Girls' Camp in Korea

Girl's camp for our LDS district here in South Korea started this past Tuesday. I was called to be 1st Counselor in the district YW's presidency--which basically meant I helped plan and run the entire camp. Chloe, Gwynyth and the other girls all went up early Tuesday morning. I had to see 7 hours of clients Tuesday and so I didn't get to go up until 5 am Wednesday morning. I got up in time for the hike--which has always been my favorite part of girls' camp.

The day started off perfectly. The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too muggy, not wet. It was incredibly beautiful. We hiked in Songisan National Park which is home to the largest Buddhist temple on the pennisula.

I hiked with the front group--the girls that would wait for no one. I liked that because, one, I'm athletic and move quickly myself, and, two, because then I didn't have to stay with the whiners.

Right as we reached the first ridge, the rain started. . . and here we are four days later and it still hasn't stopped. . . but don't let me get ahead of the story yet!

When we reached the second ridge, the rain was coming down and the girls had run out of water. We decided to call it a day and head back before reaching the summit--but the girls completed a 8 km hike, which wasn't too bad.
When we got to the bottom of the hike, one of the other leaders met us at the bottom of the trail and told us we need to run back to camp because one of the tents had flooded. We ran back to camp and salvaged what we could--but all of the 2nd year girls (Chloe being one of those) had wet bedding and a lot of wet clothing. We moved the girls around to different tents and tried to hang bedding to dry in the cars and toilet facilities. However, the rain just kept coming and coming and it didn't take long for everything and everyone to be soaking wet.

I was in charge of all of the games for camp. After the hike and after lunch, I took the girls under a sadly constructed shelter made of a couple of tarps tied to trees and paper clipped (the big black tension paper clips) together. I taught them how to play the game Mafia and they loved that. We played for about an hour and a half. At that point the rain was dumping buckets, everything was flooding and we had nothing to do. I stood up and gave the girls a little speech that we needed to stay positive and make the best of the situation. I handed out squirt guns and rain ponchos and we proceeded to play capture the flag with water guns I had purchased thinking it was going to be hot and sunny. We ran and slid and fell in the mud as we chased each other with squirt guns. The rain drenched our ball caps and we all had streams of water running out of our plastered hair down our faces--but, it was one of the best YW's Camp moments I've ever experienced.

We ate dinner in the rain. We talked in the rain. We worked in the rain. We just kept going trying to keep our spirits up, but it was becoming very concerning when all of the tents started leaking and all of the bedding began to get wet. As a district presidency, we sat in a tent and discussed whether or not it was time to pack it up and go home, or if we kept going, praying for sunshine. I felt that we needed to stay for at least one more night. I found it sort of ironic that I didn't want to go home because I had been dreading going from the getgo. However, I felt that we needed to give it our best effort and give the girls a chance to get as much of a spiritual/fun/bonding experience as we could.

That night after evening devotional, Chloe and I went to bed in our little Hyundai mini-van. I knew it was going to be a rough night, but I wasn't prepared for just how rough. The girls were up late yelling and laughing, which didn't help me sleep. Then I woke up sick and nauseated and had to trek out in the rain to get a glass milk. Then in the middle of the night, I woke up with my left leg completely dead. I couldn't move it, I couldn't feel it and it was a strange pasty white color. I felt panicked and I knew that I needed to stand up and get my circulation going right away. I popped the door handle and went to step out of the van, only I forgot that my leg was completely dead so when I went to stand on it, I fell flat into the mud with all of my bedding. Once I was down, I couldn't get up because my leg was paralyzed from the hip down. I sat there in the middle of the night in the pouring rain with all of my blankets in the mud, wondering how I was going to get up again. I said a little prayer that it wouldn't take long to get my circulation going and regain feeling--because I really didn't want to have to yell and wake people up to put me back in the car! It took about ten minutes to be able to stand again and finally I got myself back into the van. After doing so, the thought came to me that I needed to tell the girls in the morning about my experience when I gave my devotional.

The rain poured on us throughout the night and at 6 in the morning, we all knew we needed to go home. We got the girls up and moving to strike camp. We were blessed that there was reprieve in the rain as we worked to load all of our gear again. Finally, just when we had loaded the last couple of things into the vehicles, the rain returned with a vengeance. We ate breakfast, once again soaked through. We decided that we would close camp by giving the last two nights' devotionals and the gifts that symbolized what we were teaching. One of the other leaders spoke about strength and then it was my turn to talk to the girls about worthiness, purity and virtue.

Before I started my planned talk, as I mentioned earlier, I felt impressed to tell the girls about my experience of falling into the mud and turning to the Lord for help. I used it to talk about their disappointment at camp ending three days early. I talked about how challenges and disappointment are the way life works and that the Lord wants us to learn to make the best of life and be willing to move forward when things are not ideal. I reminded them of how we had a water gun fight in pouring rain instead of sitting there wishing things would be better. I reminded them that Heavenly Father will hear our prayers and answer them in the moments that we feel like we just can't take the rain anymore. He won't necessarily make it stop raining, but he will give us the courage to keep going.

Finally, I finished Girls' Camp with a talk about worthiness. I likened worthiness to staying on the path and returning to the path when we make the mistake of leaving. I told the girls that worthiness means purity and purity means virtue. I had two quotes that I used to teach them this valuable lesson:
As you are growing older, young women, the path is becoming steeper, and you may want to give up. Life is more challenging, filled with decisions and temptations at every turn. Satan will blow winds of confusion that may cause you to question if this is the path you want to take. You may be tempted to try another route, even when signs of danger are posted. You may doubt your abilities, and you may wonder as one young woman did, “Is it really possible to remain virtuous in today’s world?” The answer, my young friends, is “Yes!” And my counsel to you is similar to that given by Winston Churchill during World War II: never, never, never give up! --Mary N. Cook LDS General YW's Presidency

The value of virtue has been given a symbolic color, like the other values. The color of virtue is gold because gold is pure. It shines. It is soft, not harsh or brash. It is precious. Gold must be refined. As you live a pure and virtuous life, you will be refined by your life’s experiences, and as you “trust in the Lord” (Proverbs 3:5) and draw closer to Him, He will “make [your] hearts as gold” (Roger Hoffman, “Consider the Lilies”).--Elaine S. Dalton LDS General YW's President.

I finished off by teaching the girls: Our choices determine where we go, our thoughts determine who we are, and our testimony of Christ determines what we will become.

I gave all of the girls necklaces I had made that had white beads and a gold heart in the middle. And all of this was done as we stood in a circle under the tall pine trees in the drenching rain. The spirit was especially strong and the girls were so patient and receptive to the spirit. I feel like it was an important experience for all of us, even though it was disappointing that things did not turn out the way we had hoped. We all learned a valuable lesson and felt the need to change and be better--which is the very point of girls' camp.