Girl's camp 2016

When I was asked to speak on girl's camp next Sunday, I realized I hadn't done a blog post on it. So here we go. Our camp theme was from the Wizard of Oz specifically something Glinda said. " You had the power all along my dear, you just had to find it yourself." In many ways I think this applies to the gospel. Here we are on Earth, sons and daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves us and is just a prayer away. Yet sometimes He is quiet, there, but quiet, as we have to figure out things on our own. But truthfully we aren't ever alone. Just like Dorothy had toto, the scarecrow, the tinman, and the lion. We also have friends who stick with us through thick and thin. Dorothy also had the knowledge that her aunt and uncle back in Kansas were looking everywhere for her and loved her dearly. We have a Heavenly Father who is desperate for us to make it back to Him who's love knows no boundaries. And even when we feel alone, we simply have to pray, and the Holy Ghost will be with us, Christ will give us a hug, and God will bless us with His kindness and love, and we will know that we are never truly alone.

In order to find it for ourselves we need a few things, we must have knowledge of our Heavenly Father's plan for us and of the Savior's gospel, we must have love for God and our fellow man and also trust in God's love for us, we need courage; we are going to face some lions, tigers, and bears out there and need strength from God to face those trials, we also need hope; which is given to us by our Savior through His Atonement, we need faith that God knows what He is doing, and last of all we need to endure to the end. Throughout camp each of these points was talked about and related to our day. At the end of one girl's devotional on love my young women's president turned to me and looked at me expectantly, I immediately knew I needed to share my testimony, I opened my mouth and words just flowed out. I bore my testimony on my Heavenly Father's and Jesus Christ's love for me and how this knowledge is the greatest knowledge we can have. I can truly testify that Heavenly Father loves me and you so much, no words can describe how much He cares for us, I mean He sent His Son to die for us, if that isn't proof enough of how much He loves us, seriously it doesn't get any better than that. I also know that my Savior loves me with a love as deep as God's. I am so thankful that I have found this out for myself and have this knowledge with me forever. This moment at girl's camp is probably what stood out the most to me, that and hugging and crying with my sweet Julia.

Now we of course had lots of fun at girl's camp too, between the crazy water fight, the beautiful hike, the skits. The Spirit was felt throughout the whole week, it was a very welcome peace that was definitely needed to make camp great! This year was amazing and it's sad to think that might be my last girl's camp as a young woman. It was really weird being the oldest there and being in charge. It was of course great being a tent mom! I had the greatest little monsters out there! I love you girls so much. I have the most amazing ward and young women out there. I want to say thank you to them for loving me, I love you all so much, thanks for making girl's camp the best! I love this gospel, my family, my friends, and I love my Heavenly Father and Savior so much!

 Here's a few pics from camp...

Love,

Kenzie