BASEcamp Week 2: St. George

I have not served a mission, but I imagine that this feeling of longing and hard adjustment back into normal life is similar to what a return missionary feels when they come home. BASEcamp has been an incredible experience that has changed me and has motivated me to become better.

Week 2 was held at Dixie State, in St. George, Utah. This session was interesting for many reasons:

We as the staff now knew each other, so there wasn't an awkward feeling between us.
It is a billion degrees in St. George. Okay not really, but it is DANG hot outside there!
We had 20 youth participants TOTAL sign up. How many were boys? 3. How many girls? 17. (Good ratio for the boys I guess?)
More leaders than actual boys meant that two of our guides (counselors) were part of our company. Our girls were their youth for the week.
Using the term guide instead of counselor. That has been an interesting change, but it was really cool to think about. A counselor is often known as someone who is there to tell people what to do and to fix them. Guides are there to help people along their journey and show them the way. They also will help find a way if they don't know the way. That was our job at BASEcamp as a guide was to help the youth discover the Gospel and if we didn't know the answer to a question they had to explore the scriptures and find the answer together.

The week started out with these things but ended up an incredible experience I won't soon forgot.

Some of the most important things that I learned were (Illustrated with accompanying pictures):

*Be grateful. Look for tender mercies in your life, and the attitude of gratitude will bless your life.*

I told Nate about pennies are my tender mercies. We saw one in the waterfall, and well, as you can tell, I asked him to get it for me. I let him keep it for the memories :).

*Service in fact does make a difference. It makes you feel better about yourself, and it makes you love those you serve that much more.*

So with the small amount of boys that came to BASEcamp, Nate and Kolten did not have a group of boys to be over. They were a part of our company, but I knew they were having a hard time. We decided to "star attack" their door (similar to a heart attack) to show them how much we love and appreciate them. It made me love them as good friends that much more.

*What it means to always be looking out for others.*

We challenged our girls to sit by those who were sitting alone or to walk with those that were walking alone. I know that they went out of their way to include others, and as I did so, my love and appreciation for those around me grew, as well. I feel like I truly made some great friends this week.

*Heavenly Father answers our prayers. Not in the way that we expect them to sometimes, but He does indeed answer them.*

I don't have a picture for this one because the prayers that were answered are very personal and sacred to me, but I do know for a fact that the Lord did hear and answer my prayers. It's an incredible reassurance to know that He does hear and answer me.

*Every opportunity can be a missionary moment.*

We had the opportunity to go to the 24th of July Parade in Washington City (right next to St. George). All of the youth wore their blue BASEcamp t-shirts and we wore our blue polos. I have not seen that much blue since the ocean! Ha ha! But seriously, it was an incredible morning to see what uniting in a cause can do. We got to see Elder Holland in the parade, and at the end of the week we wrote letters to him to tell him about our experience with BASEcamp. Such an amazing opportunity! And at the end of the parade, we walked behind the line and were handing out fliers for our musical fireside. People kept asking who we were and I know that we were making an impact on people for them to ask questions. I hope people remember us and will join us next year. :)

*The meaning of hope.*

Our company's name this week was "Hope". We even came up with a cheer to it! Ready? (Think of the tune "L is for the way you look at me..." when you read it):

H is for the Honesty in me

O is for Obeying righteously

P is Persevering absolutely perfectly, and

E is Excellence and You are Excellent you see and

Hope was made for you and me!

As I was thinking about hope and the difference between hope and faith. Faith and hope build on each other. Faith is acting even if we don't understand why, and hope is knowing that things will work out because of our faith. Hope is more having a firm assurance that things in the future will work. I especially believe that we can have faith in some aspects of the Gospel, and hope in others. I have faith in things to come, and I have hope in the Plan of Salvation because I truly believe that I will see my family again one day. I can say that I have hope in the future because of my Savior. I learned more what the difference is and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to learn more. I probably didn't explain it very well, but I at least feel like I understand the difference a little better.

*The importance of family history work and temple work.*

I got to go to the temple twice while down in St. George. On Thursday, we went with the youth. We got to do family work for one of the other guides, and it was so cool to feel the importance of getting that work done. I felt so much love and peace while in the temple both times, and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to go.

Well, there are so many lessons that I learned while I was at BASEcamp.... If you want to hear more of that, please let me know. I would love to talk to you about it. For now, enjoy some more pictures of our adventures together!