The Adventures of Cat & Jack: Cat Talks About Girls' Camp

To start off, my name is Cat. When Brother C. asked me to give a talk I was very enthusiastic about it. When he then added that I would only get 3-5 minutes my dreams were crushed. Camp was very special for me. One of the main reasons was that I went to camp when I was 11 years old. As I look back at my experiences and realize that I had a girls camp that not everyone has. At camp we had 45 minutes of personal study every day. Tuesday we studied Joseph Smith and memorized the first vision. Every day there was supposed to be something meaningful in our study, but I think that the First Vision was a great one to start on. It definitely helped me to have a better experience with the personal study. The words that really stand out to me in this recording of the first vision are “This is my beloved son, hear him.” The effect and memory of these words really helped me throughout the week to Hear Him in my scripture reading and study. On Tuesday I read in Moses 2. I had prayed before I started reading that I would get a personal revelation to see if the First Vision was true or not. To really know for myself that Joseph Smith did see Jesus and God. I found the answer to my prayer in my reading. In Moses 2:3-4 it says, “and I, God, saw the light; and it was good.” That quote just took me back to the light that Joseph Smith saw, to be precise, “above the brightness of the sun… I saw to personages whose brightness and glory defy all description…” That just told me that the light from God the Father and Jesus Christ is good. That gave me the truth, that they live and it gave me a testimony of the First Vision.

When we studied prophets on Thursday I was looking forward to personal study more than anything at camp. Sure the food was great, and soaking Pres. W. (during waterfront) was awesome, but personal study was definitely my favorite thing at camp. Thursday held a lot of food for thought, because the day before we had our Spirit Walk, more on that later, and we had a ton of scriptures for Thursday’s topic, Living Prophets and Divine Priesthood. It was very fun to study. I would like to share one of the scriptures that we studied with you. D&C 112:20 “Whosoever receiveth my word receiveth me, and whosoever receiveth me, receiveth those, the First Presidency, whom I have sent, whom I have made counselors for my name’s sake unto you.” This quote is my favorite one out of all of the ones that were given to us on Thursday. This is because it reminds us very simply that if you receive and trust his word, you receive and trust him. I had an awesome scripture experience on Thursday. I will quote from my journal,”As I was reading in Moses I came across the creation of the Sun and the Moon. I thought of a previous Sunday School lesson - where we compared the light of the sun and moon to the celestial and the terrestrial kingdoms.” End of quote. We read somewhere in D&C about this, but I couldn't remember where. Somehow I knew that the wind that was blowing would bring the correct scripture to me. So I, with my faith, let the wind move the pages to the scripture. When the wind died down, I looked at my scriptures and read in D&C 76. It was the scripture that we had read in Sunday School and it was a miracle. This was just a great addition to my experience at the spirit walk.

Now I would like to talk about the Spirit Walk that our leaders put together. We started off by getting into groups and receiving bags. One group would go then the others would go. Sister C. was first and dressed up all funny, but then she started talking and I understood what this was all about, well, really it all came to me when Sister S. was giving the opening prayer for our walk and she started choking up… That was what started bringing the Spirit into my heart that night. “...When girls stay home from camp they really miss a lot…” - New Era 1972. This is totally true. On the Spirit Walk, the Spirit was so strong. Near the end they blindfolded us and guided us through the woods. To be honest, I was very scared. If you ask any of my friends at school, they’ll tell you that I have a very big fear of moving in the dark. Like moving at ALL! It freaks me out. I’m so scared that I’ll hit something and die or kill someone else or get seriously injured. At camp, my fear came true, we were delivering our SWAT gifts and we were running back to the cabin and I tripped, fell, cut my finger, and tore a hole in my PJ pants. So, the whole time I was walking with the blindfold on, I was pleading in my head like Peter, “Lord, save me.” And I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace. As I was sat down on the bench, I just started crying. That was when I felt the Spirit more strongly than ever. You know how the leaders were telling stories, well, they were stories of Christ’s life. As we were all sitting there, the leaders started reciting about his crucifixion. :( They started with the words, Christ suffered for us in Gethsemane. And I started hurting. I was there with him. Quite literally.

I saw him in the garden. I was hugging him. I was feeling his pain. It was greater than anything. I kept telling myself, “He’s innocent. He’s innocent.” I was there hugging him all the way. There while he suffered for me. As I was with him, one of the leaders in the background of my memory said that everything that we do wrong hurt him. Hurts him. I started crying harder. Then, again in the background, they said that everything good that we do builds him up. I just felt the spirit so strongly. After everyone was done talking they took off our blindfolds and there was a picture of Jesus. They started playing a song that just touched me so powerfully, as I looked around at everyone else, I saw that they all either had tear stained faces, or were so solemn. Either way, I could tell that they were really feeling it. I could feel the angels of my past ancestors and future relatives hugging me and telling me that it was ok. That Jesus knew what he was doing and that he was ok with it. That just made me cry harder, because somehow I knew who they were, and I knew that it was true. At the end, everyone else left and there was just a little group of us left… I had a little talk with Sister P. and it was about repentance. She told me that because I had repented of all my sins, all that I needed to do was to let go of the guilt of my sins, which I had not done. So I sat down by myself and had a little chat with my Father in Heaven. After that was done, I was clean like I had been baptized again, with no sins. I testify that we can have experiences like this. We can get very close to him and be truly clean of our sins. All we need to do is try, pray earnestly, and let go of the guilt. I testify of these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

This was my talk on girls camp. I had a wonderful time there, as I hope that you can tell... All of my good friends were there and it was an amazing chance to meet other friends of mine. I got to meet new members of my stake and was the 'baby beehive.' This was because I am the youngest beehive as of right now. But at the time, I wasn't even 12! I enjoyed my time there so much and am already looking forward to my next year at girls camp where I will be doing flag and other 'big girl' stuff. I will also be there to help the new first years get comfortable and have a good time. I really hope that next year I will be able to have another enjoyable time and be able to create many fond memories with my old and new friends!

I happened to get this picture as Cat and I were walking to the church for her to leave for Girls' Camp.
I particularly liked it knowing that the theme for Camp was "Turn on the Light."