mikbone Posted June 21, 2023 Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 (edited) As predicted, it was a disaster. Some of the brethren went over to the camp and ‘fixed’ the plumbing and electrical. As soon as the girls showed, up everything was broken. The young women’s leaders tried to confiscate the girls phones for camp integrity - but I told my daughter to keep a hold of her phone…. They tried to rough it the first night, but called it off the following morning. Why are we trying to keep information from the youth? Why are we fixated on staying the course even though disaster looms. I realize that there is benefits from struggle but is this what the youth really need? Is this what Jesus wants? Edited June 21, 2023 by mikbone NeuroTypical and LDSGator 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDSGator Posted June 21, 2023 Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 13 minutes ago, mikbone said: As predicted, it was a disaster. Some of the brethren went over to the camp and ‘fixed’ the plumbing and electrical. As soon as the girls showed, up everything was broken. The young women’s leaders tried to confiscate the girls phones for camp integrity - but I told my daughter to keep a hold of her phone…. They tried to rough it the first night, but called it off the following morning. Why are we trying to keep information from the youth? Why are we fixated on staying the course even though disaster looms. I realize that there is benefits from struggle but is this what the youth really need? Is this what Jesus wants? Going to a camp like this sounds like an awful experience. Glad you warned your daughter about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anddenex Posted June 21, 2023 Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 Yep, this is something I don't appreciate either -- keeping information that would be beneficial for the youth (even if the adults don't like it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted June 21, 2023 Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 Of course, the thought was not to keep the girls in the dark, figuratively or literally. The thought was to hurry up and get things all fixed up so the girls would never know there had been problems. This is well-meant foolishness. The stake president or someone else in a leadership position (the buck stops with the stake president, but it could have been a bishop or the stake or ward young women's leader or even just a concerned parent) should have blown the whistle. A workable solution might have been to text the parents, saying that the girls' camp was in danger of not happening until X, Y, and Z were completed, and asking for help. That said, laying pipe and stringing electrical sounds like the kind of thing a do-it-yourselfer who owns a home might do. But when we're talking about a girls' camp, these things need to be done by a professional who knows what he's doing, whether or not the work has to pass a formal inspection. The above example appears to illustrate a failure in leadership from top to bottom. I don't mean that as a criticism; heaven knows I've been the weak link many times. But if we're standing around scratching our heads and trying to figure out how this situation could possibly have developed, we should be looking at the leadership. Just_A_Guy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted June 21, 2023 Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 Looks like that's a three or three-and-a-half hour drive for you. That's not outrageous, but it's hardly close enough to comfortably do a day trip to clean, much less string electrical and lay pipe. I'm wondering what the folks in charge envisioned as the outcome to their plea. A well-organized group of professional plumbers and electricians would drive seven hours round-trip to do some free work at a professional level? If so, that plan might actually have worked had the stake president called the men individually and specifically requested their help. Many Latter-day Saints take their covenant of consecration seriously. But to throw out an invitation like that and then be surprised, or at least act surprised, that the whole thing collapsed in a jagged heap strikes me as naive at best, disingenuous at worst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeuroTypical Posted June 21, 2023 Report Share Posted June 21, 2023 (edited) We had one of the best stories ever out of girls' camp one year in my neck of the woods. Parents had all written letters to their daughters, to be read after the stake pres' spiritual fireside concluded and everyone was urged to go wander into the woods and find a private spot to pray and read the letters. Rainy wet season had that day dawn with cold rain and thunderstorms. At the end of the SP's fireside, the SP rebuked the weather and commanded the rain to cease in the name of the Lord, which it did within 15 minutes. And the young women all got to go out by themselves and have some pretty darn wonderful (and dry) spiritual experiences, as evidenced by the most heartfelt and emotional fast and testimony meeting I think I've ever witnessed. Something special about a church that can take awkward shy youth and give them experiences they're simply exploding to share by speaking publicly to a room full of adults. Anyway, that was years before my kids could go, and their experiences were a fraction of that great year, for which I am sad. But they weren't horrible experiences, so we'll take what we can. I did my part and had my letters written. Edited June 21, 2023 by NeuroTypical Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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