Mesquite Stake Goes To Girls Camp

By CALLA HAVILAND

The Progress

The Mesquite Nevada Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held its annual Summer Girls Camp last week on July 6-8 in the mountains of southern Utah. Attending the camp were girls, age 12-18 from Bunkerville, Mesquite and Littlefield.

The camp was held at the Church-owned Camp Kolob, located in the mountains just above Zion National Park. The girls and their leaders went to Kolob for a couple days, spent time with friends and met new people.

Even though the camp was only two full days, everyone had the chance to participate in a lot of fun activities and build their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There were plenty of activities during the days to keep the girls busy. These included canoeing on the nearby lake, spikeball, cornhole, star gazing, swimming, crawdad catching, shooting, crafts, a cope course, singing, skits, talent show, and hiking.

Kylie Cannon, from Bunkerville 1st Ward, said that her favorite activity was the skits/talent show.
“A lot of the activities were simple and peaceful and were a good getaway,” Cannon said. “But my favorite was doing the dance battle we did for the skit because it was way out of a lot of people’s comfort zones. But we all did it together and it ended up being so much fun!”

The girls also had a chance during the camp to hear uplifting talks and messages from leaders and guests that help them to better their lives. Bella Alejos enjoyed the talks, especially the one by Brother Westoff.

“My favorite part of girls camp was the part when brother Westhoff spoke,” Alejos said. “I liked when he spoke about goals and how you can have different kinds of goals, not just one and how it’s important to have goals.”

Many of the girls just loved spending time with one another. The pandemic had closed all of the annual girls’ camps for the summer of 2020 and they had been missed by the youth and their leaders.

“My favorite part was the community,” said camper Madison Marshall. “Even though we were all from separate ward congregations, we were all there for one purpose and we were all connected by it.”

Bishop Brian Haviland from the Bunkerville 1st Ward said that he loved watching the girls grow closer together. “Girls camp is a great time to see all of the girls come together and learn about each other,” he said. “Being closer together allows them to help each other as they go through trials and struggles during the year.”

This year the camp director was chosen straight from the youth. Malia McOmie, from the Mesquite 2nd ward, planned the camp.

“Girls camp was so awesome!” McOmie said. “I had the opportunity to plan Girls Camp and I loved it! I was nervous it wouldn’t go perfectly, but it was so cool to see how everything worked out how it needed to. My favorite part of girls camp was just being able to be up on the mountain with the girls and have fun without our phones and other worldly things!”