BASEcamp Week 3: Cedar City

Week 3 was the last session of BASEcamp this season. Here are some of the interesting things about the Cedar City session:

• We had 12-13 year olds participate. Generally, only 14-18 year olds participate in a youth conference activity such as BASEcamp.
• Guides were paired up in co-ed companionships, well, except for me, and I was in a tri-panionship with two of the girl guides. Some companionships got girl groups and some had boy groups. Very unique set up if I do say so.
• There were about 40 youth, twice as many as in St. George. It was good to have more youth. All of the guides were involved with their own youth.
• The housing guidelines were very strict. We each had our own key cards and wristbands to eat in the student dining services. If either was lost or broken, or if we got locked out of our rooms, it was $5. Luckily that didn't happen very much...it was kind of annoying that if anything happened, it would be $5. (It became our running joke of the week.)

Those were probably the most interesting highlights that started us off. Here are some of the lessons I learned and things we did.

*When you have an opportunity to serve, do it. Adversity will come your way to try and stop you, but do your best to still serve.*

So on Tuesday night, we had the opportunity to go door to door in a nearby neighborhood to perform acts of service for people. We were doing pretty well on our street until a bird started attacking us. It had gone after another group on the other side of the street for a bit, but then started pestering us. It followed us for 3 houses, and is probably the most fearless bird I have ever seen. We were picking up apples under the tree in the pictures here and it would swoop in right by our heads. Needless to say...it made things difficult. But we found ways to apply that to the Gospel. Sometimes things get in the way of us serving others, including trials or personal struggles. If we do our best to overcome them and still serve, we will be blessed. The bird never hurt any of us, thankfully, and it provided a great lesson for us.

*Listening to the Spirit and discovering your "noise".*

So we had another challenge course with some different games this week. One of them was "Animal Noises", where we were split up into groups and we all came up with an animal noise that we would use to find each other with. They then split us up and we had to find each other by making our noise. We related this to many things, including listening to the Spirit, as well as being unique and each using our voices to find people to share the Gospel with. I loved this because every person receives inspiration and the Spirit differently, and one person may be able to teach it in a way that works better for one person than someone else could. It was so amazing to see all of the lessons that our youth pulled out of simple games! What an incredible talent to find Gospel applications in our everyday life!

*The meaning of friends.*

So our group talked about friends and friendship multiple times throughout the week. It was a good reminder for me to be a true friend and to always look out for others. We all struggle with this at points in our life, and the other cool part is that our Savior, Jesus Christ, will always be here for us and can be our best friend.

*Ohana*

"Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind." Our directing couple, Brother and Sister Bradshaw, are from Hawaii and brought the "aloha spirit" with them. It was cool to see how the idea of being an ohana with everyone at BASEcamp really brought our youth and staff together. I felt like I could turn to anyone and talk to them and we were all able to build a relationship of trust. It was a really cool feeling.

BASEcamp has been an incredible blessing to my life this summer. I have had so many prayers answered through it. I pray that the people that I've met and the things that I learned and felt won't be forgotten, and that we will all remember what it means to Believe, Act, Serve, and Endure, as well as Standing in Holy Places. This theme for the youth is inspired, and I know that as we do all we can to be in holy places, and be a holy place where we stand, that the Lord will bless us. As we do the right things and do our best to be in the right places, we will be strengthened by the Lord.

Feel free to also comment below and I can share what I know to be true and help you find answers you may be searching for. Together, let's discover the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you want to learn more about BASEcamp or about what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe, please visit basecampyouthprograms.org and lds.org.  

BASEcamp: Believe. Act. Serve. Endure.