ASL Camp

I have a busy week this week, so I asked Ellis to guest post for me, and report on Young Men's and Young Women's camp! Since our branch has 9 teenagers (6 girls, 3 boys) they co-located the YM and YW camp, and did many of their activities together. The coolest part of the camp to me was that it was done 100% in ASL. Talking was not allowed. Everyone had several clothespins on their shirt, and if anyone heard you say anything, they got to take your clothespin. Of course, the people with the fewest clothespins at the end of the day had to do something humiliating (namely, do the "I'm a star!" move 5 times in front of everyone. I'd never heard of it before, but it was pretty fabulous.) So everyone was voices-off. They had some foam dice around camp that you could throw at people to get their attention. Sam and Martha are enjoying having those around the house now!

So, without further ado, here is Ellis's fabulous report on Girls Camp!


MONDAY:
So, we got to camp, and the first thing we dd was set up. Boring. Then, we painted a tarp with our theme STOP and Serve. STOP stands for service, testimony, obedience, and preparation. We got out paints and the tarp. To make the letters, we put something down and painted around it.For example, we made the S with leaves and spray paint. Then we decorated.

We had a snack break (GobSTOPpers), and played church history monopoly.Then, we ate dinner. We did a STOP activity on preparation, which brother VDG taught. We all made bridges. The three oldest could use any 2 materials. The middle 3 could use anything. The youngest 3 could use marshmallows and toothpicks. (That one was the best.)
We talked about how you can prepare for life. Then, we went to have a devotional. And that ended the day.

Tuesday:
On Tuesday we woke up and were supposed to play kickball, but didn’t. Instead, we ran. BORING. Then, we ate breakfast, read scriptures, and hopped into the cars heading to the airport. England, here we come! Not really. But we did see Pennsylvania! Brother Smith, (Julia’s dad), was a fighter pilot. And, he’s pretty cool. We did some 0 G stuff. Yeah. We even saw our campsite! When we got back, the Young Women did crafts. We made picture frames. Then, we all went swimming/boating. When we got back, we ate dinner, then did the STOP obedience activity by Brother Wardle. We had to follow the exact instructions of leaders to find the next one, until we ended up back at camp. We had another devotional, then went to bed.

Wednesday:
We woke up, and we ran again. BORING. Then, we ate breakfast, read scriptures, and did an obstacle course. We had a stop activity, for Service, which was a discussion. We ate lunch. When we finished, we went into the park and did a service project! We helped make a trail. We did about 3 weeks of work. It was fun. When we got back, we had dinner, then a STOP activity by Sister Kendrick on Testimony. We played battleship. Then, we reflected and had a testimony meeting. Then we went to bed.

Thursday (Final Day):
4:30-Everyone is called for. Blurry-eyed, they slowly get dressed and wake up.
5:00-Everyone drives to a distant parking lot.
5:15-We arrive, see the trail’s start. In 5 minutes, we reach our destination.
The fog is thick. We can barely see 5 feet in front of us. We finally are ready to see the sunrise… and it’s way too foggy to see it. Oh well.
After the hike, we eat, read scriptures, and pack up. 1 last activity…
The ropes course! We arrived there at approximately 1:00, and are greeted. We do team-building activities, swing on a huge swing, and went on THE CLIMBING TOWER!!!!!!!!!
It was a 2-story tower. The first level was just cargo nets. The second level had 3 ways to get up on each side. A cargo net, a rope ladder, a rope with sticks tied on, tires… All kinds of difficulties. If you got to the top, there were 2 ways to get down. A tubular cargo net, (Me and Lizzie’s choice), or the Caterpillar, (Everyone else’s choice). The caterpillar was a Chinese finger trap. You went down head first and just wriggled through it. Then we went home.