Father needs us just the way we are. He needs us to be extroverted, or introverted. He needs us to be musical or intellectual, or neither. He will use us for good in whatever magnitude we excel at if we allow Him to guide us in our lives. We just need to remember to Have Hope, Be Bold when He needs us to, and SHINE with the Savior’s Love. 

Each ward chose three things during the weeks and months leading up to camp.

1. They chose  a country to represent while they were at camp.

2. They chose a “HOPE” related word that they decided was something that needed to be a “focus” at camp. 

3. A YW Value to focus on. 

To choose the word, we had a workshop about Hope, and we talked about the needs of our Stake and wrote words on the chalkboard. It was very spiritual, and from that workshop, every ward chose a word that they would use to teach a workshop at camp on. 

These eight “HOPE” words were: Persevere, Action, Unique, Believe, Steadfast, Love, Trust, and Faith. 

Ally found an amazing quote to go along with each word. 

Persevere – “Stay the course and persevere, no matter the odds. Choose to have hope.” Kerry Griffin Smith

Action –  “Our hopes can lead to dreams which can inspire us and lead us to action.” Steven E Snow

Unique –  “Develop our unique personalities and talents so that we can share hope to everyone we touch.” Elder Richard G. Scott. 

Believe –  “Choose to believe. There will always be spiritual light that beckons to us, giving us hope.” Elder L. Whitney Clayton 

Steadfast – “Remain firm and resolute in following the savior and developing a steadfast faith in Him, leading to a perfect brightness of hope for what lies ahead, including the eternities.” -David L. Kooyman

Love – “Love is the power that initiates friendship and is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope.” Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Trust- “Hope is trust in God’s promises, the desired blessings will be fulfilled in the future.” -James E Faust. 

Faith- “Faith and hope will open your eyes to the happiness that is placed before you.” Dieter F. Uchtdorf. 

The wards each put together a short workshop {about 15 minutes} about their word, and the girls travelled to each country to learn about it. When I say “travelled to” that means they visited each camp. 🙂 

These were the countries that our wards chose: {And before you ask, yes, one ward chose the Vatican}.

The miles on the arrows were how many miles it was from our city to that country. 🙂 Our YCLs {Youth Camp Leaders} helped us make most of the decorations. 

Thank you to Becky and Scott Roper for letting us borrow their huge wedding tent as a stake. We used it a TON. It was so convenient to have everything we needed in one place.  

We checked the wards in at the tent, and when the girls checked in, we gave them each a passport, we even had each girls’ pictures printed and ready to put in them just like a regular passport. It was fun to decorate with different languages and flags, worlds and maps! 

 

The passports were designed by Ally McQuivey our Stake Camp Director. They were DARLING! I’ll show you the inside in just a minute. 

Each ward was given a check-in welcome packet that head several things that we thought they might need at camp like:

Scissors

A camp schedule

Some pens and stationary for pen pals with pen pal instructions and examples {I’ll explain pen pals in a minute}

A small flag to their country

Tape

Some gum

A few Snacks

Hand Sanitizing Wipes

Each ward had a stamp and a stamp pad that coordinated with their value color also. The stamps were used to stamp the passports in the workshops.  

Ally also designed our stake logo, and we had the YCL’s help us make signs to welcome the wards to camp. We had these printed on a blue print machine and the girls  painted them for us!

We felt strongly that each girl should make a “new” friend while at stake girls’ camp this year. So we did something that we have never done before, and that was pen pals! We tried assigning pen pals before we left, but it didn’t work out. Since girls were adding and dropping until the day we left, we found that assigning the pen pals up at camp was a better plan. 

It didn’t run completely perfectly, but it was worth the effort. Each girl was assigned another girl in the stake, and another girl was assigned them. So, they were actually writing to two girls up at camp {Their pen pal, and the girl who had them as a pen pal too}.  

They wrote letters, and put them in the mailbox. They had to write the girls’ name and ward on the outside of the envelope, and our YCLs took turns delivering mail. It was so much fun to see the letters coming and going. In fact, people used the pen pal mail box to send other people notes of encouragement. I even got a letter from one of our first year campers, and it made my entire day. It made me cry! 

 

The craft was a simple watercolor art project that was very inexpensive. The girls traced the world onto the card stock paper and then used watercolor coloring pencils to make their designs. Then we bought IKEA watercolor brushes and they dipped them in water and watercolored their art! It was so much fun. 

We wanted each of the girls and leaders to have the same t-shirt because we wanted to be unified as a stake. So we didn’t order any differing colors for the wards or YCLs this year. We chose black and the design was a lightbulb with the world inside that I made myself. It says “Shine with Hope” underneath. We hope the girls will wear the shirt after camp and think of the way they felt while they were at camp. 

We asked the girls to save their shirts for the last day to wear during the program, and it was so cool to see everyone wearing them! 

Even the girls in the program wore the shirts. 

The backdrop to the program came from workshop that Ally and I gave earlier at camp. We had three different vinyl posters made that looked like the world, and we had three different groups. So each group worked on one section of the poster.

We discussed how each of us are blessed with different attributes, personality traits, and abilities. We asked a few probing questions. 

How have people made an impact on the WORLD?

Who has made an impact on you specifically?

What did they do to impact you? 

Ideas: 

Getting a letter from a friend.

Watching a friend who is a good example.

Finding out someone fasted for you and your family

Being friendly to someone who needs a friend

Feeling the spirit during a lesson a church.

Being a good friend, and listening when someone needs it. 

Ally and I discussed how we are different. Ally is organized and extra detailed, and I’m not like that at all. I sometimes wish that I could have a little bit of that naturally, but Heavenly Father didn’t bless us with every single talent on purpose!

The world would be so boring if we were all the same, right!?! By developing talents, and staying close to the spirit, we will be led down the paths that our Heavenly Father meant for us. By following His path for us, the world is colorful, bright, and SHINES! We had the girls help us color the world with markers, and then we put the world together and hung it behind the stage for the ending program. 

We have been given a few “maps” to help us on our journey. 

1.The Holy Ghost will help guide us to make sure we are on the correct path. {we can talk about what it feels like when He whispers and prompts} 
2.The scriptures
3.Our patriarchal blessings {I have a story about mine that changed the course of my life after I got mine}.

“Everyday we can pray in our morning prayers: Heavenly Father help others to see the light of the gospel in my countenance, in my eyes, in my face, in the way I treat other people, in my smile.”  You can shine the light of the gospel through your face. -Sister Bednar

It was really neat, because we actually lit it up! We loved it.

The passports that Ally designed were so amazing, I wanted to show you a closer look. 

When the girls traveled to the workshops in each ward, they would stamp each passport. The stamps had the ward name and the word that the workshop was about. 

Aren’t they so stinking’ cute!?!

We loved planning stake girls camp again, and I truly have a testimony that it’s a very important part of the gospel. 

I know that Heavenly Father wanted this message for the girls in our Stake.

I love working with the girls camp program, and if you aren’t LDS, and want to know more information about it. Go to Mormon.org to find out more about our beliefs.