Ella and Abby got to go to Girls Camp in Fairview Utah. I am so glad they had the chance to go one year together. They did archery, climbing, canoeing, and had some craft time. Here is a talk Abby was asked to give about Girls Camp.
Good morning, brothers and sisters. For those who don't know me, I am Abigail Balls, and I am 12 years old. I was asked to talk about how my faith grew during girls' camp. At first, I was excited for all the games and activities, but I quickly realized that girls' camp has been one of the most faith-building experiences I have had. There were many times that my faith grew but I decided to share 3 of them.
My first faith-growing experience was our testimony meeting. What grew my faith during our testimony meeting was sharing my testimony and hearing other people's testimonies. Being able to relate to their testimonies made me realize that my testimony is so much bigger than I know.
Second, our theme for girls' camp was Be the Light. Our young women's leaders told us to try and always be the light. For me, being the light means showing kindness, never leaving someone out, and helping prepare meals. There are so many more ways you can be the light; those were just a few I tried to focus on. When I saw other people being the light, it made me want to share my light even more. This helped me grow my faith by serving others, and I know when I am serving others, I am serving god.
Lastly, we had two cabins for all of the young women who went. In our cabin on the first night, as we were all in bed, many people started saying their personal prayers. Then a friend of mine said, Let's do a popcorn prayer. A popcorn prayer is when someone starts the prayer and says something, and then the next person says something until they get to the last person, and then the prayer ends. When she was done explaining how to do the prayer, we quickly decided who was going first and who was going last. This prayer helped me grow my faith because all of the girls said something really meaningful, leading me and others to feel the Holy Ghost. Whenever I feel the holy ghost, it grows my faith because I know Heavenly Father is with us, too.
I am so grateful that I had the experience to go to girls' camp, and I am already looking forward to it next year. I have a testimony that god puts amazing people in my life to help me learn and grow. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
While they were gone I was excited to get out on an adventure before Ang started working. We headed down to the San Raphel Swell in Central Utah. Upper Black Box Canyon was awesome. It was similar to the Zion Narrows but better because it was just us in there. We had two simple rappels then hit the river. We put on our wetsuits and floated and bumped down the river. The two log jams weren't bad. It's not often you are in the desert with a noodle, wetsuit, and rappelling gear.
We camped off of Buckskin Gulch Road. The next day we attempted to do Forgotten and Eagle Canyon. We didn't know there had been a major storm come through two days before that had filled the canyon. After trying to cross two swimmers with no wetsuits we gave up. The third swim was just too much. We didn't even want to get in because it was too cold. We knew this area was supposed to be totally dry but it wasn't. The second half of the canyon was supposed to be wet, not the first part. As we hiked out a storm was rolling in. We could have gotten ourselves in some serious trouble if we had continued
