Eighteen years ago today, Geoff and
I got married and Sealed in the Bountiful Temple. It’s been a crazy awesome
adventure since then. Some of you were like 18?! Whoa! And others were like,
Ah, I remember 18, 18 was nice. It feels just right to me and I try to enjoy
every day as it passes so quickly. I love you, Geoff.
Our oldest daughter Becca was born 16 years
ago in Logan while we were still studying at Utah State. Her brain was damaged
by a virus I contracted while pregnant which left her with Cerebral Palsy,
Vision and Hearing loss, Developmental Delay and a sensitivity to the Spirit
with a smile and a giggle to match. She was followed by two sisters, Emily and
Grace who were definitely meant to be with her in our family. They are
incredible young ladies. Our family is rounded out by two younger brothers,
Landon and Ethan who bring noise and joy and dirt and happiness into our
family, just as boys should.
If you’ve talked to me at all,
ever, you probably know how much I love Girls Camp. I have
always loved Girls Camp… ever since I was a string bean of a Beehive. I mean, I
enjoy camping in general, but Girls Camp is so much more than roughing it,
getting sunburned, bitten by bugs and trying to stay warm enough to sleep.
Did you know that the first
official Girls Camp in the Church was held in 1912? That’s 65 years after the
Pioneers first entered the Valley. Now, I tend to think that crossing the
plains was like the biggest camping trip of all camping trips and I forget that
what they were leaving behind was actually quite civilized. They didn’t live
like that all the time. They were definitely roughing it. And that, combined
with sheer distance, sickness and all other manner of trials brought them
closer to Heavenly Father and cemented fiery testimonies that still reverberate
today. So, in 1912, the Liberty Stake in Salt Lake picked a spot way out in the
boonies of Murray to build a Girls Camp. I love imagining that Murray was
“getting away from it all.” They raised money, $365.27 to be exact, and built a
screened structure on a pretty little spot on the Big Cottonwood Creek. They
rode a streetcar out to Murray and then hiked for a mile to get there. They had
12 cots with straw mattresses, a coal stove and even a piano out there. One of
the girls, Clarissa Johnson, wrote in her journal, “Around the fires in the
evenings, sat the camp girls… while they danced and sang and shouted, to music
from the cabin… and they whispered and they giggled until sleep had grasped the
last one.”
Nothing beats sharing testimonies
around a campfire. I imagine the Pioneers did this often. It’s amazing how
going out of your comfort zone flips the lens on gospel principles you’ve
learned every week in Church and helps you to see them in a new way. Campfire
testimonies are the glue that sticks the whole experience together and imprints
it on our memories. Jesus told us in D&C
88:63 Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto
you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall
receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
I’d like to quote from an article celebrating
the first Girls Camp, A camp with the most basic and simple accommodations can
become a sacred space where the Spirit of the Lord is present, where daughters
of God put the principles of the gospel into practice, and the glorious
blessings of nature are appreciated in happy ways.
Another favorite illustration of
this was our Sunrise Hike. As with so many things in life, it began easily
enough, gradually got harder and the most difficult part, with the most rocks
and the steepest uphill angle came right before the greatest reward. We sat on
large, flat rocks overlooking an area they call the Church Without a Roof.
There’s a valley that comes in this way and another valley that way and one
coming up from behind you. You can see for miles in every direction. And as the
earth slowly turned, the light from the sun very slowly overcame the darkness.
Everything around us slowly gained back its color and its detail. I couldn’t
help but think of my Savior and how He brings light to my life… how He is the
light of the world… how everything makes more sense and has more detail when He
shows me His way and shines His light on it. And here’s the thing, the Sun
always comes back up. No matter how dark the night, how hard the trail we’re
walking becomes, Christ always comes when we call, always walks beside us when
we ask. It’s amazing what you can hear in the stillness. Later on in Doctrine and
Covenants, section 88, in verse 77, we read, Which truth shineth. This is the
light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light
of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made.
Sister Elaine S. Dalton said this
about Girls Camp, “You learn you really don’t need much to be happy. You leave
your makeup and music behind and learn to become self-sufficient. You learn the
importance of a strong, healthy body so you can climb mountains… You learn that
the scriptures can speak to you personally and you also experience what it
feels like to be still and to listen to the song of a bird or to the voice of
the Sprit, sometimes for the first time.”
In Becca’s Patriarchal Blessing, we
are promised that those that serve her in this life will be blessed, not only
in this life, but the one to come. We are promised that we will develop more Christ-like
virtues as we reach out to her in love and tenderness, in patience and
kindness. If you have ever wondered why I take Becca to camp- this is why. Not
only because I benefit from serving her, I get to do that plenty at home and
still sleep in my own bed. J
But I always stand back in amazement when I watch your girls serve my precious
daughter. When they use their strong and healthy bodies to pull her backwards
in her wheelchair everywhere they go. Often Bishop Mott is yoked right beside
them. We were walking up to dinner one night and Bishop turned to me and said,
“Now wait a minute, where’s our girl?” The girls had taken her on their own
ahead up to dinner with them. They even helped pull her up a mountain to watch
them ride the horses. No easy feat! But she loved every minute… even being
co-photographer as Sister Gurney captured so many smiling faces beaming down
from saddles. I was on a field trip with one of my boys once and one of the
girls in his class said to me, “I just feel so sorry for her. It makes me sad
that she can’t do things.” First, I validated her feelings, those are real
feelings. And then I encouraged her instead to be grateful for her legs that
could walk, her eyes that could see, her voice that could talk. I hope that
when I work so hard to get Becca there and they take the opportunity to reach
out to her, that that is part of what they learn from her. If she was on this
earth only for herself, she wouldn’t still be here. She got to stay to give us
the opportunity to elevate our empathy and to celebrate our differences and to
bring God’s plan into sharp focus.
Leaving the noise of the world
behind and listening to what the Lord has to say to You and being able to share
that experience with other Women of Faith and Virtue and getting to know
yourself in a new light are all things I love about Girls Camp. Being out in
God’s creations with no roof between we and He and knowing that we are one of
His most precious creations gets me through the tough days.
I can see why, over 100 years ago and
every year since then, we send our daughters (or in my case, take all of them
with me) out into the wilderness and welcome them back again being sunburned
and tired, but being changed and better and stronger and more able to withstand
what the world throws at them. I know that Heavenly Father must cherish this
time with His daughters. I know we do as their leaders. Thank you for sharing
them with us. I say these things…
