JOVO Kamp (Young Adult Camp)

"ENJOY THE JOURNEY"
We are sorry that it has been awhile since we have written. We have been very busy here and it isn't slowing down any this week. We spent last week with the JOVO's (Yo Vo's)or Young Adults at their camp in a wooded area near the city of Den Bosch (which means woods). The theme of this year's conference was, "Enjoy the Journey". The camp was conducted in Dutch, but most of the attendees also speak English. It was fun for them to have their theme in English. There were 150 young adults there, of which 15 were friends of the church (investigators). The location is an establised retreat with ample dormitory housing and large cabins spread through the forested comound, which are used for class rooms and a location for the dances. There is also a large building with a commercial kitchen and several dining rooms. We spent much of our time helping the two senior sisters from Groningen, Ida & Emmy, prepare the great meals for the group. On Thursday we were in charge of the BBQ. Two senior brothers helped me grill 160 hamburgers and 80 hotdogs. Sister Servoss had some help in preparing all of the other things. Each day was filled with workshops in the morning and activities in the afternoon. There were classes on dating, setting and achieveing goals, enjoying scriture study and making it fun, getting prepared for your mission in life, chastity, and having a positive outlook on life. In the afternoon there were sport activities such as soccer, basketball, cross country bike navigation, swimming, and dance lessons. It was great to see how these young people came together, helped each other, and completed many tasks. The various teams helped with the dining room set-up and clean-up, etc. Thursday afternoon was spent giving service to the communities in the area. There were about 5 different projects that took place from cleaning a beach resort, to walking with handicapped adults, to cleaning up around the library. There were two dances during the week and two firesides. At the second fireside we heard from the new President of the European Area, Elder Kapieska. He is in charge of all of the missions and members in this part of the world. He taught us about our patriarchal blessings being personal revelation to us. He quoted Joshua 23:14, where Joshua told the House of Israel that the Lord had blessed them when they were righteous and that all the things promised them had come to pass. For us the same thing can be true as we live a righteous life. He also quoted D&C 130:20-21, where we are told that blessings come through obedience. During the last three hours of the camp we had a testimony meeting, where about 1/3 of the young adults were able to bear testimony and express their feelings about the camp experience.

We had a great time becoming acquainted with so many of the young adults. It was so nice to see the quality of the young people here. We feel that the future of the church in this area will be in good hands. It was extra fun last week since we had been given the challenge from our mission president to speak Dutch as much as possible. We did our best and when we tryed to switch back to English after 10 pm, it was difficult.