Today we find ourselves in Italy! We have some devotional ideas, a delicious Italian dinner and a fun battleship game to share with you!

DAILY SCRIPTURE & POSTER: You can download the poster to print it here. 

This third day of Girls’ Camp focuses on serving God with all our minds. In an article by the general Young Women’s presidency, they give some ideas as to what this means: “Next, we serve with all of our mind. Your thoughts must be clean and pure, centered on the Savior. You have covenanted to always remember Him. You seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost through scripture study and prayer. As you align your thoughts, words, and actions with the mind and will of God, you recognize the needs of others and are worthy and ready to serve.” (found here)

DEVOTIONAL:

Here are a few great resources that touch on some of the ways we can serve God with all our minds. We encourage you to be prayerful as you think about what would be most beneficial for your girls to focus on.

Have clean and pure thoughts:
– The media we view, read, or listen to has a huge effect on our thoughts. The “For the Strength of Youth: Entertainment and Media” webpage gives some great guidelines for choosing media that is uplifting and wholesome. It also shares links to related talks, scriptures, videos, and personal youth experiences.
– This classic talk by Boyd K. Packer, “Inspiring Music—Worthy Thoughts” talks about the impact music can have on our thoughts, and gives suggestions on how to replace negative or unclean thoughts with something good.

Always remember the Savior:
– In the article, “What Does it Mean to ‘Remember’?” youth share things that have helped them think more about the Savior throughout their day.

Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost through scripture study and prayer:
– “True Doctrine, Understood, Changes Attitudes and Behaviors” – in this BYU devotional, Todd Parker shares powerful examples of how studying the word of God has blessed his own life, the lives of his family members, and the lives of his students. 
– In Randall L. Ridd’s recent Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults, he discussed three tips that can help us “look to God” and maintain our eternal focus – taking the sacrament, praying, and studying the scriptures.

Recognize the needs of others and be worthy and ready to serve:
– D&C 121:45-46 teaches us that as we “let virtue garnish [our] thoughts unceasingly; then shall [our] confidence wax strong in the presence of God [and]…. The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion.” With the Holy Ghost as our constant companion, we will be more in tune to the needs of those around us. In this talk, Linda K. Burton gives some great examples and ideas for how we can learn to “First Observe, Then Serve”,

DINNER IDEA: We think a pasta bar would be perfect. You could make a few kinds of pasta with a couple different sauces and serve it along side some parmesan crazy bread! Costco lasagna might be a great option too.

ACTIVITY:

In Ether 6, we learn that in the Jaredites’ sea-bound journey to the promised land, “they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.” However, when “they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish….And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water” (see vs. 6-7, 10). Daily scripture study is one thing that can give us light, even in times of darkness. It can also help make our ships “tight” to withstand the waves and winds that may beat upon us.

Scripture Battleship – How Light and Tight is Your Ship?

What You’ll Need:
– Water balloons
– Old towels (1 for each pair of girls playing) – these will serve as the “ships”
– Outdoor volleyball court (sand or grass would work! If you don’t have an actual volleyball court at your campsite, find 2 trees that you could tie a rope or net between.)
– Long blankets or dark sheets to clothespin to the rope or net so you can’t see the other team’s ships
– Clothespins
– Scripture trivia questions – you could make up your own, or use some of these: Bible Bowl, Bible Super Bowl, Scripture Mastery (this one gives some good ideas of questions, or you can download the app)

How to Play:

1. Divide the girls into equal teams. Give each pair of girls a towel to sit on.
2. Allow each pair to pick a spot (within designated boundaries) to place their “ship”, and have both girls sit down on their towel. There is no moving allowed once their ship is placed!
3. Decide which team will go first, and pick one pair of girls to answer the first question. Give them one minute to answer a Bible Bowl, Scripture Mastery, or other scripture trivia question. They are allowed to use their scriptures, as long as they can still answer within the time limit (or you can eliminate that option and just have them try to answer on their own!). If they are able to answer the question by themselves (as a pair), they will get to toss 2 water balloons over the net. If they need the help of the rest of their team, they only get to throw 1 balloon over. If they are unable to answer the question, give the other team a chance to answer the question and throw balloons over.
4. Once the question is answered correctly, that pair of girls can stand up in their spot and use their towel to catapult the balloon(s) over the net. If it hits a girl or towel on the other side, one person in that ship is out (have them sit on the sidelines to keep track of which ships have been “hit”). When the towel has been hit twice, that ship is “hit and sunk.”
5. The team with the last ship standing wins!

Variation: You could use balls instead of water balloons if you need to do the activity indoors, or if it is too cold to use water balloons (it snowed one year at our girls’ camp!) Make sure to choose balls that have enough weight to make it over the net, but nothing so hard it could cause injuries (tennis balls would be a good option).

If you are worried about girls getting hit, you could even let them move off the towels when the other team catapults the balloons over, and just call it a “hit” if it hits one of the towels.

Kellie

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