Bust a Move

So this week was staff appreciation week! The directorship and womens committee did all kinds of really nice things for us all week! We arrived at 6:30 on Sunday and they had cooked us homemade cafe rio for dinner. It was so delicious! That night's speaker was Elaina.. something. She was a national champion gymnast, and she worked at Oakcrest as a counselor 30 years ago! She was in the middle of a national tour when she had a terrible accident while warming up for a meet. She ended up breaking her neck. She is still to this day in a wheel chair. She shared her story, and bore an amazing testimony. There was a seminary video made about her, and that was super neat to see too. She also shared some of her experiences at Oakcrest, and wow. I am just completely amazed by her still! I feel honored that I was able to go up and visit with her and just give her a hug. Neat lady! :)

After that fireside, we had Unit Prayer. Kabunga gave it, and she read a couple quotes and scriptures and then told us what we were doing. We all got in one big circle, there was a big vase of roses in the middle. Each person would go in and get a rose and then bring it back and give it to the person on the right, while telling them what they love about them. It was another amazing experience. I cried so much! I feel so lucky to be working with such an amazing staff. They've said that ours is the most unified staff they've ever seen, and I believe it. I LOVE everyone on the staff! It makes me sad to think that I only have 4 more weeks with them :(. Anyhow, neat experience!

After all those tears we switched gears a little. Oakcrest is amazing like that, you can go from playing and laughing lots, to having an amazing spiritual experience, to laughing and playing again, with almost zero transition. It's neat. So since we were half way done, we all headed out to Gramp's firepit to burn our bandanas! Haha it was great! So here's my video...
Burning bandanas

Sorry it's sideways, Ninjete recorded it :)
and some pics...



I just wanted to put this in so I could always remember tortoise in her Dr. Suess pj's! LOL she makes me laugh a lot :)

It was a fun night. It still blows my mind that I only have four weeks left :(... This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life!

So this weeks theme was...

I had to take a picture of the banner cause it rocked the house!

On Sunday nights we find out who our girls are, and we get cards telling us a little about them. Some of the comments on the cards said...
-Tells half truths
-less active
-no parents support
-parents not active
-dad in prison
-divorced parents
-needs TLC
-non-member

I read those things and I just about burst into tears. I was so overwhelmed... wondering how in the world I was going to handle all of that. I was full of fear, feeling very overwhelmed and not ready at all. I knew that each of these girls desperately needed a good testimony strengthening experience at Oakcrest, and I felt like it was all up to me. I tried to remember that Heavenly Father was in control and that he had given me these girls for a reason, because there was something that I could do for them. But I felt so overwhelmed. How in the world could I strengthen them enough to be able to be strong through this upcoming decade of decision. I tell you what. I prayed hard that night.

I woke up Monday morning extremely nervous, but trying to trust in the Lord, and still praying, of course :) I was imagining all kinds of crazy scary girls, but as i read off their names they all came down weren't anything that I expected. They were all really nice, and happy :) I had probably some of my favorite campers this week... and my hardest camper. Anyhow... here's my week! :)

Tuesday morning cookout! Cookouts are going so good, because we're all getting so good at building fires! It's exciting! :) We didn't get a group shot, but here's a few of my girls...

Tabitha


Taylor and Camie


Kenzie the combat soldier. Bahaha she is a funny girl!


Tuesday night party! Pullin it gangsta... or something :)








WOW MOM :)




We didn't know what to dress up like for bust a move... so we just wore long socks, rolled our pants up, wore bandanas gangsta style, and made bahooker bows. It was great!


These are our bahooker bows... Don't ask me why or what or where they came from... they just are :) haha it was fun.


For the party we had a live band! It was super great! Especially cause there was a boy! :) He was only 16, but I tell you what! Put a staff who has been surrounded by 100s of girls ALL summer and a boy in the same room for a long time, and the staff might suddenly go crazy about him! Haha it was so funny! :) We had a lot of fun, got really hot, and really sweaty, and took tonz of pictures! I know that I hate slide shows... but none of these pictures realy tell a story, it's just the dance, and i still wanted to share them and remember them... so I made a slide show! Don't be mad :)

Wednesday's hike... The girls always ask "how long is the hike?" and I of course, have no idea how to measure that! So I never know how to answer... this week I just told them 10 miles, round trip. I tell you what, they were nervous. It was great! They went to bed super early Tuesday night, so they would have enough energy for the hike, and they drank tonz of water! Boy were they surprised when we got there after ten minutes of hiking... :)

Here we have... Camille, Kenzie, and Emily. They were all cousins and they were so much fun! They were super funny girls and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I let it slip that I had a 13 year old brother and they had to see pictures. I of course have pictures on my door of my family, and they found him pretty quick :) Emily kept asking about Dane, and it just made me laugh! I don't blame them, I have some good looking brothers!


This is Stephanie... She was a sweetheart, and made friends with all of the other counselors.


Alex, Camie, Taylor, and Tabitha. These guys were great. Alex is my only camper so far that has been able to keep up with my fast walk. She was always right next to me telling me all about herself. She's a cutie. Camie is the only person I have ever met that has a smaller bladder then I do. She was constanly going to the bathroom... even in the middle of the night! Taylor, was a super good friend to Camie, and would be her buddy whenever she needed to make a bathroom run. Tabitha aka Tabby, is great! :) she bore her testimony on Wednesday and just talked about how much she wanted everyone in her family to have the gospel. She's quiet, but super funny! I love her!


Funny story. I think Cammille is my most hydrated camper I've ever had! She had this camoback that she always brought with her. Well.... I'm not sure if your aware but a camoback is actually the name of the whole backpack and everything together. But, the sack that holds the water is actually called a bladder. So, one day we were out wandering camp or something, and I couldn't see Cammille's camoback, so I asked if she had just brought her bladder. She looked at me as if I was crazy nad said yes, I'm pretty sure I take it everywhere with me, I didn't know it was removable! LOL apparantly NONE of my campers knew that you call the sack that holds water a bladder... and from that day forward everyone always checked to make sure we all had our bladders before we left the cabin. and of course there was the joke that camie's bladder was always full... or empty or something cause she was constantly going to the bathroom.... and we just had a week full of bladder stretches and bladder everything... Hehe it made me laugh a lot. So this is Camille, with BOTH of her bladders.


Mudslides on Thursday... super fun as always! ;) I really think it's so good for you to get filthy dirty every once in awhile! It's good to not worry about your clothes or your hair and just play! I LOVE it! and I love that I get to do it with my campers!
Emily, Kenzie, Stephanie, me, and Tabitha all getting Camille muddy!


Stephanie, me and Tabitha

Thursday night we always party hard with our cabin, because well, it's the last night! :) I like to pop some popcorn for them, and we just laugh and talk and dance to music and do girl stuff! This week we had left over fruitloops from breakfast so we made necklaces, and painted nails!
Tabitha

Alex, Camille, Emily, Kenzie

Taylor and Camie

Friday goodbyes... went well! My only camper that cried was the one that I struggled with all week. I do not understand her. But I hope and pray that all of the girls had fun, strengthened their testimony, and learned something new. I hope they're ready to return to the real world and face it with a prayer in their heart and the faith to act!

Emily Lyman videos are great. I guess several years ago she started doing this random accent and she makes videos of herself doing it all the time. It was SUPER funny! I really did laugh so much! I had her take a video with my camera so I could blog about it.. but I wish I could show you some of her other ones cause they're super great!


The funny shot...
Top: Emily, me, Camille, Kenzie. Bottom: Stephanie, Alex, Tabitha, Taylor, Camie

The smooshed cheeks shot...
Top: Emily, Camille, Kenzie. Bottom: Stephanie, me, Alex, Tabby, Taylor, and Camie

Miracles of the week....
-I made it through!

-The scriptures answered my questions once again!... So you know how I said I was terrified Sunday night after reading about my girls.. well I found this scripture a couple nights later. It's D&C 12:8 "And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, HAVING FAITH, hope, and charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care." First off, I needed to be humble enough to realize I could not do it on my own, that I needed my Heavenly Father's help. I also had a hard time loving one of my girls this week, because well, she had the worst attitude I've ever met, and she didn't like our group. She was a sweetheart, but she made things a lot more difficult... So i needed to be full of love and pray to love her... I also need to have FAITH, because where faith is fear cannot exist. Then it says whatsover shall be entrusted to his (or her!) care... and I just thought about my campers and how they were entrusted to my care for the week.. I don't know, it just really his me hard... and I learned a lot! It's definitely a new favorite! :)
-Thursday nights Unit Prayer was amazing! So last week I was talking to my mom about Oakcrest and about how it made me so happy when my girls cried, which sounds terrible! haha but really when they cry because they're feeling the spirit or they had such an amazing time that they don't want to leave it makes me so happy! Well she just laughed and said it seemed like my job was to make my girls cry... well Thursday nigth it wasn't just my girls who cried. I cried while I was doing my Unit Prayer. I asked them about women they admire or that they want to be like and talked about their attributes, then I shared some of my heroes. I've done this lesson once before and talked about my mom and the amazing women that she is, but this time it was my sisters that came to mind. I told them about what amazing older sisters I have. The example they are to me, and the support and how grateful I am to have them as my older sisters. I told them about Natalie's car wreck and then going on a mission just over a year after, and serving our Heavenly Father despite her slight handicap (her heel). I also told them about how amazing Elise is and the great husband she has and the great parents they're going to be. I just felt completely overcome with gratitude and love for my two older sisters. I love them so much and feel so lucky to have them as my sisters and I can't wait to live with and close to them this fall. It's going to be so great!!
-Before Unit Prayer on Thursday I prayed so hard. I just pleaded and begged my Heavenly Father that I would be able to be in tune with the spirit, that I would know His words and that my mouth would be opened so He coudld speak through me. I knew that this was one of my last chances to share my testimony with them and to teach them everything that Heavenly Father wanted them to know. I truly felt guided by the spirit, it was AMAZING!!

Overall it was a good week, althought definitely my hardest so far. I am grateful for the opportunit I have to serve at Oakcrest and I love doing the Lord's work! I am so grateful for my family and the amazing support that they are. I love them so much and feel so lucky that out of all the people that have ever been on this earth, I got to be a part of this family. They are amazing! This church is true. I know it with all of my heart! I LOVE it! My Savior lives, and I know that He will always be there to help me, if I am humble enough to ask and live worthy of His blessing. I know that God answers prayers, but that we must have faith. I love this gospel!