How I Lead at Young Women Camp | An Interview with Vivian Bishop-Cook

Vivian Bishop-Cook lives in the Green Bay, Wisconsin area and works
as a therapist. She has been a participant and leader at Young
Women camps at least 15 times as an adult. Highlights 02:30
Introduction to Vivian and her background. 04:45 Vivian talks about
what she is seeing in her therapist’s office. Most people are
working on relationship issues, balancing their lives, and working
on their self esteem. 07:15 Vivian’s girls camp experience growing
up and also as a leader. As an adult she has been to girls camp
15-16 times. 11:50 Vivian focuses on 3 things for girls camp. She
calls it the three ring circus. Faith Friendship Fun 14:50 One of
the most important parts of camp is mentoring the YCLs and letting
them lead. In Vivian’s stake they also call a YCL director. The
YCLs are the heart of the camp. 20:40 How Vivian’s stake mentors
the youth. Mentoring is the secret sauce. Youth do the devotionals.
They pick the topic but Vivian mentors them on how to do the
devotional and how to present the topic. 24:50 The number one
request from the young women was to have a longer personal
spiritual time during camp. 25:20 Vivian shares a story of one of
her young women and her experience with personal spiritual time
during camp. 26:40 Mentoring the youth to do devotionals is more
than just mentoring. It’s an opportunity for the leaders and the
youth to connect and get to know each other more. It’s a moment of
one on one time to help them with their testimonies and struggles
in their lives. 29:00 Part of having the YCLs doing the devotionals
is to help them tap into their vulnerability and sharing a part of
themselves. 29:45 In preparation for camp they teach the girls what
a testimony is and what the components are. This helps the
testimony meetings be focused on the gospel and so that the
testimony meeting doesn’t turn into a group therapy session. 30:50
The ring of friendship is another important principle at camp. They
created “campanions” so that everyone has a friend at camp. 35:00
Vivian’s stake has been working on including the YCLs more. They
invite them to do the workshops with them. It’s not always easier
to have the youth lead but it’s very important to their growth.
39:00 Vivian spent about 8 years outside the Church in her early
20s, where she explored other faiths. But everything led her back
to the Church. 42:40 Final thoughts and testimony of leadership and
growing closer to Christ. Links TRANSCRIPT coming soon Listen on
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