Brighton Beehive Camp

Not sure where I've been but it hasn't been in the present. As I become more aware of people around me and their struggles, I find myself with less time at home as I reach out to help.

The Saturday before my Praxis test (I tested on a Monday) I wanted to really push and review hard all day so as to not study on the Sabbath. However, I had a baptism to attend and then I got a text from a friend asking a routine question about borrowing some magazines. I felt I needed to hand deliver them and ended up spending several valuable hours visiting. Valuable study time is how I saw it. The Lord saw it as valuable relationship time, ministering as He would minister.

"If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." (D&C 38:30) I had no reason to stress about how my time got spent on that Saturday. I had put in a lot of study hours. I had prepared myself so that when the Lord called me on an errand I was prepared to do his bidding.

Kiersten has been working as a counselor as Brighton Beehive Camp this summer. She leaves Sunday night and gets home Friday afternoon. I haven't seen a lot of her and miss having her around. We take her to college in 3 1/2 weeks and that's going to be hard.

Up there she is known as Queen Bee, a name that was coined by her grandpa. When Ash went up and the other counselors learned she was Queen Bee's baby sister, she was dubbed Baby Bee. And because my name Melissa means honeybee, I guess it's fitting that we are from the same hive.

I got to drop her off one Sunday evening on our way home and she gave me the tour of her "office." I didn't envy the mosquitoes but I sure loved the woodsy smell.

And then this last Thursday we were invited to their mutual night and got to go up again. Ash could not contain herself at the thought of seeing her counselor "Boots" again. Doesn't she just ooze excitement!

These older young women have such an influence on the younger girls that can be such a powerful force for good. Every woman, old and young, needs a mentor, someone they can look to for a guide, for an example, for advice and these young beehives have such mentors in their counselors.

The week Ash went up, I got to go pick up our ward Beehives and bring them home. And because it was Kiersten's off week (no girls for her) she would be riding the bus down the canyon with them and I'd get to see her briefly. Watching for those buses brought back remembrances and feelings of waiting for the Trek buses. Oh, how I love these girls of mine of their goodness to the bone. They are going to leave their mark of joy upon this world.